How to Install Docker on VPS and Deploy Your First Container

Install Docker on Ubuntu VPS

# Install Docker using official script
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh

# Add your user to docker group
usermod -aG docker $USER

# Install Docker Compose plugin
apt install docker-compose-plugin -y

# Verify installation
docker --version
docker compose version

Run Your First Container

# Run Nginx in a container
docker run -d -p 8080:80 --name my-nginx nginx

# Check running containers
docker ps

# View container logs
docker logs my-nginx

# Stop and remove
docker stop my-nginx && docker rm my-nginx

Using Docker Compose

Docker Compose defines multi-container applications in a single YAML file. Create docker-compose.yml:

version: '3.8'
services:
  web:
    image: nginx:alpine
    ports:
      - "80:80"
    volumes:
      - ./html:/usr/share/nginx/html
    restart: unless-stopped

  db:
    image: mysql:8.0
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: secret
      MYSQL_DATABASE: myapp
    volumes:
      - db_data:/var/lib/mysql
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  db_data:

docker compose up -d   # Start in background
docker compose ps      # Check status
docker compose down    # Stop everything

Automatic Container Restarts

Add restart: unless-stopped to your Docker Compose services, or use the --restart unless-stopped flag with docker run. This ensures containers restart automatically after VPS reboots or crashes.

Nginx Reverse Proxy for Containers

Use Traefik or Nginx as a reverse proxy to route traffic to multiple containers by domain name. Install Traefik with Docker Compose for automatic SSL and container routing — ideal for running multiple applications on your Netherlands developer VPS.

Why Our KVM VPS is Docker-Ready

Docker requires full kernel access — it uses Linux namespaces, cgroups, and network stack features that are only available with hardware virtualisation. Our KVM VPS Netherlands provides complete kernel access, so Docker, Kubernetes, and any container runtime work exactly as they do on a physical server.

Frequently Asked Questions