Deployment

TALA ships a Docker Compose stack that runs four simulation verticals, a Prometheus metrics backend, Grafana dashboards, and the Observatory front-end. Everything starts from a single docker compose up.

Prerequisites

• Docker Engine 24+ with Compose v2
• 4 GB RAM minimum (each simulator uses ~200 MB, Prometheus and Grafana add ~500 MB)
• Ports 3000, 8080, 9090, 9101-9104 available on the host

Quick Start

cd deploy
cp .env.example .env   # adjust values as needed
docker compose up -d

The stack builds the tala-sim binary from source using the workspace Dockerfile, then launches all services. First build takes a few minutes; subsequent starts use cached layers.

Services

Simulation Verticals

Four instances of tala-sim run independently, each modeling a different operational domain. Each exposes Prometheus metrics on its container's port 9090.

Each simulator runs five concurrent threads: ingest (generates intents at the configured rate), query (semantic search every TALA_QUERY_INTERVAL_S), insight (pattern detection every TALA_INSIGHT_INTERVAL_S), replay (adaptive replay every TALA_REPLAY_INTERVAL_S), and chaos (fault injection every TALA_CHAOS_INTERVAL_S). A sixth gauge-updater thread samples internal metrics every 5 seconds.

Prometheus

prom/prometheus:v2.51.0 on port 9090

Scrapes all four simulators every 5 seconds via the tala-sim job. Retains 30 days of TSDB data. Lifecycle API is enabled for configuration reload without restart.

• Config: deploy/prometheus/prometheus.yml (mounted read-only)
• Data: prometheus-data named volume at /prometheus

Grafana

grafana/grafana:10.4.0 on port 3000

Pre-provisioned with a Prometheus data source and the TALA Overview dashboard. Default credentials are admin / the value of GRAFANA_PASSWORD (defaults to tala-demo).

• Provisioning: deploy/grafana/provisioning/ (datasources and dashboard loader, read-only)
• Dashboards: deploy/grafana/dashboards/ (JSON dashboard definitions, read-only)
• Data: grafana-data named volume at /var/lib/grafana

Observatory Dashboard (nginx)

nginx:1.25-alpine on port 8080

Serves the static Observatory front-end and proxies /api/ requests to Prometheus, allowing the browser to query metrics without CORS issues.

• Static files: deploy/dashboard/ mounted at /usr/share/nginx/html
• Config: deploy/dashboard/nginx.conf mounted at /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf

Port Summary

Volume Mounts

The stack defines six named volumes:

All simulation data volumes are independent. Removing one does not affect others.

Networking

All services join a single bridge network (tala-net). Simulators are addressable by container name from Prometheus (e.g., sim-incident:9090). The nginx proxy reaches Prometheus at prometheus:9090.

Environment Configuration

Copy .env.example to .env in the deploy/ directory and adjust values before starting. See Configuration for the full variable reference.

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env to set ingest rates, chaos parameters, Grafana password

Scaling

To adjust ingest throughput, modify the *_RATE_MS variables in .env. Lower values produce more intents per second. Each simulator runs independently, so you can also scale by adding additional verticals to docker-compose.yml following the existing pattern.

To add a fifth simulator:

1. Add a new service block in docker-compose.yml using the *sim-defaults anchor
2. Set TALA_VERTICAL to the domain name
3. Map a new host port (e.g., 9105:9090)
4. Add a corresponding volume
5. Add the scrape target to prometheus/prometheus.yml

Restart and Recovery

All services use restart: unless-stopped. If a simulator crashes, Docker restarts it automatically. The WAL ensures durability across restarts when persistent storage is configured.

To restart a single service:

docker compose restart sim-incident

To restart the entire stack:

docker compose restart

Tear Down

Stop and remove containers, keeping volumes:

docker compose down

Stop, remove containers, and delete all data:

docker compose down -v

This destroys all WAL data, segment files, Prometheus TSDB, and Grafana state. Use only when you want a clean start.

Viewing Logs

# All services
docker compose logs -f

# Single service
docker compose logs -f sim-incident

# Last 100 lines
docker compose logs --tail=100 sim-deploy

Simulators log to stderr. Key log lines include the startup banner (configuration summary), periodic progress reports (every 100 intents), and chaos event announcements.