1. Issue

I started a redis container in my local environment and now I want to connect and/or send data to it from another container.

1.1. Reproduce

1.1.1. docker cli

Let’s assume that I started a redis container from cli:

$ docker run \
    --name redislocal \
    -p "6379:6379" \
    redis:6.2.5

Or in a more appropriate way:

$ docker run \
    --name redislocal \
    --hostname redislocal \
    -p "127.0.0.1:6379:6379" \
    -d \
    redis:6.2.5 \
    redis-server \
    --appendonly yes \
    --requirepass "paSSw0rD"

1.1.2. docker-compose

Maybe I started it via docker-compose:

$ docker-compose -f compose-redis-local.yml up -d --build

And compose-redis-local.yml something like:

# compose-redis-local.yml
version: "3.5"

volumes:
  local_redis_data: {}

services:
  redis:
    container_name: redislocal
    hostname: redislocal
    image: redis:6.2.5
    command: redis-server --appendonly yes --requirepass "paSSw0rD"
    ports:
      - "127.0.0.1:6379:6379"
    volumes:
        - local_redis_data:/data
    restart:
      unless-stopped

2. Solution

Sorry: there is NO way you can connect to above redis containers from another container.

When you spawn containers from docker-compose —docker-compose example, docker will:

  1. Create a network mayapp_default with bridge driver (myapp is the directory you’re in)
  2. Create redislocal container and add it to mayapp_default network under the name redis

Similar applies to docker cli.

2.1. Custom Network

What you need is a user defined custom shared network: You should create a custom network than respawn your containers in this network.

Create a network called local-dev:

$ docker network create local-dev

Ensure it was created:

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$ docker network ls
NETWORK ID     NAME              DRIVER    SCOPE
6d05d9ee7371   bridge            bridge    local
ac5000845253   host              host      local
d75701b57e1e   kind              bridge    local
5bde7f533689   local-dev         bridge    local

2.1.1. docker cli

Start within this network:

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$ docker run \
    --name redislocal \
    --network local-dev \
    -p "127.0.0.1:6379:6379" \
    -d \
    redis:6.2.5 \
    redis-server \
    --appendonly yes \
    --requirepass "paSSw0rD"

2.1.2. docker-compose

Use this network as an external network in your compose file:

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# compose-redis-local.yml
version: "3.5"

volumes:
  local_redis_data: {}

services:
  redis:
    container_name: redislocal
    hostname: redislocal
    image: redis:6.2.5
    command: redis-server --appendonly yes --requirepass "paSSw0rD"
    ports:
      - "127.0.0.1:6379:6379"
    volumes:
        - local_redis_data:/data
    networks:
      - local-dev

networks:
  local-dev:
    external: true

In addition to those, instead of User-defined bridge networks you can use host networks however I don’t like this approach since it breaks the isolation nature of docker.

For more info you can look at this official docker docs:

3. Connect

Now you can connect in the same network:

$ docker run \
      -it \
      --rm \
      --net local-dev \
      redis:6.2.5 \
      redis-cli \
      -h redislocal \
      -a "paSSw0rD" \
      ping

Warning: Using a password with '-a' or '-u' option on the command line interface may not be safe.
PONG

All done!