June 1, 20224 yr I am thinking about rebuilding some of the docker infrastructure I have built up over the last 8 years. In looking at what I want to change I have come across a bit of a dilemma. Should I keep using the built-in docker management or change to something like docker-compose or portainer. I have what I see as a few pros and cons. Unraid Built-In (pro) the availability of the community apps plugin (pro) the ability to easily get to the webui, console, or logs of a container (pro) docker-folders makes organizing easy (pro) ease of updates (cons) have to remember which containers start first docker-compose (pro) the ability to quickly rebuild the setup with just a file (pro) the ability to use dependencies to adjust the autostart order (pro) appears like it shows up with the other dockers (cons) harder to access the webui, console, or logs of a container portainer (pro) all the abilities of docker-compose with a nice ui I don't think I want to add another UI so portainer is out unless it offers something more. All this leaves me more or less even between docker-compose and the unraid built-in. I really like the ability of the dependencies and the recovery if something happens to my server that docker-compose provides. However I use the webui button all the time and the logs in invaluable for troubleshooting. Does any one here have any hands on experience to add that might sway this one way of the other? Is there a feature or complication not listed here worth knowing?
March 7, 20233 yr What did you end up deciding? I use docker-compose everywhere else on my home network except Unraid, am starting to need to use docker-compose on Unraid, and am undecided whether to use Portainer or the Docker Compose plugin for it... The plugin seems a bit unwieldy so far, but I've only just started diving in.
January 23, 20242 yr On 3/7/2023 at 8:40 PM, hinton said: What did you end up deciding? I use docker-compose everywhere else on my home network except Unraid, am starting to need to use docker-compose on Unraid, and am undecided whether to use Portainer or the Docker Compose plugin for it... The plugin seems a bit unwieldy so far, but I've only just started diving in. Same question Any update/experiences you guys can share?
February 5, 20242 yr I am unable to make a decision either. Can you please provide an evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of these different approaches? Thank you. I'm familiar with Portainer (on my mini home-lab on Raspberry Pi 5 with DietPi)
March 28, 20242 yr On 6/1/2022 at 2:43 PM, SSMI said: Unraid Built-In (pro) the availability of the community apps plugin (pro) the ability to easily get to the webui, console, or logs of a container (pro) docker-folders makes organizing easy (pro) ease of updates (cons) have to remember which containers start first docker-compose (pro) the ability to quickly rebuild the setup with just a file (pro) the ability to use dependencies to adjust the autostart order (pro) appears like it shows up with the other dockers (cons) harder to access the webui, console, or logs of a container portainer (pro) all the abilities of docker-compose with a nice ui So far I am at Unraid Built-In (pro) the availability of the community apps plugin (pro) the ability to easily get to the webui, console, or logs of a container (pro) ease of updates (cons) rebuilding is a webgui (cons) Can not document / comment what I did and why docker-compose never used portainer (pro) the ability to quickly rebuild the setup with just a file (pro) available on all my docker platforms (Ubuntu, unRAID, NAS) (cons) harder to access the webui, console, or logs of a container from unRAID GUI (pro) ability to integrate into GitHub (I write the compose with MS Code, then git it to gthub) and do version control (pro) Easy to port and relaunch (pro) can document the code with remarks Result: They all play well, so, I use unRAID super cool, easy apps (docker) and one is Portainer CE, that hosts my complex Compose/STACKs Now if there was a way to expose the webUI to unRAID for a container built by Portainer, that would ROCK, and I might eliminate my 'homer' launch page.
March 28, 20242 yr 2 hours ago, kcossabo said: Now if there was a way to expose the webUI to unRAID for a container built by Portainer, that would ROCK, and I might eliminate my 'homer' launch page. I think what you are looking for is the label "net.unraid.docker.webui". You can apply this label to a container created by Portainer (or any other container creation method) and set its value to the url of your container and unRAID will show a WebUi button for the container. There is also a "net.unraid.docker.icon" for setting an icon (url to the icon) and "net.unraid.docker.shell" for setting the shell option (bash for example). Important to note there is a bit of buggy behavior with these labels in that unRAID caches the value and subsequent changes are not reflected in the ui. So essentially you get one shot at setting these things, make sure they are correct before spinning up a container with one (it is possible to wipe the cached value but its not as simple as a page refresh).
April 30, 20242 yr On 3/29/2024 at 5:47 AM, primeval_god said: I think what you are looking for is the label "net.unraid.docker.webui". You can apply this label to a container created by Portainer (or any other container creation method) and set its value to the url of your container and unRAID will show a WebUi button for the container. There is also a "net.unraid.docker.icon" for setting an icon (url to the icon) and "net.unraid.docker.shell" for setting the shell option (bash for example). Is there any documentation for these (plus any other) docker labels out side of forum posts?
May 5, 20242 yr On 4/30/2024 at 7:21 PM, alucarddelta said: Is there any documentation for these (plus any other) docker labels out side of forum posts? Not that i am aware of. The icon, webui and shell are the only ones that I know of.
May 19, 20242 yr On 3/29/2024 at 6:47 AM, primeval_god said: (it is possible to wipe the cached value but its not as simple as a page refresh). I'm interested in this not as simple as a page refresh wipe. How do I go about it?
June 4, 20251 yr For anyone stumbling upon this in 2025 and 7.1.x -- Please BE AWARE that the CA 'Docker Compose Manager' forces you to create stacks that are hardcoded to /boot/config/plugins/compose.manager/project paths. This is bad because your projects will now be running off of your cheap/flimsy USB stick - far from ideal. By the time you get around to figuring out how to hack things into place, you, like me, will most likely now be asking yourself "why the F am I using this plugin" ... To be fair - I only have 2.5 days left on my Unraid Trial License. I'm starting to ask myself if I should bail now and move on. If you simply need a NAS and want to play with a few VM's & containers, Unraid seems solid. If you're starting down into the world of Kube, IAC, etc. This might not be the right platform for you - or you'll need to accept that you'll be hacking around your OS that will want to fight you tooth & nail - this is my exact dilemma right now :/ Edited June 4, 20251 yr by Sean_
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