How to Install Docker on Ubuntu 22.04

4 min readUpdated 22 April 2026

Docker is an open-source platform designed to automate application deployment, scaling, and management using containers. Containers are lightweight and portable executable packages that contain all the necessary resources required to run an application. A container includes the application code, runtime, libraries, and dependencies that ensure consistency when running the application.

In this article, you are to install Docker on an Ubuntu 22.04 server, run a containerized application, and deploy it to a container registry

Warning

Vultr Cloud GPU instances running Ubuntu come with Docker as a pre-installed feature. Attempting to install Docker on these servers may result in conflicts with the NVIDIA Container Toolkit, potentially impacting GPU performance and container compatibility.

Prerequisites

Before you begin:

Have an Ubuntu 22.04 server.
Access the server using SSH as a non-root user with sudo privileges.
Update the server.
Create a Container Registry to store your Docker images. This article uses Vultr Container Registry as an example, but the commands can be adapted to any registry by switching to the appropriate registry-specific variables.

Install Docker

Update the server package index.
CONSOLE
$ sudo apt update
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Install all required dependency packages.
CONSOLE
$ sudo apt install apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl software-properties-common -y
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Add the Docker GPG key to your server's keyring.
CONSOLE
$ sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
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Add the latest Docker repository to your APT sources.
CONSOLE
$ echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
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Update the server package index.
CONSOLE
$ sudo apt update
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Install Docker.
CONSOLE
$ sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin
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The above command installs the latest Docker version with the following plugins:
- docker-ce: Docker Engine Community Edition.
- docker-ce-cli: Provides the Docker command line interface (CLI).
- containerd.io: Container runtime for managing Docker container lifecycles.
- docker-buildx-plugin: Enhances Docker's image-building for multi-platform support.
- docker-compose-plugin: Manages multi-container Docker applications using YAML files.
View the installed Docker version on your server.
CONSOLE
$ sudo docker --version
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Output:
Docker version 28.0.4, build b8034c0

Manage the Docker System Service

Enable the system service to start automatically at boot time.
CONSOLE
$ sudo systemctl enable docker
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View the Docker service status and verify that it's running.

CONSOLE

$ sudo systemctl status docker

Output:

● docker.service - Docker Application Container Engine
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/docker.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Sat 2025-04-05 19:55:43 UTC; 2min 32s ago
TriggeredBy: ● docker.socket
       Docs: https://docs.docker.com
   Main PID: 4205 (dockerd)
      Tasks: 10
     Memory: 22.3M
     CGroup: /system.slice/docker.service
             └─4205 /usr/bin/dockerd -H fd:// --containerd=/run/containerd/containerd.sock

Run the following command to stop the Docker service.
CONSOLE
$ sudo systemctl stop docker
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Restart the Docker service.
CONSOLE
$ sudo systemctl restart docker
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Add your non-root user to the Docker group to run Docker CLI commands without sudo privileges. Replace linuxuser with your actual username.
CONSOLE
$ sudo usermod -aG docker linuxuser
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Enable the new user group changes in your active session.
CONSOLE
$ newgrp docker
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Run a Containerized Application

Docker runs containerized applications using local or remote container images from registries such as Docker Hub. Follow the steps below to run a sample Nginx containerized application to test Docker on your server.

Pull the latest Nginx image from Docker Hub.
CONSOLE
$ sudo docker pull nginx:latest
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View all Docker images on the server and verify that the Nginx image is available.
CONSOLE
$ sudo docker images
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Output:
REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED SIZE nginx latest dde0cca083bc 2 weeks ago 188MB
Run a new Docker container using the image.
CONSOLE
$ sudo docker run --name mynginx -d -p 80:80 nginx:latest
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The above command runs a new Docker container on the server using your Nginx image with the following values:
- --name mynginx: Sets the container name to mynginx.
- -d: Runs the container in detached mode, as a background process.
- -p 80:80: Maps the host port 80 to the container port 80, allowing access via the host port.
- nginx:latest: Specifies the Docker image to use for the container.
List all the running containers on the server and verify that the new container is up.
CONSOLE
$ sudo docker ps
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Output:
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES d79cad9ea8d2 nginx:latest "/docker-entrypoint.…" 5 seconds ago Up 4 seconds 0.0.0.0:80->80/tcp, :::80->80/tcp mynewnginx
Allow the HTTP port 80 through the firewall to enable connections to the port.
CONSOLE
$ sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
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Access your server IP address using a web browser such as Chrome to test access to the Docker container.
http://SERVER-IP

Deploy a Containerized Application to Vultr Container Registry

Docker supports public and private registries to build and deploy container images on your server. The Vultr Container Registry allows you to build Docker images, manage multiple versions, and distribute the images to different environments. Follow the steps below to tag and deploy your local Nginx image to the Vultr Container Registry using Docker.

