Creating a service in Ubuntu to run a Docker image

Systemd is a system and service manager for Linux operating systems. It is responsible for managing the services and daemons running on the system. Systemd uses unit files to define and manage services in the directory

Create a file in

[Unit]
Description=Onion Share
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target
Wants=docker.service
After=docker.service

StartLimitInterval=0

[Service]
Type=forking
TimeoutStartSec=infinity
TimeoutStopSec=16min
ExecStart=/mnt/disk1/onion-farm/scripts/start
ExecStop=/mnt/disk1/umbrel/scripts/stop
User=root
Group=root
StandardOutput=syslog
StandardError=syslog
SyslogIdentifier=onion-service-startup
RemainAfterExit=yes
Restart=always
RestartSec=10

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

A summary of the fields that can be used in this file follows.

[Unit]

The [Unit] section is used to define metadata about the unit. It contains options such as Description, After, Before, Requires, Wants, and Conflicts.

[Service]

The [Service] section is used to configure the service that the unit file describes. It contains options such as Type, ExecStart, User, Group, WorkingDirectory, Restart, TimeoutSec, and RestartSec.

[Install]

The [Install] section is used to specify installation-related options for the unit file. It contains options such as WantedBy and RequiredBy.

Description

The Description option is used to provide a human-readable description of the unit. It should briefly describe what the unit does.

After

The After option specifies the units that must be started before this unit. This is useful when the current unit depends on other units being already started.

Before

The Before option specifies the units that must be started after this unit. This is useful when other units depend on the current unit being already started.

Requires

The Requires option specifies that the specified unit must be started before this unit. If the specified unit fails to start, this unit will also fail.

Wants

The Wants option is similar to the Requires option, but the specified unit is not necessary for the current unit to function.

Conflicts

The Conflicts option specifies units that are not allowed to be run at the same time as the current unit. If a conflicting unit is already running, the current unit will not be started.

Type

The Type option specifies how the service should be started. The possible values are simple, forking, oneshot, dbus, notify, idle, and watchdog.

ExecStart

The ExecStart option specifies the command that should be executed to start the service. This option can include arguments, and multiple commands can be specified.

User

The User option specifies the user account under which the service should be run.

Group

The Group option specifies the group under which the service should be run.

WorkingDirectory

The WorkingDirectory option specifies the working directory for the service.

Restart

The Restart option specifies when the service should be restarted. The possible values are no, always, on-success, on-failure, on-abnormal, on-watchdog, on-abort, and on-disconnect.

TimeoutSec

The TimeoutSec option specifies the time in seconds that systemd will wait for the service to start. If the service does not start in the specified time, systemd will consider it to have failed.

RestartSec

The RestartSec option specifies the time in seconds that systemd should wait before restarting the service after it has stopped.

WantedBy

The WantedBy option specifies the target that should be enabled when the unit is installed.

RequiredBy

The RequiredBy option specifies the target that should be enabled when the unit is installed. This is similar to WantedBy, but the target is required rather than just being wanted.

In conclusion, understanding the parameters in a systemd unit file is essential to manage services and daemons effectively on Linux operating systems. Knowing how to use these parameters can help you configure services to start at boot time, restart automatically, and recover from errors.

Create a directory where the files will be created. In my case will be

start file

#!/bin/bash

docker run \
    -p 3000:5000 \
    -v $(pwd)/html/:/var/www/html/ \
    -v $(pwd)/http.d/:/etc/nginx/http.d/ \
    -v $(pwd)/torrc.d/:/etc/torrc.d/ \
    -v $(pwd)/tor/:/var/lib/tor/ \
    -d \
    --name onion-farm \
    ricardobchaves6/onion-farm:v1.0.0

stop file

#!/bin/bash

docker stop -t 30 onion-farm
docker rm onion-farm

Add the correct permission to files.

Execute the above command to initiate the service in a startup Ubuntu.

sudo systemctl enable onion-farm-startup.service

And now, test your service:

systemctl start onion-farm-startup.service
systemctl stop onion-farm-startup.service

February 19, 2023

Background image credits forSigmund