Docker basics with Geodocker GeoServer

Today’s post is mostly notes-to-self about using Docker. These steps were tested on a fresh Ubuntu 17.04 install.

Install Docker as described in https://docs.docker.com/engine/installation/linux/docker-ce/ubuntu/ “Install using the repository” section.

Then add the current user to the docker user group (otherwise, all docker commands have to be prefixed with sudo)

$ sudo gpasswd -a $USER docker
$ newgrp docker

Test run the hello world image

$ docker run hello-world

For some more Docker basics, see https://github.com/docker/labs/blob/master/beginner/chapters/alpine.md.

Pull Geodocker images, for example from https://quay.io/organization/geodocker

$ docker pull quay.io/geodocker/base
$ docker pull quay.io/geodocker/geoserver

Get a list of pulled images

$ docker images
REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED SIZE
quay.io/geodocker/geoserver latest c60753e05956 8 months ago 904MB
quay.io/geodocker/base latest 293209905a47 8 months ago 646MB

Test run quay.io/geodocker/base

$ docker run -it --rm quay.io/geodocker/base:latest java -version
java version "1.8.0_45"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_45-b14)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.45-b02, mixed mode)

Run quay.io/geodocker/geoserver

$ docker run --name geoserver -e AUTHOR="Anita" \
 -d -P quay.io/geodocker/geoserver

The important options are:

-d … Run container in background and print container ID

-P … Publish all exposed ports to random ports

Check if the image is running

$ docker ps
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
684598b57868 quay.io/geodocker/geoserver "/opt/tomcat/bin/c..." 
2 hours ago Up 2 hours 0.0.0.0:32772->9090/tcp geoserver

You can also check which ports to access using

$ docker port geoserver
9090/tcp -> 0.0.0.0:32772

Geoserver should now run on http://localhost:32772/geoserver/ (user=admin, password=geoserver)

For more tests, let’s connect to Geoserver from QGIS

All default example layers are listed

and can be loaded into QGIS