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May 13, 2024

16 min read

Getting Started With Docker On a VPS (Simple 2024 Tutorial)

Written by

Abdelhadi Dyouri
Getting started with Docker on a VPS is pretty straightforward, and once you're set up via this Docker tutorial, it's like you've "leveled up" in DevOps. In this article, I will go through how Docker can benefit your VPS, how to install it, and how to use it.

Why Get Started with Docker on a VPS?

Docker is a platform for designing, building, and launching "containers," which are isolated environments containing all the software and configuration files necessary to run a service or application. Running Docker on your virtual server gives you more stability, more flexibility, and a lot more ways to recover quickly if (or when) you mess things up. docker vps Installing Docker on your VPS brings significant benefits:
  • You can develop locally using a specific environment.
  • You can ensure that local development environment is replicated exactly when you're ready to deploy code, ensuring 100% compatibility.
  • Build Dockerfiles/Docker images to make your site/app portable to multiple VPSs for redundancy or fail-over.
  • Host multiple applications on a single VPS without them interacting—or conflict—with one another. For example, run two Wordpress installations with separate Apache/Nginx web servers and separate MySQL databases.
  • One container can crash without affecting other containers or the health of your VPS.
  • Capability to automatically restart containers upon reboot of the VPS itself.
  • A certain degree of improved security by separating different apps into different containers.
  • Easy backups!
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. [cta_inline]

Prerequisites for Running Docker on a VPS

  • A virtual private server (VPS) running any of our available OS options. See our pricing for details.
  • A non-root user account (commands requiring escalated privileges will use sudo).

Step 1 - Installing Docker on Your VPS

Ubuntu 22.04/Debian 12

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:
sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install curl gnupg2 apt-transport-https ca-certificates software-properties-common 
Next, we add the GPG keys, Docker repositories and finally install Docker. Here is where it gets different for both Ubuntu and Debian:

Ubuntu

sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

# Add the repository to Apt sources:
echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update
Then install docker:
sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Debian

sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/debian/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

# Add the repository to Apt sources:
echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/debian \
  $(.
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