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Ryan Machado
Ryan Machado

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Setting Up a VPS with Docker: A Step-by-Step Guide

#docker #cicd #webdev #programming

Running applications in the cloud gives you reliability, accessibility, and the power to scale. In this guide, I'll walk through setting up a Virtual Private Server (VPS) with Docker, using environment variables to make this guide reusable for your own projects.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, set these variables according to your project:

# Your server details
export SERVER_IP="your-server-ip"
export DOMAIN="your-domain.com"
export PROJECT_NAME="your-project-name"

# User credentials for deployment
export DEPLOY_USER="deploy"
export DEPLOY_EMAIL="${DEPLOY_USER}@${DOMAIN}"
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🔑 Connecting to Your VPS

First, connect to your newly provisioned server:

ssh root@${SERVER_IP}
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🔧 Installing Docker

After connecting to the server, install Docker:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  $(. /etc/os-release && echo \"${UBUNTU_CODENAME:-$VERSION_CODENAME}\") stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io -y
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🌐 Configuring DNS

Create a DNS A record pointing your domain to the server IP. Once propagated, you can SSH using the domain:

ssh root@${DOMAIN}
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🐳 Creating a Docker Context

To make working with remote Docker commands easier, create a Docker context:

docker context create ${PROJECT_NAME} --docker host=ssh://root@${DOMAIN}
docker context use ${PROJECT_NAME}
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Now all Docker commands will run on the VPS via this context.

🚀 Setting Up Docker Swarm

Initialize Docker Swarm on your VPS:

docker swarm init # Optionally add: --advertise-addr ${SERVER_IP}
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The command will output a join token. Save this for adding worker nodes later if needed:

# Example output - your token will be different
docker swarm join --token SWMTKN-1-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ${SERVER_IP}:2377
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📦 Deploying Your Application Stack

Deploy your application stack using docker-compose:

docker stack deploy -c docker-compose.yml ${PROJECT_NAME}
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Your application should now be accessible at:

http://${DOMAIN}
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To check service logs:

docker service logs ${PROJECT_NAME}_app
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Conclusion

You now have a production-ready Docker environment on your VPS with a secure deployment user. This setup provides a solid foundation for running containerized applications in production with proper separation of concerns.

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