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Service Management

Complete guide for managing Chatty AI services in day-to-day operations.

Starting Services​

Portainer Deployment​

Services are managed through Portainer UI:

  1. Log in to Portainer Server
  2. Navigate to Stacks
  3. Select chatty-app stack
  4. Click Start or Restart

Vendor typically manages - customer should not need to start/stop services.

Docker Compose Deployment​

Start all services:

cd /path/to/chatty-app/deploy
docker compose up -d

Start specific service:

docker compose up -d chattyai
docker compose up -d nginx
docker compose up -d db

Stopping Services​

Graceful Shutdown​

Stop all services gracefully:

docker compose down

Stop specific service:

docker compose stop chattyai
docker compose stop nginx

Force Stop​

If services don't stop gracefully:

docker compose kill

Restarting Services​

Restart All Services​

docker compose restart

Restart Specific Service​

# Restart main application
docker compose restart chattyai

# Restart nginx
docker compose restart nginx

# Restart database
docker compose restart db

# Restart Qdrant
docker compose restart qdrant

When to Restart​

Restart services after:

  • Configuration changes
  • Environment variable updates
  • Certificate updates
  • Performance issues
  • Memory leaks

Checking Service Status​

View Running Containers​

docker ps

Expected output: All 11 containers running

Check Specific Service​

docker ps | grep chattyai
docker ps | grep nginx
docker ps | grep db

Container Health​

# Detailed status
docker inspect chattyai | grep -A 10 State

# Health check status
docker inspect chattyai | grep Health

Viewing Logs​

Real-time Logs​

# All services
docker compose logs -f

# Specific service
docker compose logs -f chattyai
docker compose logs -f nginx
docker compose logs -f db

Recent Logs​

# Last 100 lines
docker compose logs --tail=100 chattyai

# Last 10 minutes
docker compose logs --since=10m chattyai

Save Logs to File​

docker compose logs chattyai > chattyai.log
docker compose logs nginx > nginx.log

Resource Monitoring​

Container Resource Usage​

# Real-time stats
docker stats

# Single snapshot
docker stats --no-stream

# Specific container
docker stats chattyai

Monitor:

  • CPU usage
  • Memory usage
  • Network I/O
  • Disk I/O

System Resources​

# CPU and memory
htop

# Disk usage
df -h

# Disk I/O
iostat -x 1

# Network
iftop

Container Management​

Execute Commands in Container​

# Open shell
docker exec -it chattyai bash

# Run single command
docker exec chattyai ls -la /app

# Check database
docker exec db psql -U chattyAdmin -d chattydb -c "SELECT version();"

Copy Files​

# Copy from container
docker cp chattyai:/app/data/file.txt ./file.txt

# Copy to container
docker cp ./config.yaml chattyai:/app/config.yaml

Inspect Container​

# Full details
docker inspect chattyai

# Specific field
docker inspect chattyai | grep IPAddress
docker inspect chattyai | grep Mounts

Volume Management​

List Volumes​

docker volume ls | grep chatty

Expected volumes:

  • chatty-app_db_data
  • chatty-app_qdrant
  • chatty-app_chattyai
  • chatty-app_pipelines
  • chatty-app_n8n_data
  • chatty-app_chattydatabases_data

Inspect Volume​

docker volume inspect chatty-app_db_data

Volume Usage​

# Check volume sizes
docker system df -v

Network Management​

List Networks​

docker network ls | grep chatty

Inspect Network​

docker network inspect chatty-app_default

Test Connectivity​

# From chattyai to db
docker exec chattyai nc -zv db 5432

# From chattyai to qdrant
docker exec chattyai nc -zv qdrant 6333

Updating Services​

Pull New Images​

# Pull all images
docker compose pull

# Pull specific image
docker compose pull chattyai

Update and Restart​

# Pull and restart
docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

# Specific service
docker compose pull chattyai
docker compose up -d chattyai

See Upgrades for detailed upgrade procedures.

