Deploying Docker-Compose Projects with Nomad Using raw_exec

[MyrinNew]

Hi there! I'm Maneshwar. Right now, I’m building LiveAPI, a first-of-its-kind tool that helps you automatically index API endpoints across all your repositories. LiveAPI makes it easier to discover, understand, and interact with APIs in large infrastructures.





TL;DR

You don’t need Nomad to parse your docker-compose.yml. Just git clone and docker-compose up --build via raw_exec. Done.


Context

I had a small project: a Go-based app that syncs data into Meilisearch. Locally, I used docker-compose to run two services:

• Meilisearch – the search engine
• searchsync – a Go app that reads JSON and pushes data to Meilisearch

Now I wanted to deploy this with Nomad.


The Problem

Nomad doesn’t natively support docker-compose. So I:

1. Tried converting the compose file to Nomad jobs
2. Got into volume mount hell
3. Fought with constraint errors
4. Tried building inside Docker
5. Realized I was wasting time

So I gave up on Docker driver and used Nomad’s raw_exec instead.


The Plan

Let the raw exec driver:

• Clone the repo
• Run docker-compose up --build

It just works.


Prerequisites

1. Docker Engine is installed on the target Nomad client node
2. Docker Compose plugin installed manually:

mkdir -p ~/.docker/cli-plugins
curl -SL https://github.com/docker/compose/re...e-linux-x86_64 \
-o ~/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose
chmod +x ~/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose
docker compose version # ✅ should show v2.x

1. Your Nomad client has access to Git (via SSH key or HTTPS token)

Nomad Job File

Here's the final working deploy.hcl:






job "searchsync-rawexec" {
datacenters = ["dc1"]
type = "batch"

group "searchsync" {
task "bootstrap-searchsync" {
driver = "raw_exec"

config {
command = "/bin/bash"
args = ["-c", EOT
cd /tmp && \
git clone git@git.apps.hexmos.com:hexmos/commons/searchsync.git && \
cd searchsync && \
docker compose up --build
EOT
]
}

constraint {
attribute = "${node.unique.id}"
value = "a02c1701-53ae-1b96-5004-3d70c1227751" # constraint to nats03 node
}

resources {
cpu = 500
memory = 512
}
}
}
}







Deploy It





nomad job run deploy.hcl







Done. No image push. No registry creds. Just clone and run.


Bonus: CI/CD Step

Here's the GitLab CI step:






deploy-searchsync:
stage: deploy-searchsync
tags:
- gcp-master
script:
- export NOMAD_ADDR="http://127.0.0.1:4646"
- nomad job stop searchsync-rawexec || true
- nomad job run deploy.hcl







Conclusion

Don't overcomplicate things. If your app runs with docker-compose, just run it that way using Nomad's raw_exec. Let it do one job: boot up your service.


No variable mess. No volume hell. No hours lost converting YAML to HCL.

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With LiveAPI, you can generate interactive API docs that allow users to search and execute endpoints directly from the browser.





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