The one tool that makes every homelab much easier to handle

Science

Released Sep 23, 2026, 12:00 PM EDT

Patrick Campanale has actually remained in the tech area for well over a years, focusing on PC/gaming news and evaluations, along with maker-focused items to develop small companies.

With a start in innovation back in 2010 surrounding the Palm/webOS environment, Patrick invested his developmental years establishing mobile applications along with blogging for different publications, ultimately causing beginning his own site in 2014. After running an innovation blog site for a couple of years, he got out of that function and into the world of high-end customized PC production and structure, with a concentrate on YouTube video production and overclocking. In 2017, Patrick signed up with the 9to5Toys group as an editor/writer/reviewer with over 14,000 posts being released throughout his time there, varying from offers and roundups to thorough evaluations on the current innovation, computer game, 3D printers, and more.

In his downtime, Patrick enjoys to produce tasks from wood utilizing numerous robotics and techniques, consisting of leveraging the innovations of CNCs and lasers. If Patrick isn’t dealing with a computer system or playing computer game, he’s most likely in his 2-car garage workshop producing something special. In addition to all this, Patrick is likewise the media director at his regional church where he feels God has actually called him to serve, and he likes every minute of it.

Have you heard individuals speaking about Docker however have no concept what it is or if you require it? Docker is a wonderful tool that I believe belongs in every homelab– here’s what Docker is, and why it is the one tool that makes my homelab simple to handle.

What is Docker?

No, it’s not the name of a container

Docker is the name of a platform that containers work on. It’s both a command-line tool and a desktop user interface, depending upon which you choose to deal with.

<p>Docker has actually ended up being the market requirement for running containerized apps in both homelab and production environments. The <a href="https://hub.docker.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Docker Hub</a>a repository of over 10,000,000 (10 million) public images, is likewise among the go-to locations to get applications to run inside Docker (or any other container supervisor).</p>    <p>Docker is among the most popular container supervisors, which likewise makes it among the best-documented choices to utilize. If you're simply beginning with containers, I 'd extremely suggest utilizing Docker as your entry, it's easier, and the neighborhood has a lots of assistance offered.</p>    What are containers, and are they special to Docker?

Docker is popular, however not the only gamer in the area

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    </picture><small>Credit: Lucas Gouveia/How-To Geek|klyaksun/Shutterstock</small></figure>

Docker assisted to develop the Open Container Initiativeor OCI, that a great deal of other platforms now make use of. While Docker itself may not be complimentary and open source in its totality, the OCI that it assisted begin is.

<p>For those who do not wish to utilize Docker, there are absolutely other OCI-compliant platforms out there, consisting of Podman, Containerd + Nerdctl, Rancher Desktop, and even LXC.</p>    <p>A few of these programs work on the Docker subsystem, and others utilize their own application of containers. At the end of the day, however, they all run containers.</p>    <p>The simplest method to describe what a container is, is to reference it as an application. Each container image is created to usually do a couple of things, which's it. You can develop your own images that do more, however it's normally suggested to utilize single-purpose containers.</p>    <p>Each container you run will have both consistent storage that's saved either in a Docker volume or in a folder on your computer system, and storage that will be ruined each time the container is upgraded. This makes containers simpler to utilize than devoted applications in lots of situations, due to the fact that your choices are saved in an easy-to-find file, and if you uninstall the container by mishap, you can re-install it and keep all your settings simply as they were.</p>    How containers vary from virtual makers

Pre-configured and ultra light-weight

                                                                                        <picture><img width="1650" height="928" loading="lazy" decoding="async" alt="A Fedora virtual machine running on an Ubuntu host." src="https://i0.wp.com/media.pmnsports.co.uk/2026/09/localimages/fedora-vm-on-ubuntu-computer.png?q=49&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=2" previous-src="https://i0.wp.com/media.pmnsports.co.uk/2026/09/localimages/fedora-vm-on-ubuntu-computer.png?q=49&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=2">
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If you’ve never ever become aware of or utilized a container in the past, among the very best methods to explain it is a light-weight virtual device– however it’s not a virtual device.

