Get started with QuestDB via Docker

QuestDB has images for both Linux/macOS and Windows on Docker Hub.

Install Docker#

Before we start, you will need to install Docker. You can find guides for your platform on the official documentation.

QuestDB image#

Once Docker is installed, you will need to pull QuestDB's image from Docker Hub and create a container. You can do both in one command using docker run:

Docker
docker run -p 9000:9000 \
-p 9009:9009 \
-p 8812:8812 \
-p 9003:9003 \
-v "$(pwd):/var/lib/questdb" \
questdb/questdb:6.6.1

Options#

ArgumentDescription
-pPort to publish to the host
-vTo bind mount a volume.

-p parameter#

This parameter will publish a port to the host, you can specify:

-v volumes#

The QuestDB root_directory is in the following location:

/var/lib/questdb

Docker image#

By default, questdb/questdb points to the latest QuestDB version available on Docker. However, it is recommended to define the version used.

questdb/questdb:6.6.1

Container status#

You can check the status of your container with docker ps. It also lists the ports we published:

docker ps
Result
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
dd363939f261 questdb/questdb "/app/bin/java -m io…" 3 seconds ago Up 2 seconds 8812/tcp, 9000/tcp frosty_gauss

Importing data and sending queries#

Now that QuestDB is running, you can start interacting with it:

  • If you published the port 9000, you can follow our REST page
  • If you published the port 8812, follow our Postgres page
  • If you published the port 9009, follow our InfluxDB page

Data persistence#

Mounting a volume#

Volumes can be mounted to the QuestDB Docker container so that data may be persisted or server configuration settings may be passed to an instance. The following example demonstrated how to mount the current directory to a QuestDB container using the -v flag in a Docker run command:

Mounting a volume
docker run -p 9000:9000 \
-p 9009:9009 \
-p 8812:8812 \
-p 9003:9003 \
-v "$(pwd):/var/lib/questdb" \
questdb/questdb:6.6.1

The current directory will then have data persisted to disk for convenient migration or backups:

Current directory contents
├── conf
│ └── server.conf
├── db
└── public

For details on passing QuestDB server settings to a Docker container, see the Docker section of the server configuration documentation.

Upgrade QuestDB version#

It is possible to upgrade your QuestDB instance on Docker when a volume is mounted to maintain data persistence.

note
  • Check the release note and ensure that necessary backup is completed.
  • Upgrading an instance is possible only when the original instance has a volume mounted. Without mounting a volume for the original instance, the following steps create a new instance and data in the old instance cannot be retrieved.
  1. Run docker ps to copy the container name or ID:
Container status
# The existing QuestDB version is 6.5.2:
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
dd363939f261 questdb/questdb:6.5.2 "/app/bin/java -m io…" 3 seconds ago Up 2 seconds 8812/tcp, 9000/tcp frosty_gauss
  1. Stop the instance and then remove the container:
docker stop dd363939f261
docker rm dd363939f261
  1. Download the latest QuestDB image:
docker pull questdb/questdb:6.6.1
  1. Start a new container with the new version and the same volume mounted:
docker run -p 8812:8812 -p 9000:9000 -v "$(pwd):/var/lib/questdb" questdb/questdb:6.6.1

Writing logs to disk#

When mounting a volume to a Docker container, a logging configuration file may be provided in the container located at /conf/log.conf:

Current directory contents
└── conf
├── log.conf
└── server.conf

For example, a file with the following contents can be created:

./conf/log.conf
# list of configured writers
writers=file,stdout,http.min
# file writer
w.file.class=io.questdb.log.LogFileWriter
w.file.location=questdb-docker.log
w.file.level=INFO,ERROR,DEBUG
# stdout
w.stdout.class=io.questdb.log.LogConsoleWriter
w.stdout.level=INFO
# min http server, used monitoring
w.http.min.class=io.questdb.log.LogConsoleWriter
w.http.min.level=ERROR
w.http.min.scope=http-min-server

The current directory can be mounted:

Mounting the current directory to a QuestDB container
docker run -p 9000:9000 \
-p 9009:9009 \
-p 8812:8812 \
-p 9003:9003 \
-v "$(pwd):/root/.questdb/" questdb/questdb

The container logs will be written to disk using the logging level and file name provided in the conf/log.conf file, in this case in ./questdb-docker.log:

Current directory tree
├── conf
│ ├── log.conf
│ └── server.conf
├── db
│ ├── table1
│ └── table2
├── public
│ ├── ui / assets
│ ├── ...
│ └── version.txt
└── questdb-docker.log

For more information on logging, see the configuration reference documentation.

Restart an existing container#

Running the following command will create a new container for the QuestDB image:

docker run -p 9000:9000 \
-p 9009:9009 \
-p 8812:8812 \
-p 9003:9003 \
questdb/questdb

By giving the container a name with --name container_name, we have an easy way to refer to the container created by run later on:

docker run -p 9000:9000 \
-p 9009:9009 \
-p 8812:8812 \
-p 9003:9003 \
--name docker_questdb \
questdb/questdb

If we want to re-use this container and its data after it has been stopped, we can use the following commands:

# bring the container up
docker start docker_questdb
# shut the container down
docker stop docker_questdb

Alternatively, users can obtain a running container's ID with 'docker ps' and restart it using the UUID short identifier:

Starting a container by ID
docker start dd363939f261