Tutorial

In this tutorial you run the NATS server Docker image. The Docker image provides an instance of the NATS Server. Synadia actively maintains and supports the nats-server Docker image. The NATS image is only 6 MB in size.

1. Set up Docker.

See Get Started with Docker for guidance.

The easiest way to run Docker is to use the Docker Toolbox.

2. Run the nats-server Docker image.

docker run -p 4222:4222 -p 8222:8222 -p 6222:6222 --name nats-server -ti nats:latest

3. Verify that the NATS server is running.

You should see the following:

Unable to find image 'nats:latest' locally
latest: Pulling from library/nats
2d3d00b0941f: Pull complete 
24bc6bd33ea7: Pull complete 
Digest: sha256:47b825feb34e545317c4ad122bd1a752a3172bbbc72104fc7fb5e57cf90f79e4
Status: Downloaded newer image for nats:latest

Followed by this, indicating that the NATS server is running:

[1] 2019/06/01 18:34:19.605144 [INF] Starting nats-server version 2.0.0
[1] 2019/06/01 18:34:19.605191 [INF] Starting http monitor on 0.0.0.0:8222
[1] 2019/06/01 18:34:19.605286 [INF] Listening for client connections on 0.0.0.0:4222
[1] 2019/06/01 18:34:19.605312 [INF] Server is ready
[1] 2019/06/01 18:34:19.608756 [INF] Listening for route connections on 0.0.0.0:6222

Notice how quickly the NATS server Docker image downloads. It is a mere 6 MB in size.

4. Test the NATS server to verify it is running.

An easy way to test the client connection port is through using telnet.

telnet localhost 4222

Expected result:

Trying ::1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
INFO {"server_id":"NDP7NP2P2KADDDUUBUDG6VSSWKCW4IC5BQHAYVMLVAJEGZITE5XP7O5J","version":"2.0.0","proto":1,"go":"go1.11.10","host":"0.0.0.0","port":4222,"max_payload":1048576,"client_id":13249}

You can also test the monitoring endpoint, viewing http://localhost:8222 with a browser.