Installing and Using Docker on Ubuntu and Debian

Docker is a tool that enables you to create, deploy, and manage lightweight, stand-alone packages called containers. These containers have the necessary code, libraries, runtime, system settings, and dependencies needed to run an application.

This guide covers installing the Docker Engine on various Linux distributions using the apt package manager, including Ubuntu and Debian, as well as obtaining and running Docker images.

Before You Begin

1. Ensure you have command line access to a Linux server running a supported Linux distribution. If not, follow the Getting Started and Setting Up and Securing a Compute Instance guides to create a new Linode.

   Note

   This guide is written for a non-root user. Commands that require elevated privileges are prefixed with sudo. If you’re not familiar with the sudo command, see the Users and Groups guide.

2. Review the following Docker guides to gain a better understanding of Docker, its benefits, and when to use it.

   • An Introduction to Docker
   • When and Why to Use Docker

Installing Docker Engine on Ubuntu and Debian

Docker Engine is the underlying containerization software used when deploying Docker containers. The following instructions will install Docker Engine on one of these supported Ubuntu and Debian releases:

Supported distributions: Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Debian 10, Debian 9. Recent non-LTS releases like Ubuntu 21.04, 20.10, and 21.10 should also be supported.

1. Ensure Docker is not currently installed. Output indicating that any of the packages aren’t found can be safely ignored.

   sudo apt remove docker docker-engine docker.io
   

2. Install the packages that are required to configure Docker’s repository:

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl gnupg lsb-release
   

3. Add Docker’s GPG key. In the following command, replace [url] with the url that corresponds with the distribution your system is running.

   curl -fsSL [url]/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg
   

   • Ubuntu: https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu
   • Debian: https://download.docker.com/linux/debian

4. Add the stable Docker repository, again replacing [url] with the url that corresponds with the distribution your system is running.

   echo "deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg] [url] $(lsb_release -cs) stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
   

5. Install Docker Engine and other required packages:

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io
   

Additional installation instructions for these distributions can be found within Docker’s documentation:

• Install Docker Engine on Ubuntu
• Install Docker Engine on Debian

Starting and Testing Docker

After Docker Engine is installed, start Docker and verify everything is working by running a test image.

1. Ensure that the Docker server is running.

   sudo systemctl start docker
   

2. Optionally configure Docker to start when the server boots up. This is recommended if you intend on running a production application within this Docker installation.

   sudo systemctl enable docker
   sudo systemctl enable containerd
   

3. Verify Docker is correctly installed by running the “hello-world” image.

   sudo docker run hello-world
   

   If successful, Docker should download and run the hello-world image and output a success message. Among other text, the output should include a message similar to the following:

   Hello from Docker!
   This message shows that your installation appears to be working correctly.

Using Docker with a Non-Root User

By default, sudo is required to run Docker commands, but a new group, called docker, was created during installation. When the Docker daemon starts, it opens a Unix socket for the docker group members.

Before continuing, make sure you have a limited user account that does not belong to the sudo group. If you haven’t created a limited user account yet, see the guides Setting Up and Securing a Compute Instance or Linux Users and Groups for instructions.

1. Enter the command below to add a user to the docker group, replacing [user] with the name of your limited user account.

   sudo usermod -aG docker [user]
   

2. Log in to the system as the limited user.

3. Verify the limited user can run docker commands without sudo by running the “hello-world” image once again.

   docker run hello-world
   

   The output should have a similar success message as the previous output.

Resolving Errors with Loading Config Files

If the user had run sudo docker commands before joining the group, they might be presented with a failure loading the config file, like this:

WARNING: Error loading config file: /home/user/.docker/config.json -
stat /home/user/.docker/config.json: permission denied

The issue is the .docker directory in their home directory (~/.docker) was created with permissions granted by sudo.

There are two possible fixes:

1. Remove the .docker directory from their home directory. Docker will automatically recreate it, but any custom settings will be lost.

2. Change the permissions on the .docker directory using the commands:

   sudo chown example_user:example_user /home/example_user/.docker -R
   sudo chmod g+rwx "/home/example_user/.docker" -R
   

Using Docker Images to Deploy Containers

Docker images are templates that include the instructions and specifications for creating a container. To use Docker, you first need to obtain an image or create your own by building a dockerfile. For more information, see An Introduction to Docker .

Listing Images

To list all of the images on your system, run the following command. This should output the hello-world image that was used in a previous step, as well as any additional images you may have already obtained.

docker images

Finding an Image

Images are stored on Docker registries, such as Docker Hub (Docker’s official registry). You can browse for images on that website or use the following command to search through the Docker registry. In the following command, replace [keyword] with the keywords you’d like to search for, such as nginx or apache.

docker search [keyword]

Obtaining an Image

Once you find an image, download it to your server. In the following command, replace [image] with the name of the image you’d like to use.

docker pull [image]

For instance, to pull down the official nginx image, run: docker pull nginx.

Running an Image

Next, create a container based on the image by using the docker run command. Again, replace [image] with the name of the image you’d like to use.

docker run [image]

If the image hasn’t been downloaded yet and is available in Docker’s registry, the image will automatically be pulled down to your server.

Managing Docker Containers

Listing Containers

To list all active (and inactive) Docker containers running on your system, run the following command:

docker ps -a

The output should resemble the following. This sample output shows the hello-world container.

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE         COMMAND    CREATED       STATUS                   PORTS     NAMES
5039168328a5   hello-world   "/hello"   2 hours ago   Exited (0) 2 hours ago             magical_varahamihira

Starting a Container

Start a Docker container with the following command, replacing [ID] with the container ID corresponding with the container you wish to start:

docker start [ID]

Stopping a Container

Stop a Docker container with the following command, replacing [ID] with the container ID corresponding with the container you wish to stop:

docker stop [ID]

Some images (such as the hello-world image) automatically stop after they are run. However, many other containers continue running until explicitly commanded to stop, and you may want to run these containers in the background. For those cases, this command can come in handy.

Removing a Container

Remove a Docker container with the following command, replacing [ID] with the container ID corresponding with the container you wish to remove:

docker rm [ID]

More Information

You may wish to consult the following resources for additional information on this topic. While these are provided in the hope that they will be useful, please note that we cannot vouch for the accuracy or timeliness of externally hosted materials.

• Website for Docker
• Documentation for Docker
• Website for containerd