This is promising, thanks!

That was my impression as well. But since I’m on a low-RAM VPS any overhead in RAM adds up, and I wanted to know how process deduplication works before I get into it.

Yes this is what I want to do. My question is how docker manages shared processes between these apps (for example, if app1 uses mysql and app2 also uses mysql).

Does it take up the RAM of 2 mysql processes? It seems wasteful if that’s the case, especially since I’m on a low-RAM VPS. I’m getting conflicting answers, so it looks like I’ll have to try it out and see.

Aren’t containers the product of compose files? i.e. the compose files spin up containers. I understand the architecture, I’m just not sure about how docker streamlines separate containers running the same process (eg, mysql).

I’m getting some answers saying that it deduplicates, and others saying that it doesn’t. It looks more likely that it’s the former though.

I’m getting conflicting replies, so I’ll try running separate containers (which was the point of going the docker way anyway - to avoid version dependency problems).

If it doesn’t scale well I may just switch back to non-container hosting.

Thank you for an excellent explanation and blogpost. I’m getting conflicting answers, even on this question, but most authoritative sources do backup what you’re saying re:FS. I’m trying to wrap my head around how that works, specifically with heavy processes. I’m running on a VPS with 2 GiB of RAM and mysql is using 15% of that.

At this point I have my primary container running. I guess I’ll just have to try spinning up new ones and see how things scale.

What if your services need different database versions, or even software? Then different database containers is probably better.

This version-independence was what attracted me to docker in the first place, so if it doesn’t work well this way then I may just replace the setup with a conventional setup and deal with dependency hell like I used to - pantsseat.gif.

Thank you. Yes makes sense. I guess it’s fairly obvious in hindsight.

Yes, that’s exactly what I’m doing now, I was only unsure about how to map the remaining services - in the same docker containers, or in new ones.

That would be ideal, per my understanding of the architecture.

So will docker then minimize the system footprint for me? If I run two mysql containers, it won’t necessarily take twice the resources of a single mysql container? I’m seeing that the existing mysql process in top is using 15% of my VPS’s RAM, I don’t want to spin up another one if it’s going to scale linearly.

SFP: Small Factor Pluggable (I had to look it up)

You may want to try sd cards designed for security cameras. They are meant to be recorded to 24/7 and have higher write endurance.