Install Docker

Update the repo to get latest versions

sudo apt update

Install the latest version

sudo apt install docker.io

Set Docker to start on startup

sudo systemctl enable --now docker

Give your user permissions to docker, replacing user with your username

sudo usermod -aG docker user

Once you have run this command close and reopen your session if you accessing remotely. This is to apply the permissions in the above step

Test it has installed correctly by getting the docker version

docker --version

Docker Compose

I also install docker-compose as some dockers need you to compose from a yml file. This downloads v2.16.0, just change this if the version updates to a later version

sudo curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/v2.16.0/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

Give permissions to this

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

Test it has installed correctly by getting the docker-compose version

docker-compose --version

Install Watchtower

I keep all my dockers in a dockers folder in my home directory. If it doesn’t exist already, create this folder:-

mkdir ~/dockers

Now create a folder for Watchtower to live in.

mkdir ~/dockers/watchtower

Change directory to this folder

cd ~/dockers/watchtower

Create a docker-compose.yml file

nano docker-compose.yml

Paste the following. Change the containernames to the names of the containers you want to watch. Split them with a space, so for example phpmyadmin portainer would replace containernames if I wanted to watch them. Debug true gives you more logs in Portainer log viewer for the container. Cleanup cleans the old image after it updates.

 version: "3"
 services:
   watchtower:
     container_name: watchtower
     image: containrrr/watchtower
     volumes:
       - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
     restart: unless-stopped
     environment:
       - TZ=Europe/Berlin
       - WATCHTOWER_LIFECYCLE_HOOKS=1 # Enable pre/post-update scripts
     command: --debug true --cleanup true containernames

Save the file with ctl + x, then y to save.

Run the docker-compose file with the following:-

docker-compose up -d