Using Portainer to manage your Docker containers easily

Updated: 28 September 2026 · Applies to: Portainer Community Edition 2.45.1 LTS on Docker (Ubuntu, Debian, AlmaLinux or Rocky Linux)

Portainer is a web interface for Docker. From your browser you can start and stop containers, read their logs, open a console, manage images, volumes and networks, and deploy Docker Compose files as stacks. Portainer itself runs as one container on the same server.

Before you start

• A VPS or dedicated server with Docker installed and running (check with docker version). Portainer 2.45.1 lists Docker Engine 28.5.1 and 29.8.1 as supported.
• root or sudo access over SSH.
• Docker running as root, as in a standard installation.

Install Portainer

1. Create a volume for Portainer's data, so settings survive restarts and updates:

   docker volume create portainer_data

2. Start Portainer:

   docker run -d -p 8000:8000 -p 9443:9443 --name portainer --restart=always \
     -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
     -v portainer_data:/data \
     portainer/portainer-ce:lts

3. Allow port 9443 in your firewall (port 8000 is only needed for Portainer's Edge agents).

First login

1. Open https://SERVER-IP:9443 in your browser. Portainer uses a self-signed certificate at first, so accept the browser warning.
2. New installations ask for a setup token. Find it in the container log:

   docker logs portainer 2>&1 | grep setup_token

3. Enter the token, then create the administrator user and password. Do this within 5 minutes of starting the container; after that Portainer stops for security, and you restart it with docker restart portainer.
4. Choose Get Started to manage the local Docker environment.

Deploy an application as a stack

In Portainer, open Stacks › Add stack. Paste a Docker Compose file in the web editor, upload one, or load it from a Git repository, then click Deploy the stack.

Update Portainer

Your settings are kept in the portainer_data volume, so updating means replacing the container:

docker stop portainer
docker rm portainer
docker pull portainer/portainer-ce:lts
docker run -d -p 8000:8000 -p 9443:9443 --name portainer --restart=always \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  -v portainer_data:/data \
  portainer/portainer-ce:lts

Reset a forgotten admin password

1. Stop Portainer: docker stop portainer
2. Run the official helper, which prints a new random password:

   docker pull portainer/helper-reset-password
   docker run --rm -v portainer_data:/data portainer/helper-reset-password

3. Start Portainer again with docker start portainer and log in with the new password.

If your data volume has another name, or you used a bind mount, change portainer_data in the command to match.

Older guides

Guides that use the portainer/portainer image or port 9000 describe old versions. Use the portainer/portainer-ce image and HTTPS on port 9443 as shown above.

Official documentation: Install Portainer CE with Docker on Linux.

A server with Portainer ready for you

Our Portainer VPS hosting is a KVM VPS on which our engineers install Docker and Portainer for free. For help with stacks, reverse proxies or backups, you can hire an expert from $8 per 15 minutes.