Install Docker and Docker Compose on Linux - Elastic Compute Service

Install Docker and Docker Compose on Linux to package applications into portable containers.

Install Docker

Alibaba Cloud Linux 4

Before installing Docker, uninstall all existing Docker components to prevent conflicts.

Uninstall older versions of Docker

Uninstall older Docker versions and related packages.

#Remove Docker-related sources
sudo rm -f /etc/yum.repos.d/docker*.repo
#Uninstall Docker and related packages
sudo dnf -y remove \  
docker \
moby \
docker-ce \
containerd.io \
docker-ce-rootless-extras \
docker-buildx-plugin \
docker-ce-cli \
docker-compose-plugin

Uninstalling Docker does not remove images, containers, volumes, or networks stored in /var/lib/docker/. Manually delete this directory if needed.

Install Docker.

Recommended:

# Install the Moby runtime
sudo yum install -y moby

Install Docker Community Edition.

If you are not using an Alibaba Cloud server, replace http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com with https://mirrors.aliyun.com.

#Add the Docker CE package repository
sudo wget -O /etc/yum.repos.d/docker-ce.repo http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com/docker-ce/linux/centos/docker-ce.repo
sudo sed -i 's|https://mirrors.aliyun.com|http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com|g' /etc/yum.repos.d/docker-ce.repo

#You must select which CentOS version to install, such as CentOS 9 or CentOS 10, and then replace $releasever with the corresponding version number.
# To use CentOS 9, run:
sudo sed -i 's|$releasever|9|' /etc/yum.repos.d/docker-ce.repo
# To use CentOS 10, run:
sudo sed -i 's|$releasever|10|' /etc/yum.repos.d/docker-ce.repo

#Install Docker Community Edition, the containerd.io container runtime, and the Docker Buildx and Compose plugins
sudo dnf -y install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

#Note: To switch back to the native Moby component provided by Alibaba Cloud Linux 4, first remove the docker-ce components and disable the CentOS repository.
sudo yum remove -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli
sudo rm -rf /etc/yum.repos.d/docker-ce.repo

Start Docker and enable auto-start on boot.

# Start the service and enable it to start on boot
sudo systemctl start docker
sudo systemctl enable docker

# Verify the installation
docker --version  # This will display the installed version

Note

Moby is the default container runtime and will continue to receive updates.
Older Docker components remain usable for forward compatibility but will not receive updates.

Alibaba Cloud Linux 3

Before installing Docker, uninstall all existing Docker components to prevent conflicts.

Uninstall older versions of Docker

Uninstall older Docker versions and related packages.

You can ignore any messages that indicate a package is not installed.

#Remove Docker-related sources
sudo rm -f /etc/yum.repos.d/docker*.repo
#Uninstall Docker and related packages
sudo dnf -y remove \
docker-ce \
containerd.io \
docker-ce-rootless-extras \
docker-buildx-plugin \
docker-ce-cli \
docker-compose-plugin

Uninstalling Docker does not remove images, containers, volumes, or networks stored in /var/lib/docker/. Manually delete this directory if needed.

Install Docker Community Edition.

If you are not using an Alibaba Cloud server, replace http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com with https://mirrors.aliyun.com

#Add the Docker package repository
sudo wget -O /etc/yum.repos.d/docker-ce.repo http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com/docker-ce/linux/centos/docker-ce.repo
sudo sed -i 's|https://mirrors.aliyun.com|http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com|g' /etc/yum.repos.d/docker-ce.repo
#Install the dnf repository compatibility plugin for Alibaba Cloud Linux 3
sudo dnf -y install dnf-plugin-releasever-adapter --repo alinux3-plus
#Install Docker Community Edition, the containerd.io container runtime, and the Docker Buildx and Compose plugins
sudo dnf -y install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Start Docker and enable auto-start on boot.

#Start Docker
sudo systemctl start docker
#Set the Docker daemon to start automatically on system boot
sudo systemctl enable docker

Ubuntu

Before installing Docker, uninstall all existing Docker components to prevent conflicts.

Uninstall older versions of Docker

Uninstall older Docker versions and related packages.

You can ignore any messages that indicate a package is not installed.

