Set up a new Portainer CE Server installation

Install Portainer CE with Docker on Linux

Docker Standalone

System Requirements

• Ubuntu 20.04/22.04/22.04 LTS

• Minimum 2GB RAM (4GB recommended)

• 20GB free disk space

Network Requirements

• Port 9443 (HTTPS Web UI)

• Port 8000 (Edge Compute)

1. Update System

Before installing anything, ensure your server packages are up to date:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y

2. Install Docker

Portainer runs as a Docker container, so Docker must be installed first.

# Install Docker
sudo apt install docker.io -y

# Start and enable Docker service
sudo systemctl start docker
sudo systemctl enable docker

# Add user to docker group
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

# Verify installation
docker --version

3. Portainer Installation

a. Create Data Volume

sudo docker volume create portainer_data

b. Run Portainer Container

sudo 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:latest

What this does:

• Opens required ports for the web UI (9443) and optional edge features (8000)

• Allows Portainer to manage Docker through the Docker socket

• Stores Portainer data in a persistent volume

• Ensures Portainer automatically restarts on system reboot.

c. Verify Installation

# Check running containers
sudo docker ps

Expected Output:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo docker ps
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                           COMMAND        CREATED         STATUS         PORTS                                                                                                NAMES
dabaf65f149b   portainer/portainer-ce:latest   "/portainer"   4 minutes ago   Up 4 minutes   0.0.0.0:8000->8000/tcp, [::]:8000->8000/tcp, 0.0.0.0:9443->9443/tcp, [::]:9443->9443/tcp, 9000/tcp   portainer

4. Initial Setup

a. Access Portainer

1. Open web browser

2. Navigate to: https://<server ip>:9443

You will see:

• A security warning (because it uses a self-signed certificate) → click Proceed

• Portainer setup page where you create the admin password

• Then you choose the environment to manage → Docker

3. Create Admin User

• Username: admin (or custom)

• Password: Minimum 12 characters with:

  • Uppercase letters

  • Lowercase letters

  • Numbers

  • Special characters

Click on Get Started