Deploy the UI with Docker

1. Deploy OpenEMS UI together with Edge or Backend

If you want to deploy the UI together with Edge or Backend on Docker, look at the respective pages:

2. Deploy just OpenEMS UI (prepared for development)

If you just want to have the OpenEMS UI served from a docker container on your local machine, configured to talk to your Edge development setup, you can do so by adjusting your docker-compose.yml file to look like this:

services:
  openems-ui-dev:
    image: openems/ui-edge:latest
    container_name: openems_ui_dev
    hostname: openems_ui
    restart: unless-stopped
    extra_hosts:
      - "host.docker.internal:host-gateway"
    volumes:
      - openems-ui-conf:/etc/nginx:rw
      - openems-ui-log:/var/log/nginx:rw
    environment:
      - WEBSOCKET_HOST=host.docker.internal
      - WEBSOCKET_PORT=8085
    ports:
      - 4200:80

volumes:
  openems-ui-conf:
  openems-ui-log:

You can find this at tools/docker/ui/docker-compose.yml.

Summary of the changes (compared to what you find for Edge):

  1. Just the service openems-ui in the docker-compose file

  2. The WEBSOCKET_HOST is directed to the localhost of the host computer (assumed to be your development machine)

  3. The internal port 80 is mapped to the external port 4200 to allow the links to localhost:4200 in the dev environment and documentation to function

  4. The volumes openems-ui-conf and openems-ui-log

2.1. Run docker-compose

Update the compose running with:

cd tools/docker/ui/
docker compose up -d

2.1.1. Check container status

admin@ubuntu:~$ docker ps
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                    COMMAND   CREATED       STATUS             PORTS                                                                              NAMES
d708a6cd1583   openems/ui-edge:latest   "/init"   2 hours ago   Up About an hour   0.0.0.0:443->443/tcp, [::]:443->443/tcp, 0.0.0.0:4200->80/tcp, [::]:4200->80/tcp   openems_ui_dev

2.2. Troubleshooting

If after opening the OpenEMS UI page at http://localhost:4200/ you get an error page telling you to wait in case the OpenEMS device was just started, then make sure:

  • The Apache Felix Web Console is reachable at http://localhost:8080/system/console/configMgr,

  • if not, make sure that the OpenEMS Edge is running (Eclipse: Run OSGi in EdgeApp.bndrun under io.openems.edge.application),

  • Check in Apache Felix, that you have configured the openEMS component 'Controller Api Websocket` with Port set to 8085.

2.2.1. UI shows "Connection Failed"

1. Verify Edge is running:

curl -I http://localhost:8085
# Expected: HTTP/1.1 404 WebSocket Upgrade Failure

2. For WSL2 - use the helper script This creates/updates a docker-compose.override.yml that fixes the IP-Address resolution problem in WSL2:

./start-dev-ui-wsl.sh

Afterwards you can start the UI container with the usual:

docker compose up -d

2.2.2. WSL2: IP changed after reboot

./start-dev-ui-wsl.sh  # Auto-detects and updates IP

2.2.3. further Docker related issues

For more docker related issues, like

  • Port 4200 already in use

  • Container won’t start

see Edge Docker Troubleshooting or Docker’s documentation