At this point, I’ve got a lot of containers already running on my system, all in separate directories in my home directory. They’re each set up with a docker-compose file, and all of the volumes are just directories within those directories.
I don’t really want to change this setup, because it allows me to easily rip it all out and transplant it to a new system.
What I’d like is a web UI to see all of these containers, view their status, and potentially reboot them. It would also be great to be able to spin up VMs (not containers, but actual VMs) with it.
I’ve heard of Portainer, but haven’t had any experience with it.
What are your suggestions, and why do you recommend them?
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The answer is proxmox, not portainer
So first, I’m not really looking to change operating systems. I’ve got my system set up the way I like it, where it closely matches the production systems I run for my company.
Second, why do you say the answer is Proxmox? What benefit does that have over other solutions that can be more easily integrated into my existing operating system?
Not many UIs can do containers and VMs
[Sorry for my not really well written reply, you really need to try different options, and in my opinion proxmox is like the only choice because of how many cool things you can do there]
Proxmox I just really good, and if you want to spin up VMs easily you will need to reshape your setup anyway
With proxmox you can do like everything with VMs, containers, etc. Not just managing only containers, or just showing status of the VMs
Also, proxmox is not really an operating system, it’s a service on top of Debian (in many cases you start installing proxmox by installing Debian)
Can proxmox do docker containers? Last I checked it could only do LXC
Yo dawg, I put most of my services in a Docker container inside their own LXC container. It used to bug me that this seems like a less than optimal use of resources, but I love the management - all the VM and containers on one pane of glass, super simple snapshots, dead easy to move a service between machines, and simple to instrument the LXC for monitoring.
I see other people doing, and I’m interested in, an even more generic system (maybe Cockpit or something) but I’ve been really happy with this. If OP’s dream is managing all the containers and VM’s together, I’d back having a look at Proxmox.
Yes it can, but not out of the box, and yeah, if you want the ui it will be that portainer again 😂
Thanks. I did check it out and it looks like it’s got some really cool benefits, like being able to cluster across two machines and take one down if it needs servicing, with zero down time.
I’m thinking about buying some rack mount servers and bringing everything I’m currently doing in the cloud for my business to on-premises servers. The one thing I was wary about was how I was going to handle hardware maintenance, and this looks like it would solve that issue nicely.
For the system itself I would recommend nixos
Some people like it, some people are against progress and they think work should be manual 🤣
I’m using nixos and all my machines, even integrating my phone in it
You can automate and replicate unbelievable stuff with it. You solve a bunch of problems by using nixos
But it’s a whole big rabbit whole, and it would take a lot of time to learn how to use it, then a lot of time to set everything up
But you could do zero downtime hardware maintenance without VMs or containers, just by using bare metal
Edit: or with VMs, containers, or k8s. Everything would be just cleaner and cooler
Portainer and Cockpit if you want to run VM (it also manage container but only with podman)
Cockpit looks interesting. It’s got a lot of features I normally do with terminal commands, but the VM manager stuff looks like what I’m looking for.
With docker containers I’ve moved from portainer to dockge. It lets you see the birds eye view, but also lets you directly edit the compose file from the UI. I haven’t been using it very long, but so far I like it.
You will need to find something else for vms though. I use proxmox.
Looks interesting. How does it compare to portainer stacks?
It’s a bit simpler than portainer, but I appreciate being able to edit the docker compose file directly rather than trying to find all the right buttons in portainer.
Might give it a look, the UI for portainer is frustrating but I mostly use the stacks.
If you’re running a compatible OS (Debian will work), cockpit for VMs and whatever you like for containers.
Or just do everything on the command line like us crusty system admins
What about incus, the LXD fork, with the webui? Incus is so simple/logical for managing both VMs and containers (and you can run docker inside of them) and the webui lets you manage it from a browser if desired
