Docker & Compose on Ubuntu 24.04

Almost every app in our self-hosting guides runs the same way: a docker compose up -d on a small Ubuntu box. This is the clean base layer to set up once, so every later guide is just a compose file away.

#Start from a fresh, updated box

After your first SSH login as root, update the system and create a non-root user with sudo — you should not run containers (or anything else) as root day to day.

copyapt update && apt -y upgrade
adduser deploy && usermod -aG sudo deploy

Log back in as deploy for the rest of this guide.

#Install Docker Engine from the official repository

Skip the distro's older docker.io package — install Docker's own repository so you get current Engine and the Compose v2 plugin together.

copy# official one-line convenience script (inspect it first if you prefer)
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh

# run docker without sudo
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER && newgrp docker

#Verify the install

copydocker run --rm hello-world
docker compose version

If both succeed, you have Engine plus the Compose plugin. Note it is docker compose (a subcommand) now, not the old docker-compose binary.

copymkdir ~/uptime && cd ~/uptime
cat > docker-compose.yml <<'YAML'
services:
  uptime-kuma:
    image: louislam/uptime-kuma:1
    ports: ["3001:3001"]
    volumes: ["./data:/app/data"]
    restart: unless-stopped
YAML
docker compose up -d