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Translate a Docker Compose File to Kubernetes Resources

What's Kompose? It's a conversion tool for all things compose (namely Docker Compose) to container orchestrators (Kubernetes or OpenShift).

More information can be found on the Kompose website at http://kompose.io.

Before you begin

You need to have a Kubernetes cluster, and the kubectl command-line tool must be configured to communicate with your cluster. It is recommended to run this tutorial on a cluster with at least two nodes that are not acting as control plane hosts. If you do not already have a cluster, you can create one by using minikube or you can use one of these Kubernetes playgrounds:

To check the version, enter kubectl version.

Install Kompose

We have multiple ways to install Kompose. Our preferred method is downloading the binary from the latest GitHub release.

Kompose is released via GitHub on a three-week cycle, you can see all current releases on the GitHub release page.

# Linux
curl -L https://github.com/kubernetes/kompose/releases/download/v1.26.0/kompose-linux-amd64 -o kompose

# macOS
curl -L https://github.com/kubernetes/kompose/releases/download/v1.26.0/kompose-darwin-amd64 -o kompose

# Windows
curl -L https://github.com/kubernetes/kompose/releases/download/v1.26.0/kompose-windows-amd64.exe -o kompose.exe

chmod +x kompose
sudo mv ./kompose /usr/local/bin/kompose

Alternatively, you can download the tarball.

Installing using go get pulls from the master branch with the latest development changes.

go get -u github.com/kubernetes/kompose

Kompose is in EPEL CentOS repository. If you don't have EPEL repository already installed and enabled you can do it by running sudo yum install epel-release

If you have EPEL enabled in your system, you can install Kompose like any other package.

sudo yum -y install kompose

Kompose is in Fedora 24, 25 and 26 repositories. You can install it like any other package.

sudo dnf -y install kompose

On macOS you can install latest release via Homebrew:

brew install kompose

Use Kompose

In a few steps, we'll take you from Docker Compose to Kubernetes. All you need is an existing docker-compose.yml file.

Go to the directory containing your docker-compose.yml file. If you don't have one, test using this one.

version: "2"

services:

  redis-master:
    image: k8s.gcr.io/redis:e2e
    ports:
      - "6379"

  redis-slave:
    image: gcr.io/google_samples/gb-redisslave:v3
    ports:
      - "6379"
    environment:
      - GET_HOSTS_FROM=dns

  frontend:
    image: gcr.io/google-samples/gb-frontend:v4
    ports:
      - "80:80"
    environment:
      - GET_HOSTS_FROM=dns
    labels:
      kompose.service.type: LoadBalancer

To convert the docker-compose.yml file to files that you can use with kubectl, run kompose convert and then kubectl apply -f <output file>.

kompose convert

The output is similar to:

INFO Kubernetes file "frontend-service.yaml" created
   INFO Kubernetes file "frontend-service.yaml" created
INFO Kubernetes file "frontend-service.yaml" created
INFO Kubernetes file "redis-master-service.yaml" created
   INFO Kubernetes file "redis-master-service.yaml" created
INFO Kubernetes file "redis-master-service.yaml" created
INFO Kubernetes file "redis-slave-service.yaml" created
   INFO Kubernetes file "redis-slave-service.yaml" created
INFO Kubernetes file "redis-slave-service.yaml" created
INFO Kubernetes file "frontend-deployment.yaml" created
   INFO Kubernetes file "frontend-deployment.yaml" created
INFO Kubernetes file "frontend-deployment.yaml" created
INFO Kubernetes file "redis-master-deployment.yaml" created
   INFO Kubernetes file "redis-master-deployment.yaml" created
INFO Kubernetes file "redis-master-deployment.yaml" created
INFO Kubernetes file "redis-slave-deployment.yaml" created
   INFO Kubernetes file "redis-slave-deployment.yaml" created
INFO Kubernetes file "redis-slave-deployment.yaml" created

 kubectl apply -f frontend-service.yaml,redis-master-service.yaml,redis-slave-service.yaml,frontend-deployment.yaml,redis-master-deployment.yaml,redis-slave-deployment.yaml

The output is similar to:

service/frontend created
service/redis-master created
service/redis-slave created
deployment.apps/frontend created
deployment.apps/redis-master created
deployment.apps/redis-slave created

Your deployments are running in Kubernetes.

