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Docker Compose & Full-Stack Orchestration

What are we trying to accomplish

In this module, we focus on orchestrating full-stack applications as cohesive systems rather than isolated containers. While Dockerfiles allow us to package individual services, real-world applications require multiple services—databases, backend APIs, and frontends—to run together, communicate reliably, and mirror production behavior.

Through Docker Compose, you will learn how backend and frontend services are declared, networked, and coordinated using a single source of truth. You’ll move from manually running containers to defining reproducible infrastructure that reflects real deployment patterns, including service discovery, reverse proxies, environment configuration, and production-minded servers.

By the end of this module, you will understand how to model a complete full-stack system, how containers communicate over Docker networks, and how tools like Gunicorn and Nginx fit into modern deployment architectures. These skills are foundational for transitioning from local development to cloud-based environments such as ECS, Kubernetes, or managed PaaS platforms.

Lectures & Assignments

Lectures

Assignments

Terminal Learning Objectives (TLO's) executable

  • Explain why Docker Compose is necessary for multi-container applications
  • Describe the role of services, networks, and volumes in Docker Compose
  • Orchestrate a backend API and database using Docker Compose
  • Configure Django to connect to PostgreSQL over a Docker network
  • Replace Django’s development server with Gunicorn in a containerized environment
  • Serve a React frontend as static assets using Nginx
  • Proxy API requests from Nginx to a backend service
  • Treat a full-stack application as a single deployable system
  • Reason about host vs container ports and service-to-service communication
  • Execute operational tasks (migrations) inside running containers

Enabling Learning Objectives (ELO's) enabling

  • Define Docker Compose terminology: service, network, volume, depends_on
  • Explain how Docker Compose performs service discovery using service names
  • Differentiate between development servers and production servers
  • Identify why databases are treated as managed services in containerized systems
  • Understand the role of Gunicorn as a WSGI application server
  • Explain Nginx’s responsibilities as a static file server and reverse proxy
  • Interpret Nginx configuration files in the context of SPAs and APIs
  • Apply environment variables using .env files in Docker Compose
  • Reason about container isolation and explicit state management
  • Connect Docker Compose concepts to real-world deployment and scaling strategies