lazytainer

Lazytainer is a tool that monitors network traffic to containers. If there is active network traffic, the container runs; if there is no traffic, the container is stopped or paused.

To use Lazytainer, you cannot simply run containers normally. You must:

1. Apply specific labels to the target containers to assign them to a group.
2. Proxy all traffic for those containers through the Lazytainer container.

After starting the containers, you must manually join the ZeroTier network from within the container:

1. Access the container shell: docker exec -it zerotier /bin/sh
2. Join your specific network using the ZeroTier CLI: zerotier-cli join <yourZeroTierNetworkIDHere>
3. Verify the response is 200 join OK.
4. Important: You must authorize the new device in your ZeroTier dashboard.
5. Identify the ZeroTier interface name by running ifconfig. Look for an interface name that is NOT eth0 or lo (e.g., ztukuxxqii).
6. Exit the container shell.

To test the lazy loading functionality using the Minecraft server example, clone the repository, navigate to the specific example directory, and use docker-compose to start the services.

Note: If docker compose is not recognized on your system, try using docker-compose instead.

git clone https://github.com/vmorganp/Lazytainer
cd Lazytainer/examples/minecraft
docker-compose up

To run the Satisfactory server example using Lazytainer, clone the repository, navigate to the specific example directory, and use Docker Compose to start the stack.

If docker compose is not recognized on your system, use docker-compose instead.

git clone https://github.com/vmorganp/Lazytainer
cd Lazytainer/examples/satisfactory
docker compose up

To ensure Lazytainer communicates over the ZeroTier network rather than the standard Docker bridge, you must update your configuration with the specific ZeroTier interface name discovered in the previous step.

1. Locate the INTERFACE setting in your configuration file.
2. Set INTERFACE to the name found via ifconfig (e.g., ztukuxxqii).
3. Restart the containers using docker compose up to apply the changes.

To run the configuration in the background after verifying it works, use the detached flag: docker compose up -d

You can test the functionality by cloning the repository and running the provided docker-compose stack:

1. Clone and enter the directory:

   git clone https://github.com/vmorganp/Lazytainer
   cd Lazytainer

2. Start the stack:

   docker compose up

3. Access the web UI at http://localhost:81 to see container information.
4. Close the tab and wait for the logs to indicate "stopped container".
5. Refreshing http://localhost:81 should result in a dead page.
6. Generate traffic by navigating to http://localhost:81 several times; the container should start automatically.
7. Clean up the environment:

   docker-compose down

git clone https://github.com/vmorganp/Lazytainer
cd Lazytainer
docker compose up
# ... test traffic ...
docker-compose down

To make a container eligible for lazy loading, you must assign it to a group using a label. The label format is lazytainer.group=<yourGroupName>.

yourContainerThatWillSleep:
  labels:
    - "lazytainer.group=<yourGroupName>"

To use Lazytainer over a ZeroTier network, use the zyclonite/zerotier Docker image within a Docker Compose setup.

1. Copy the docker-compose.yml file from the examples/zerotier/ directory into your target directory.
2. Configure the values in the YAML file to match your requirements.
3. Run docker compose up to start the containers.

To function correctly, Lazytainer MUST have access to the Docker socket. You must provide the following volume mapping in your configuration:

lazytainer:
  volumes:
    - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro

Groups are configured by adding labels to the lazytainer container itself. Each group configuration must include the ports property. These ports must also be forwarded on the lazytainer container.

Configuration follows the pattern: lazytainer.group.<yourGroupName>.<property>=value.

lazytainer:
  ports:
    - 81:81
    - 82:82
  labels:
    - "lazytainer.group.group1.ports=81"
    - "lazytainer.group.group2.ports=81,82"

You can control logging and network protocols using environment variables on the lazytainer container:

• VERBOSE=true: Enables more verbose logging.
• IPV6_DISABLED=true: Disables IPv6.
• IPV4_DISABLED=true: Disables IPv4.

lazytainer:
  environment:
    - VERBOSE=true
    - IPV6_DISABLED=true
    - IPV4_DISABLED=true