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Starting Server Services

Once the Docker Compose file is configured and all experimental systems are ready, the STELLA Server can be started by building and running the containers.

Development Mode (Hot Reloading)

Development mode enables hot reloading and is recommended during local development and testing.

sudo docker compose -f docker-compose-dev.yml build
sudo docker compose -f docker-compose-dev.yml up -d

In this mode, local code changes are reflected immediately inside the running containers.

Production-like Deployment

For a stable, production-style deployment without hot reloading, use:

sudo docker compose build
sudo docker compose up -d

This mode is intended for staged or production deployments.

Expected Containers

A standard STELLA Server deployment starts several containers, including:

  • stella-server — Flask application service Accessed internally and via reverse proxy (default: localhost:8000)
  • postgres — PostgreSQL database service Default port: 5432
  • nginx — Reverse proxy and entrypoint Default port: 80

Example output after starting containers in development mode:

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                 COMMAND              PORTS                                         NAMES
3a2109cc6e0b   stella-dev-nginx       "/docker-entrypoint.…"     0.0.0.0:80->80/tcp                            stella-dev-nginx-1
2126e200ff8b   stella-dev-server      "flask run --host=0.…"    0.0.0.0:8000->8000/tcp                        stella-dev-server-1
f4d99530d31d   postgres:16            "docker-entrypoint.s…"    0.0.0.0:5432->5432/tcp                        stella-dev-db-server-1

Container Names (Non-Development Mode)

When running without the development Compose file, container names follow the standard naming convention:

  • stella-nginx-1
  • stella-server-1
  • stella-db-server-1

These containers must all be running for the STELLA Server to operate correctly.