Docker Management for Humans: Setting up Portainer CE

I love the terminal. But I don't love typing docker ps twenty times a day to check container health.

Portainer is the GUI that Docker forgot to build. It lets you manage stacks, containers, images, and networks from a web interface. It's essential for any homelab or small production environment.

The Installation

It's literally one command (or one Compose file).

version: '3'

services:
  portainer:
    image: portainer/portainer-ce:latest
    container_name: portainer
    restart: always
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"
      - "9443:9443"
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
      - portainer_data:/data

volumes:
  portainer_data:

Why Use It?

1. Visual Logs: Click a container, click "Logs". No more docker logs -f --tail 100 container_name.
2. Stacks: You can paste your docker-compose.yaml directly into the UI and deploy it.
3. Cleanup: It helps you find and delete unused images and volumes that are eating your disk space.

Security Note

Portainer has root access to your Docker socket. Protect it. Put it behind a reverse proxy (like Traefik) and use strong passwords.