Multiple WordPress sites in one docker container or separate docker containers?

[Oceanwatcher]

I am thinking about setting up a VPS where all apps etc runs in docker. It will all be behind Nginx Reverse Proxy manager, ideally with only port 443 open to the world. And Portainer to organize things And for those that wonder how I will reach the web interface for various services: SSH tunnel.

But: I am planning to use the OpenLiteSpeed container (server only). It is based on Ubuntu 24.04 and the latest version of OpenLiteSpeed and PHP. This sound perfect to me as SSL will be done by the reverse proxy and other things like MariaDB will run in their own Docker containers.

To have multiple domains running WordPress, would it be better to run all of them from the same OpenLiteSpeed container, or should I spin up multiple containers with one site in each?

 

[Cold-Egg]

Since you already have a revere proxy, both method works. FYI, not sure if you are aware of the OLS + Wordpress docker compose solution, the stack would be simpler.

 

[Oceanwatcher]

I actually think it would be the opposite. This is the content of that image:

LinuxUbuntu 24.04
OpenLiteSpeed
MariaDB
PHP
LiteSpeed Cache
ACME
WordPress
phpMyAdmin

I prefer using the lighter image. It only has OLS and PHP. As I already have the reverse proxy taking care of SSL, I do not need another one. Also, I prefer to keep MariaDB and PhpMyAdmin in a separate Docker container connected by a network.

I am well used to install WordPress and the caching plugin As far as I understand, there is a webgui for OLS where you can add new websites.

Would I be correct in assuming that adding virtual hosts in OLS is lighter than adding a new Docker container?

One more question. As I am more or less a newbie regarding Docker, I am far from a newbie when it comes to Linux.

When Ubuntu 24.04 is listed in the content of the Docker image, does it actually mean that the whole Ubuntu OS is included? Does this mean that the host OS on the VPS is not involved in running what is inside the Docker container at all? I could not find any info on how to update the OLS Docker container.

 

[Oceanwatcher]

BTW - seems I am not able to make posts/replies with links. Not even in the quoted text...

 

[Cold-Egg]

Docker Compose is a tool for defining and running multi-container applications. So in that stack, OLS, MariaDB, phpmyadmin, redis are separated.
See https://github.com/litespeedtech/ols-docker-env/blob/master/docker-compose.yml

Would I be correct in assuming that adding virtual hosts in OLS is lighter than adding a new Docker container?
Yes

When Ubuntu 24.04 is listed in the content of the Docker image, does it actually mean that the whole Ubuntu OS is included?
Yes.
Does this mean that the host OS on the VPS is not involved in running what is inside the Docker container at all?
Yes.
I could not find any info on how to update the OLS Docker container.
By using the newer docker image tag

 

[Oceanwatcher]

So all sounds good. Only one question left with the image you mentioned. How do I get rid of the ACME part. I generally do not like to have something running that I do not need...