#Remove Docker-related sources
sudo rm -f /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*docker*.list
#Uninstall Docker and related packages
for pkg in docker.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-ce-cli docker-ce-rootless-extras docker-compose-plugin docker-doc docker-compose podman-docker containerd runc; do sudo apt-get remove -y $pkg; done

Uninstalling Docker does not remove images, containers, volumes, or networks stored in /var/lib/docker/. Manually delete this directory if needed.

Install Docker Community Edition.

If you are not using an Alibaba Cloud server, replace http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com with https://mirrors.aliyun.com

#Update the package management tool
sudo apt-get update
#Add the Docker package repository
sudo apt-get -y install apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl software-properties-common
sudo curl -fsSL http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com/docker-ce/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo apt-key add -
sudo add-apt-repository -y "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture)] http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com/docker-ce/linux/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) stable"
#Install Docker Community Edition, the containerd.io container runtime, and the Docker Buildx and Compose plugins
sudo apt-get -y install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Start Docker and enable auto-start on boot.

#Start Docker
sudo systemctl start docker
#Set the Docker daemon to start automatically on system boot
sudo systemctl enable docker

Debian

Before installing Docker, uninstall all existing Docker components to prevent conflicts.

Uninstall older versions of Docker

Uninstall older Docker versions and related packages.

You can ignore any messages that indicate a package is not installed.

#Remove Docker-related sources
sudo rm -f /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*docker*.list
#Uninstall Docker and related packages
for pkg in docker.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-ce-cli docker-ce-rootless-extras docker-compose-plugin docker-doc docker-compose podman-docker containerd runc; do sudo apt-get remove -y $pkg; done

Uninstalling Docker does not remove images, containers, volumes, or networks stored in /var/lib/docker/. Manually delete this directory if needed.

Install Docker Community Edition.

If you are not using an Alibaba Cloud server, replace http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com with https://mirrors.aliyun.com

#Update the package management tool
sudo apt-get update
#Add the Docker package repository
sudo apt-get -y install apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl software-properties-common
sudo curl -fsSL http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com/docker-ce/linux/debian/gpg | sudo apt-key add -
sudo add-apt-repository -y "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture)] http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com/docker-ce/linux/debian $(lsb_release -cs) stable"
#Install Docker Community Edition, the containerd.io container runtime, and the Docker Buildx and Compose plugins
sudo apt-get -y install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Start Docker and enable auto-start on boot.

#Start Docker
sudo systemctl start docker
#Set the Docker daemon to start automatically on system boot
sudo systemctl enable docker

Red Hat

Before installing Docker, uninstall all existing Docker components to prevent conflicts.

Uninstall older versions of Docker

Uninstall older Docker versions and related packages.

You can ignore any messages that indicate a package is not installed.

#Remove Docker-related sources
sudo rm -f /etc/yum.repos.d/docker*.repo
#Uninstall old versions of Docker and related packages
sudo yum -y remove \
docker-ce \
containerd.io \
docker-ce-rootless-extras \
docker-buildx-plugin \
docker-ce-cli \
docker-compose-plugin

Uninstalling Docker does not remove images, containers, volumes, or networks stored in /var/lib/docker/. Manually delete this directory if needed.

Install Docker Community Edition.

If you are not using an Alibaba Cloud server, replace http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com with https://mirrors.aliyun.com

#Add the Docker package repository
sudo wget -O /etc/yum.repos.d/docker-ce.repo http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com/docker-ce/linux/rhel/docker-ce.repo
sudo sed -i 's|https://mirrors.aliyun.com|http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com|g' /etc/yum.repos.d/docker-ce.repo
#Install Docker Community Edition, the containerd.io container runtime, and the Docker Buildx and Compose plugins
sudo yum -y install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Start Docker and enable auto-start on boot.

#Start Docker
sudo systemctl start docker
#Set the Docker daemon to start automatically on system boot
sudo systemctl enable docker

Fedora

Before installing Docker, uninstall all existing Docker components to prevent conflicts.

Uninstall older versions of Docker

Uninstall older Docker versions and related packages.

You can ignore any messages that indicate a package is not installed.

