---

id: getting-started-docker-compose title: Run a Pulsar cluster locally with Docker Compose sidebar_label: “Run Pulsar locally with Docker Compose” description: Get started with Apache Pulsar on your local machine using Docker Compose.

To run Pulsar locally with Docker Compose, follow the steps below.

Step 1: Configure the compose.yml template

To get up and run a Pulsar cluster quickly, you can use the following template to create a compose.yml file by modifying or adding the configurations in the environment section.

version: '3'
networks:
  pulsar:
    driver: bridge
services:
  # Start zookeeper
  zookeeper:
    image: apachepulsar/pulsar:latest
    container_name: zookeeper
    restart: on-failure
    networks:
      - pulsar
    volumes:
      - ./data/zookeeper:/pulsar/data/zookeeper
    environment:
      - metadataStoreUrl=zk:zookeeper:2181
      - PULSAR_MEM=-Xms256m -Xmx256m -XX:MaxDirectMemorySize=256m
    command:
      - bash
      - -c 
      - |
        bin/apply-config-from-env.py conf/zookeeper.conf && \
        bin/generate-zookeeper-config.sh conf/zookeeper.conf && \
        exec bin/pulsar zookeeper    
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "bin/pulsar-zookeeper-ruok.sh"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 30

  # Init cluster metadata
  pulsar-init:
    container_name: pulsar-init
    hostname: pulsar-init
    image: apachepulsar/pulsar:latest
    networks:
      - pulsar
    command:
      - bash
      - -c 
      - |
        bin/pulsar initialize-cluster-metadata \
        --cluster cluster-a \
        --zookeeper zookeeper:2181 \
        --configuration-store zookeeper:2181 \
        --web-service-url http://broker:8080 \
        --broker-service-url pulsar://broker:6650
    depends_on:
      zookeeper:
        condition: service_healthy

  # Start bookie
  bookie:
    image: apachepulsar/pulsar:latest
    container_name: bookie
    restart: on-failure
    networks:
      - pulsar
    environment:
      - clusterName=cluster-a
      - zkServers=zookeeper:2181
      - metadataServiceUri=metadata-store:zk:zookeeper:2181
      # otherwise every time we run docker compose uo or down we fail to start due to Cookie
      # See: https://github.com/apache/bookkeeper/blob/405e72acf42bb1104296447ea8840d805094c787/bookkeeper-server/src/main/java/org/apache/bookkeeper/bookie/Cookie.java#L57-68
      - advertisedAddress=bookie
      - BOOKIE_MEM=-Xms512m -Xmx512m -XX:MaxDirectMemorySize=256m
    depends_on:
      zookeeper:
        condition: service_healthy
      pulsar-init:
        condition: service_completed_successfully
    # Map the local directory to the container to avoid bookie startup failure due to insufficient container disks.
    volumes:
      - ./data/bookkeeper:/pulsar/data/bookkeeper
    command: bash -c "bin/apply-config-from-env.py conf/bookkeeper.conf && exec bin/pulsar bookie"

  # Start broker
  broker:
    image: apachepulsar/pulsar:latest
    container_name: broker
    hostname: broker
    restart: on-failure
    networks:
      - pulsar
    environment:
      - metadataStoreUrl=zk:zookeeper:2181
      - zookeeperServers=zookeeper:2181
      - clusterName=cluster-a
      - managedLedgerDefaultEnsembleSize=1
      - managedLedgerDefaultWriteQuorum=1
      - managedLedgerDefaultAckQuorum=1
      - advertisedAddress=broker
      - advertisedListeners=external:pulsar://127.0.0.1:6650
      - PULSAR_MEM=-Xms512m -Xmx512m -XX:MaxDirectMemorySize=256m
    depends_on:
      zookeeper:
        condition: service_healthy
      bookie:
        condition: service_started
    ports:
      - "6650:6650"
      - "8080:8080"
    command: bash -c "bin/apply-config-from-env.py conf/broker.conf && exec bin/pulsar broker"

Step 2: Create a Pulsar cluster

As preparation, create data directories and change the data directory ownership to uid(10000) which is the default user id used in the Pulsar Docker container.

sudo mkdir -p ./data/zookeeper ./data/bookkeeper
# this step might not be necessary on other than Linux platforms
sudo chown -R 10000 data

To create a Pulsar cluster by using the compose.yml file, run the following command.

docker compose up -d

Step 3: Destroy the Pulsar cluster

If you want to destroy the Pulsar cluster with all the containers, run the following command. It will also delete the network that the containers are connected to.

docker compose down