Docker & Rancher Desktop
Build, run and ship containers with Docker and Rancher Desktop, from the first image to Compose, BuildKit, image security and a local Kubernetes cluster.
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Tutorials (34)
- Docker & Rancher Desktop Tutorials
Docker and Rancher Desktop Troubleshooting: Common Errors and Fixes
Fix common Docker and Rancher Desktop problems: daemon not reachable, ports below 1024, KVM, missing images after switching engines, ImagePullBackOff, disk space.
- Docker & Rancher Desktop Tutorials
Automate Rancher Desktop with rdctl: Settings, Snapshots and Profiles
Use rdctl, the Rancher Desktop command line, to start the app, change engine and Kubernetes, take snapshots, install extensions and create deployment profiles.
- Docker & Rancher Desktop Tutorials
Terraform Docker Provider: Manage Containers and Images as Code
Use the Terraform and OpenTofu Docker provider (kreuzwerker/docker) with Rancher Desktop to manage images, networks, volumes and containers declaratively.
- Docker & Rancher Desktop Tutorials
Push Docker Images from Rancher Desktop to Amazon ECR
Create an Amazon ECR repository with Terraform, log in with the AWS CLI and push images built in Rancher Desktop with docker or nerdctl, for ECS and EKS.
- Docker & Rancher Desktop Tutorials
Convert Docker Compose to Kubernetes: Kompose and Manual Migration
Migrate a Docker Compose app to Kubernetes: generate manifests with Kompose, fix what it cannot convert and deploy to Rancher Desktop with Secrets and Ingress.
- Docker & Rancher Desktop Tutorials
Kubernetes in Rancher Desktop: Run Your Local Images on K3s
Use the Kubernetes cluster of Rancher Desktop: choose the version, run local images without a registry, expose apps with Traefik ingress and port-forward.
- Docker & Rancher Desktop Tutorials
Docker Image Security: Scan with Trivy and Harden Your Containers
Secure Docker images and containers: scan for vulnerabilities with Trivy or Docker Scout, pin base images, run as non-root, read-only, drop capabilities, manage secrets.
- Docker & Rancher Desktop Tutorials
Docker BuildKit and buildx: Cache Mounts, Secrets and Multi-Platform Images
Speed up Docker builds with BuildKit cache mounts, use build secrets safely and build multi-platform images (amd64 and arm64) with buildx and Rancher Desktop.
- Docker & Rancher Desktop Tutorials
Docker Compose Watch: Live Reload for Containers in Development
Use docker compose watch to sync code into running containers, rebuild on dependency changes and restart on config changes, with Node.js and Python examples.
- Docker & Rancher Desktop Tutorials
Docker Compose Tutorial: Run Multi-Container Apps with One File
Learn Docker Compose with a real stack: a Node.js app, PostgreSQL and Redis with healthchecks, volumes, environment files, profiles and the everyday commands.
- Docker & Rancher Desktop Tutorials
Docker Networking Explained: Bridge Networks, Ports and DNS
How Docker networking works: the default bridge, user-defined networks with DNS, publishing ports, host and none drivers, and how to debug connectivity.
- Docker & Rancher Desktop Tutorials
Docker Volumes and Bind Mounts: Persist Data in Containers
Learn Docker volumes, bind mounts and tmpfs: how to persist a PostgreSQL database, back it up, share files with the host and avoid the common permission problems.
- Docker & Rancher Desktop Tutorials
Docker Multi-Stage Builds: Smaller and More Secure Images
Use Docker multi-stage builds to separate the build from the runtime: examples in Go and Node.js, build targets, distroless images and non-root users.
- Docker & Rancher Desktop Tutorials
Dockerfile Tutorial: Build Your First Docker Image Step by Step
Learn to write a Dockerfile: FROM, COPY, RUN, CMD and ENTRYPOINT, the build cache, .dockerignore and best practices, building a real Node.js image.
- Docker & Rancher Desktop Tutorials
Docker CLI Commands Cheat Sheet: The Commands You Use Every Day
A practical Docker CLI cheat sheet: run, ps, logs, exec, build, images, volumes, networks, inspect and cleanup commands with examples that also work with nerdctl.
- Docker & Rancher Desktop Tutorials
Rancher Desktop: containerd vs dockerd, nerdctl vs Docker CLI
Choose the container engine of Rancher Desktop: containerd with nerdctl or dockerd with the docker CLI. Compare them, switch safely and compare with Docker Desktop.
- Docker & Rancher Desktop Tutorials
How to Install Rancher Desktop on Linux, macOS and Windows
Install Rancher Desktop, the free Docker Desktop alternative, on Linux, macOS and Windows, pick the container engine and run your first container and cluster.
- Docker & Rancher Desktop Tutorials
Docker Basics: Containers, Images and Registries Explained
Understand what Docker is: containers vs virtual machines, image layers, registries and the Docker architecture, with your first commands step by step.
- Docker & Rancher Desktop Tutorials
Install Redis with Docker: Persistence, Basic Commands and Caching
Run Redis in a container with a persistent volume and a password, learn the essential commands, key expiration and the cache-aside pattern, and check memory usage.
- Docker & Rancher Desktop Tutorials
Install Prometheus with Docker: Scrape Metrics and Write PromQL Queries
Run Prometheus in a container, scrape a Node Exporter and your own targets, learn the basic PromQL queries and create an alert rule you can test locally.
- Docker & Rancher Desktop Tutorials
Install NGINX with Docker: Web Server, Reverse Proxy and HTTPS
Run NGINX in a container to serve a static site, proxy requests to an application, balance load between replicas and add TLS, with the configuration explained.
