Docker-Based Deployment

Docker provides a consistent, portable way to deploy ZenML server across different environments. This guide covers Docker deployment from development to production scenarios.

Docker Images

ZenML provides official Docker images:

Production Image

zenmldocker/zenml-server:latestOptimized production image with minimal footprint

Development Image

zenmldocker/zenml-server:devDevelopment image with debugging tools

Available Tags

# Latest stable release
zenmldocker/zenml-server:latest

# Specific version
zenmldocker/zenml-server:0.94.0

# Development/nightly builds
zenmldocker/zenml-server:dev

Quick Start

Single Container Deployment

Run ZenML server with SQLite (development only):

docker run -d \
  --name zenml-server \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -v zenml-data:/zenml/.zenconfig \
  zenmldocker/zenml-server:latest

Access the server at http://localhost:8080

Docker Compose (Recommended)

Create docker-compose.yml:

version: '3.8'

services:
  zenml:
    image: zenmldocker/zenml-server:latest
    container_name: zenml-server
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    environment:
      - ZENML_SERVER_AUTH_SCHEME=NO_AUTH
      - ZENML_DEFAULT_PROJECT_NAME=default
      - ZENML_ANALYTICS_OPT_IN=false
    volumes:
      - zenml-config:/zenml/.zenconfig
      - zenml-data:/zenml/.zenconfig/local_stores
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  zenml-config:
  zenml-data:

Deploy:

docker-compose up -d

Production Deployment

Docker Compose with MySQL

Production-ready setup with external database:

version: '3.8'

services:
  mysql:
    image: mysql:8.0
    container_name: zenml-mysql
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: ${MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD}
      MYSQL_DATABASE: zenml
      MYSQL_USER: zenml
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: ${MYSQL_PASSWORD}
    volumes:
      - mysql-data:/var/lib/mysql
    command: >
      --default-authentication-plugin=mysql_native_password
      --character-set-server=utf8mb4
      --collation-server=utf8mb4_unicode_ci
    networks:
      - zenml-network
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "mysqladmin", "ping", "-h", "localhost"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5

  zenml:
    image: zenmldocker/zenml-server:latest
    container_name: zenml-server
    depends_on:
      mysql:
        condition: service_healthy
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    environment:
      # Database
      - ZENML_STORE_URL=mysql://zenml:${MYSQL_PASSWORD}@mysql:3306/zenml
      - ZENML_STORE_POOL_SIZE=20
      - ZENML_STORE_MAX_OVERFLOW=20
      
      # Authentication
      - ZENML_SERVER_AUTH_SCHEME=OAUTH2_PASSWORD_BEARER
      - ZENML_AUTH_JWT_SECRET_KEY=${JWT_SECRET_KEY}
      - ZENML_AUTH_JWT_TOKEN_EXPIRE_MINUTES=60
      
      # Server
      - ZENML_SERVER_URL=https://zenml.example.com
      - ZENML_SERVER_DEPLOYMENT_TYPE=docker
      - ZENML_DEFAULT_PROJECT_NAME=default
      
      # Performance
      - ZENML_SERVER_THREAD_POOL_SIZE=40
      - ZENML_SERVER_AUTH_THREAD_POOL_SIZE=5
      - ZENML_SERVER_REQUEST_TIMEOUT=20
      
      # Observability
      - ZENML_ANALYTICS_OPT_IN=true
      - ZENML_LOGGING_VERBOSITY=INFO
      - ZENML_DEBUG=false
    networks:
      - zenml-network
    restart: unless-stopped
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "curl", "-f", "http://localhost:8080/health"]
      interval: 30s
      timeout: 10s
      retries: 3
      start_period: 40s

volumes:
  mysql-data:

networks:
  zenml-network:
    driver: bridge

Environment Variables File

Create .env file:

# Generate JWT secret: openssl rand -hex 32
JWT_SECRET_KEY=your-secret-key-here

# MySQL passwords
MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=secure-root-password
MYSQL_PASSWORD=secure-zenml-password

