Wondering how to organize docker containers in TrueNAS?

Apps and Virtualization
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(System specs are in the signature)

I’m fairly inexperienced with docker containers:

  • At the moment the only container I’m using on TrueNAS is Plex (the app from the TrueNAS app store with hostpaths configured).
  • I am also running another docker container (Duplicacy, a backup software) on an older Synology NAS and I’m planning to migrate this over to TrueNAS.

I’m also looking to add a few other docker containers in the near future and would like to run them on my TrueNAS system as well, since that system is the only server with reasonable CPU and memory specs that I have.

1 At the moment I am wondering how to best organize docker containers on TrueNAS:

  • Have a separate dataset for each container (or each stack of related containers) or just one dataset for docker?
  • Have a separate user for each container (or each stack of related containers) or not?

2 I’m also wondering, how I should manage containers:

a) Use custom containers in the TrueNAS UI and include my compose.yaml file, as described here: Electric Eel - How I am using Dockerfile, .env files, compose files

or

b) Use software like Dockhand or Dockge to manage the containers
(I see that both of those containers are even available in the TrueNAS app store, so I’m assuming that it is okay to manage docker containers outside of the TrueNAS UI…)

or

c) Forego the TrueNAS docker system altogether and run a separate VM (e.g. with Debian) on TrueNAS and install all containers inside that VM. That would have the usual runtime overhead of VMs, but I’d be more isolated from any change in the TrueNAS ecosystem.

Perhaps I’m overthinking this, but I’d rather avoid pitfalls that I’m not aware of, so I’d appreciate some advice how other folks’ handle this (and why). Thanks so much for your advice.

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for c i would also throw in an debian lxc container, uses way less resources then a full blown vm and you can still pass through a gpu to it even if it’s the only one in your system since it uses the hosts kernel instead of its own

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I created datasets for the big apps/databases that would have more than just a few files or small amounts of data. This is so I can snapshot them separately for backup purposes.

The rest are simple directories.

I used Dockge and now Dockhand.

Don’t worry about users.

The best performance and less memory usage is running native Docker.

A VM or lxc will use more space and memory.

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