Watchtower - Update Docker Containers Automatically

[@RRedl1ne]

I use two instances of Watchtower. First one runs weekly and does notifications only. Second one is set to "run once" so I can manually run it to update all my containers when I'm present that way I can test everything once complete.

[@Jims-Garage]

Great tip! Sounds like a good solution.

[@davidwestra8181]

I use watchtower and let it update everything to latest. Am I rolling the dice? Yes. But rarely has anything broken. 2-3 times a year, tops. Honestly, it’s great when it does. It gives me an excuse to dig in deeper and tinker with the homelab in a way I otherwise wouldn’t. I learn so much when things break. Also. I put my docker sock behind docker socket proxy. Don’t know if it’s more secure - but it adds some obscurity and more control over what watchtower can access.

[@jimdavis3749]

Brilliant indepth explanation and use of Watchtower. Thanks Jim.

[@Jims-Garage]

Glad it was helpful!

[@kenmurphy4259]

Great channel, great demo of watchtower, thanks Jim

[@Jims-Garage]

@@kenmurphy4259 thanks, Ken

[@hkitservices]

probably will use it but with notifications only thanks for the clear vdo

[@Jims-Garage]

@@hkitservices I agree, perhaps a few less important ones on auto update.

[@CorgiFan-ti8if]

Great video, thank you.

[@Jims-Garage]

@@CorgiFan-ti8if thanks

[@NFvidoJagg2]

I've been using watchtower for a while to notify me by email when I have containers that need updating. Some suggestions, If you have multiple docker instances using watchtower, use the notification subject tag variable to help identify instances in notifications If your going to uses automatic updates, don't pin to latest, pin to a specific version which should help avoid breaking changes. I would recommend scheduling it at least once a day or more. especially if your hitting docker hub, to prevent rate limiting. I also like to put mine in a stack with portainer so all my docker management containers are together and can be updated with a force recreate.

[@user-qh5zz7dy1h]

good points, thanks for sharing

[@MartinHiggs84]

An option to wait x amount of days after new image before installing would be an interesting option? Thinking if a bug found it maybe fixed within that time. Another would be to keep the last x amount of images.

[@Jims-Garage]

@@MartinHiggs84 yes, both are good suggestions

[@MartinHiggs84]

@@Jims-Garage logged a feature request on github. Don't ask Don't get huh.

[@sebastiaanhommes5037]

@Jims-Garage first of all I fully agree with your hesitation. Due to that I’ve switched to renovate + Portainer in a GitOps way for Docker. Am curious about your thoughts on this setup compared to watchtower. As always thanks for the awesome tutorials

[@Jims-Garage]

I agree, I tend to use gitops with fleet for my Kubernetes cluster. Kubernetes is different though as you have image pull policies, this auto update capability is baked in.

[@Zedris]

cool video! thanks! can we get a video on how portainer can manage docker in other lxc/vm instances? I have 2-3 lxcs that have 2-3 dockers each in them. apparently there is a way to get one portainer instance to manage all of those in one combined view. think it would be helpful for many, im just now learning prox and your videos have been very helpful!

[@try-that]

I don't use portainer now, but if I remember you use Portainer agent, and place the agent on each container.

[@PaulLittlefield]

Hi Jim, great video thanks very much. I have a challenge for you. I just can’t get traefik to work with BTCPay server and wondered whether you could do a video on that. I just can’t get the ports right. In theory it should be possible but there is not one single webpage or video that has the solution. I’ve tried no proxy. I’ve tried the traefik proxy but that doesn’t work with my other traefik and I’ve tried all manner but I just can’t do it and you’re the expert in traffic. So the challenge is to get traefik working with an nginx and BTC pay server on the same machine.

[@user-qh5zz7dy1h]

Setting payment server for darknet operation 😆?

[@demorez5]

i am surprised you can run it every 30 seconds. I remember a few years ago i had to decrease the frequency to twice per day and also input somewhere some docker hub key, otherwise i got banned from dockerhub and could pull nothing. this may have changed in the meantime obvisously, for me this is one of the containers i set up years ago and never touched it again

[@Jims-Garage]

There's an edit on screen, the 30s is how soon after starting the container it checks. After the initial check it's every 24 hours by default.

[@Th3K1ngK00p4]

I share your initial hesitation, auto updating containers just sounds like an invitation for disaster. So many different services bring different situations when updating. Notification of updates is all I really want, but I've stayed away from watchtower for that anyway

[@user-qh5zz7dy1h]

using something else?

[@Th3K1ngK00p4]

@@user-qh5zz7dy1h not at the moment, but I plan to checkout Diun.

[@Snoekverslaafde]

"WATCHTOWER_LOG_FORMAT : pretty" Then the log file is in colour. Easier to read.

[@Jims-Garage]

@@Snoekverslaafde yes, good suggestion!

[@user-qh5zz7dy1h]

Personally I think I'd rather break my containers manually 😆

[@Jims-Garage]

Haha, I can relate!