Docker

Docker

rLightning publishes official Docker images to Docker Hub at nxrvl/rlightning.

Supported Platforms

Multi-arch manifests are used, so docker pull automatically selects the correct image for your platform.

Available Tags

# Pull a specific version
docker pull nxrvl/rlightning:2.0.0

# Or always use the latest
docker pull nxrvl/rlightning:latest

Basic Usage

Start rLightning with default settings on port 6379:

docker run -d --name rlightning -p 6379:6379 nxrvl/rlightning

Test the connection:

redis-cli -h localhost -p 6379 PING
# PONG

With Authentication

Require a password for all client connections:

docker run -d --name rlightning \
  -p 6379:6379 \
  -e RLIGHTNING_PASSWORD=secret \
  nxrvl/rlightning

Connect with the password:

redis-cli -h localhost -p 6379 -a secret PING

With a Custom Configuration File

Mount your own config.toml into the container:

docker run -d --name rlightning \
  -p 6379:6379 \
  -v ./config.toml:/etc/rlightning/config.toml:ro \
  nxrvl/rlightning --config /etc/rlightning/config.toml

With Persistent Data

Use a named volume to persist data across container restarts:

docker run -d --name rlightning \
  -p 6379:6379 \
  -v rlightning-data:/data \
  nxrvl/rlightning

RDB snapshots and AOF files are written to /data inside the container.

Docker Compose

A production-ready Compose file with persistence, health checking, and automatic restarts:

services:
  rlightning:
    image: nxrvl/rlightning:2.0.0
    container_name: rlightning
    ports:
      - "6379:6379"
    environment:
      RLIGHTNING_PASSWORD: "${RLIGHTNING_PASSWORD:-changeme}"
      RLIGHTNING_MAXMEMORY: "256mb"
    volumes:
      - rlightning-data:/data
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "redis-cli", "-a", "${RLIGHTNING_PASSWORD:-changeme}", "PING"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5
      start_period: 5s
    restart: unless-stopped
    deploy:
      resources:
        limits:
          memory: 512M

volumes:
  rlightning-data:
    driver: local

Start the service:

docker compose up -d

Check health status:

docker compose ps

Environment Variables

Configure rLightning at startup using environment variables. These override values in the configuration file.

Container Details

• Base image: debian:bookworm-slim
• Runs as: non-root user (rlightning)
• Exposed port: 6379
• Data directory: /data
• Config path: /etc/rlightning/config.toml (when mounted)

Health Checking

Using redis-cli

docker exec rlightning redis-cli PING

Using netcat

For lightweight checks when redis-cli is not available:

docker exec rlightning sh -c 'nc -z localhost 6379 && echo "healthy" || echo "unhealthy"'

In Kubernetes or orchestrators

Use a TCP liveness probe on port 6379, or an exec probe running redis-cli PING.

livenessProbe:
  exec:
    command: ["redis-cli", "PING"]
  initialDelaySeconds: 5
  periodSeconds: 10
readinessProbe:
  tcpSocket:
    port: 6379
  initialDelaySeconds: 3
  periodSeconds: 5

Next Steps

• Configuration — full reference for all configuration options
• Getting Started — installation without Docker
• Quick Start — learn the core commands