Deploy:

# Generate JWT secret
export JWT_SECRET_KEY=$(openssl rand -hex 32)

# Start services
docker-compose up -d

# View logs
docker-compose logs -f zenml

Configuration Options

Core Environment Variables

# Server Configuration
ZENML_SERVER=true
ZENML_SERVER_DEPLOYMENT_TYPE=docker
ZENML_SERVER_URL=http://localhost:8080
ZENML_DEFAULT_PROJECT_NAME=default

# Authentication
ZENML_SERVER_AUTH_SCHEME=OAUTH2_PASSWORD_BEARER  # or NO_AUTH, HTTP_BASIC
ZENML_AUTH_JWT_SECRET_KEY=<secret-key>
ZENML_AUTH_JWT_TOKEN_EXPIRE_MINUTES=60

# Database
ZENML_STORE_URL=mysql://user:password@host:3306/zenml
ZENML_STORE_POOL_SIZE=20
ZENML_STORE_MAX_OVERFLOW=20

# Performance
ZENML_SERVER_THREAD_POOL_SIZE=40
ZENML_SERVER_AUTH_THREAD_POOL_SIZE=5
ZENML_SERVER_REQUEST_TIMEOUT=20
ZENML_SERVER_REQUEST_CACHE_TIMEOUT=300

# Logging
ZENML_LOGGING_VERBOSITY=INFO  # DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR
ZENML_DEBUG=false
ZENML_ANALYTICS_OPT_IN=true

Database SSL Configuration

services:
  zenml:
    environment:
      - ZENML_STORE_SSL=true
      - ZENML_STORE_SSL_VERIFY_SERVER_CERT=true
    volumes:
      - ./certs/ca.crt:/certs/ca.crt:ro
      - ./certs/client-cert.pem:/certs/client-cert.pem:ro
      - ./certs/client-key.pem:/certs/client-key.pem:ro
    environment:
      - ZENML_STORE_SSL_CA=/certs/ca.crt
      - ZENML_STORE_SSL_CERT=/certs/client-cert.pem
      - ZENML_STORE_SSL_KEY=/certs/client-key.pem

Secrets Store Configuration

AWS Secrets Manager

services:
  zenml:
    environment:
      - ZENML_SECRETS_STORE_TYPE=aws
      - ZENML_SECRETS_STORE_AWS_REGION=us-east-1
      - AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=${AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID}
      - AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=${AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY}

GCP Secret Manager

services:
  zenml:
    environment:
      - ZENML_SECRETS_STORE_TYPE=gcp
      - ZENML_SECRETS_STORE_GCP_PROJECT_ID=my-project
      - GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=/secrets/gcp-credentials.json
    volumes:
      - ./gcp-credentials.json:/secrets/gcp-credentials.json:ro

Azure Key Vault

services:
  zenml:
    environment:
      - ZENML_SECRETS_STORE_TYPE=azure
      - ZENML_SECRETS_STORE_AZURE_KEY_VAULT_NAME=zenml-vault
      - AZURE_CLIENT_ID=${AZURE_CLIENT_ID}
      - AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET=${AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET}
      - AZURE_TENANT_ID=${AZURE_TENANT_ID}

Docker Image Architecture

Base Image Structure

The ZenML server image is built with security and efficiency in mind:

# Multi-stage build for minimal image size
FROM python:3.11-slim-bookworm AS base

# Non-root user for security
USER zenml:zenml

# Optimized Python environment
ENV PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1 \
    PYTHONFAULTHANDLER=1 \
    PIP_NO_CACHE_DIR=1 \
    ZENML_CONTAINER=1

# Health check endpoint
HEALTHCHECK CMD curl -f http://localhost:8080/health || exit 1

# Default command
CMD ["uvicorn", "zenml.zen_server.zen_server_api:app", \
     "--host", "0.0.0.0", "--port", "8080"]

Installed Dependencies

Production image includes:

