Docker Deployment

Deploy DBConvert Streams with Docker on any machine — your local server, a VPS (DigitalOcean, Hetzner, Vultr, etc.), or a cloud VM (AWS EC2, GCP, Azure). Your data stays on your infrastructure, no cloud dependency required. The install script handles Docker Compose setup, networking, and service configuration automatically.

Prerequisites

Docker Engine 24.0 or newer
Docker Compose v2.20 or newer
curl or wget
2 CPU cores, 2 GB RAM, 2 GB disk space minimum

Deployment modes

Docker deployments run in one of two modes:

Mode	Default	Description
Standalone	Yes	Lightweight stack — SQLite, encrypted file secrets, NATS coordination. No external services beyond NATS.
Corporate	No	Adds Consul (service discovery, config storage) and Vault (secrets management) for enterprise infrastructure.

Select the deployment mode when you run start.sh. Standalone is the default.

Quick install

curl -fsSL https://dbconvert.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/downloads/streams/latest/docker-install.sh | sh

The installer prompts for a directory (default: /opt/dbconvert-streams-docker) and detects whether you are on a local machine or a cloud server. At the end of an interactive install, it asks whether to start DBConvert Streams immediately; Yes is the default.

Install options

Flag	Description
`-v, --version VERSION`	Install a specific version
`-d, --directory DIR`	Custom install directory
`-s, --secure`	Generate SSL certificates during install
`--start`	Start services after an argument-based/non-interactive install

Start and verify

Before starting, obtain your account API key from the Account page.

For an interactive install, choose Yes at the final start prompt. If you chose No, or installed with arguments without --start, start it manually:

cd /opt/dbconvert-streams-docker
./start.sh
# or:
./start.sh --mode corporate

Open http://localhost (local) or http://YOUR_SERVER_IP (cloud). You should see the DBConvert Streams UI.

On first use, each client enters and stores the account API key locally in the UI. Seat usage is tracked separately by install ID.

Local file workflows in Docker

Docker deployments create two shared host folders by default:

./imports mounted into containers as /data/imports
./exports mounted into containers as /data/exports

Use these container paths in file connections:

local file sources: /data/imports
local file targets: /data/exports

You can override the host-side folders in .env with:

STREAMS_IMPORTS_DIR
STREAMS_EXPORTS_DIR

Start options

Flag	Description
`-m, --mode MODE`	`standalone` (default) or `corporate`
`-i, --ip IP`	Manually specify public IP
`-s, --secure`	Enable HTTPS
`-n, --no-secure`	Force HTTP only

Choose your deployment path

Scenario	Guide
Local machine	Docker Local
Cloud server	Docker Cloud
Fastest cloud setup	DigitalOcean 1-Click App

Common commands

Run these from the install directory:

./start.sh            # Start services (HTTP)
./start.sh --secure   # Start with HTTPS
./stop.sh             # Stop services, preserve data
./update.sh           # Update to latest version
./uninstall.sh        # Remove all services and data

Service architecture

Standalone mode (default)

Service	Description
`stream-api`	REST API — stores config in SQLite, secrets in encrypted file
`stream-reader`	Source database reader
`stream-writer-1`, `stream-writer-2`	Target database writers
`stream-query-worker`	Runs federated and file/S3 queries outside the API, so a crash in a native query engine cannot take the API down. New in 2.6.0 — an existing deployment gets it by pulling the updated compose file. Without it, federated queries answer `502 QUERY_WORKER_CRASHED`; everything else keeps working. Scale with `docker compose up --scale stream-query-worker=N`
`stream-ui`	Web interface
`nats`	Message streaming and service coordination
`nginx`	Reverse proxy (HTTP on port 8080, HTTPS on port 443)

Corporate mode (additional services)

Service	Description
`consul`	Service discovery and configuration storage
`vault`	Secrets management

Video walkthrough

4:16Watch on YouTubeHow to deploy DBConvert Streams on any host (cloud or local)

Step-by-step server setup, installation, and configuration.

Next steps

Desktop Apps — lightweight local install without Docker
OS Compatibility — supported Linux distributions
Quick Start — end-to-end first stream walkthrough