docker.recipes

Dgraph Graph Database

intermediate

Dgraph distributed graph database with Ratel UI.

Overview

Dgraph is a horizontally scalable and distributed graph database written in Go, designed to handle complex graph queries with native GraphQL support and a SQL-like query language called GraphQL+-. The database architecture separates concerns through specialized components: dgraph-zero acts as the cluster orchestrator managing metadata, group membership, and transaction timestamps, while dgraph-alpha serves as the data node handling actual graph storage and query processing. This configuration includes Ratel, Dgraph's web-based UI that provides an intuitive interface for schema management, data exploration, and query execution with real-time visualization of graph relationships. The three-component stack creates a production-ready distributed graph database where dgraph-zero coordinates the cluster state and dgraph-alpha processes queries against the actual graph data, while Ratel offers a powerful administrative interface for database operations. Unlike traditional relational databases, this setup excels at handling complex interconnected data with multi-hop traversals, making relationship queries that would require expensive JOINs in SQL databases execute efficiently through native graph algorithms. The distributed architecture allows horizontal scaling by adding more alpha nodes while maintaining ACID compliance and strong consistency across the cluster. Data engineers working with knowledge graphs, recommendation engines, and fraud detection systems will find this stack particularly valuable, as will developers building social networks, IoT device management platforms, and any application requiring complex relationship modeling. The combination of native GraphQL support, distributed architecture, and the intuitive Ratel interface makes this configuration ideal for teams transitioning from traditional databases to graph-based solutions, or organizations needing to scale existing graph workloads across multiple nodes while maintaining query performance and data consistency.

Key Features

  • Native GraphQL and GraphQL+- query language support with automatic schema inference
  • Horizontal scaling through dgraph-alpha node replication with automatic sharding
  • ACID transaction compliance with distributed consensus using Raft protocol
  • Real-time graph visualization and query execution through Ratel web interface
  • Multi-version concurrency control enabling consistent reads during writes
  • Built-in full-text search with configurable analyzers and tokenizers
  • Automatic background compaction and garbage collection for optimal storage
  • Type system with predicate-based schema validation and indexing strategies

Common Use Cases

  • 1Social networking platforms requiring friend-of-friend recommendations and social graph analysis
  • 2E-commerce recommendation engines analyzing user behavior and product relationships
  • 3Fraud detection systems tracking complex transaction patterns and entity connections
  • 4Knowledge management platforms organizing interconnected documents and concepts
  • 5IoT device networks modeling sensor relationships and data flow dependencies
  • 6Supply chain management tracking product origins and distribution networks
  • 7Content management systems with complex taxonomies and cross-referenced articles

Prerequisites

  • Minimum 4GB RAM allocation for dgraph-alpha with additional memory for large datasets
  • Docker Engine 20.10+ with Docker Compose v2 support for proper networking
  • Available ports 5080, 6080, 8000, 8080, and 9080 for inter-service communication
  • Basic understanding of graph database concepts and GraphQL query syntax
  • SSD storage recommended for optimal query performance and data persistence
  • Network connectivity allowing container-to-container communication on bridge network

For development & testing. Review security settings, change default credentials, and test thoroughly before production use. See Terms

docker-compose.yml

docker-compose.yml
1services: 
2  zero: 
3    image: dgraph/dgraph:latest
4    container_name: dgraph-zero
5    restart: unless-stopped
6    volumes: 
7      - dgraph_zero:/dgraph
8    ports: 
9      - "5080:5080"
10      - "6080:6080"
11    command: dgraph zero --my=zero:5080
12    networks: 
13      - dgraph-network
14
15  alpha: 
16    image: dgraph/dgraph:latest
17    container_name: dgraph-alpha
18    restart: unless-stopped
19    volumes: 
20      - dgraph_alpha:/dgraph
21    ports: 
22      - "${ALPHA_PORT:-8080}:8080"
23      - "9080:9080"
24    command: dgraph alpha --my=alpha:7080 --zero=zero:5080 --security whitelist=0.0.0.0/0
25    depends_on: 
26      - zero
27    networks: 
28      - dgraph-network
29
30  ratel: 
31    image: dgraph/ratel:latest
32    container_name: dgraph-ratel
33    restart: unless-stopped
34    ports: 
35      - "${RATEL_PORT:-8000}:8000"
36    networks: 
37      - dgraph-network
38
39volumes: 
40  dgraph_zero: 
41  dgraph_alpha: 
42
43networks: 
44  dgraph-network: 
45    driver: bridge

