This project has been created as part of the 42 curriculum by asoudani.

Description

Inception is a system administration project focused on building and running a small web infrastructure using Docker Compose. The goal is to virtualize multiple services as separate containers, built from your own Dockerfiles (Debian-based here), wired together by an isolated Docker network, and persisted using Docker volumes.

This repository provides:

• NGINX (TLS-only) as the single entrypoint on port 443
• WordPress running with PHP-FPM (no NGINX inside the WordPress container)
• MariaDB as the database backend
• Persistent storage for the WordPress files and MariaDB database
• A private Docker network connecting services

Bonus services included in this repo:

• Redis cache for WordPress
• FTP server pointing to the WordPress files volume
• Adminer
• A simple static site
• Portainer

Instructions

Prerequisites

• Linux VM (project requirement)
• Docker + Docker Compose installed
• Your domain name mapped to the VM IP (project requirement):
  • Add an entry in the VM host file so asoudani.42.fr resolves to your VM.

Secrets

Secrets are stored as local files (ignored by git):

• secrets/mysql_root_password.txt
• secrets/mysql_password.txt
• secrets/wp_admin_password.txt
• secrets/wp_user_password.txt
• secrets/ftp_password.txt

Environment variables

Configuration variables are stored in srcs/.env (example values already present in this repo):

• LOGIN, DATA_PATH, DOMAIN_NAME
• MYSQL_DATABASE, MYSQL_USER
• WP_TITLE, WP_ADMIN_USER, WP_ADMIN_EMAIL, WP_USER, WP_USER_EMAIL
• FTP_USER

Build and run

From the repository root:

• Start (build + up): make
• Stop: make clean
• Stop + remove data directory: make fclean
• Rebuild from scratch: make re

Access

Mandatory entrypoint:

• WordPress via NGINX (HTTPS): https://asoudani.42.fr

Bonus services (if enabled/exposed in Compose):

• Adminer: http://<vm-ip>:8080
• Static site: http://<vm-ip>:8081
• Portainer: http://<vm-ip>:9000
• FTP: connect to <vm-ip> on port 21 (passive ports 21000-21010)

Project design choices

Docker usage & sources

• Each service has its own Dockerfile under srcs/requirements/<service>/.
• Images are built locally by Compose (no pre-built service images are used, except the Debian base image).
• Services are connected through a dedicated Docker network declared in srcs/docker-compose.yml.
• Containers run a single foreground process (no tail -f, sleep infinity, or similar hacks), respecting PID 1 best practices.

Virtual Machines vs Docker

• Virtual Machines virtualize hardware and run full guest operating systems; they are heavier but provide strong isolation.
• Docker containers share the host kernel and isolate processes using namespaces/cgroups; they are lighter and start faster.
• This project is run inside a VM (as required) while services themselves run as containers inside that VM.

Secrets vs Environment Variables

• Environment variables are convenient for non-sensitive configuration (domain, usernames, database name).
• Secrets are used for sensitive values (passwords). In this project, passwords are provided through Docker secrets and read from /run/secrets/... inside containers.

Docker Network vs Host Network

• A Docker network provides service-to-service connectivity using internal DNS (e.g. mariadb, wordpress) without exposing those services to the host.
• network_mode: host is avoided (and forbidden by the subject) because it removes network isolation.

Docker Volumes vs Bind Mounts

• Docker volumes are managed by Docker and are the standard mechanism for persistent container data.
• Bind mounts map an explicit host path into a container.
• This project uses named volumes in Compose (e.g. mariadb_data, wordpress_files) and configures them so their data is stored under /home/<login>/data on the host (as required by the subject). This is done via the local volume driver options (driver_opts) pointing to the DATA_PATH directories.

Resources

• Docker overview: https://docs.docker.com/get-started/
• Docker Compose file reference: https://docs.docker.com/compose/compose-file/
• NGINX TLS configuration: https://nginx.org/en/docs/http/configuring_https_servers.html
• WordPress + PHP-FPM: https://www.php.net/manual/en/install.fpm.php
• MariaDB documentation: https://mariadb.com/kb/en/documentation/

AI usage

AI was used as a productivity tool to:

• Documentation and information simplification.