- Docker & Rancher Desktop Tutorials
Install PostgreSQL with Docker: Persistent Data, psql and Backups
Run PostgreSQL in a container with a persistent volume, create a database and a user with psql, initialize it with SQL scripts and back up and restore it.
- Docker & Rancher Desktop Tutorials
Install MariaDB or MySQL with Docker: Users, Volumes and Backups
Run MariaDB (or MySQL) in a container with a persistent volume, create databases and users, load initial SQL, back up with mariadb-dump and connect from your apps.
- Terraform & OpenTofu Tutorials
Install HashiCorp Vault with Docker: Secrets, Policies and Terraform
Run Vault in dev mode, store secrets in the KV engine, restrict access with policies and tokens, and read them from the CLI, curl and Terraform.
- Kubernetes Tutorials
Create a Local Kubernetes Cluster with kind: Multi-Node, Ingress and Local Images
Install kind, create a multi-node Kubernetes cluster in Docker with port mappings, deploy an app, load local images without a registry and delete the cluster.
- Docker & Rancher Desktop Tutorials
Install Traefik with Docker: Reverse Proxy with Automatic Routing
Run Traefik v3 with Docker Compose, route several containers by hostname with labels, add the dashboard, middlewares and automatic Let's Encrypt certificates.
- Docker & Rancher Desktop Tutorials
Install Podman on Linux: Rootless Containers as a Docker Alternative
Install Podman, run rootless containers, build images, use pods and volumes, create systemd services and move from Docker with the same commands.
- AWS Tutorials
Test Terraform Locally with LocalStack: S3, SQS and DynamoDB Without an AWS Account
Run LocalStack in Docker, point the AWS CLI and the Terraform AWS provider to it and create S3, SQS and DynamoDB resources locally for free, fast tests.
- Docker & Rancher Desktop Tutorials
Install Grafana with Docker and Build Your First Dashboard
Run Grafana in a container with a persistent volume, connect Prometheus as a data source, provision it from files and build your first dashboard step by step.
- Kubernetes Tutorials
Argo CD and GitOps on Kubernetes: Install and Deploy Your First App
Learn what GitOps is and install Argo CD in a Kubernetes cluster to deploy applications automatically from Git, with an Application example, sync policies and Helm.
- Terraform & OpenTofu Tutorials
Terraform AWS EKS Cluster Deployment & Application Publishing through ALB
This how-to demonstrates how to use Terraform to create an AWS EKS cluster and deploy an application along with a Load Balancer on top.
- Terraform & OpenTofu Tutorials
Terraform AWS ECS Fargate Cluster Deployment & Docker Container Publishing
How-to use Terraform or OpenTofu to create an AWS ECS (Elastic Container Service) running in Fargate and deploy a Docker container.
- Terraform & OpenTofu Tutorials
How to Deploy Applications in Kubernetes using Terraform
How to publish multiple replicas of an Application (from the Docker Registry) and create a NodePort in Kubernetes using Terraform (in 10 seconds)
- Terraform & OpenTofu Tutorials
How to Deploy Applications in Kubernetes using OpenTofu
How to publish multiple replicas of an application from the Docker registry and create a NodePort or a LoadBalancer in Kubernetes using OpenTofu.
Glossary and related tools (16)
Containers and Orchestration
Dockerfile
A Dockerfile is a text file with the instructions to build a container image: base image, files, commands, user and the command to run.
- Containers and Orchestration
Docker Compose
Docker Compose defines and runs multi-container applications from a single YAML file: services, networks and volumes started with one command.
Containers and Orchestration
Rancher Desktop
Rancher Desktop is a free open source app with a container engine (containerd or dockerd) and a local K3s Kubernetes cluster for Linux, macOS and Windows.
- Containers and Orchestration
Docker
Docker is a platform to build, ship and run applications in containers: lightweight, isolated processes created from portable images.
AWS Containers
AWS ECR
Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR) is a managed registry to store, scan and share Docker and OCI container images with ECS, EKS and Lambda.
AWS Containers
AWS EKS
Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) runs a managed, highly available Kubernetes control plane on AWS and integrates it with VPC, IAM and load balancers.
Containers and Orchestration
Podman
Podman is a daemonless, rootless container engine that runs OCI containers with a command line compatible with Docker.
- Containers and Orchestration
BuildKit
BuildKit is the modern build engine of Docker: parallel, cache-aware and able to build multi-platform images with docker buildx.
Data and Storage
PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL is a powerful open source relational database known for its standards compliance, extensions and reliability.
- CI/CD and GitOps
LocalStack
LocalStack is a local emulator of AWS services that runs in a container, so you can test Terraform and applications without an AWS account.
Data and Storage
Redis
Redis is an open source in-memory data store used as a cache, message broker and fast key-value database.
- Containers and Orchestration
nerdctl
nerdctl is a Docker-compatible command line client for containerd, with support for Compose, image building and lazy pulling.
Containers and Orchestration
containerd
containerd is the industry standard container runtime that pulls images and manages the lifecycle of containers for Docker and Kubernetes.
Security
Trivy
Trivy is an open source security scanner that finds vulnerabilities, misconfigurations and secrets in container images, code and infrastructure files.
Containers and Orchestration
kind
kind (Kubernetes in Docker) creates local Kubernetes clusters using Docker containers as nodes, ideal for development and CI.
AWS Containers
AWS Fargate
AWS Fargate is a serverless compute engine for containers that runs ECS and EKS workloads without managing servers or clusters of instances.