Mastering Docker for Laravel: A Senior Developer’s Gateway to DevOps

You’ve been building Laravel apps for years.
But now, you want more: consistent environments, painless onboarding, server portability, and dev-to-prod symmetry.

Welcome to Docker — your bridge from senior developer to DevOps-savvy Laravel architect.

🎯 Why Docker? And Why Now?

Imagine this:

Your app works perfectly on your local machine...
...but crashes mysteriously on staging. 😠

Sound familiar? That’s the “It works on my machine” problem.
Docker fixes that by containerizing your entire Laravel environment.

With Docker, You Can:

• Run Laravel the same way across Mac, Windows, Linux, staging, and production
• Isolate your dependencies (PHP, MySQL, Redis, etc.)
• Share your dev environment with zero setup friction
• Prepare for Kubernetes, CI/CD, and advanced DevOps

🧱 What Docker Looks Like for Laravel Projects

Let’s break down a real-world Laravel + Docker setup into bite-sized concepts:

🗂️ Project Structure (Simplified)

laravel-app/
│
├── docker/
│   ├── nginx/
│   │   └── default.conf
│   ├── php/
│   │   └── Dockerfile
│   └── mysql/
├── docker-compose.yml
├── .env
├── app/
├── public/
├── ...

🧪 Step-by-Step: Dockerizing Your Laravel App

1. 📄 Create Dockerfile for PHP

# docker/php/Dockerfile

FROM php:8.2-fpm

# Install extensions
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
    zip unzip curl git libpq-dev libonig-dev libzip-dev \
    && docker-php-ext-install pdo pdo_mysql mbstring zip

WORKDIR /var/www

COPY . .

RUN curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php -- --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer
RUN composer install

2. 🧬 Configure docker-compose.yml

version: '3.8'

services:
  app:
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: docker/php/Dockerfile
    volumes:
      - .:/var/www
    ports:
      - "9000:9000"
    networks:
      - laravel

  webserver:
    image: nginx:alpine
    volumes:
      - .:/var/www
      - ./docker/nginx/default.conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
    ports:
      - "8080:80"
    depends_on:
      - app
    networks:
      - laravel

  db:
    image: mysql:8
    restart: always
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: root
      MYSQL_DATABASE: laravel
    ports:
      - "3306:3306"
    networks:
      - laravel

networks:
  laravel:
    driver: bridge

3. 🌐 Configure Nginx

# docker/nginx/default.conf

server {
    listen 80;
    index index.php index.html;
    server_name localhost;
    root /var/www/public;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass app:9000;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /var/www/public$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }
}

4. ✅ Run It All

docker-compose up -d --build

Now open your browser and visit:

http://localhost:8080

Boom! Laravel is running inside Docker 🎉

💡 Bonus Tips for Laravel + Docker Proficiency

✅ Use .env.docker for Docker-specific environment values

🗂️ Bind storage/ and vendor/ as volumes to avoid permission issues

🔍 Use php artisan config:clear often to avoid caching issues in containers

🚀 For production, learn Docker Swarm or Kubernetes (advanced)

🧪 Use Sail if you want Laravel’s out-of-the-box Docker environment (good for beginners)

🧭 Docker Learning Roadmap (For Laravel Devs)

🔑 Key Takeaways

• Docker lets you manage your Laravel environments like a DevOps pro
• Learn it once, and enjoy portable, repeatable setups forever
• Mastering Docker prepares you for CI/CD, Kubernetes, and scalable hosting
• It's your first real step from senior dev → full-stack tech leader

🧠 Final Thought

“A real senior dev doesn’t just ship features — they ship stable systems.”

Docker will make you the developer who not only writes code, but also owns how it runs.

This is where you level up.