Access your application.

If you're already using minikube for your development process:

minikube service frontend

Otherwise, let's look up what IP your service is using!

kubectl describe svc frontend

Name:                   frontend
Namespace:              default
Labels:                 service=frontend
Selector:               service=frontend
Type:                   LoadBalancer
IP:                     10.0.0.183
LoadBalancer Ingress:   192.0.2.89
Port:                   80      80/TCP
NodePort:               80      31144/TCP
Endpoints:              172.17.0.4:80
Session Affinity:       None
No events.

If you're using a cloud provider, your IP will be listed next to LoadBalancer Ingress.

curl http://192.0.2.89

Kompose has support for two providers: OpenShift and Kubernetes. You can choose a targeted provider using global option --provider. If no provider is specified, Kubernetes is set by default.

`kompose convert`

Kompose supports conversion of V1, V2, and V3 Docker Compose files into Kubernetes and OpenShift objects.

Kubernetes `kompose convert` example

kompose --file docker-voting.yml convert

WARN Unsupported key networks - ignoring
WARN Unsupported key build - ignoring
INFO Kubernetes file "worker-svc.yaml" created
INFO Kubernetes file "db-svc.yaml" created
INFO Kubernetes file "redis-svc.yaml" created
INFO Kubernetes file "result-svc.yaml" created
INFO Kubernetes file "vote-svc.yaml" created
INFO Kubernetes file "redis-deployment.yaml" created
INFO Kubernetes file "result-deployment.yaml" created
INFO Kubernetes file "vote-deployment.yaml" created
INFO Kubernetes file "worker-deployment.yaml" created
INFO Kubernetes file "db-deployment.yaml" created

ls

db-deployment.yaml  docker-compose.yml         docker-gitlab.yml  redis-deployment.yaml  result-deployment.yaml  vote-deployment.yaml  worker-deployment.yaml
db-svc.yaml         docker-voting.yml          redis-svc.yaml     result-svc.yaml        vote-svc.yaml           worker-svc.yaml

You can also provide multiple docker-compose files at the same time:

kompose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-guestbook.yml convert

INFO Kubernetes file "frontend-service.yaml" created         
INFO Kubernetes file "mlbparks-service.yaml" created         
INFO Kubernetes file "mongodb-service.yaml" created          
INFO Kubernetes file "redis-master-service.yaml" created     
INFO Kubernetes file "redis-slave-service.yaml" created      
INFO Kubernetes file "frontend-deployment.yaml" created      
INFO Kubernetes file "mlbparks-deployment.yaml" created      
INFO Kubernetes file "mongodb-deployment.yaml" created       
INFO Kubernetes file "mongodb-claim0-persistentvolumeclaim.yaml" created
INFO Kubernetes file "redis-master-deployment.yaml" created  
INFO Kubernetes file "redis-slave-deployment.yaml" created

ls

mlbparks-deployment.yaml  mongodb-service.yaml                       redis-slave-service.jsonmlbparks-service.yaml  
frontend-deployment.yaml  mongodb-claim0-persistentvolumeclaim.yaml  redis-master-service.yaml
frontend-service.yaml     mongodb-deployment.yaml                    redis-slave-deployment.yaml
redis-master-deployment.yaml

When multiple docker-compose files are provided the configuration is merged. Any configuration that is common will be over ridden by subsequent file.

