How to install Docker and docker-compose on a VPS (Ubuntu 22.04/24.04)

Docker is the standard way to run isolated services on a VPS. This guide installs the latest Docker Engine + docker-compose plugin on Ubuntu 22.04/24.04. Any Hostiger VPS with 2 GB+ RAM handles Docker comfortably.

1. Uninstall any old Docker

apt remove docker docker-engine docker.io containerd runc -y || true

2. Add Docker's official repository

apt update
apt install ca-certificates curl gnupg -y
install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg
chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg

echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] \
  https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(. /etc/os-release && echo $VERSION_CODENAME) stable" \
  | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

3. Install Docker Engine + compose plugin

apt update
apt install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin -y

systemctl enable --now docker

# Verify
docker --version
docker compose version

4. Run as non-root

Add your user to the docker group so you don't need sudo:

usermod -aG docker $USER
newgrp docker
docker run hello-world

5. Your first container

docker run -d --name webtest -p 8080:80 nginx
curl http://localhost:8080

You should see the nginx welcome HTML. Remember to open port 8080 in ufw if you want it public: ufw allow 8080/tcp.

6. docker-compose example

Create compose.yml:

services:
  web:
    image: nginx:alpine
    ports:
      - "80:80"
    volumes:
      - ./html:/usr/share/nginx/html:ro
    restart: unless-stopped

  db:
    image: postgres:16
    environment:
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: change_me
    volumes:
      - db_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  db_data:

docker compose up -d
docker compose ps
docker compose logs -f web

7. Useful maintenance commands

docker system prune -af           # remove unused images, containers, networks
docker container stats            # live CPU/RAM per container
docker compose down --volumes     # stop stack and delete volumes
journalctl -u docker              # engine logs

Security notes

• Never publish the Docker daemon TCP socket (tcp://0.0.0.0:2375) without TLS — instant remote code exec.
• Users in the docker group effectively have root — treat them accordingly.
• Pin image versions (nginx:1.27-alpine) rather than :latest in production.

For heavy container workloads, consider Hostiger High-RAM VPS — Docker plus a database often maxes RAM before CPU.