Cleaning Up​

Remove Stopped Containers​

docker compose down

Remove Unused Images​

# Remove dangling images
docker image prune

# Remove all unused images
docker image prune -a

Remove Unused Volumes​

⚠️ WARNING: This will delete data!

# Remove unused volumes (DANGEROUS)
docker volume prune

# Remove specific volume
docker volume rm chatty-app_old_volume

Clean System​

# Remove all unused resources
docker system prune

# Include volumes (DANGEROUS)
docker system prune --volumes

Common Operations​

Restart After Config Change​

# 1. Stop services
docker compose down

# 2. Update .env file
nano .env

# 3. Start services
docker compose up -d

# 4. Verify
docker compose logs -f chattyai

Restart After Certificate Update​

# 1. Update certificates
cp new-cert.pem /path/to/certs/chattyai/fullchain.pem
cp new-key.pem /path/to/certs/chattyai/privkey.pem

# 2. Restart nginx only
docker compose restart nginx

# 3. Verify
curl -vI https://YOUR_DOMAIN

Clear Application Cache​

# Restart main application
docker compose restart chattyai

# Or recreate container
docker compose up -d --force-recreate chattyai

Troubleshooting​

Container Won't Start​

# Check logs
docker compose logs chattyai

# Check for port conflicts
netstat -tulpn | grep LISTEN

# Check resource availability
free -h
df -h

Container Keeps Restarting​

# Check restart count
docker ps -a | grep chattyai

# View logs
docker compose logs --tail=200 chattyai

# Check health
docker inspect chattyai | grep -A 20 State

High Resource Usage​

# Identify resource hog
docker stats --no-stream

# Check container logs
docker compose logs --tail=100 chattyai

# Restart service
docker compose restart chattyai

Database Connection Issues​

# Check database is running
docker ps | grep db

# Check database logs
docker compose logs db

# Test connection
docker exec chattyai nc -zv db 5432

# Verify credentials
docker exec db psql -U chattyAdmin -d chattydb -c "SELECT 1;"

Maintenance Windows​

Planned Maintenance​

  1. Notify users of maintenance window
  2. Backup data before changes
  3. Stop services gracefully
  4. Perform maintenance
  5. Start services
  6. Validate deployment
  7. Monitor for issues

Emergency Maintenance​

  1. Assess situation
  2. Quick backup if possible
  3. Stop affected services
  4. Fix issue
  5. Restart services
  6. Validate and monitor

Automation​

Systemd Service (Optional)​

Create /etc/systemd/system/chatty-app.service:

[Unit]
Description=Chatty AI Application
Requires=docker.service
After=docker.service

[Service]
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=yes
WorkingDirectory=/path/to/chatty-app/deploy
ExecStart=/usr/bin/docker compose up -d
ExecStop=/usr/bin/docker compose down
TimeoutStartSec=0

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable and start:

sudo systemctl enable chatty-app
sudo systemctl start chatty-app

Auto-restart on Failure​

Already configured in docker-compose.yaml:

restart: unless-stopped

Containers will automatically restart unless manually stopped.

Best Practices​

Regular Operations​

  • Monitor logs daily
  • Check resource usage weekly
  • Review disk space weekly
  • Test backups monthly
  • Update services as needed

Security​

  • Rotate credentials regularly
  • Update certificates before expiry
  • Review access logs for anomalies
  • Keep Docker updated
  • Monitor security advisories

Performance​

  • Monitor response times
  • Watch resource trends
  • Clean up old data
  • Optimize queries if needed
  • Scale resources proactively

Monitoring Checklist​

Daily:

  • All containers running
  • No error logs
  • Application accessible
  • Response times normal

Weekly:

  • Resource usage trends
  • Disk space available
  • Log file sizes
  • Backup success

Monthly:

  • Test restore procedure
  • Review security logs
  • Update documentation
  • Plan capacity

Next Steps​