#Remove Docker-related sources
sudo rm -f /etc/yum.repos.d/docker*.repo
#Uninstall Docker and related packages
sudo dnf -y remove \
docker-ce \
containerd.io \
docker-ce-rootless-extras \
docker-buildx-plugin \
docker-ce-cli \
docker-compose-plugin

Uninstalling Docker does not remove images, containers, volumes, or networks stored in /var/lib/docker/. Manually delete this directory if needed.

Install Docker Community Edition.

If you are not using an Alibaba Cloud server, replace http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com with https://mirrors.aliyun.com

#Add the Docker package repository
sudo wget -O /etc/yum.repos.d/docker-ce.repo http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com/docker-ce/linux/fedora/docker-ce.repo
sudo sed -i 's|https://mirrors.aliyun.com|http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com|g' /etc/yum.repos.d/docker-ce.repo
#Install Docker Community Edition, the containerd.io container runtime, and the Docker Buildx and Compose plugins
sudo dnf -y install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Start Docker and enable auto-start on boot.

#Start Docker
sudo systemctl start docker
#Set the Docker daemon to start automatically on system boot
sudo systemctl enable docker

Anolis OS

Before installing Docker, uninstall all existing Docker components to prevent conflicts.

Uninstall older versions of Docker

Uninstall older Docker versions and related packages.

You can ignore any messages that indicate a package is not installed.

#Remove Docker-related sources
sudo rm -f /etc/yum.repos.d/docker*.repo
#Uninstall old versions of Docker and related packages
sudo yum -y remove \
docker-ce \
containerd.io \
docker-ce-rootless-extras \
docker-buildx-plugin \
docker-ce-cli \
docker-compose-plugin

Uninstalling Docker does not remove images, containers, volumes, or networks stored in /var/lib/docker/. Manually delete this directory if needed.

Install Docker Community Edition.

If you are not using an Alibaba Cloud server, replace http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com with https://mirrors.aliyun.com

#Add the Docker package repository
sudo wget -O /etc/yum.repos.d/docker-ce.repo http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com/docker-ce/linux/centos/docker-ce.repo
sudo sed -i 's|https://mirrors.aliyun.com|http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com|g' /etc/yum.repos.d/docker-ce.repo
#Install Docker Community Edition, the containerd.io container runtime, and the Docker Buildx and Compose plugins
sudo yum -y install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Start Docker and enable auto-start on boot.

#Start Docker
sudo systemctl start docker
#Set the Docker daemon to start automatically on system boot
sudo systemctl enable docker

Alibaba Cloud Linux 2

Before installing Docker, uninstall all existing Docker components to prevent conflicts.

Uninstall older versions of Docker

Uninstall older Docker versions and related packages.

You can ignore any messages that indicate a package is not installed.

#Remove Docker-related sources
sudo rm -f /etc/yum.repos.d/docker*.repo
#Uninstall old versions of Docker and related packages
sudo yum -y remove \
docker-ce \
containerd.io \
docker-ce-rootless-extras \
docker-buildx-plugin \
docker-ce-cli \
docker-compose-plugin

Uninstalling Docker does not remove images, containers, volumes, or networks stored in /var/lib/docker/. Manually delete this directory if needed.

Install Docker Community Edition.

If you are not using an Alibaba Cloud server, replace http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com with https://mirrors.aliyun.com

#Add the Docker package repository
sudo wget -O /etc/yum.repos.d/docker-ce.repo http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com/docker-ce/linux/centos/docker-ce.repo
sudo sed -i 's|https://mirrors.aliyun.com|http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com|g' /etc/yum.repos.d/docker-ce.repo
#Install the yum repository compatibility plugin for Alibaba Cloud Linux 2
sudo yum install yum-plugin-releasever-adapter --disablerepo=* --enablerepo=plus
#Install Docker Community Edition, the containerd.io container runtime, and the Docker Buildx and Compose plugins
sudo yum -y install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Start Docker and enable auto-start on boot.

#Start Docker
sudo systemctl start docker
#Set the Docker daemon to start automatically on system boot
sudo systemctl enable docker

CentOS 7.x

Before installing Docker, uninstall all existing Docker components to prevent conflicts.

Uninstall older versions of Docker

Uninstall older Docker versions and related packages.

You can ignore any messages that indicate a package is not installed.