Open the Vultr Console.
Access your Vultr Container Registry management panel and note the credentials to use when accessing the registry.
Access your server terminal session and run the following Docker command to login to the Vultr container registry. Replace https://sjc.vultrcr.com/samplecontainerregistry, example-user and apikey1234 with your actual registry details.
CONSOLE
$ sudo docker login https://sjc.vultrcr.com/samplecontainerregistry -u example-user -p apikey1234
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Tag your Nginx Docker image with your Vultr Container Registry.
CONSOLE
$ sudo docker tag nginx:latest sjc.vultrcr.com/samplecontainerregistry/mynginx:latest
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View all Docker images on the server and verify that the new image is available.
CONSOLE
$ sudo docker images
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Output:
REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED SIZE nginx latest dde0cca083bc 2 weeks ago 188MB sjc.vultrcr.com/samplecontainerregistry/mynginx latest dde0cca083bc 2 weeks ago 188MB
Push the tagged image to your Vultr container registry.
CONSOLE
$ sudo docker push sjc.vultrcr.com/samplecontainerregistry/mynginx:latest
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Access your Vultr Container Registry management panel.
Navigate to the Repositories tab and verify that the new Docker image is available.
Run the following command to pull the image from the Vultr Container Registry.
CONSOLE
$ sudo docker pull sjc.vultrcr.com/samplecontainerregistry/mynginx:latest
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Conclusion

In this article, you installed Docker on Ubuntu 22.04, ran a containerized application, and deployed local images to the Vultr Container Registry. You can run multiple Docker images on your server and securely access them without directly interacting with the container environment.For more information, visit the Docker reference documentation.

Tags:Docker Ubuntu 22.04

Prerequisites

Before you begin:

Have an Ubuntu 22.04 server.

Access the server using SSH as a non-root user with sudo privileges.

Update the server.

Create a Container Registry to store your Docker images. This article uses Vultr Container Registry as an example, but the commands can be adapted to any registry by switching to the appropriate registry-specific variables.

Install Docker

Update the server package index.

CONSOLE

$ sudo apt update

Install all required dependency packages.

CONSOLE

$ sudo apt install apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl software-properties-common -y

Add the Docker GPG key to your server's keyring.

CONSOLE

$ sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

Add the latest Docker repository to your APT sources.

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

CONSOLE

$ sudo apt update

Install Docker.

CONSOLE

$ sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

The above command installs the latest Docker version with the following plugins:

docker-ce: Docker Engine Community Edition.
docker-ce-cli: Provides the Docker command line interface (CLI).
containerd.io: Container runtime for managing Docker container lifecycles.
docker-buildx-plugin: Enhances Docker's image-building for multi-platform support.
docker-compose-plugin: Manages multi-container Docker applications using YAML files.

View the installed Docker version on your server.

CONSOLE

$ sudo docker --version

Output:

Docker version 28.0.4, build b8034c0

Manage the Docker System Service

Enable the system service to start automatically at boot time.

CONSOLE
$ sudo systemctl enable docker
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View the Docker service status and verify that it's running.

CONSOLE

$ sudo systemctl status docker

Output:

● docker.service - Docker Application Container Engine
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/docker.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Sat 2025-04-05 19:55:43 UTC; 2min 32s ago
TriggeredBy: ● docker.socket
       Docs: https://docs.docker.com
   Main PID: 4205 (dockerd)
      Tasks: 10
     Memory: 22.3M
     CGroup: /system.slice/docker.service
             └─4205 /usr/bin/dockerd -H fd:// --containerd=/run/containerd/containerd.sock

Run the following command to stop the Docker service.

