![\"docker](\"https:\/\/www.ssdnodes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Docker-on-VPS.webp\")
<\/p>\n
Installing Docker on your VPS brings significant benefits:<\/strong><\/p>\n With this, it's clear that having Docker on your VPS is a must. Now, let's get started on installing Docker and taking the first steps toward a container-powered VPS.<\/p>\n For both Ubuntu and Debian servers, the latest versions of Docker CE may not be available in the repositories. We need to install the prerequisite packages:<\/p>\n Next, we add the GPG keys, Docker repositories and finally install Docker. Here is where it gets different for both Ubuntu and Debian:<\/p>\n Then install docker:<\/p>\n Now install Docker:<\/p>\n If you are using another Linux distribution, check out the official Docker documentation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The people behind Docker recommend testing out your Docker installation with a basic Now that Docker is installed, let's take a moment to make a few quality-of-life improvements. These will help make Docker a little easier to use on a day-to-day basis:<\/p>\n In CentOS, Debian, and Ubuntu, Once the Docker service is set to start automatically upon rebooting your VPS, all Docker containers will also spin up automatically. All your apps running in Docker containers will come back online without any manual intervention.<\/p>\n Once you have enabled the In order to give our non-root user access to the Docker management commands, we need to create a Log out of your VPS by typing Docker Compose is a tool that helps simplify the configuration and deployment of Docker containers and applications by using an easy-to-read To install Docker Compose, first determine the latest version from the releases page<\/a>. At the time of writing, the current stable version is\u00a0 Create a new directory for Docker Plugins:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Download the Docker Compose binary (Make sure to change\u00a0 Set execute permissions<\/a> to make the binary executable:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Verify the installation:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n You should see the version you installed:<\/p>\n Now we can get to the exciting bit\u2014getting started running some actual applications in Docker containers. No more We'll start by creating a very basic LAMP stack using the Then, we can create a small PHP file named Finally, we have our First, the We use And finally, You should now be able to see that the container is running with the You can now also access your basic Apache web server by visiting Now, for the sake of showing some more core You should receive the following output:<\/p>\n For more, check out How To Remove Docker Images, Containers, and Volumes<\/a>.<\/p>\n Okay, we've gotten started with Docker and tested the LAMP stack.<\/p>\n So, now let's take the LAMP stack a step further with a full-blown WordPress installation, and this time, let's also use The first step is creating a new directory for this project.<\/p>\n Then, create a To launch the container for the first time, use the Now, you can check on these new containers using Of course, the WordPress installation is now available on With this, I hope you're excited to get started taking full advantage of Docker on your VPS.<\/p>\n By offloading services to containers, you can keep your base OS cleaner, with fewer attack vectors, and with less risk of various applications conflicting with one another.<\/p>\n Plus, it's much safer to make mistakes with containers! All you need to do is stop the container, remove it<\/a>, and try again, without worrying that you're cluttering up your system or potentially breaking it.<\/p>\n\n
Prerequisites for Running Docker on a VPS<\/h2>\n
\n
sudo<\/code>).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nStep 1 - Installing Docker on Your VPS<\/h2>\n
Ubuntu 22.04\/Debian 12<\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/code><\/pre>\nsudo apt-get update\r\n<\/span><\/span><\/code>\r\nsudo apt-get install curl gnupg2 apt-transport-https ca-certificates software-properties-common <\/code><\/pre>\nUbuntu<\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/code><\/pre>\nsudo install -m 0755<\/span> -d \/etc\/apt\/keyrings\r\n<\/span><\/span>sudo curl -fsSL https:\/\/download.docker.com\/linux\/ubuntu\/gpg -o \/etc\/apt\/keyrings\/docker.asc\r\n<\/span><\/span>sudo chmod a+r \/etc\/apt\/keyrings\/docker.asc\r\n<\/span><\/span>\r\n# Add the repository to Apt sources:<\/span>\r\n<\/span><\/span>echo<\/span> \\\r\n<\/span><\/span><\/span> \"deb [arch=<\/span>$(<\/span>dpkg --print-architecture)<\/span> signed-by=\/etc\/apt\/keyrings\/docker.asc] https:\/\/download.docker.com\/linux\/ubuntu \\\r\n<\/span><\/span><\/span> $(<\/span>. \/etc\/os-release &&<\/span> echo<\/span> \"<\/span>$VERSION_CODENAME<\/span>\"<\/span>)<\/span> stable\"<\/span> |<\/span> \\\r\n<\/span><\/span><\/span> sudo tee \/etc\/apt\/sources.list.d\/docker.list > \/dev\/null\r\n<\/span><\/span>sudo apt-get update<\/span><\/span><\/code><\/pre>\n<\/code><\/pre>\nsudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin<\/code><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nDebian<\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/code><\/pre>\nsudo install -m 0755<\/span> -d \/etc\/apt\/keyrings\r\n<\/span><\/span>sudo curl -fsSL https:\/\/download.docker.com\/linux\/debian\/gpg -o \/etc\/apt\/keyrings\/docker.asc\r\n<\/span><\/span>sudo chmod a+r \/etc\/apt\/keyrings\/docker.asc\r\n<\/span><\/span>\r\n# Add the repository to Apt sources:<\/span>\r\n<\/span><\/span>echo<\/span> \\\r\n<\/span><\/span><\/span> \"deb [arch=<\/span>$(<\/span>dpkg --print-architecture)<\/span> signed-by=\/etc\/apt\/keyrings\/docker.asc] https:\/\/download.docker.com\/linux\/debian \\\r\n<\/span><\/span><\/span> $(<\/span>. \/etc\/os-release &&<\/span> echo<\/span> \"<\/span>$VERSION_CODENAME<\/span>\"<\/span>)<\/span> stable\"<\/span> |<\/span> \\\r\n<\/span><\/span><\/span> sudo tee \/etc\/apt\/sources.list.d\/docker.list > \/dev\/null\r\n<\/span><\/span>sudo apt-get update\r\n<\/span><\/span><\/code>\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\nsudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nOther Linux Distributions<\/h3>\n
Step 2 - Testing Your VPS Docker Installation<\/h2>\n
Hello world<\/code> command to ensure everything is working the way it should. If so, you'll see the following output:<\/p>\n$ sudo docker run hello-world\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n![\"Docker](\"https:\/\/www.ssdnodes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/hello-world-docker.webp\")
<\/p>\nStep 3 - Some Docker Post-installation Configurations<\/h2>\n
\n
Enable Docker Service<\/h3>\n
systemd<\/code> is responsible for managing which services start when the system boots up.
\nEnabling the Docker service means configuring it to start automatically after a reboot. To do this, you can enable the Docker daemon with systemctl<\/code>\u00a0and make it automatically start on your VPS with a single command:<\/p>\n$ sudo systemctl enable docker\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\ndocker<\/code> service itself, you do not need to take any further steps. This means that any application you run via Docker will gracefully restart after boot, potentially minimizing downtime (as long as the services inside<\/em> the container are set up to start at boot themselves).<\/p>\nDocker Non-root Access<\/h3>\n
docker<\/code> group (it may already be created for you), and then add your primary user to that group.<\/p>\n$ sudo groupadd docker\r\n$ sudo usermod -aG docker $USER\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\nexit<\/code> or Ctrl+D<\/code> and log back in. Then, you can test whether or not you can use the docker<\/code> command without prepending sudo<\/code>.<\/p>\n$ docker run hello-world\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\nStep 4 - Installing Docker-compose on Your VPS<\/h2>\n
.yml<\/code>\/.yaml<\/code> file. In some cases, this will be easier than writing out a lengthy command for the shell prompt.<\/p>\n2.26.0<\/code>.<\/p>\nmkdir -p ~\/.docker\/cli-plugins\/\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n2.26.0<\/code>\u00a0to the latest version):<\/p>\n<\/div>\ncurl -SL https:\/\/github.com\/docker\/compose\/releases\/download\/v2.26.0\/docker-compose-linux-x86_64 -o ~\/.docker\/cli-plugins\/docker-compose\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n<\/div>\nchmod +x ~\/.docker\/cli-plugins\/docker-compose\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n<\/div>\ndocker compose version\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n![\"Docker](\"https:\/\/www.ssdnodes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/compose-version.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/div>\nStep 5 - Testing Docker with a Basic LAMP Stack<\/h2>\n