ZenML server with FastAPI
Database connectors (MySQL, PostgreSQL)
Cloud secrets managers (AWS, GCP, Azure, HashiCorp)
Cloud storage support (S3, GCS, Azure Blob)
Service connectors

Image Variants

Production Image (zenml-server:latest)

Minimal size (~500MB)
No development tools
Optimized for performance
Runs as non-root user

Development Image (zenml-server:dev)

Includes debugging tools
MySQL/MariaDB clients
Network utilities
Source code included

Advanced Deployment Patterns

Reverse Proxy with Nginx

version: '3.8'

services:
  nginx:
    image: nginx:alpine
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "443:443"
    volumes:
      - ./nginx.conf:/etc/nginx/nginx.conf:ro
      - ./certs:/etc/nginx/certs:ro
    depends_on:
      - zenml
    networks:
      - zenml-network

  zenml:
    image: zenmldocker/zenml-server:latest
    expose:
      - "8080"
    environment:
      - ZENML_SERVER_URL=https://zenml.example.com
    networks:
      - zenml-network

networks:
  zenml-network:

Nginx configuration (nginx.conf):

http {
    upstream zenml {
        server zenml:8080;
    }

    server {
        listen 80;
        server_name zenml.example.com;
        return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
    }

    server {
        listen 443 ssl http2;
        server_name zenml.example.com;

        ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/certs/cert.pem;
        ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/certs/key.pem;

        location / {
            proxy_pass http://zenml;
            proxy_set_header Host $host;
            proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
            proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
            proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
            
            proxy_read_timeout 300s;
            proxy_connect_timeout 75s;
        }
    }
}

Multi-Container Setup with Redis

Add caching layer:

services:
  redis:
    image: redis:7-alpine
    container_name: zenml-redis
    networks:
      - zenml-network
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "redis-cli", "ping"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 3s
      retries: 5

  zenml:
    depends_on:
      redis:
        condition: service_healthy
    environment:
      - REDIS_URL=redis://redis:6379/0

Resource Limits

Configure container resource constraints:

services:
  zenml:
    deploy:
      resources:
        limits:
          cpus: '4'
          memory: 8G
        reservations:
          cpus: '2'
          memory: 4G
    ulimits:
      nofile:
        soft: 65536
        hard: 65536

Monitoring and Logging

Health Checks

services:
  zenml:
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "curl", "-f", "http://localhost:8080/health"]
      interval: 30s
      timeout: 10s
      retries: 3
      start_period: 40s

Logging Configuration

services:
  zenml:
    logging:
      driver: "json-file"
      options:
        max-size: "10m"
        max-file: "3"
        labels: "service,environment"

Centralized Logging

Ship logs to external system:

services:
  zenml:
    logging:
      driver: "syslog"
      options:
        syslog-address: "tcp://logserver:514"
        tag: "zenml-server"

Backup and Recovery

Database Backup

Backup MySQL database:

# Create backup
docker-compose exec mysql mysqldump \
  -u root -p${MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD} \
  zenml > zenml-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).sql

# Restore from backup
docker-compose exec -T mysql mysql \
  -u root -p${MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD} \
  zenml < zenml-backup-20240309.sql

Volume Backup

Backup Docker volumes:

# Backup volume to tar
docker run --rm \
  -v zenml-data:/data \
  -v $(pwd):/backup \
  alpine tar czf /backup/zenml-data-backup.tar.gz -C /data .

# Restore volume from tar
docker run --rm \
  -v zenml-data:/data \
  -v $(pwd):/backup \
  alpine tar xzf /backup/zenml-data-backup.tar.gz -C /data

Automated Backups

Add backup service to docker-compose:

services:
  backup:
    image: alpine
    depends_on:
      - mysql
    volumes:
      - mysql-data:/data:ro
      - ./backups:/backups
    command: |
      sh -c '
        while true; do
          tar czf /backups/backup-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S).tar.gz -C /data .
          find /backups -type f -mtime +7 -delete
          sleep 86400
        done
      '