#Remove Docker-related sources
sudo rm -f /etc/yum.repos.d/docker*.repo
#Uninstall old versions of Docker and related packages
sudo yum -y remove \
docker-ce \
containerd.io \
docker-ce-rootless-extras \
docker-buildx-plugin \
docker-ce-cli \
docker-compose-plugin

Uninstalling Docker does not remove images, containers, volumes, or networks stored in /var/lib/docker/. Manually delete this directory if needed.

Install Docker Community Edition.

If you are not using an Alibaba Cloud server, replace http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com with https://mirrors.aliyun.com

#Add the Docker package repository
sudo wget -O /etc/yum.repos.d/docker-ce.repo http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com/docker-ce/linux/centos/docker-ce.repo
sudo sed -i 's|https://mirrors.aliyun.com|http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com|g' /etc/yum.repos.d/docker-ce.repo
#Install Docker Community Edition, the containerd.io container runtime, and the Docker Buildx and Compose plugins
sudo yum -y install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Start Docker and enable auto-start on boot.

#Start Docker
sudo systemctl start docker
#Set the Docker daemon to start automatically on system boot
sudo systemctl enable docker

CentOS 8.x

Before installing Docker, uninstall all existing Docker components to prevent conflicts.

Uninstall older versions of Docker

Uninstall older Docker versions and related packages.

You can ignore any messages that indicate a package is not installed.

#Remove Docker-related sources
sudo rm -f /etc/yum.repos.d/docker*.repo
#Uninstall Docker and related packages
sudo dnf -y remove \
docker-ce \
containerd.io \
docker-ce-rootless-extras \
docker-buildx-plugin \
docker-ce-cli \
docker-compose-plugin

Uninstalling Docker does not remove images, containers, volumes, or networks stored in /var/lib/docker/. Manually delete this directory if needed.

Install Docker Community Edition.

If you are not using an Alibaba Cloud server, replace http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com with https://mirrors.aliyun.com

#Add the Docker package repository
sudo wget -O /etc/yum.repos.d/docker-ce.repo http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com/docker-ce/linux/centos/docker-ce.repo
sudo sed -i 's|https://mirrors.aliyun.com|http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com|g' /etc/yum.repos.d/docker-ce.repo
#Install Docker Community Edition, the containerd.io container runtime, and the Docker Buildx and Compose plugins
sudo dnf -y install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Start Docker and enable auto-start on boot.

#Start Docker
sudo systemctl start docker
#Set the Docker daemon to start automatically on system boot
sudo systemctl enable docker

Deploy a web application

Build the image.

#Pull the latest Nginx image
sudo docker pull nginx:latest
#Create a Dockerfile that sets Nginx as the base image and creates an index.html file that displays "Hello World!" in the web server's root directory.
sudo tee Dockerfile <<-'EOF'
FROM nginx:latest
RUN echo 'Hello World!' > /usr/share/nginx/html/index.html
EOF
#Build the image and name it hello-world
sudo docker build . -t hello-world:latest

Start a container named hello-world from the image.

sudo docker run -d -p 80:80 --name hello-world hello-world:latest

Verify the deployment by running curl http://localhost. The output should display Hello World!.

Install Docker Compose

Use Docker Compose to define and manage multi-service applications from a single YAML file.

Alibaba Cloud Linux, CentOS, Red Hat, Anolis, Fedora

sudo yum -y install docker-compose-plugin

Ubuntu, Debian

sudo apt-get -y install docker-compose-plugin

Deploy an application

Create a docker-compose.yaml file.

#Create the orchestration file and add MySQL and WordPress services
sudo tee docker-compose.yaml <<-'EOF'
version: '3.1'

services:
  wordpress:
    image: wordpress
    restart: always
    ports:
      - "80:80"
    environment:
      #Database host address
      WORDPRESS_DB_HOST: wordpress_db
      #Database username
      WORDPRESS_DB_USER: wordpress
      #Database password
      WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD: ${WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD}
      #Database name
      WORDPRESS_DB_NAME: wordpress
    volumes:
      - wordpress:/var/www/html

  db:
    image: mysql:5.7
    restart: always
    container_name: wordpress_db
    environment:
      #Database name
      MYSQL_DATABASE: wordpress
      #Database username
      MYSQL_USER: wordpress
      #Database password
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: ${WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD}
      #Database root user password
      MYSQL_RANDOM_ROOT_PASSWORD: ${WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD}
    volumes:
      - db:/var/lib/mysql

volumes:
  wordpress:
  db:
EOF

Start WordPress. Replace <database_password> with your MySQL password.

