title: “Install via Docker Compose” description: > The steps to install DevLake via Docker Compose sidebar_position: 1

Prerequisites

Launch DevLake

Commands written like this are to be run in your terminal.

  1. Download docker-compose.yml and env.example from the latest release into a folder.
  2. Rename env.example to .env. For Mac/Linux users, please run mv env.example .env in the terminal. This file contains the environment variables that the Devlake server will use. Additional ones can be found in the compose file(s).
  3. Run docker-compose up -d if the version of Docker Desktop is too low to use docker compose up -d.

Collect data and view dashboards

  1. Visit config-ui at http://localhost:4000 in your browser to configure DevLake and collect data.
    • Please follow the tutorial
    • devlake container takes a while to fully boot up. If config-ui complains about API being unreachable, please wait a few seconds and refresh the page.
  2. To view dashboards, click View Dashboards button in the top left corner, or visit localhost:3002 (username: admin, password: admin).
    • We use Grafana to visualize the DevOps data and build dashboards.
    • For how to customize and provision dashboards, please see our Grafana doc.

Upgrade to a newer version

Support for database schema migration was introduced to DevLake in v0.10.0. From v0.10.0 onwards, users can upgrade their instance smoothly to a newer version. However, versions prior to v0.10.0 do not support upgrading to a newer version with a different database schema.

FAQ

Can I use an external Database service instead of running Database in Docker?

Yes, you can simply comment out the 'mysql' part in 'docker-compose.yml' and update some configurations in '.env' before you run docker compose up -d, here are the steps:
  1. Comment out mysql part:
  mysql:
    image: mysql:8
    volumes:
      - mysql-storage:/var/lib/mysql
    restart: always
    ports:
      - "127.0.0.1:3306:3306"
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: admin
      MYSQL_DATABASE: lake
      MYSQL_USER: merico
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: merico
    command:
      --character-set-server=utf8mb4
      --collation-server=utf8mb4_bin
  1. Comment out the ‘mysql’ volume:
volumes:
   mysql-storage:
  1. Comment out the ‘depends_on mysql’ part:
    depends_on:
      - mysql
  1. Set DB_URL to your own DB_URL in .env
DB_URL="mysql://YOUR_USER:YOUR_PASSWORD@YOUR_IP:YOUR_PORT/lake?charset=utf8mb4&parseTime=True"
# Don't forget to create db named `lake` in your own db, and set character-set-server=utf8mb4, collation-server=utf8mb4_bin as below
#      character-set-server=utf8mb4
#      collation-server=utf8mb4_bin
  1. Final step: docker compose up -d

Can I use an external Grafana instead of running Grafana in Docker?

Yes, you can simply comment out grafana part in docker-compose.yml and update some configurations in .env before you run `docker compose up -d`, here are the steps:
  1. Comment out the ‘grafana’ part:
  grafana:
    image: mericodev/devlake-dashboard:latest
    build:
      context: grafana/
    ports:
      - "3002:3000"
    volumes:
      - grafana-storage:/var/lib/grafana
    environment:
      GF_SERVER_ROOT_URL: "http://localhost:4000/grafana"
      GF_USERS_DEFAULT_THEME: "light"
      MYSQL_URL: mysql:3306
      MYSQL_DATABASE: lake
      MYSQL_USER: merico
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: merico
    restart: always
    depends_on:
      - mysql
  1. Comment out grafana volume:
volumes:
   grafana-storage:

  1. Set config-ui.environment.GRAFANA_ENDPOINT to your own grafana url in docker-compose.yml

  2. Final step: docker compose up -d

Troubleshooting

If you run into any problem, please check the Troubleshooting or create an issue