Docker Setup

Overview

Docker lets you run applications in isolated containers. This guide covers installing Docker Engine on a Debian/Ubuntu server and getting a first container running.

Prerequisites

• A Debian 12 or Ubuntu 22.04+ server
• A user with sudo privileges
• Internet access

Installation

Remove any old Docker packages first:

sudo apt remove docker docker-engine docker.io containerd runc

Install dependencies and add Docker’s official repository:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y ca-certificates curl gnupg

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

echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] \
  https://download.docker.com/linux/debian $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

Install Docker Engine:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Post-install

Add your user to the docker group so you can run Docker without sudo:

sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
newgrp docker

Enable Docker to start on boot:

sudo systemctl enable docker
sudo systemctl start docker

Verify

docker run hello-world

You should see a confirmation message that Docker is working correctly.

Basic Commands

Command	Description
docker ps	List running containers
docker ps -a	List all containers
docker images	List downloaded images
docker stop <id>	Stop a container
docker rm <id>	Remove a container
docker rmi <image>	Remove an image
docker compose up -d	Start services from compose.yml
docker compose down	Stop and remove services

Updating Docker

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io