Introduction

Portainer is a lightweight management tool that provides a graphical interface to manage your Docker environments. It simplifies the process of container management, offering an accessible dashboard for both novice and experienced users. This guide will walk you through the installation of Portainer using Docker.

Prerequisites

  • A system running Linux with Docker installed.
  • A user account with sudo or root privileges.

Step 1: Create a Docker Volume

Portainer uses a Docker volume to persist its data. To create this volume, run the following command:

docker volume create portainer_data

Step 2: Run Portainer

Install and run Portainer using a Docker container with the following command:

docker run -d -p 9000:9000 --name=portainer --restart=always -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock -v portainer_data:/data portainer/portainer-ce

Step 3: Access Portainer

Once Portainer is running, you can access its web interface by opening a web browser and navigating to:

http://<your-server-ip>:9000

Step 4: Set Up Portainer

The first time you access the Portainer interface, you will be prompted to create an admin user:

  • Enter a username and a strong password for the administrator account.

After logging in, connect Portainer to your local Docker environment:

  • Select the "local" environment option to manage the local Docker instance.
  • Click "Connect" to finalize the setup.

Step 5: Explore Portainer

Explore the Portainer UI to manage your Docker containers, images, networks, and volumes. The dashboard is user-friendly and provides a comprehensive overview of your Docker environment.

Conclusion

Portainer is now installed and ready to help you manage your Docker environment more effectively. It provides tools for monitoring the state of your Docker containers, managing container logs, and configuring network settings, among others.