Help with docker setup

foremanguy@lemmy.ml to Selfhosted@lemmy.world – 24 points –

I just start using my homelab to host some new good services, and I want to know what is the approach of a docker setup, what is the best distro for? How to deploy them correctly? Basically I'm a real noob in this subject. Thank you

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Anything.

Personally I use Debian. But Docker doesn't care. I chose Debian because it is very stable and simple

Yep, Debian and then add Portainer - for me this is the easiest setup to manage.

would prefer to not use portainer

I just said what works best for me. Use the command line and compose files if you want.

I can appreciate this. You might want to look at Lazydocker as a SSH TUI management tool.

I love the one click pull from git option. Don't like the corporate direction they seem to be taking.

I haven't seen aby alternative docker GUI managers that have the git pull for the compose.

And what is the good way of deploying it? After pulling the image, how do we autostart it etc...

The Docker documentation is pretty terrible, but it's a decent start. Start by looking at docker-compose.yml files for the services you want to run and the write-ups for those.

Something nobody ever told me, that I had to figure out myself, is that docker-compose.yml files can be placed anywhere you want.

At its simplest:

docker run -d --name servicename --restart unless-stopped container

That'll get you going. Youi'll have containers running, they restart, etc. There are more sophisticated ways of doing things (create a systemd file that starts/stops the container, use kubernetes, etc.) but if you're just starting this will likely work fine.

Are they starting automatically at boot?

EDIT : how do you run a container with a simple name instead of using his id?

Yes - they'll start automatically. There are other options for "restart" that define the behavior.

You can give whatever you like to "servicename" and use that rather than the ID.

For example:

docker run -d --name mysite --restart unless-stopped nginx

docker stop mysite

docker start mysite

Create a systemctl service for it, create a cron, or of there is a lot of interconnectivity between your containers look at something like K3S.