OpenShift `kompose convert` example

kompose --provider openshift --file docker-voting.yml convert

WARN [worker] Service cannot be created because of missing port.
INFO OpenShift file "vote-service.yaml" created             
INFO OpenShift file "db-service.yaml" created               
INFO OpenShift file "redis-service.yaml" created            
INFO OpenShift file "result-service.yaml" created           
INFO OpenShift file "vote-deploymentconfig.yaml" created    
INFO OpenShift file "vote-imagestream.yaml" created         
INFO OpenShift file "worker-deploymentconfig.yaml" created  
INFO OpenShift file "worker-imagestream.yaml" created       
INFO OpenShift file "db-deploymentconfig.yaml" created      
INFO OpenShift file "db-imagestream.yaml" created           
INFO OpenShift file "redis-deploymentconfig.yaml" created   
INFO OpenShift file "redis-imagestream.yaml" created        
INFO OpenShift file "result-deploymentconfig.yaml" created  
INFO OpenShift file "result-imagestream.yaml" created

It also supports creating buildconfig for build directive in a service. By default, it uses the remote repo for the current git branch as the source repo, and the current branch as the source branch for the build. You can specify a different source repo and branch using --build-repo and --build-branch options respectively.

kompose --provider openshift --file buildconfig/docker-compose.yml convert

WARN [foo] Service cannot be created because of missing port.
INFO OpenShift Buildconfig using [email protected]:rtnpro/kompose.git::master as source.
INFO OpenShift file "foo-deploymentconfig.yaml" created     
INFO OpenShift file "foo-imagestream.yaml" created          
INFO OpenShift file "foo-buildconfig.yaml" created

Note: If you are manually pushing the OpenShift artifacts using oc create -f, you need to ensure that you push the imagestream artifact before the buildconfig artifact, to workaround this OpenShift issue: https://github.com/openshift/origin/issues/4518 .

Build and Push Docker Images

Kompose supports both building and pushing Docker images. When using the build key within your Docker Compose file, your image will:

Automatically be built with Docker using the image key specified within your file
Be pushed to the correct Docker repository using local credentials (located at .docker/config)

Using an example Docker Compose file:

version: "2"

services:
    foo:
        build: "./build"
        image: docker.io/foo/bar

Using kompose up with a build key:

kompose up
INFO Build key detected. Attempting to build and push image 'docker.io/foo/bar'
INFO Building image 'docker.io/foo/bar' from directory 'build'
INFO Image 'docker.io/foo/bar' from directory 'build' built successfully
INFO Pushing image 'foo/bar:latest' to registry 'docker.io'
INFO Attempting authentication credentials 'https://index.docker.io/v1/
INFO Successfully pushed image 'foo/bar:latest' to registry 'docker.io'
INFO We are going to create Kubernetes Deployments, Services and PersistentVolumeClaims for your Dockerized application. If you need different kind of resources, use the 'kompose convert' and 'kubectl apply -f' commands instead.

INFO Deploying application in "default" namespace
INFO Successfully created Service: foo            
INFO Successfully created Deployment: foo         

Your application has been deployed to Kubernetes. You can run 'kubectl get deployment,svc,pods,pvc' for details.

In order to disable the functionality, or choose to use BuildConfig generation (with OpenShift) --build (local|build-config|none) can be passed.

# Disable building/pushing Docker images
kompose up --build none

# Generate Build Config artifacts for OpenShift
kompose up --provider openshift --build build-config

Alternative Conversions

The default kompose transformation will generate Kubernetes Deployments and Services, in yaml format. You have alternative option to generate json with -j. Also, you can alternatively generate Replication Controllers objects, Daemon Sets, or Helm charts.

kompose convert -j
INFO Kubernetes file "redis-svc.json" created
INFO Kubernetes file "web-svc.json" created
INFO Kubernetes file "redis-deployment.json" created
INFO Kubernetes file "web-deployment.json" created

The *-deployment.json files contain the Deployment objects.

kompose convert --replication-controller
INFO Kubernetes file "redis-svc.yaml" created
INFO Kubernetes file "web-svc.yaml" created
INFO Kubernetes file "redis-replicationcontroller.yaml" created
INFO Kubernetes file "web-replicationcontroller.yaml" created

The *-replicationcontroller.yaml files contain the Replication Controller objects. If you want to specify replicas (default is 1), use --replicas flag: kompose convert --replication-controller --replicas 3

kompose convert --daemon-set
INFO Kubernetes file "redis-svc.yaml" created
INFO Kubernetes file "web-svc.yaml" created
INFO Kubernetes file "redis-daemonset.yaml" created
INFO Kubernetes file "web-daemonset.yaml" created

