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NATS Cluster

Stack

Streaming Messaging

NATS - the lightweight, blazing-fast messaging system: subjects, pub/sub, request/reply, and JetStream for persistent streams and key-value/object stores.

Configuration

Type
Compose
Platform
linux
Source
Repo

Template by deployable-sh·Source

Report issue

Services

nats-0

Configuration

Image
nats:2.14-alpine
Command
--server_name=nats-0,--cluster_name=NATS,--cluster=nats://0.0.0.0:6222,--routes=nats://nats-0:6222,nats://nats-1:6222,nats://nats-2:6222,--jetstream,--store_dir=/data,-m=8222
Volumes
/data : natsdata-0
Restart
unless-stopped

Image details

Pulls: 251.8M
User: library
Created: Aug 11, 2015
Updated: 6 days ago
Status: active

nats-1

Configuration

Image
nats:2.14-alpine
Command
--server_name=nats-1,--cluster_name=NATS,--cluster=nats://0.0.0.0:6222,--routes=nats://nats-0:6222,nats://nats-1:6222,nats://nats-2:6222,--jetstream,--store_dir=/data,-m=8222
Volumes
/data : natsdata-1
Restart
unless-stopped

Image details

Pulls: 251.8M
User: library
Created: Aug 11, 2015
Updated: 6 days ago
Status: active

nats-2

Configuration

Image
nats:2.14-alpine
Command
--server_name=nats-2,--cluster_name=NATS,--cluster=nats://0.0.0.0:6222,--routes=nats://nats-0:6222,nats://nats-1:6222,nats://nats-2:6222,--jetstream,--store_dir=/data,-m=8222
Volumes
/data : natsdata-2
Restart
unless-stopped

Image details

Pulls: 251.8M
User: library
Created: Aug 11, 2015
Updated: 6 days ago
Status: active

Standalone Install

Select an install method, to see config/commands for deploying NATS Cluster

Installation method

Install on Portainer

Import all app templates into your Portainer instance, for easy 1-click deploys

  1. Ensure both Docker and Portainer are installed, and up-to-date
  2. Log into your Portainer web UI
  3. Under Settings → App Templates, paste the below URL
  4. Head to Home → App Templates, and the list of apps will show up
  5. Select NATS Cluster, fill in any config options, and hit Deploy

Template Import URL

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Lissy93/portainer-templates/main/templates.json
Show Me demo
Original stackfile

The compose file this template deploys, straight from its repo:

name: nats

x-node: &node
  image: nats:2.14-alpine
  restart: unless-stopped
  healthcheck:
    test: ["CMD", "wget", "--spider", "-q", "http://localhost:8222/healthz?js-server-only=true"]
    interval: 10s
    timeout: 5s
    retries: 6

services:
  nats-0:
    <<: *node
    command:
      - "--server_name=nats-0"
      - "--cluster_name=NATS"
      - "--cluster=nats://0.0.0.0:6222"
      - "--routes=nats://nats-0:6222,nats://nats-1:6222,nats://nats-2:6222"
      - "--jetstream"
      - "--store_dir=/data"
      - "-m=8222"
    volumes:
      - natsdata-0:/data

  nats-1:
    <<: *node
    command:
      - "--server_name=nats-1"
      - "--cluster_name=NATS"
      - "--cluster=nats://0.0.0.0:6222"
      - "--routes=nats://nats-0:6222,nats://nats-1:6222,nats://nats-2:6222"
      - "--jetstream"
      - "--store_dir=/data"
      - "-m=8222"
    volumes:
      - natsdata-1:/data

  nats-2:
    <<: *node
    command:
      - "--server_name=nats-2"
      - "--cluster_name=NATS"
      - "--cluster=nats://0.0.0.0:6222"
      - "--routes=nats://nats-0:6222,nats://nats-1:6222,nats://nats-2:6222"
      - "--jetstream"
      - "--store_dir=/data"
      - "-m=8222"
    volumes:
      - natsdata-2:/data

volumes:
  natsdata-0:
  natsdata-1:
  natsdata-2:

Or deploy it directly from the source:

git clone https://github.com/deployable-sh/stacks
cd stacks
docker compose -f nats/compose.yaml up -d

More install options in our documentation.

Container Documentation

nats-0 Documentation

NATS is an open-source, high-performance, cloud native messaging system.

nats-1 Documentation

NATS is an open-source, high-performance, cloud native messaging system.

nats-2 Documentation

NATS is an open-source, high-performance, cloud native messaging system.

Check the logs first

Nine times out of ten the logs tell you exactly what went wrong.

  • In Portainer, go to Containers, click the container, then Logs. Or run docker logs <container>
  • Exit codes help too: 137 means killed, usually out of memory. 126 or 127 means the command inside the image is broken.

Image won't pull

Test the pull directly on the host: docker pull nats:2.14-alpine

  • "manifest unknown" means the tag no longer exists.
  • "toomanyrequests" is the Docker Hub rate limit. Log in with docker login to raise it.
  • "no space left on device" means a full disk. Reclaim space with docker system prune

"exec format error"

This means the image was built for a different CPU architecture than your server.

  • Check yours with uname -m: x86_64 is amd64, aarch64 is arm64. Raspberry Pi and other ARM boards are the usual culprits.

Container keeps restarting

The unless-stopped restart policy relaunches the app after every crash, so the real error can scroll past.

  • Check the logs right after a restart, the last few lines before it died are the useful ones.
  • Get the exit code with docker inspect <container> --format '{{.State.ExitCode}}'
  • Still stuck? Redeploy once with the restart policy set to no so the failure stays visible.

Stack won't deploy

Compose stacks fail fast on small mistakes, and Portainer shows the reason just above the editor.

  • YAML only accepts spaces for indentation, a single tab breaks the whole file.

Raise an issue

Found something which isn't working as it should? Here's how to report it.

A Compose stack

NATS Cluster is a Compose stack, a set of containers (3 of them) defined in one file and brought up together by Portainer, then started and stopped as a single app.

The services

This stack is built from 3 containers that run side by side. Here's each one, with the image it runs and anything it waits for first:

  • nats-0 runs nats:2.14-alpine
  • nats-1 runs nats:2.14-alpine
  • nats-2 runs nats:2.14-alpine

Volumes

A volume is where NATS Cluster keeps its files so they survive an update or a restart. Without one, anything it saves would sit inside the container and vanish the moment it's recreated. This template mounts:

  • /data kept in the natsdata-0 volume Docker manages
  • /data kept in the natsdata-1 volume Docker manages
  • /data kept in the natsdata-2 volume Docker manages

Restart policy

The restart policy here is unless-stopped, so Docker restarts NATS Cluster after a crash or reboot, but leaves it off when you stop it on purpose. You can change this on the deploy screen. The choices are no (never restart), on-failure (only after a crash), unless-stopped (restart unless you stop it), and always (bring it back no matter what).

Networking

Portainer puts these services on one shared private network, so they can find each other by name (like nats-0) while only the ports above are open to you.

Platform

The platform is linux, the kind of system the container is built to run on. Docker and Portainer handle this on a normal Linux server.

Portainer app templates

Zooming out, this whole page comes from a Portainer app template: a short recipe telling Portainer how to set NATS Cluster up. Add the template list to Portainer once, then deploying NATS Cluster is a click rather than a wall of config.