Allow scaling docker deployments using replicas

[AnzeKop]

Error Message and Logs

Docker doesn't allow for preset container names whenever you are deplying with replicas

    deploy:
      replicas: 2

Coolify automaticly sets container names so its impossible to have multiple replicas within coolify when trying to create them.

Steps to Reproduce

Create any docker deployment with multiple replicas in any service.

Example Repository URL

No response

Coolify Version

v4.0.0-beta.323

Are you using Coolify Cloud?

No (self-hosted)

Operating System and Version (self-hosted)

Ubuntu 24

Additional Information

No response

[shintaii]

Big issue for me.

[Lodimup]

This would be useful for me as well. Workaround is spamming services.

[1hachem]

🆙 helpful for me too

[Thytu]

Linking #2131 to the discussion

[kilobyte2007]

Are there plans for this? Seems like a pretty vital feature to have.

[fstn]

Big issue for me too

[davidlondono]

I need this solution

[magixus]

The easiest workaround is to give us the ability to remove container_name

The way I skipped this is by comment/remove container_name from docker-compose.yml file, using the Terminal -> server -> then

 cd /data/cloolify/services/<serviceID> && sed -i '/container_name:/ s/^/# /' docker-compose.yml && docker compose up -d

my service then started with replicas, and status is running in coolify dashboard

[shintaii]

But.... why even use coolify then. Although it might work, you can do this better without coolify. Just spin up a server and run docker compose up-d...

The point of this topic is that you can alter the command of docker, same as you can do on fly.io, render.com, etc etc etc

[renatoaraujoc]

But.... why even use coolify then. Although it might work, you cam do this better without coolify. Us spin up a server and run docker compose up-d...

The point of this topic is that you cam alter the command of docker, same as you can do on fly.io, render.com, etc etc etc

I guess you're missing the point of Coolify, but I'm tired today to explain my point of view.

There's an important missing feature on Coolify, my solution fixes it, you'll be able to load-balance your services, feel free to use if you want.

This is most important on NodeJS servers where you're locked in with a single thread on event loop, this fixes it while using Coolify, which I like a lot.

[samennis1]

Hey @renatoaraujoc thanks for the info above! I'm curious is there a reasons this would only apply to coolify/data/services vs coolify/data/applications? I say this because I have an application connected to a private repo with a compose file. I've made a docker-compose.override.yaml

services:
  web-service:
    deploy:
      replicas: 3
    networks:
      coolify: null
    container_name: !reset null

networks:
  coolify:
    name: coolify
    external: true

This works as long as I deploy first, which starts one instance. I then must cd into coolify/data/applications/<app_id> and run docker compose up -d and it creates the rest of the instances & they become visible in the dash.

The issue is having to cd on redeploys . I saw you mentioned it worked automated for you above, but maybe I mis-read and you didn't mention re-deploys specifically. But, I've checked and the docker override file persists even after redeploys so I would've assumed it'd work.

Here's my docker-compose.yml for extra data:

version: '3.8'

services:
  web-service:
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile
    networks:
      - coolify

networks:
  coolify:
    external: true

Appreciate any info or insights you may have!

[djsisson]

@samennis1

for applications you need to use a custom docker run command, since for apps coolify uses docker compose -f docker-compose.yml up which means the override isn't used as it is specifying a filename

so i believe just setting custom docker run command to be:

docker compose up -d

would be sufficient as the override would then be picked up, i think coolify will add the project name so it should be fine,

for preview deployments coolify doesn't create a .env file but a .env-pr-x file so i'm not sure if coolify would add that to your custom docker run command or not, if not the env wouldn't get picked up (for preview deployments)

The alternative is to add labels to your full compose file and then tick raw compose deployment, it will then just deploy whatever is in your compose file

[samennis1]

@djsisson Thank you so much! That absolutely worked & saved me a lot of hassle 😂

Appreciate the fast response!

[arxkdev]

Still having this issue, would be really really nice if we could do something about the conflicting container names.

[fbtariq]

Seems essential for a lot of scenarios. +1

[djsisson]

You can always switch to swarm mode

[salomaoparkour]

Have you used Swarm with Coolify? Does it work well?

[djsisson]

It doesn't work well with coolify.

[Lodimup]

I’m switching to Dokploy. Afik Dokploy doesn’t magick the docker compose file. The root cause of this problem is because coolify parses your docker compose file before running it. A pretty flawed technical decision.

[djsisson]

I agree, it would be much simpler if coolify just added an override compose file to add labels to the existing compose, thus not altering any services at all.

But if this is for an app compose you can always tick raw compose, then it doesn't get altered at all

[mac-lisowski]

Sad the issue was not resolved yet for so long, been truly amazed with the Coolify so far but because of this issue still being persisted I'll be forced to move to other solutions. Been trying to fight with it for past 2 days and seeing this and other topics gives me confidence that it is not on the priority list for Coolify. Can't afford to have downtime on my services.

[salomaoparkour]

Same here. Try Portainer. That's what I'm using now