As bare metal servers become more popular for their dedicated resources and performance, users are looking to take advantage of containerization technologies like Docker to maximize their server utilization. In this article, we’ll explore how to install Docker in CentOS on bare metal servers, step by step.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Before we begin, let’s define what Docker is and its benefits. Docker is an open-source containerization platform that allows developers and system administrators to build, package, and deploy applications in isolated, lightweight containers. The benefits of using Docker include increased flexibility, portability, and scalability.
Prerequisites
To follow along with this tutorial, you will need the following:
- A bare metal server running CentOS 7 or later
- A user account with sudo privileges
- A stable internet connection
Step 1: Update and Upgrade the System
Before we install Docker, we need to update and upgrade the system to ensure that we have the latest software packages and security patches. Open a terminal or SSH into your server and run the following command:
sudo yum update && sudo yum upgrade
Step 2: Install Docker
Once the system is up to date, we can proceed with the installation of Docker. First, we need to add the Docker repository to our system. Run the following command to install the required packages:
sudo yum install -y yum-utils device-mapper-persistent-data lvm2
Next, add the Docker repository to the YUM configuration:
sudo yum-config-manager –add-repo https://download.docker.com/linux/centos/docker-ce.repo
Finally, install Docker in CentOS using the following command:
sudo yum install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io
Step 3: Start and Enable Docker
After the installation, start the Docker service and enable it to start on boot using the following command:
sudo systemctl start docker
sudo systemctl enable docker
Step 4: Verify Docker Installation
To verify that Docker is installed correctly, run the following command:
sudo docker run hello-world
If everything is working correctly, you should see the following message:
Hello from Docker!
Step 5: Basic Docker Commands
Now that Docker is installed, let’s explore some basic Docker commands to manage containers:
docker ps – List running containers
docker ps -a – List all containers, including stopped containers
docker images – List all images
docker pull image_name – Download an image from Docker Hub
docker run image_name – Start a container from an image
docker stop container_name – Stop a running container
docker rm container_name – Remove a stopped container
docker rmi image_name – Remove an image
Conclusion
In this tutorial, we learned how to install Docker on bare metal servers running CentOS. We covered the prerequisites, installation steps, and basic Docker commands. With Docker installed, you can now start containerizing your applications for increased flexibility, portability, and scalability.
