Connecting an app running on the host to a Docker volume

General
1

Is it necesary to run a Linux container or can you just run NGIX and connect it to a volume?

Is there a stand alone container for SMTP/POP3 and can you create email accounts with it? I guess this sort of pertains to the Linux answer.Obviosuly a mail server could be setup on Linux.

I’ve done web server configurations from scratch before, just never through docker so it’s still a little confusing to me. I did search the forums but came up with no clear answers to these.

2

With a title like the one you chose originally you will not attract many users to answer your questions. (I changed it to describe your first question). A specific question would be a better idea with a good title. If you still don’t know much about Docker, you will need to learn the basics.

Recommended links to learn the basics and concepts:

A volume is basically a fodler handled by Docker so containers don’t have to store data which would be lost when the container is removed. Why would you want to connect to a volume when you are not using a container? You can use the filesystem normally.

Regarding Docker images, you can search on Docker Hub and choose a popular and preferably a recent image for your goals.

Read the documentation about what a container is and you can try my tutorial I linked above. You can also read more about containers in the self-paced training (the first in the above list)

3

There are various email servers packaged as containers, here are just a few:

Running your own mail server is a complex challenge:

  • A lot of additional DNS setup has to be done, to work with todays email security standards.
  • You need to find a “good” IP for your server/VM, or your emails will be blocked by receiving mail servers and you manually need to contact postmasters to whitelist your IP.
  • Each container runs various services inside, if something breaks, it gets complicated. Personally I prefer a container that has fewer moving parts.
  • Make sure you use a container that’s maintained and receives security fixes.
  • Make sure to have a backup of your emails - if they are important to you.

We run two mail servers for transactional emails, but it’s a lot of work. In general I would not recommend it, there are more fun things to do out there.