Watchtower Container Updates

Key Features

• Automatic base image monitoring and container recreation when updates are detected
• Configurable polling intervals from minutes to days for update frequency control
• Selective container management using Docker labels to include or exclude specific containers
• Automatic cleanup of outdated Docker images to prevent disk space accumulation
• Rolling restart capability that updates containers one at a time to maintain service availability
• Private Docker registry support with authentication for enterprise image repositories
• Lifecycle hooks for pre-update and post-update custom scripting and notifications
• Multiple notification channels including email, Slack, Teams, and webhook integrations

Common Use Cases

• 1Homelab servers running media centers, network attached storage, and home automation containers
• 2Development and staging environments where teams need latest features without manual intervention
• 3Small business applications requiring automatic security updates for compliance requirements
• 4IoT and edge computing deployments where manual updates are impractical or impossible
• 5Personal VPS hosting multiple services that need to stay current with minimal maintenance overhead
• 6Educational environments where students deploy containers that should automatically receive updates
• 7Prototype and demo environments where showcasing latest features requires current container versions

Prerequisites

• Docker Engine 19.03+ with Docker Compose v2.0+ for container orchestration support
• Minimum 64MB RAM available for Watchtower container operation and image processing
• Docker socket access permissions for container lifecycle management and image operations
• Network connectivity to Docker registries (Docker Hub, private registries) for image polling
• Sufficient disk space for downloading new images during update cycles (varies by container size)
• Understanding of Docker labels and container naming for selective update configuration

docker-compose.yml

1services: 
2  watchtower: 
3    image: containrrr/watchtower:latest
4    container_name: watchtower
5    environment: 
6      - TZ=${TZ}
7      - WATCHTOWER_CLEANUP=true
8      - WATCHTOWER_POLL_INTERVAL=86400
9      - WATCHTOWER_INCLUDE_STOPPED=false
10      - WATCHTOWER_REVIVE_STOPPED=false
11    volumes: 
12      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
13    restart: unless-stopped
14    networks: 
15      - watchtower-network
16
17volumes: 
18  watchtower_data: 
19
20networks: 
21  watchtower-network: 
22    driver: bridge

.env Template

1# Watchtower
2TZ=UTC

Usage Notes

Quick Start

1# 1. Create the compose file
2cat > docker-compose.yml << 'EOF'
3services:
4  watchtower:
5    image: containrrr/watchtower:latest
6    container_name: watchtower
7    environment:
8      - TZ=${TZ}
9      - WATCHTOWER_CLEANUP=true
10      - WATCHTOWER_POLL_INTERVAL=86400
11      - WATCHTOWER_INCLUDE_STOPPED=false
12      - WATCHTOWER_REVIVE_STOPPED=false
13    volumes:
14      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
15    restart: unless-stopped
16    networks:
17      - watchtower-network
18
19volumes:
20  watchtower_data:
21
22networks:
23  watchtower-network:
24    driver: bridge
25EOF
26
27# 2. Create the .env file
28cat > .env << 'EOF'
29# Watchtower
30TZ=UTC
31EOF
32
33# 3. Start the services
34docker compose up -d
35
36# 4. View logs
37docker compose logs -f

One-Liner

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

1curl -fsSL https://docker.recipes/api/recipes/watchtower-updates/run | bash

Troubleshooting