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Installation

Deploying containerized applications in Docker can be done in various ways, and two popular methods are using Docker Compose and Terraform.

Docker Compose is a tool that enables you to define and run multi-container Docker applications, allowing you to launch and manage multiple containers as a single application. On the other hand, Terraform is an open-source infrastructure-as-code tool that allows you to provision and manage infrastructure resources, including Docker containers, across multiple cloud providers.

Both methods offer distinct advantages and can be used based on your specific needs and preferences.

Using Terraform​

File naming​

File naming requirements are as follows.

  • *images*.tf to define docker image(s) used by the container(s)
  • *container*.tf to define information for the deployment of the container(s).
  • *networks*.tf to define network(s) used by the container(s).
  • *volumes*.tf to define volume(s) used by the container(s).

Other Files​

Other Terraform configs files should follow generally accepted conventions for Terraform code structure:

  • environment.tfvar to define the terraform variable for deployment
  • outputs.tf to define outputs
  • variables.tf to define variables
  • versions.tf for Terraform & provider definitions (or commonly __provider.tf using Terraform v0.11)

Source code for deployment can be found on my GitHub

Using Docker Compose​

Portainer has a few dependencies that must be supplied when you start your container:

  • It requires a volume to store persistent data.
  • Your host's Docker socket should be mounted into the container so that Portainer can access and interact with the Docker daemon.
  • You need to bind a port to the container so you can access the web UI.

Portainer Networks and Volumes​

We need to create the networks and volume to be used by Portainer, we can do this using the Docker CLI.

Create the volume:

docker volume create portainer_data

Create the networks:

docker network create proxy
docker network create socket_proxy
docker network create apps

Docker Compose will lets you write the container's configuration into a file so you can bring up the app with a single command. To do so, save the file as portainer-compose.yml in your working directory.

then, you can use this Compose file to bring up Portainer:

docker compose -f portainer-compose.yml up -d

File naming​

File naming requirements are as follows.

  • portainer-compose.yml used to define all container's configuration
  • .env used to define environment variables.

Source code for deployment can be found on my GitHub