2025.1 | Server installation and setup | Developer and Enterprise Editions | Installing from the Docker image

Installing SonarQube Server's Developer or Enterprise Edition from the Docker image

Create volumes to persist data

Creating the following volumes helps prevent the loss of information when updating to a new version or upgrading to a higher edition:

sonarqube_data: contains data files, such as Elasticsearch indexes
sonarqube_logs: contains SonarQube Server logs about access, web process, CE process, and Elasticsearch
sonarqube_extensions: will contain any plugins you install and the Oracle JDBC driver if necessary.

Create the volumes with the following commands:

$> docker volume create --name sonarqube_data
$> docker volume create --name sonarqube_logs
$> docker volume create --name sonarqube_extensions

Make sure you're using volumes as shown with the above commands, and not bind mounts. Using bind mounts prevents plugins from populating correctly.

Add the JDBC driver (if using an Oracle database)

Drivers for supported databases (except Oracle) are already provided. If you're using an Oracle database, you need to add the JDBC driver to the sonar_extensions volume. To do this:

a. Start the SonarQube Server container with the embedded H2 database:

$ docker run --rm \
    -p 9000:9000 \
    -v sonarqube_extensions:/opt/sonarqube/extensions \
    <image_name>

For <image_name>, check the tags currently available on the DockerHub page.

b. Exit once SonarQube Server has started properly.

c. Copy the Oracle JDBC driver into sonarqube_extensions/jdbc-driver/oracle.

Start the SonarQube Server container

Start the SonarQube Server container:

either from the command line (docker run) or
from a configuration file (docker compose).

For docker-based setups, environment variables supersede all parameters that were provided with properties. See Docker environment variables for more details.

There is more information about installing and updating SonarQube Server plugins inside your Docker volume found on the Install a plugin page.

Port binding

By default, the server running within the container will listen on port 9000. You can expose the container port 9000 to the host port 9000 with the -p 9000:9000 argument to docker run, like the command below:

docker run --name sonarqube-custom -p 9000:9000 sonarqube:10.6-community

You can then browse to http://localhost:9000 or http://host-ip:9000 in your web browser to access the SonarQube Server web interface.

Starting the container by using docker run

Run the image with your database properties defined using the -e environment variable flag:

$> docker run -d --name sonarqube \
    -p 9000:9000 \
    -e SONAR_JDBC_URL=... \
    -e SONAR_JDBC_USERNAME=... \
    -e SONAR_JDBC_PASSWORD=... \
    -v sonarqube_data:/opt/sonarqube/data \
    -v sonarqube_extensions:/opt/sonarqube/extensions \
    -v sonarqube_logs:/opt/sonarqube/logs \
    <image_name>

For <image_name>, check the tags currently available on the DockerHub page.

Starting the container by using Docker compose

Unless you intend to delete the database and start new when running your image ,be careful not to use -v to docker-compose down and, be careful when running commands like docker system prune or docker volume prune; regardless if you use an external: true parameter, your database volumes will not persist beyond the initial startup and shutdown of SonarQube Server.

If you're using Docker Compose, use this yml file example as a reference when configuring your .yml file. In the image tag, use the tag value corresponding to the SonarQube Server version you want to use, e.g, to use the LTA version of the Developer Edition:

image:  sonarqube:2025-lta-developer

Check the SonarQube Server image tags currently available on the DockerHub page.

Next steps

Once your server is installed and running, you can access SonarQube Server UI in your web browser (the default system administrator credentials are admin/admin) and you're ready to begin analyzing source code.

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