4 reasons you should use Watchtower for managing software on your home lab
One of the most useful tools of any home lab is containers, which simplify the installation and maintenance of self-hosted services. Keeping a few containers up to date is fairly routine, and doesn’t take long to accomplish. But once you’ve got a dozen or so containers, even if you’re using something like Portainer to manage them, keeping them updated is a chore. It doesn’t have to be though, as you can install one more container, Watchtower, which will keep an eye on your installed containers and keep them up to date for you. It’s one of the best containers you should get used to, and it makes home lab life easy.
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Automatic updates
Keeping your containers updated is a Sisyphean task normally
One of the best things about Docker is that the containerized applications you use with it come with every dependency and other things they need to run. They’re a fantastic way to test, learn, and break things in your home lab because you can easily replace the container with a fresh one and start again. They’re also just as easy to update as with a couple of commands; you can download the new version, transfer your settings to it, and remove the existing container.
That’s fine when you only have a couple of containers to manage, but checking to see if you have new updates, running the commands, and making sure everything works again takes time for every container. Once you get past about ten containers, it becomes a pain, but Watchtower makes things easy. You set up the Watchtower container, which automatically monitors all containers on the Docker daemon, and it’ll check for updates and manage them for you.
This frees up a huge amount of time, which you can now use for experimentation.
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Notifications of available updates
If you prefer to do things manually, you can still get a helping hand
Sometimes, you don’t want a fully automated update routine, but you still want to know when a new update is available so you can provision it for your setup. Watchtower can be set up in monitor-only mode and sends notifications when a new image is ready. The other cool thing is that you can choose how to get the notifications by setting up either email, Slack, Discord, Microsoft Teams, or even Telegram with an additional Telegram bot.
That way, you get a record of the available updates for your containers, sent to the service where you, or your team, are most likely to see them. It’s a neat system, and it doesn’t take much to set up in the first place.
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Easy to set up
You already know how to work with containers so what’s one more?
Setting up Watchtower is simple, and since you already know how to get a Docker container running, it’s no different. By default, it will watch all current Docker containers and check for updates from their public repositories.
Running the following will get Watchtower running and watching your entire Docker stack:
$ docker run -d \ --name watchtower \ -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \ containrrr/watchtower
But if you have private repos with containers to watch, you can point Watchtower at those instead, and it’ll only update your containers when a new update gets pushed to the private repo. What’s more, it’ll check for any links between your currently running containers, stopping and starting them to not break any of the links when the updates are finished.
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Perfect for home labs
We don’t suggest you use this in production environments though
Keeping your home lab up to date can be tiresome, as multiple software packages, containers, and other things need regular updates. Watchtower makes updating your Docker containers a set-and-forget task, so you always have the latest version available for your testing needs. The developers don’t recommend using it in a production environment, but it’s fine for testing purposes.
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Watchtower is another fantastic tool to help with your containerized self-hosted apps
Simplifying your administrative tasks when managing your home lab is never a bad thing. Watchtower makes it so your Docker containers are always updated, whether those updates come from an external maintainer or from your own private repository. And that means you have more time to toy around with your self-hosted apps instead of spending hours handling manual updates.
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