Managing containerized applications in production requires more than just getting your containers to run — you need them to stay running. Docker restart policies are your first line of defense against unexpected failures, system reboots, and other disruptions that could take your services offline.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore all Docker restart policies, understand when to use each one, and learn best practices for building resilient containerized applications.

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Docker restart policies define how containers should behave when they exit or when the Docker daemon restarts. They’re essentially rules that tell Docker: “If this container stops running, here’s what you should do about it.”

These policies are crucial for:

• High availability: Keeping services running despite failures