The *-daemonset.yaml files contain the DaemonSet objects

If you want to generate a Chart to be used with Helm run:

kompose convert -c

INFO Kubernetes file "web-svc.yaml" created
INFO Kubernetes file "redis-svc.yaml" created
INFO Kubernetes file "web-deployment.yaml" created
INFO Kubernetes file "redis-deployment.yaml" created
chart created in "./docker-compose/"

tree docker-compose/

docker-compose
├── Chart.yaml
├── README.md
└── templates
    ├── redis-deployment.yaml
    ├── redis-svc.yaml
    ├── web-deployment.yaml
    └── web-svc.yaml

The chart structure is aimed at providing a skeleton for building your Helm charts.

Labels

kompose supports Kompose-specific labels within the docker-compose.yml file in order to explicitly define a service's behavior upon conversion.

kompose.service.type defines the type of service to be created.

For example:

version: "2"
services:
  nginx:
    image: nginx
    dockerfile: foobar
    build: ./foobar
    cap_add:
      - ALL
    container_name: foobar
    labels:
      kompose.service.type: nodeport

kompose.service.expose defines if the service needs to be made accessible from outside the cluster or not. If the value is set to "true", the provider sets the endpoint automatically, and for any other value, the value is set as the hostname. If multiple ports are defined in a service, the first one is chosen to be the exposed.
- For the Kubernetes provider, an ingress resource is created and it is assumed that an ingress controller has already been configured.
- For the OpenShift provider, a route is created.

For example:

version: "2"
services:
  web:
    image: tuna/docker-counter23
    ports:
     - "5000:5000"
    links:
     - redis
    labels:
      kompose.service.expose: "counter.example.com"
  redis:
    image: redis:3.0
    ports:
     - "6379"

The currently supported options are:

Key	Value
kompose.service.type	nodeport / clusterip / loadbalancer
kompose.service.expose	true / hostname

Note: The kompose.service.type label should be defined with ports only, otherwise kompose will fail.

Restart

If you want to create normal pods without controllers you can use restart construct of docker-compose to define that. Follow table below to see what happens on the restart value.

`docker-compose` `restart`	object created	Pod `restartPolicy`
`""`	controller object	`Always`
`always`	controller object	`Always`
`on-failure`	Pod	`OnFailure`
`no`	Pod	`Never`

Note: The controller object could be deployment or replicationcontroller.

For example, the pival service will become pod down here. This container calculated value of pi.

version: '2'

services:
  pival:
    image: perl
    command: ["perl",  "-Mbignum=bpi", "-wle", "print bpi(2000)"]
    restart: "on-failure"

Warning about Deployment Configurations

If the Docker Compose file has a volume specified for a service, the Deployment (Kubernetes) or DeploymentConfig (OpenShift) strategy is changed to "Recreate" instead of "RollingUpdate" (default). This is done to avoid multiple instances of a service from accessing a volume at the same time.

If the Docker Compose file has service name with _ in it (eg.web_service), then it will be replaced by - and the service name will be renamed accordingly (eg.web-service). Kompose does this because "Kubernetes" doesn't allow _ in object name.

Please note that changing service name might break some docker-compose files.

Docker Compose Versions

Kompose supports Docker Compose versions: 1, 2 and 3. We have limited support on versions 2.1 and 3.2 due to their experimental nature.

A full list on compatibility between all three versions is listed in our conversion document including a list of all incompatible Docker Compose keys.

© 2022 The Kubernetes Authors
Documentation Distributed under CC BY 4.0.
https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/translate-compose-kubernetes/

Translate a Docker Compose File to Kubernetes Resources

Before you begin

Install Kompose

Use Kompose

User Guide

kompose convert

Kubernetes kompose convert example

OpenShift kompose convert example

Build and Push Docker Images

Alternative Conversions

Labels

Restart

Warning about Deployment Configurations

Docker Compose Versions

`kompose convert`

Kubernetes `kompose convert` example

OpenShift `kompose convert` example