Project practice of deploying Docker containers using Portainer

1. Background

Recently, when I was using Rancher 2.5.5 to deploy Redis master-slave replication, I found that Rancher would generate a lot of iptables rules. These rules prevented us from using the master-slave replication function of Redis on the machine where Rancher was deployed. Because my understanding of Rancher and k8s is limited to understanding the network architecture and usage, and I don’t have a deep understanding of the underlying layer, I can’t solve this network conflict problem in the short term.

Therefore, I changed the mode of managing Docker from Rancher to using Portainer. This Portainer is relatively lightweight and took me several hours to learn during the construction process. Now I will try to restore the whole process for your reference.

2. Operation steps

• Install Portiner
• Management Node
• Deploy the container

3. Install Portiner

There are many ways to install Portiner, but I always like to use the simplest way to get what I need to do, so here I will use docker to build it.

3.1 Docker deployment

The docker deployment method is very simple. You only need to execute a simple run container command. The command is as follows.

docker run -d \
-p 9000:9000 \
-p 8000:8000 \
--restart always \
-v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
-v /opt/docker/portainer-ce/data:/data \
--name portainer-ce portainer/portainer-ce

The command maps the physical machine's port 8000 and port 9000 to the container's port 8000 and port 9000. It also maps the host machine's Docker communication file /var/run/docker.sock to the container. In addition, for persistent deployment, the directory /opt/docker/portainer-ce/data is mapped to the container's /data directory. After the command is executed, the result information is returned as shown in the following figure.

In the figure above, you can see that a docker container has been successfully run. Next, I need to verify whether the service is running properly. Use the browser to access the URL http://127.0.0.1:9000/ address. The result is as follows

In the above picture, you can see that the Portainer system is accessible, indicating that the system has been successfully installed.

3.2 Node Initialization

Now I need to set the administrator's account password. Here I simply fill in the password and confirm the password, and click the Create user button to create an administrator account.

After the administrator account is set up, it needs to be initialized, as shown in the following figure

There are three options in the picture above. I choose to use Portainer to manage the local docker program. Click the Connect button to complete the initialization operation.

3.3 Initial exploration of functions

After completing the initialization operation, you can enter the Portainer work interface, as shown below

In the above picture, you can see that there is already a local node in the Portainer system. We can click it to enter the node management, as shown in the following figure

In the above figure, you can see that the Portainer system lists the local node's Stack, container information, image information, disk information, network information, etc. Here I click on the Containers block at will to see the container list, as shown in the following figure

In the above figure, you can see that there are two containers in the container list, as well as the running status of the containers, and you can also control these containers.

4. Management Node

Now I can control the local docker, but I am not satisfied with this. I need to control other machines as well.

4.1 Start adding nodes

In the Portainer system, there is an endpoints menu, in which you can add multiple nodes, as shown in the following figure

As you can see in the figure above, there is already a local node. There is an Add endpoint button above the list. Click the button to go to the details page of the added node, as shown in the figure below

In the picture above, you can see that there are 5 options. Here I choose the simplest one, which is to use Docker API for control.

4.2 Open API Control

This method requires adding parameters to the node's docker startup program, so I need to log in to the node server first. The command to log in to the server through ssh is as follows

ssh [email protected]

After the command is executed, the following figure is returned

In the figure above, you can see that you have entered the server where the node is located. Then you need to edit the configuration file for docker startup. The command is as follows

vim /usr/lib/systemd/system/docker.service

After the command is executed, you can modify the configuration in the vim editing interface, as shown in the figure below

Add the remote access code to the docker startup command line. The code is as follows

-H tcp://0.0.0.0:2375 -H unix:///var/run/docker.sock

Copy the code to the back of the /usr/bin/dockerd program, as shown in the following figure

After saving the configuration file, you need to restart the Docker service. The command to restart Docker is as follows

systemctl daemon-reload && systemctl restart docker

After restarting Docker, if everything goes well, it's done.