Hello, world<\/code>!<\/p>\nphp:apache<\/code> container available from Docker. But, before that, let's create a directory on the host to store our files, which we'll link to the \/var\/www\/html<\/code> directory within the container.<\/p>\n$ mkdir $HOME\/apache && cd $HOME\/apache\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\ninfo.php<\/code> that will display information about the PHP configuration. It's a standard method<\/a> of testing PHP-based installations.<\/p>\n$ printf '<?php\\nphpinfo();\\n?>' > info.php\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\ndocker<\/code> command. But, before you run it, check out the information just beneath the command so that you can understand exactly what it's accomplishing.<\/p>\n$ docker run -d --name=apache -p 8080:80 -v $HOME\/apache:\/var\/www\/html php:apache\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\ndocker run<\/code> specifies that we are going to create and start a new container, and the -d<\/code> option means we will \"detach\" from it, much the way one detaches from a tmux<\/code> session or an ssh<\/code> session. In cases where you want to immediately run commands inside<\/em> the newly-created container, you can omit the -d<\/code>.<\/p>\n--name=apache<\/code> to give the container a specific name. This is recommended, because your chosen names will be easier to manage and remember than the randomized defaults\u2014comes in handy when you want to stop or delete a container.<\/p>\n-p 8080:80<\/code> will expose port 8080<\/code> to traffic arriving on the VPS, and will route that traffic to port 80 on the container<\/em>. This makes it possible to expose different containers to different ports, and enable more complex configurations with an nginx<\/code> reverse proxy.<\/p>\n-v $HOME\/apache:\/var\/www\/html<\/code> is a virtual drive mapping. In this case, any files in the directory before the colon, $HOME\/apache<\/code>, will be available in the \/var\/www\/html<\/code> directory inside the container<\/em>.<\/p>\nphp:apache<\/code> tells docker<\/code> which image to use. More images can be found on the Docker Hub<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Docker](\"https:\/\/www.ssdnodes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/docker-run-apache.webp\")
<\/p>\ndocker ps<\/code> command:<\/p>\n$ docker ps\r\nCONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES\r\nd1fbdb7e0c5f php:apache \"docker-php-entryp...\" 3 seconds ago Up 3 seconds 0.0.0.0:8080->80\/tcp apache\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\nhttp:\/\/YOUR-SERVER-IP:8080\/info.php<\/a><\/code> in your favorite browser. If all has gone correctly, you'll see something like the following:<\/p>\n![\"Docker](\"https:\/\/www.ssdnodes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/phpinfo.webp\")
<\/p>\ndocker<\/code> commands, let's gracefully shut down this container, delete the container, followed by the image itself.<\/p>\n$ docker stop apache\r\n$ docker rm apache\r\n$ docker rmi php:apache\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n![\"Docker](\"https:\/\/www.ssdnodes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Docker-remove-1.webp\")
<\/p>\nStep 6 - Installing WordPress with Docker on Your VPS<\/h2>\n
docker-compose<\/code> to make the process a little bit more human-readable.<\/p>\n$ mkdir wp_test && cd wp_test\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\ndocker-compose.yml<\/code> file that will specify the configuration. This will create two containers: one running Apache\/Wordpress, and another running the mysql<\/code> instance, with data persisted between reboots and container shutdowns. Of course, for production use, you will want to change the passwords to be more secure.<\/p>\nversion: '2'\r\n\r\nservices:\r\n db:\r\n image: mysql:5.7\r\n volumes:\r\n - db_data:\/var\/lib\/mysql\r\n restart: always\r\n environment:\r\n MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: somewordpress\r\n MYSQL_DATABASE: wordpress\r\n MYSQL_USER: wordpress\r\n MYSQL_PASSWORD: wordpress\r\n container_name: wp_test_db\r\n\r\n wordpress:\r\n depends_on:\r\n - db\r\n image: wordpress:latest\r\n ports:\r\n - \"8080:80\"\r\n restart: always\r\n environment:\r\n WORDPRESS_DB_HOST: db:3306\r\n WORDPRESS_DB_USER: wordpress\r\n WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD: wordpress\r\n container_name: wp_test\r\nvolumes:\r\n db_data:\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\ndocker-compose up<\/code> command.<\/p>\n$ docker compose up -d\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n![\"Docker](\"https:\/\/www.ssdnodes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/docker-compose-WP.webp\")
<\/p>\ndocker ps<\/code>.<\/p>\n$ docker ps\r\n20570a5eb798 wordpress:latest \"docker-entrypoint...\" 3 seconds ago Up 2 seconds 0.0.0.0:8080->80\/tcp wp_test\r\nc1872cb1443d mysql:5.7 \"docker-entrypoint...\" 3 seconds ago Up 3 seconds 3306\/tcp wp_test_db\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\nhttp:\/\/YOUR-SERVER-IP:8080<\/a><\/code>, for you to begin the famous 5-minute installation. And, if for any reason, you need to shut down these containers while retaining the data<\/em>, use docker-compose down<\/code>.<\/p>\nGetting Started with Docker on Your VPS: Next Steps<\/h2>\n