Docker Compose V2 uses a space instead of a hyphen, for example, docker compose version.
```
#Start the service containers.
sudo env "PATH=$PATH" "WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD=<database_password>" docker compose -f docker-compose.yaml up -d
```
Open http://<Public_IP_address_of_your_ECS_instance> in a browser to access WordPress.

Verify that your security group allows inbound traffic on port 80.

FAQ

How do I run Docker as a non-root user?

Docker commands require root privileges (via sudo) by default. To avoid using sudo for every command, add your user to the docker group.

Add your user to the docker group.
```
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
```
Run newgrp docker to apply the change. You can then use docker commands without sudo. Log out and log back in for the change to persist.

Why is http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com inaccessible?

Symptom: http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com is inaccessible.
Cause: Network instability.
Solution: Replace http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com with https://mirrors.aliyun.com.

Using https://mirrors.aliyun.com requires a public IP address. See Enable Internet access.

Why does the dnf config-manager command fail?

Symptom: Running dnf config-manager shows a deprecation warning:

/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/dnf/const.py:22: DeprecationWarning: The distutils package is deprecated and slated for removal in Python 3.12. Use setuptools or check PEP 632 for potential alternatives.

Cause: Outdated dnf version.
Solution: Update dnf by running sudo dnf update dnf, then retry Docker installation.

Why does the dnf install docker-ce command fail?

Symptom: Running dnf -y install docker-ce fails with a download error:

(8-9/12): docker-ce-24.0.7-1.el8.x86_64.rpm 38% [================- ] 8.2 MB/s | 38 MB 00:07 ETA
The downloaded packages were saved in cache until the next successful transaction.
You can remove cached packages by executing 'dnf clean packages'.
Error: Error downloading packages:
containerd.io-1.6.26-3.1.el8.x86_64: Cannot download, all mirrors were already tried without success.

Cause: Outdated package cache.
Solution: Run sudo dnf clean packages, then retry the docker installation.

Symptom: Running dnf -y install docker-ce fails with a metadata download error:

CentOS- Base                                                                                                                         0.0  B/s |   0  B     00:30    
Errors during downloading metadata for repository 'base':
  - Curl error (6): Couldn't resolve host name for http://mirror.centos.org/os/BaseOS/x86_64/os/repodata/repomd.xml [Could not resolve host: mirror.aliyuncs.com]
  - Curl error (28): Timeout was reached for http://mirror.centos.org/os/BaseOS/x86_64/os/repodata/repomd.xml [Connection timed out after 30000 milliseconds]
  - Curl error (6): Couldn't resolve host name for http://mirror.centos.org/os/BaseOS/x86_64/os/repodata/repomd.xml [Could not resolve host: mirror.cloud.aliyuncs.com]
Error: Failed to download metadata for repo 'base': Cannot download repomd.xml: Cannot download repodata/repomd.xml: All mirrors were tried

Cause: Discontinued CentOS 8 repository.

Solution: Replace the discontinued CentOS 8 repository with an Alibaba Cloud mirror.

# Back up the expired software source.
sudo mv /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo.backup
# Download the Alibaba Cloud-provided CentOS-Base.repo to /etc/yum.repos.d/.
wget -O /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo http://mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com/repo/Centos-vault-8.5.2111.repo
# Replace the software source address in the Alibaba Cloud source with an address accessible to ECS.
sudo sed -i 's/mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com/url_tmp/g' /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo && sudo sed -i 's/mirrors.aliyun.com/mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com/g' /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo && sudo sed -i 's/url_tmp/mirrors.aliyun.com/g' /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo
# Clear the old cache and generate a new one.
sudo yum clean all && sudo yum makecache

Then retry the docker installation.

References

See the official Docker documentation.
Alibaba Cloud Artifact Center provides free, secure base container images from Alibaba Cloud and the OpenAnolis community.
Speed up image pulls with the enterprise P2P acceleration feature.
Run Cloud Assistant CLI in a Docker container to manage Alibaba Cloud resources.