Security Best Practices

Run as Non-Root User

The ZenML image runs as user zenml:zenml (UID:GID 1000:1000):

services:
  zenml:
    user: "1000:1000"
    read_only: true
    tmpfs:
      - /tmp

Secrets Management

Use Docker secrets for sensitive data:

services:
  zenml:
    secrets:
      - mysql_password
      - jwt_secret
    environment:
      - ZENML_STORE_PASSWORD_FILE=/run/secrets/mysql_password
      - ZENML_AUTH_JWT_SECRET_KEY_FILE=/run/secrets/jwt_secret

secrets:
  mysql_password:
    file: ./secrets/mysql_password.txt
  jwt_secret:
    file: ./secrets/jwt_secret.txt

Network Isolation

services:
  mysql:
    networks:
      - backend
  
  zenml:
    networks:
      - backend
      - frontend

networks:
  backend:
    internal: true
  frontend:

Troubleshooting

Container Won’t Start

Check container logs:

docker logs zenml-server
docker-compose logs zenml

Database Connection Issues

Test database connectivity:

# Test from ZenML container
docker-compose exec zenml nc -zv mysql 3306

# Check MySQL logs
docker-compose logs mysql

Permission Issues

Fix volume permissions:

# Check volume ownership
docker-compose exec zenml ls -la /zenml/.zenconfig

# Fix permissions
docker-compose exec --user root zenml chown -R zenml:zenml /zenml/.zenconfig

High Memory Usage

Monitor container resources:

# Check resource usage
docker stats zenml-server

# Check container configuration
docker inspect zenml-server | grep -A 10 "Memory"

Maintenance Operations

Update to New Version

# Pull latest image
docker-compose pull zenml

# Restart with new image
docker-compose up -d --force-recreate zenml

Database Migration

Migrations run automatically on startup. To run manually:

docker-compose exec zenml zenml migrate

Clean Up Resources

# Remove stopped containers
docker-compose down

# Remove containers and volumes (WARNING: deletes data)
docker-compose down -v

# Remove unused images
docker image prune -a

Performance Optimization

Connection Pooling

services:
  zenml:
    environment:
      - ZENML_STORE_POOL_SIZE=20
      - ZENML_STORE_MAX_OVERFLOW=20
      - ZENML_SERVER_THREAD_POOL_SIZE=40

Resource Allocation

services:
  zenml:
    deploy:
      resources:
        limits:
          cpus: '4'
          memory: 8G
        reservations:
          cpus: '2'
          memory: 4G
  
  mysql:
    deploy:
      resources:
        limits:
          memory: 4G
        reservations:
          memory: 2G
    command: >
      --max_connections=200
      --innodb_buffer_pool_size=2G

Getting Started

Core Concepts

Guides

Stack Components

Integrations

Advanced

Deployment

​Docker-Based Deployment

​Docker Images

Production Image

Development Image

​Available Tags

​Quick Start

​Single Container Deployment

​Docker Compose (Recommended)

​Production Deployment

​Docker Compose with MySQL

​Environment Variables File

​Configuration Options

​Core Environment Variables

​Database SSL Configuration

​Secrets Store Configuration

​AWS Secrets Manager

​GCP Secret Manager

​Azure Key Vault

​Docker Image Architecture

​Base Image Structure

​Installed Dependencies

​Image Variants

​Advanced Deployment Patterns

​Reverse Proxy with Nginx

​Multi-Container Setup with Redis

​Resource Limits

​Monitoring and Logging

​Health Checks

​Logging Configuration

​Centralized Logging

​Backup and Recovery

​Database Backup

​Volume Backup

​Automated Backups

​Security Best Practices

​Run as Non-Root User

​Secrets Management

​Network Isolation

​Troubleshooting

​Container Won’t Start

​Database Connection Issues

​Permission Issues

​High Memory Usage

​Maintenance Operations

​Update to New Version

​Database Migration

​Clean Up Resources

​Performance Optimization

​Connection Pooling

​Resource Allocation

​Next Steps

Kubernetes Deployment

Configuration Guide

Custom Docker Builds

​Reference

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love