Couchbase Cluster using Docker Compose

Arun GuptaOctober 26th, 2015Last Updated: October 26th, 2015

0 33 3 minutes read

Couchbase 4.0 provides lots of features that allows you to develop with agility and operate at any scale. Some of the features that allow you to operate at any scale are:

Elastic Scalability
Consistent High Performance
Always-On Availability
Multi-Data Center Deployment
Simple and Powerful Administration
Enterprise-grade Security

Learn more about these enterprise features at couchbase.com/operate-at-any-scale.

A complete overview is available in Couchbase Server 4.0 datasheet.

This blog will explain how you can easily setup a 3-node Couchbase Cluster using Docker Compose.

The source code and latest instructions are available at github.com/arun-gupta/docker-images/tree/master/couchbase-cluster.

Create Couchbase Nodes

Couchbase cluster can be easily created using the following Docker Compose file:

couchbase1:
  image: couchbase/server
  volumes:
    - ~/couchbase/node1:/opt/couchbase/var
couchbase2:
  image: couchbase/server
  volumes:
    - ~/couchbase/node2:/opt/couchbase/var
couchbase3:
  image: couchbase/server
  volumes:
    - ~/couchbase/node3:/opt/couchbase/var
  ports:
    - 8091:8091
    - 8092:8092 
    - 8093:8093 
    - 11210:11210

This file has service definition for three Couchbase nodes. Admin ports are exposed for only one node as other nodes will talk to each other use Docker-internally assigned IP addresses.

Create three directories ~couchbase/node1, ~couchbase/node2, ~couchbase/node3 – one for each node.

Start three Couchbase nodes as using the docker-compose.yml shown earlier:

> docker-compose up -d
Pulling couchbase1 (couchbase/server:latest)...
latest: Pulling from couchbase/server
70618b6e8070: Pull complete
05820377a11a: Pull complete
8de88a91bde5: Pull complete
61994089e28e: Pull complete
bc191c81777b: Pull complete
939d0c2514c9: Pull complete
fa75256f7885: Pull complete
7bc9fb79dd30: Pull complete
e4c99c5f6106: Pull complete
307ac999aa30: Pull complete
24eeb78ce9ab: Pull complete
c4180973b487: Pull complete
6e0c54ca80e7: Pull complete
c6d69cc874d9: Pull complete
31485a5bae7a: Pull complete
31c8df734d6b: Pull complete
Digest: sha256:0e983929897ae9bd396533ff7875f30027290c6acf164a66c967ca8884507381
Status: Downloaded newer image for couchbase/server:latest
Creating couchbasecluster_couchbase1_1
Creating couchbasecluster_couchbase3_1
Creating couchbasecluster_couchbase2_1

This command is given on a Docker Machine.

Check status of the nodes:

> docker ps
CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND                  CREATED             STATUS              PORTS                                                                                               NAMES
07ff4f1823a4        couchbase/server    "/entrypoint.sh couch"   5 minutes ago       Up 5 minutes        8091-8093/tcp, 11207/tcp, 11210-11211/tcp, 18091-18092/tcp                                          couchbasecluster_couchbase2_1
18f7bf07134a        couchbase/server    "/entrypoint.sh couch"   5 minutes ago       Up 5 minutes        0.0.0.0:8091-8093->8091-8093/tcp, 11207/tcp, 11211/tcp, 0.0.0.0:11210->11210/tcp, 18091-18092/tcp   couchbasecluster_couchbase3_1
4db3e1280776        couchbase/server    "/entrypoint.sh couch"   5 minutes ago       Up 5 minutes        8091-8093/tcp, 11207/tcp, 11210-11211/tcp, 18091-18092/tcp                                          couchbasecluster_couchbase1_1

Docker Compose can also show the status:

> docker-compose ps
                 Name                                   Command                                   State                                    Ports                  
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
couchbasecluster_couchbase1_1            /entrypoint.sh couchbase-s ...           Up                                       11207/tcp, 11210/tcp, 11211/tcp,       
                                                                                                                           18091/tcp, 18092/tcp, 8091/tcp,        
                                                                                                                           8092/tcp, 8093/tcp                     
couchbasecluster_couchbase2_1            /entrypoint.sh couchbase-s ...           Up                                       11207/tcp, 11210/tcp, 11211/tcp,       
                                                                                                                           18091/tcp, 18092/tcp, 8091/tcp,        
                                                                                                                           8092/tcp, 8093/tcp                     
couchbasecluster_couchbase3_1            /entrypoint.sh couchbase-s ...           Up                                       11207/tcp, 0.0.0.0:11210->11210/tcp,   
                                                                                                                           11211/tcp, 18091/tcp, 18092/tcp,       
                                                                                                                           0.0.0.0:8091->8091/tcp,                
                                                                                                                           0.0.0.0:8092->8092/tcp,                
                                                                                                                           0.0.0.0:8093->8093/tcp

Check logs of the nodes:

> docker-compose logs
Attaching to couchbasecluster_couchbase2_1, couchbasecluster_couchbase3_1, couchbasecluster_couchbase1_1
couchbase2_1 | Starting Couchbase Server -- Web UI available at http://<ip>:8091
couchbase3_1 | Starting Couchbase Server -- Web UI available at http://<ip>:8091
couchbase1_1 | Starting Couchbase Server -- Web UI available at http://<ip>:8091

Configure Couchbase Cluster

Lets configure these nodes to be part of a cluster now.

Find IP address of the Docker Machine:

>> docker-machine ip default
192.168.99.104

Access Couchbase Admin Console at http://<DOCKER_MACHINE_IP:8091. This is http://192.168.99.104:8091 in our case. It will show the output as:

Click on “Setup”.
Each container is given an internal IP address by Docker, and each of these IPs is visible to all other containers running on the same host. We need to use these internal IP address when adding a new node to the cluster.Find IP address of the first container:
```
> docker inspect --format '{{ .NetworkSettings.IPAddress }}' couchbasecluster_couchbase3_1
172.17.0.2
```
Use this IP address to change the Hostname field:
Click on “Next”. Adjust the RAM if necessary. Read more about Couchbase Cluster Settings.
Pick a sample bucket that you’d like to get installed, and click on Next.
Change Per Node RAM Quota from 400 to 100. This is required as we’ll add other nodes later.
Click on Next, accept T&C, and click on Next.
Enter a password that you can remember as we’ll need this later to add more nodes.

Default view of the cluster looks like as shown:

Add More Couchbase Nodes

Now, lets add the other two nodes that were created earlier by Docker Compose.

Click on “Server Nodes” to see the default view as:

Find IP address of one of the remaining nodes:

docker inspect --format '{{ .NetworkSettings.IPAddress }}' couchbasecluster_couchbase1_1
172.17.0.1

Click on “Add Server”, specify the IP address:

and click on “Add Server”.
Repeat the previous two steps with the server name couchbasecluster_couchbase2_1.

Couchbase Cluster Rebalance

A cluster needs to be rebalanced to ensured that the data is well distributed amongst the newly added or removed nodes. Read more about Couchbase Cluster Rebalance.

Clicking on “Pending Rebalance” tab shows the nodes that have been added to the cluster but are not rebalanced yet: