Docker and Docker Compose Installation Guide: A Comprehensive Step-by-Step Tutorial for Linux Servers

Docker and Docker Compose have emerged as powerful tools for building, running, and managing containerized applications. These tools enable developers to package applications and their dependencies into lightweight, standalone containers, facilitating seamless deployment and portability across various environments. In this tutorial, we’ll guide you through the installation process for both Docker and Docker Compose on Linux servers, covering a range of popular distributions.

Prerequisites:

Before embarking on the installation process, ensure your Linux server meets the following prerequisites:

• 64-bit architecture: Docker and Docker Compose require a 64-bit architecture system.
• Enough disk space: Allocate at least 5GB of free disk space for optimal performance.
• sudo privileges: You’ll need administrative privileges (sudo or root) to install and configure Docker and Docker Compose.

Installing Docker on Ubuntu and Debian

Update Package Index: Open a terminal window and update the package index using the following command:

sudo apt update

Install Docker Engine: Install the Docker Engine package using the following command:

sudo apt install docker.io

Verify Installation: To confirm the successful installation of Docker, execute the following command:

docker version

Installing Docker on CentOS and RHEL

Enable Docker Repository: Open a terminal window and install the EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux) repository using the following command:

sudo yum install http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm

Update Package Index: Update the package index using the following command:

sudo yum update

Install Docker Engine: Install the Docker Engine package using the following command:

sudo yum install docker-ce

Verify Installation: To confirm the successful installation of Docker, execute the following command:

docker version

Installing Docker Compose on Linux

Download Docker Compose: Docker Compose is a separate tool that works alongside Docker, facilitating the management of multi-container applications. Download Docker Compose for your operating system from the official website (https://github.com/docker/compose/releases).

Install Docker Compose: Extract the downloaded archive and move the docker-compose executable to a directory included in your system’s PATH environment variable. This will allow you to execute docker-compose commands from anywhere on your system. For example, on Ubuntu and Debian, you can move the executable to /usr/local/bin using the following command:

sudo mv docker-compose /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

Verify Installation: To confirm the successful installation of Docker Compose, execute the following command:

docker-compose --version

If the command output the respective versions of Docker and Docker Compose, you have successfully installed both tools on your Linux server.