How to Dockerize your node.js application?
In this tutorial you will learn how to containerize/dockerize your existing node js application with Docker. You will also learn how to add instructions to a Dockerfile to dockerize a node.js application
Docker lets you package an application with its environment and all of its dependencies into a container. A container is a basic version of a Linux operating system which would have all the dependencies needed to run a Docker image. An image is the blueprint for a container, a container is a running instance of an image.
To containerize your node.js application, start with creating an empty file with name Dockerfile in the root of your project.

Let’s start adding instructions to this Dockerfile one by one.
1. Specify Node image version
FROM node:14
2. Specify work directory in which your application code will reside and image will be created
# Create app directory WORKDIR /usr/src/myNodeApp
3. Copy package.json and Install dependencies
# Install app dependencies COPY package*.json ./ RUN npm install
4. Bundle your app source using COPY command
# Bundle source code COPY . .
5. Expose your application to a port
EXPOSE 3300
This is the port your application will map to the docker daemon.
6. Specify the commands to run your application
CMD npm start dev
This is where you specify the command to start your node js application. I use npm start to start my application. You can simply use node index.js.
Your Dockerfile should look like this now.
FROM node:13 # Create app directory WORKDIR /usr/src/myNodeApp # Install app dependencies COPY package*.json ./ RUN npm install # Bundle app source COPY . . EXPOSE 3300 CMD npm start
Building Docker image
Run the following command from the directory where your Dockerfile is located to build an image.
docker build -t my_node_app_image .
This will create a docker image with the name my_node_app_image.
Use the following command to see if your image has been created.
docker images
REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED SIZE my_node_app_image latest 2938e0bbe9a7 15 seconds ago 24MB
Building Docker container from your image
To run your image as a container use the command below.
docker run -p 8020:3300 -d my_node_app_image
-d is to keep your container running in the background. -p is to expose and publish the port. Your application will be exposed at 3300 at the container and 8020 in the host.
To see your container has been created and running, use docker ps command
docker ps CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES d2b3c3c6e6c1 2938e0bbe9a7 "npm start" About an hour ago Up About an hour 3300/tcp, 0.0.0.0:8020->3300/tcp
Now you can access your application from the port 8020.
Fin.