README

A Docker Ubuntu server (Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 64bit) ~~hosted on an instance of Oracle Cloud Free Tier~~.

~~Cloud instance creation, tear down and~~ Server provisioning is done using Ansible. The server is provisioned with some server tools and docker. You can provision any number of machines that you have access to via ssh. Just edit the host file and add a new yml file for each server in the host_vars folder with the appropriate values. This installation is compatible with arm or x86 machines.

An optional Portainer Agent and Tailscale are provided as a docker GUI accessed through a secure tailscale vpn tunnel.

I've also added a docker /etc/docker/daemon.json file to enable log rotation, this can also be over ridden on a container basis.

The only skill you need to implement this is the ability to edit yml files however knowledge of server configuration and management is required to properly maintain a running server.

EDIT: I've decided not to automatically create an Oracle Cloud Free Tier machine. I might in the future, but I have no need as the web interface is sufficient for my current needs.

Setup an Oracle Cloud Free Tier account.

Preparing the Control Node

The Control Node is the machine you will be using to manage and configure your server(s). I've included installation instructions to take advantage of a secure private vpn tunnel to manage your servers.

You'll need a Tailscale account for this.

Setup a Tailscale account. (Optional)
Configure Ansible for Tailscale by pasting this in your terminal
- sudo ansible-galaxy install artis3n.tailscale
You must supply a tailscale_auth_key variable, which can be generated under your Tailscale account here.

The machine will also need the following software.

SSH keys for this installation.
Install Ansible for your Mac or Linux machine.
Windows WSL for your Windows machine with WSL installed.
Configure Ansible for this installation by pasting this in your terminal
- sudo ansible-galaxy install geerlingguy.pip
- sudo ansible-galaxy install geerlingguy.docker
- sudo ansible-galaxy install geerlingguy.docker_arm

Optional for the Control Node

The following are optional for the Control Node. They provide additional convinces for the Control Node.

Docker is an open-source project for automating the deployment of applications as portable, self-sufficient containers that can run on the cloud or on-premises.
Portainer is a simple and lightweight, but powerful application that is used to provide a web management interface that you can use to perform functions on your Docker host.
TMUX allows users to switch between multiple programs in one terminal. Users can detach and reattach the multiple programs to different terminal sections. TMUX sessions are persistent. The running programs continue to run even if you are disconnected.
Mosh stands for MObile SHell and is a replacement of SSH for remote connections to Unix/Linux systems that brings a few noticeable advantages over well known SSH connections. In brief, it’s faster and more responsive, especially on long delay and/or unreliable links. So we can say that Mosh is an alternative for SSH.
SSHFS (SSH File System) is a client for mounting a file system located on a remote machine onto your local system through an SSH connection. Using the SFTP (SSH file transfer protocol), the SSHFS command-line tool mounts a physical or virtual disk locally, allowing file transfer between a local and remote machine.

Finish the Control Node

Edit the group_vars/all/server.yml file to customize this installation. The default values work fine for a Virtual Box installation. (See below). You'll need to edit the file for a live server. There are some advanced configuration settings not shown below.

hostname: "docker-vm" # your hostname
tz: "America/New_York" # the timezone of your server

# This is the name of the user that all of the containers will run as.
# This user has no shell and cannot login to the server.
portmaster: pm # I like short names for typing ;)

# These are only needed if you plan on building containers from a private git repo

# The path on the control node where the ssh keys are stored.
# The default value is standard on mac and linux
portmaster_key_path: "~/.ssh/"
# The public ssh key associated with a github account
# id_rsa.pub seems to be the most common name.
portmaster_pub_key: "id_rsa.pub"

# The developer user is a privileged user with shell and sudo access.
developer: "dv" # I like short names for typing ;)
# The path on the control node where the ssh keys are stored.
# The default value is standard on mac and linux
developer_key_path: "~/.ssh/"
# The public ssh key associated with a github account
# id_rsa.pub seems to be the most common name.
developer_pub_key: "id_rsa.pub"

tailscale_auth_key: "" # If left empty tailscale won't install.

Edit these two files before running the playbook to provision a live machine.

You'll also need to edit the /hosts file:

[servers]
oracle

Now create or edit a file in /host_vars with the same name as your servers in the above section. Here's what the default /host_vars/oracle.yml file looks like;

# For machines without a domain name
# you can use it's public IP address
ansible_host: newmachine.example.com
# This is the default user on an ubuntu install.
ansible_ssh_user: ubuntu
# The path on the control node where the
# ssh private key is stored.
# The default value is common
ansible_ssh_private_key_file: "~/.ssh/id_rsa"

Packages we will be installing

The following software is going to be installed on the server based on the values set in the /roles/update/tasks/main.yml with the exception of docker which is set in the /playbook.yml file.

