Deploying MySQL in Docker Containers
By Tom Nonmacher
In the fast-paced world of database management, it's essential to adopt technologies that allow for increased flexibility and convenience. Docker, a popular platform that facilitates software deployment in containers, is one such technology. In this post, we will discuss how to deploy MySQL 5.7 in Docker containers, which can be a useful technique for SQL Server 2016, SQL Server 2017, DB2 11.1 and Azure SQL users.
Before we dive in, let's take a moment to understand Docker. Docker containers encapsulate software in a complete filesystem that contains everything needed to run - code, runtime, system tools and libraries. By doing so, it ensures that the software will always run the same, regardless of its environment. This makes it an ideal choice for deploying databases like MySQL.
To begin with, we need to pull the MySQL 5.7 Docker image from the Docker repository. This can be accomplished with the following command:
docker pull mysql:5.7
Once the image is pulled, we can run a new container with the MySQL 5.7 image. We will also need to specify the MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD environment variable, which sets the password for the MySQL root user:
docker run --name=mysql1 -d mysql:5.7 -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=my-secret-pw
Now that our MySQL container is running, we can interact with it using the Docker exec command. For instance, to log in to the MySQL server running in the container, we can use:
docker exec -it mysql1 mysql -uroot -p
It's important to note that Docker provides significant advantages when it comes to deploying databases. It simplifies the process of setting up and tearing down databases, makes it easy to isolate database instances, and allows for easy version control of database schemas. In addition, Docker can facilitate the process of deploying databases to cloud platforms like Azure SQL.
In conclusion, Docker provides a convenient, flexible platform for deploying databases like MySQL 5.7. Whether you're a DB2 11.1, SQL Server 2016, SQL Server 2017, or Azure SQL user, Docker's containerization technology can be a valuable asset in your database management toolkit. If you haven't already, we encourage you to explore the potential benefits of using Docker for your database deployment needs.