4.3 Verify port status

View the docker configuration information, the command is as follows

docker info

After the command is executed, the returned information is as shown in the figure below

In the above picture, you can see that Docker gave a warning prompt, telling me that there are security risks in enabling remote access. I will ignore it for now, but the appearance of this prompt indicates that the remote access function is indeed enabled.

In addition, you can check whether the opening is successful by opening the port. The command is as follows

netstat -ntl

After the command is executed, the port opening status of the current host will be returned, as shown in the figure below

In the above figure, you can see that port 2375 has been opened successfully, indicating that the node itself has opened Docker.

However, when Portainer accesses this node through IP, it is necessary to consider whether the firewall in the network will block this port. Here, the nmap tool can be used to detect whether the port of the node is accessible. Now I return to the command terminal of the Portainer system and use the nmap tool to detect. The command is as follows

nmap -p 2375 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

After the command is executed, it will return whether 2375 is turned on. The execution result is shown in the figure below.

In the above figure, you can see that the node's port 2375 is open and can be connected.

4.4 Complete adding nodes

Next, return to the browser window, as shown below

In the webpage shown in the figure above, fill in the node's IP address and port in the URL format, and then click the Add endpodint button to add the node. If the node is added successfully, there will be a corresponding prompt, as shown in the figure below

In the above picture, you can see that the Portainer system prompts that the node has been added successfully, and this node can be seen in the node list.

5. Deployment of containers

After adding the node, I am ready to deploy my container in the remote node;

5.1 Deploy a single container

Go back to the Portainer homepage, where you can see the node information you just added, as shown in the following figure

Select the node you just added in the figure above, and then enter the container menu option, you can see the container list of this node, as shown in the figure below

There is an Add container button above the list on the page shown in the figure above. Clicking this button will redirect to the Add container details page.

In the page shown in the figure above, you need to fill in the docker image address. Here I randomly selected an nginx image and mapped the host's port 8888 to the container's port 80. After submitting this information, the Portainer system will tell you whether the container is running successfully, as shown in the figure below

In the figure above, you can see that the container has run successfully and jumped to the container list. Next, we can access the 8888 port corresponding to this node to verify whether the service is available.

Open the browser and enter the URL http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8888/ in the address bar. The result returned after access is as shown in the figure below.

In the above figure, you can see that nginx service has run successfully;

5.2 Deploy docker-compose

In addition to deploying containers on the container list page, the Portainer system also supports deployment using docker-compose, which is called stacks in the Portainer system. Select this item in the menu bar to enter the list of docker-compose services, as shown in the following figure

There is an Add stack button above the list. Click this button to add docker-compose service, as shown in the following figure

In the page shown in the figure above, I will be asked to fill in the docker-compose information. Here I have prepared a docker-compose configuration for the Redis service. The configuration code is as follows

version: '3.5'
services:
  redis:
    image: "redis:latest"
    container_name: redis_test
    command: redis-server
    ports:
      - "16379:16379"

After filling in the configuration on the page, submit it and Portainer will deploy the docker-compose service just now on the corresponding node, as shown in the following figure

After the deployment is successful, you can see the service you just deployed in the stacks list. You can also click the service name in the list to enter the details page to view and modify it, as shown in the following figure

In the figure above, you can see what container this service is running, and you can also terminate or delete the container.

This article is just a preliminary exploration of Portainer, and more details still require your tireless exploration.

This is the end of this article about the project practice of using Portainer to deploy Docker containers. For more relevant content about Portainer deploying Docker containers, please search for previous articles on 123WORDPRESS.COM or continue to browse the following related articles. I hope everyone will support 123WORDPRESS.COM in the future!

This is the end of this article about the project practice of using Portainer to deploy Docker containers. For more relevant content about Portainer deploying Docker containers, please search for previous articles on 123WORDPRESS.COM or continue to browse the following related articles. I hope everyone will support 123WORDPRESS.COM in the future!