Install Portainer Docker UI Web Interface on Ubuntu 18.4

Docker is a free, open source software tool that provides an open platform to pack, ship, share and run any application as a container without any operating system. Docker allows us to run a complete Operating System inside a container rather than run inside a virtual machine. It is very difficult and time-consuming process to manage running containers from the command line. Portainer is a web-based DockerUI tool that makes it easy to create, start, stop, delete and manage container. It is very useful for those people who are not much aware of linux command lines. You can also manage Docker networks, image, volumes, services and swarm cluster using Portainer.

In this tutorial, we will explain how to install and use Portainer DockerUI tool on Ubuntu 18.04 server.

Requirements

• A fresh Ubuntu 18.04 server installed on your system.
• A static IP address 192.168.0.101 is set up on your server.

Update your System

First, it is recommended to update your system to the latest stable version. You can do it by running the following command:

Once your system is up-to-date, restart the system to apply the changes.

Install Docker

Next, you will need to install Docker CE on your server. By default, the latest version of Docker is not available in the Ubuntu 18.04 server default repository. So, you will need to add the repository for that.

First, download and add Docker CE GPG key with the following command:

Next, add the Docker CE repository to APT with the following command:

Add the following line:

Save and close the file, when you are finished. Then, update the repository with the following command:

Once the repository is updated, install Docker CE with the following command:

After installing Docker CE, check the Docker service with the following command:

You should see the following output:

Install Portainer

Docker is now installed and running, it’s time to install Portainer. First, download the Portainer image from Docker Hub with the following command:

Once the Portainer image downloaded, you should see the following output:

Once the download has been completed, create Portainer data directory with the following command:

Next, run the Portainer container with the following command:

You can see the Portainer image with the following command:

You should see the following output:

You can check the running container with the following command:

You should see the following output:

Access Portainer Web Interface

Portainer container is now installed and running on port 9000. It’s time to access Portainer web interface.

Now, open your web browser and type the URL http://192.168.0.101:9000. You will be redirected to the Portainer web interface as show below:

Now, provide your admin username and password. Then, click on the Create user button to create password for admin user. You should see the following page:

Now, select Local Docker environment and click on the Connect button. You will be redirected to the Portainer dashboard where you can manage Docker environment from web interface.

Next, click on the Container button. You should see your running container in the following page. Here, you can start, stop, pause, delete, restart, resume and add the container.

By default, Portainer comes with a lot of ready to use Application templates. You can use this templates to deploy container within no time. Click on the App Templates on the left side pane. You should see the following image:

Here, provide wordpress container name and database root password. Then, click on the Deploy the stack button. This will download the wordpress image from Docker Hub and start the container as shown in the following page:

Now, click on the Containers on the left pane. You should see all the wordpress container in the following page:

Now, click on the Shell of the wordpress container. You should see the wordpress container shell in the following page:

Now, click on the stats of the wordpress container. You should see the wordpress container stats in the following page:

You can manage your networks using the Networks menu on the left pane as shown below:

From Volumes menu on the left side pane, you can create new custom volumes for your container as shown below:

Congratulations! you have successfully installed and configured Portainer on Ubuntu 18.04 server. You can now manage your Docker environment easily using the Portainer web interface. For more information, you can refer the Portainer documentation at https://portainer.readthedocs.io/en/latest.