Self-hosting | #2 | Portainer Server & Portainer Agent
This self-hosting mini series part 2, shows how to install Portainer Server and optionally Portainer Agents to quickly and easily deploy and manage your Docker containers.
I am running Docker in multiple machines, and a simple way to manage them is with Portainer Server and Portainer Agents. All you need is to install one instance of the Portainer Server, install Portainer Agents on all your other environments or nodes, and finally connect the agents to the server. This way, you can log in to your Portainer Server and deploy containers to all my servers as needed.
My use case
Most of the time, my goal is to enrich my Smart Home system (it's still pretty dumb though.) So I try out a bunch of hardware and self-hosted software to integrate them, mainly to Home Assistant, which I use as my primary smart home platform.
At the time of writing this, I have four Docker servers. I am running Intel NUC10i7FNH as my primary environment. The NUC is currently a VMware ESXi 7 host for four virtual machines. One of these VMs is an Ubuntu server running Docker. I also have an Unraid server screaming for an upgrade and two Raspberry Pis that run Docker.
To quickly spin up new software or test something, I extensively use the docker instances and the VMs. The easiest way to deploy docker containers has been using the Portainer Stack web editor. A Portainer Stack is pretty much equivalent to docker-compose. You can type in your configuration, upload your existing docker-compose files, or use a git repository or a custom template. I mainly use the web editor. I either type or paste in what I am working on and there on, it is really easy to edit or fix the content and then deploy or redeploy the stack of containers.
To go back and forth between different setups or versions, I use the ESXi snapshots and Veeam Backup & Replication to backup and revert setups/files or whole VMs if needed.
Getting started
If you only have one environment, you only need the Portainer Server, you can ignore the Portainer Agent installation.
Preconditions:
- The latest version of Docker is installed and working on all servers/environments
- Administrator Access to all the servers/environments
My Docker Environments:
- Intel NUC with virtualized Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS (Portainer)
- 2 x Raspberry Pi 4 with Ubuntu 21.10 (Portainer Agent)
- UnRaid with Docker enabled (Portainer Agent)
Portainer Server
Installing Portainer in your primary instance is relatively straightforward IMHO. Just SSH into your primary instance using the tool of your choice and run the commands.
Before you remote HTTP, make sure you have all your Agents already communicating using HTTPS.
Installing Portainer Server
Create a volume for Portainer
# volume for Portainer
docker volume create portainer_dataDownload and install Portainer Server container
docker run -d -p 8000:8000 -p 9443:9443 --name portainer \
--restart=always \
-v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
-v portainer_data:/data \
portainer/portainer-ce:2.11.0
Check that the container is running with docker ps command
user@server:~$ docker ps
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
de5b28eb2fa9 portainer/portainer-ce:2.11.0 "/portainer" 2 weeks ago Up 9 days 0.0.0.0:8000->8000/tcp, :::8000->8000/tcp, 0.0.0.0:9443->9443/tcp, :::9443->9443/tcp portainer
Upgrading Portainer Server
I would recommend always running the latest versions of the software you use, but always also remember to check the change log and breaking changes. If any of the breaking changes apply to your setup, then take the necessary actions before upgrading.
To upgrade to the latest version, you need to stop Portainer and then remove the old version. Don't worry; all your containers and Portainer settings will stay intact unless otherwise stated in the changelog.
# stop portainer
docker stop portainer
# remove portainer
docker rm portainer
# pull the latest version
docker pull portainer/portainer-ce:2.11.1Finally deploy the latest version
docker run -d -p 8000:8000 -p 9000:9000 -p 9443:9443 \
--name=portainer --restart=always \
-v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
-v portainer_data:/data \
portainer/portainer-ce:2.11.1Check that the container is running with docker ps command
user@server:~$ docker ps
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
5ca3c8561951 portainer/portainer-ce:2.11.1 "/portainer" 8 seconds ag o Up 6 seconds 0.0.0.0:8000->8000/tcp, :::8000->8000/tcp, 0.0.0.0:9000->9000/tcp, :::9000->9000
To login into Portainer, open web browser and go to https://your-server-address:9443 or http://your-server-address:9000.
Portainer Agent
Install Portainer Agent
SSH into the target environment and run the following command to deploy Portainer Agent.
docker run -d -p 9001:9001 --name portainer_agent --restart=always -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock -v /var/lib/docker/volumes:/var/lib/docker/volumes portainer/agent:2.11.1Adding the environment to Portainer Server
To add the environments with Portainer Agents to your Portainer Server, login to your Portainer Server and navigate to Environments.
Click Add environment and fill in the fields. If you have lots of environments you can group them and also set tags.
Upgrade Portainer Agent
To upgrade the Agent, SSH into the target environment. Stop and remove the old Agent version. Pull the latest version of the agent.
# stop portainer agent
docker stop portainer_agent
# remove portainer agent
docker rm portainer_agent
# pull the latest version
docker pull portainer/agent:2.11.1Start the Agent with updated image
docker run -d -p 9001:9001 --name portainer_agent --restart=always -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock -v /var/lib/docker/volumes:/var/lib/docker/volumes portainer/agent:2.11.1Disable Portainer Server HTTP (port 900)
If you want to disable HTTP access, go to the Portainer Settings, and can force HTTPS. This will stop Portainer from listening on the port 9000 (HTTP).