.env Template

.env
1# Dgraph
2ALPHA_PORT=8080
3RATEL_PORT=8000

Usage Notes

  1. 1Ratel UI at http://localhost:8000
  2. 2Alpha API at http://localhost:8080
  3. 3GraphQL support built-in
  4. 4Native distributed graph

Individual Services(3 services)

Copy individual services to mix and match with your existing compose files.

zero
zero:
  image: dgraph/dgraph:latest
  container_name: dgraph-zero
  restart: unless-stopped
  volumes:
    - dgraph_zero:/dgraph
  ports:
    - "5080:5080"
    - "6080:6080"
  command: dgraph zero --my=zero:5080
  networks:
    - dgraph-network
alpha
alpha:
  image: dgraph/dgraph:latest
  container_name: dgraph-alpha
  restart: unless-stopped
  volumes:
    - dgraph_alpha:/dgraph
  ports:
    - ${ALPHA_PORT:-8080}:8080
    - "9080:9080"
  command: dgraph alpha --my=alpha:7080 --zero=zero:5080 --security whitelist=0.0.0.0/0
  depends_on:
    - zero
  networks:
    - dgraph-network
ratel
ratel:
  image: dgraph/ratel:latest
  container_name: dgraph-ratel
  restart: unless-stopped
  ports:
    - ${RATEL_PORT:-8000}:8000
  networks:
    - dgraph-network

Quick Start

terminal
1# 1. Create the compose file
2cat > docker-compose.yml << 'EOF'
3services:
4  zero:
5    image: dgraph/dgraph:latest
6    container_name: dgraph-zero
7    restart: unless-stopped
8    volumes:
9      - dgraph_zero:/dgraph
10    ports:
11      - "5080:5080"
12      - "6080:6080"
13    command: dgraph zero --my=zero:5080
14    networks:
15      - dgraph-network
16
17  alpha:
18    image: dgraph/dgraph:latest
19    container_name: dgraph-alpha
20    restart: unless-stopped
21    volumes:
22      - dgraph_alpha:/dgraph
23    ports:
24      - "${ALPHA_PORT:-8080}:8080"
25      - "9080:9080"
26    command: dgraph alpha --my=alpha:7080 --zero=zero:5080 --security whitelist=0.0.0.0/0
27    depends_on:
28      - zero
29    networks:
30      - dgraph-network
31
32  ratel:
33    image: dgraph/ratel:latest
34    container_name: dgraph-ratel
35    restart: unless-stopped
36    ports:
37      - "${RATEL_PORT:-8000}:8000"
38    networks:
39      - dgraph-network
40
41volumes:
42  dgraph_zero:
43  dgraph_alpha:
44
45networks:
46  dgraph-network:
47    driver: bridge
48EOF
49
50# 2. Create the .env file
51cat > .env << 'EOF'
52# Dgraph
53ALPHA_PORT=8080
54RATEL_PORT=8000
55EOF
56
57# 3. Start the services
58docker compose up -d
59
60# 4. View logs
61docker compose logs -f

One-Liner

Run this command to download and set up the recipe in one step:

terminal
1curl -fsSL https://docker.recipes/api/recipes/dgraph-graph-database/run | bash

Troubleshooting

  • Error 'zero server is not ready': Wait 30-60 seconds for dgraph-zero initialization before alpha connection attempts
  • Ratel UI shows 'Connection failed': Verify dgraph-alpha is accessible at localhost:8080 and check firewall settings
  • Query timeout errors: Increase memory allocation for dgraph-alpha or add query complexity limits in schema
  • Port binding conflicts: Modify ALPHA_PORT and RATEL_PORT environment variables if default ports are occupied
  • Data persistence issues: Ensure Docker volumes dgraph_zero and dgraph_alpha have proper write permissions
  • High memory usage during imports: Use chunked data loading through live loader or bulk loader utilities

Community Notes

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Components

dgraph-zerodgraph-alphadgraph-ratel

Tags

#dgraph#graph#distributed#graphql#nosql

Category

Database Stacks

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