Docker is an open-source project for automating the deployment of applications as portable, self-sufficient containers that can run on the cloud or on-premises.
unzip If you downloaded a file that ends in .tar.gz or .zip, this indicates that it has been compressed.
curl is a command-line utility for transferring data from or to a server designed to work without user interaction.
Git is a version-control system for tracking changes in computer files and coordinating work on those files among multiple people.
tree is a command that shows the directory output in a tree-like hierarchical structure.
Htop is the improved version of the top command-line utility. Using the htop utility, the user can view the crucial details about the Ubuntu system such as CPU running processes, memory utilization, load average, PID’s, etc.
csvkit is a suite of command-line tools for converting to and working with CSV, the king of tabular file formats.
apache2-utils Provides some add-on programs useful for any web server
TMUX allows users to switch between multiple programs in one terminal. Users can detach and reattach the multiple programs to different terminal sections. TMUX sessions are persistent. The running programs continue to run even if you are disconnected.
Mosh stands for MObile SHell and is a replacement of SSH for remote connections to Unix/Linux systems that brings a few noticeable advantages over well known SSH connections. In brief, it’s faster and more responsive, especially on long delay and/or unreliable links. So we can say that Mosh is an alternative for SSH.
Ranger is a lightweight and powerful file manager that works in a terminal window. It offers a smooth way to move into directories, view files and content, or open an editor to make changes to files.
Ncdu was designed to ease finding space hogs on a remote server where you don’t have an entire graphical setup available
iperf3 is a free open source, cross-platform command-line based program for performing real-time network throughput measurements.
- libiperf0
- libsctp1

Developer Tools

The following shell enhancements and developer tools are going to be installed on the server based on the values set in the /roles/common/tasks/developer.yml file.

ZSH stands for Z Shell which is a shell program for Unix-like operating systems. ZSH is an extended version of Bourne Shell which incorporates some features of BASH, KSH, TSH.
powerline provides status lines and prompts and offers useful information on the terminal prompt.
- fonts-powerline
Powerlevel10k is a theme for Zsh. It emphasizes speed, flexibility and out-of-the-box experience.
zsh-syntax-highlighting automatically highlights your commands as you type them, which can help you catch syntax errors and fix them before running the command.
Hollywood will turn your Ubuntu Linux console into a veritable Hollywood technical melodrama hacker interface.
Ansible is a software tool that provides simple but powerful automation for cross-platform computer support. It is primarily intended for IT professionals, who use it for application deployment, updates on workstations and servers, cloud provisioning, configuration management, intra-service orchestration, and nearly anything a systems administrator does on a weekly or daily basis.

We will also be installing a set of of .dot files and fonts for the developer.

.zshrc
.aliases
.gitconfig
.tmux.conf
.p10k.zsh
Fira Code Nerd Mono
Fira Code Nerd Regular

Containers we will be installing

The only container we will be installing with Ansible is the Portainer Agent, which connects to your Control Node Portainer service.

View the README.md file about how we deploy containers using our secure vpn tunnel and our Control Node portainer service.

Samples of containers

I've provided a few examples of containers with instructions on how to install them simply with the Portainer GUI.

A note about docker logs

The default log driver for docker saves container logs as JSON in the docker logs directory at /var/lib/docker/containers/<container id>/<container id>-json.log. By default the logs don't rotate and can build up on your host. The docker config file included in this installation at /etc/docker/daemon.json sets the log files to rotate by setting the docker log options to a maximum size of 10 MB and maximum number of files to 10. See here for more information and options.

{
  "log-driver": "json-file",
  "log-opts": {
    "max-size": "10m",
    "max-file": "10"
  }
}

CSVkit is pre-installed on the server as a tool for converting and manipulating the docker logs. It can be used to convert docker logs from JSON to CSV format.

Can I test it first?

You can test this server setup with the Vagrantfile included. You'll need to install VirtualBox and Vagrant.

Install Virtualbox is a free and open-source hosted hypervisor for x86 virtualization, developed by Oracle Corporation.
Install Vagrant is a tool for building and managing virtual machine environments in a single workflow. With an easy-to-use workflow and focus on automation, Vagrant lowers development environment setup time, increases production parity, and makes the "works on my machine" excuse a relic of the past.
- Install vagrant plugin autonetwork by pasting this in your terminal: vagrant plugin install vagrant-auto_network

Quick Start assuming Ansible, Virtualbox and Vagrant is installed

The group_vars/all/server.yml defaults work unedited in the vm. I suggest editing this and experimenting with your setup.

The /hosts and /host_vars files aren't used by Vagrant.

Configure Ansible for this installation by pasting this in your terminal
- sudo ansible-galaxy install geerlingguy.pip
- sudo ansible-galaxy install geerlingguy.docker
- sudo ansible-galaxy install geerlingguy.docker_arm
- sudo ansible-galaxy install artis3n.tailscale
You must supply a tailscale_auth_key variable, which can be generated under your Tailscale account here. (Optional)
Start the virtual machine by pasting this in your terminal
- vagrant up
Vagrant will start the VM and automatically provision it from Ansible. Learn how they work together here.
View the docker web interface from your Control Node Portainer GUI or ssh into the virtual machine and poke around.
Useful vagrant commands
- vagrant ssh ssh into vm as user vagrant do sudo su dv to become a privileged user.
- vagrant destroy -f && vagrant up useful after making changes.
- vagrant provision This happens automatically on vagrant up useful after making changes.
Things to look at once you become dv user. These commands take advantage of the dv user's aliases.
- sudo su dv become a privileged user.
- cfd change to default docker container config files directory.
- cfl view the docker container config files directory.
- ds docker stats
- dr docker ps -a

OK Lets Do It

Run the provision command by pasting this in your terminal
ansible-playbook playbook.yml -i hosts

Who do I talk to

I've created this project mostly for my future self but sharing is caring so your mileage may vary.

Gary Smith github@kc.gs

Contributors

Github Co-pilot
Tabnine
VS Code

kahunacoder/docker-server