CONSOLE

$ sudo systemctl stop docker

Restart the Docker service.

CONSOLE

$ sudo systemctl restart docker

Add your non-root user to the Docker group to run Docker CLI commands without sudo privileges. Replace linuxuser with your actual username.

CONSOLE

$ sudo usermod -aG docker linuxuser

Enable the new user group changes in your active session.

CONSOLE

$ newgrp docker

Run a Containerized Application

Pull the latest Nginx image from Docker Hub.

CONSOLE

$ sudo docker pull nginx:latest

View all Docker images on the server and verify that the Nginx image is available.

CONSOLE

$ sudo docker images

Output:

REPOSITORY   TAG       IMAGE ID       CREATED       SIZE
nginx        latest    dde0cca083bc   2 weeks ago   188MB

Run a new Docker container using the image.

CONSOLE

$ sudo docker run --name mynginx -d -p 80:80 nginx:latest

The above command runs a new Docker container on the server using your Nginx image with the following values:

--name mynginx: Sets the container name to mynginx.
-d: Runs the container in detached mode, as a background process.
-p 80:80: Maps the host port 80 to the container port 80, allowing access via the host port.
nginx:latest: Specifies the Docker image to use for the container.

List all the running containers on the server and verify that the new container is up.

CONSOLE

$ sudo docker ps

Output:

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE          COMMAND                  CREATED         STATUS         PORTS                               NAMES
d79cad9ea8d2   nginx:latest   "/docker-entrypoint.…"   5 seconds ago   Up 4 seconds   0.0.0.0:80->80/tcp, :::80->80/tcp   mynewnginx

Allow the HTTP port 80 through the firewall to enable connections to the port.

CONSOLE

$ sudo ufw allow 80/tcp

Access your server IP address using a web browser such as Chrome to test access to the Docker container.

http://SERVER-IP

Deploy a Containerized Application to Vultr Container Registry

Open the Vultr Console.

Access your Vultr Container Registry management panel and note the credentials to use when accessing the registry.

Access your server terminal session and run the following Docker command to login to the Vultr container registry. Replace https://sjc.vultrcr.com/samplecontainerregistry, example-user and apikey1234 with your actual registry details.

CONSOLE

$ sudo docker login https://sjc.vultrcr.com/samplecontainerregistry -u example-user -p apikey1234

Tag your Nginx Docker image with your Vultr Container Registry.

CONSOLE

$ sudo docker tag nginx:latest  sjc.vultrcr.com/samplecontainerregistry/mynginx:latest

View all Docker images on the server and verify that the new image is available.

CONSOLE

$ sudo docker images

Output:

REPOSITORY                                              TAG       IMAGE ID       CREATED       SIZE
nginx                                                   latest    dde0cca083bc   2 weeks ago   188MB
sjc.vultrcr.com/samplecontainerregistry/mynginx         latest    dde0cca083bc   2 weeks ago   188MB    

Push the tagged image to your Vultr container registry.

CONSOLE

$ sudo docker push sjc.vultrcr.com/samplecontainerregistry/mynginx:latest

Access your Vultr Container Registry management panel.

Navigate to the Repositories tab and verify that the new Docker image is available.

Run the following command to pull the image from the Vultr Container Registry.

CONSOLE

$ sudo docker pull sjc.vultrcr.com/samplecontainerregistry/mynginx:latest

Conclusion

How to Install Docker on Ubuntu 22.04

Warning

Prerequisites

Install Docker

Manage the Docker System Service

Run a Containerized Application

Deploy a Containerized Application to Vultr Container Registry

Conclusion

About the Author

Aashish Chaurasiya

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0 Comments

How to Install Docker on Ubuntu 22.04

Warning

Prerequisites

Install Docker

Manage the Docker System Service

Run a Containerized Application

Deploy a Containerized Application to Vultr Container Registry

Conclusion

About the Author

Aashish Chaurasiya

More to Explore

Tech Talk: Running a Self-Improving AI Agent with Hermes on Vultr

Tech Talk: Implementing Fine-Grained Access Control with Vultr IAM

Tech Talk: Getting Started with Vultr IAM

Tech Talk: Simplifying Zero-Trust Networking with NetBird on Vultr Marketplace

0 Comments