diff --git a/docker/docker-compose-ci.yml b/docker/docker-compose-ci.yml
index 9ec8fe664a..db334f161f 100644
--- a/docker/docker-compose-ci.yml
+++ b/docker/docker-compose-ci.yml
@@ -33,11 +33,11 @@ services:
       # Tell Statistics to commit all views immediately instead of waiting on Solr's autocommit.
       # This allows us to generate statistics in e2e tests so that statistics pages can be tested thoroughly.
       solr__D__statistics__P__autoCommit: 'false'
+    image: "${DOCKER_OWNER:-dspace}/dspace:${DSPACE_VER:-dspace-7_x-test}"
     depends_on:
     - dspacedb
-    image: dspace/dspace:dspace-7_x-test
     networks:
-      dspacenet:
+      - dspacenet
     ports:
     - published: 8080
       target: 8080
@@ -45,8 +45,6 @@ services:
     tty: true
     volumes:
     - assetstore:/dspace/assetstore
-    # Mount DSpace's solr configs to a volume, so that we can share to 'dspacesolr' container (see below)
-    - solr_configs:/dspace/solr
     # Ensure that the database is ready BEFORE starting tomcat
     # 1. While a TCP connection to dspacedb port 5432 is not available, continue to sleep
     # 2. Then, run database migration to init database tables (including any out-of-order ignored migrations, if any)
@@ -70,21 +68,18 @@ services:
       PGDATA: /pgdata
     image: dspace/dspace-postgres-pgcrypto:loadsql
     networks:
-      dspacenet:
+      - dspacenet
     stdin_open: true
     tty: true
     volumes:
+     # Keep Postgres data directory between reboots
     - pgdata:/pgdata
   # DSpace Solr container
   dspacesolr:
     container_name: dspacesolr
-    # Uses official Solr image at https://hub.docker.com/_/solr/
-    image: solr:8.11-slim
-    # Needs main 'dspace' container to start first to guarantee access to solr_configs
-    depends_on:
-    - dspace
+    image: "${DOCKER_OWNER:-dspace}/dspace-solr:${DSPACE_VER:-dspace-7_x}"
     networks:
-      dspacenet:
+      - dspacenet
     ports:
     - published: 8983
       target: 8983
@@ -92,9 +87,6 @@ services:
     tty: true
     working_dir: /var/solr/data
     volumes:
-    # Mount our "solr_configs" volume available under the Solr's configsets folder (in a 'dspace' subfolder)
-    # This copies the Solr configs from main 'dspace' container into 'dspacesolr' via that volume
-    - solr_configs:/opt/solr/server/solr/configsets/dspace
     # Keep Solr data directory between reboots
     - solr_data:/var/solr/data
     # Initialize all DSpace Solr cores using the mounted configsets (see above), then start Solr
@@ -103,14 +95,16 @@ services:
     - '-c'
     - |
       init-var-solr
-      precreate-core authority /opt/solr/server/solr/configsets/dspace/authority
-      precreate-core oai /opt/solr/server/solr/configsets/dspace/oai
-      precreate-core search /opt/solr/server/solr/configsets/dspace/search
-      precreate-core statistics /opt/solr/server/solr/configsets/dspace/statistics
+      precreate-core authority /opt/solr/server/solr/configsets/authority
+      cp -r /opt/solr/server/solr/configsets/authority/* authority
+      precreate-core oai /opt/solr/server/solr/configsets/oai
+      cp -r /opt/solr/server/solr/configsets/oai/* oai
+      precreate-core search /opt/solr/server/solr/configsets/search
+      cp -r /opt/solr/server/solr/configsets/search/* search
+      precreate-core statistics /opt/solr/server/solr/configsets/statistics
+      cp -r /opt/solr/server/solr/configsets/statistics/* statistics
       exec solr -f
 volumes:
   assetstore:
   pgdata:
   solr_data:
-  # Special volume used to share Solr configs from 'dspace' to 'dspacesolr' container (see above)
-  solr_configs:
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/docker/docker-compose-rest.yml b/docker/docker-compose-rest.yml
index e5f62600e7..c9207713a9 100644
--- a/docker/docker-compose-rest.yml
+++ b/docker/docker-compose-rest.yml
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ services:
     depends_on:
     - dspacedb
     networks:
-      dspacenet:
+      - dspacenet
     ports:
     - published: 8080
       target: 8080
@@ -51,8 +51,6 @@ services:
     tty: true
     volumes:
     - assetstore:/dspace/assetstore
-    # Mount DSpace's solr configs to a volume, so that we can share to 'dspacesolr' container (see below)
-    - solr_configs:/dspace/solr
     # Ensure that the database is ready BEFORE starting tomcat
     # 1. While a TCP connection to dspacedb port 5432 is not available, continue to sleep
     # 2. Then, run database migration to init database tables
@@ -69,25 +67,25 @@ services:
     container_name: dspacedb
     environment:
       PGDATA: /pgdata
-    image: dspace/dspace-postgres-pgcrypto
+      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: dspace
+    # Uses a custom Postgres image with pgcrypto installed
+    image: "${DOCKER_OWNER:-dspace}/dspace-postgres-pgcrypto:${DSPACE_VER:-dspace-7_x}"
     networks:
-      dspacenet:
+      - dspacenet
     ports:
     - published: 5432
       target: 5432
     stdin_open: true
     tty: true
     volumes:
+    # Keep Postgres data directory between reboots
     - pgdata:/pgdata
   # DSpace Solr container  
   dspacesolr:
     container_name: dspacesolr
     image: "${DOCKER_OWNER:-dspace}/dspace-solr:${DSPACE_VER:-dspace-7_x}"
-    # Needs main 'dspace' container to start first to guarantee access to solr_configs
-    depends_on:
-    - dspace
     networks:
-      dspacenet:
+      - dspacenet
     ports:
     - published: 8983
       target: 8983
@@ -120,5 +118,3 @@ volumes:
   assetstore:
   pgdata:
   solr_data:
-  # Special volume used to share Solr configs from 'dspace' to 'dspacesolr' container (see above)
-  solr_configs: