Docker Compose Examples¶

Practical docker-compose.yml stacks for common deployment shapes. Pick the one that matches your environment and adapt the passwords, domain, and ports.

Minimal local deployment¶

Single PostgreSQL, no Redis, no reverse proxy. Good for evaluation and local development.

services:
  postgres:
    image: postgres:alpine
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: moodle
      POSTGRES_USER: moodle
      POSTGRES_DB: moodle
    volumes:
      - postgres:/var/lib/postgresql

  moodle:
    image: erseco/alpine-moodle
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      SITE_URL: http://localhost
      MOODLE_USERNAME: admin
      MOODLE_PASSWORD: ChangeMe123!
    ports:
      - "80:8080"
    volumes:
      - moodledata:/var/www/moodledata
      - moodlehtml:/var/www/html
    depends_on:
      - postgres

volumes:
  postgres:
  moodledata:
  moodlehtml:

Persistent deployment with Redis¶

Adds Redis session handling for better performance and shared sessions across replicas.

services:
  postgres:
    image: postgres:alpine
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: moodle
      POSTGRES_USER: moodle
      POSTGRES_DB: moodle
    volumes:
      - postgres:/var/lib/postgresql

  redis:
    image: redis:alpine
    restart: unless-stopped

  moodle:
    image: erseco/alpine-moodle
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      SITE_URL: https://moodle.example.com
      DB_HOST: postgres
      DB_USER: moodle
      DB_PASS: moodle
      DB_NAME: moodle
      REDIS_HOST: redis
      MOODLE_USERNAME: admin
      MOODLE_PASSWORD: ChangeMe123!
      MOODLE_SITENAME: "My Moodle"
      MOODLE_EMAIL: admin@example.com
      SSLPROXY: "true"
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    volumes:
      - moodledata:/var/www/moodledata
      - moodlehtml:/var/www/html
    depends_on:
      - postgres
      - redis

volumes:
  postgres:
  moodledata:
  moodlehtml:

Deployment behind a reverse proxy¶

The reverse proxy terminates TLS and forwards to Moodle over the internal Docker network. The container does not need to expose any port to the host.

services:
  postgres:
    image: postgres:alpine
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: moodle
      POSTGRES_USER: moodle
      POSTGRES_DB: moodle
    volumes:
      - postgres:/var/lib/postgresql

  moodle:
    image: erseco/alpine-moodle
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      SITE_URL: https://moodle.example.com
      SSLPROXY: "true"
      REVERSEPROXY: "false"
      DB_HOST: postgres
      DB_USER: moodle
      DB_PASS: moodle
      DB_NAME: moodle
      MOODLE_USERNAME: admin
      MOODLE_PASSWORD: ChangeMe123!
    volumes:
      - moodledata:/var/www/moodledata
      - moodlehtml:/var/www/html
    networks:
      - proxy
      - default
    depends_on:
      - postgres

volumes:
  postgres:
  moodledata:
  moodlehtml:

networks:
  proxy:
    external: true

See Reverse Proxy for complete examples for Traefik, Nginx, Nginx Proxy Manager, Apache and Caddy.

MariaDB instead of PostgreSQL¶

services:
  mariadb:
    image: mariadb:lts
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD: rootpw
      MARIADB_DATABASE: moodle
      MARIADB_USER: moodle
      MARIADB_PASSWORD: moodle
    command:
      - --character-set-server=utf8mb4
      - --collation-server=utf8mb4_unicode_ci
      - --innodb-file-per-table=1
    volumes:
      - mariadb:/var/lib/mysql

  moodle:
    image: erseco/alpine-moodle
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      DB_TYPE: mariadb
      DB_HOST: mariadb
      DB_PORT: 3306
      DB_NAME: moodle
      DB_USER: moodle
      DB_PASS: moodle
      MOODLE_USERNAME: admin
      MOODLE_PASSWORD: ChangeMe123!
    ports:
      - "80:8080"
    volumes:
      - moodledata:/var/www/moodledata
      - moodlehtml:/var/www/html
    depends_on:
      - mariadb

volumes:
  mariadb:
  moodledata:
  moodlehtml:

Moodle requires specific MySQL/MariaDB settings

Moodle expects utf8mb4, a large row format and innodb_file_per_table. The command overrides above cover the most common requirements.

SQLite single-container mode¶

services:
  moodle:
    image: erseco/alpine-moodle
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      MOODLE_DATABASE_TYPE: sqlite3
      MOODLE_USERNAME: admin
      MOODLE_PASSWORD: ChangeMe123!
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    volumes:
      - moodledata:/var/www/moodledata

volumes:
  moodledata:

See the SQLite Mode page for the full story.

Pinning a Moodle version¶

You can run any Moodle tag available in the upstream repository:

services:
  moodle:
    image: erseco/alpine-moodle:v5.0.2

Or build the image yourself for a specific Moodle version:

services:
  moodle:
    build:
      context: .
      args:
        MOODLE_VERSION: v5.0.2

Available tags: https://github.com/moodle/moodle/tags