<p>A container is a containerized mini os operating on your computer system that's pre-configured to run the particular application it's developed for. This indicates you might get a container for Plex that's based upon the Arch Linux image, however it just consists of the required parts of Arch to run Plex and no more.</p>    <p>Containers likewise can quickly connect with your host running system, while that's typically harder for virtual devices. With containers, you're frequently installing folders or files from the host computer system for it to check out or perhaps read/write from. Typically, containers will have you install something like an internal/ information or/ config folder to a folder on your computer system. Doing so enables you complete access to those files, and is in fact why containers are so robust.</p>    <p>Simply recently, I did something to my Docker server that brought numerous containers down. All I needed to do was begin them support fresh and point the installed folders to the folders on my storage, and the services were back up and running like they never ever stopped.</p>    Running your extremely first container

. It’s simpler than you believe[

                                                                                        <picture><source media="(max-width: 480px)" data-srcset="https://i0.wp.com/media.pmnsports.co.uk/2026/09/localimages/screenshot-2026-01-28-at-12-10-03-pm.png?q=49&fit=crop&w=500&dpr=2"> <a href="https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/ubuntu/" target="_blank">
    </a></source></picture>

Running a Docker container is in fact really easy. You have 2 main methods to run a Docker container: the docker run command, or through Docker Compose.

<p>I have not been a huge Docker Compose user in the past, however I'm beginning to utilize it a growing number of. For simpleness's sake, I'm going to reveal you how to utilize <code>docker run</code> <em>and</em> Docker Compose, so that you can quickly see an example of both.</p>    <p>Start by setting up Docker on your computer systemThis differs based upon what os you're running, once you have it set up, you're prepared to release your very first container.</p>    <p>With Docker set up, head to your terminal and run <code>sudo docker run hello-world</code>. This ought to offer you an output that reveals a message from Docker with the actions it required to produce it.</p>    <p>On the Docker Compose side <source media="(max-width: 480px)" data-srcset="https://i0.wp.com/media.pmnsports.co.uk/2026/09/localimages/screenshot-2026-01-28-at-12-35-28-pm.png?q=49&fit=crop&w=500&dpr=2"> <source media="(max-width: 767px)" data-srcset="https://i0.wp.com/media.pmnsports.co.uk/2026/09/localimages/screenshot-2026-01-28-at-12-35-28-pm.png?q=70&fit=crop&w=800&dpr=1"> <source media="(max-width: 1023px)" data-srcset="https://i0.wp.com/media.pmnsports.co.uk/2026/09/localimages/screenshot-2026-01-28-at-12-35-28-pm.png?q=70&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=1"> <img width="825" height="486" loading="lazy" decoding="async" alt="science A terminal running nano showing a Docker Compose file for Terminus." src="https://i0.wp.com/media.pmnsports.co.uk/2026/09/localimages/screenshot-2026-01-28-at-12-35-28-pm.png?q=70&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=1" previous-src="https://i0.wp.com/media.pmnsports.co.uk/2026/09/localimages/screenshot-2026-01-28-at-12-35-28-pm.png?q=70&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=1"> of things, make a really easy docker-compose. yml file with the following code and after that run <code>docker compose up</code>:</source></source></source></p>    

services:
  hello:
    image: hello-world

Long as you see an output comparable to my screenshot above, you’re prepared to move onto the next action in your Docker journey!

Docker Compose can streamline your workflow

Copy a file, alter some lines, begin your services

                                                                                        <picture><img width="825" height="486" loading="lazy" decoding="async" alt="A terminal running nano showing a Docker Compose file for Terminus." src="https://i0.wp.com/media.pmnsports.co.uk/2026/09/localimages/screenshot-2026-01-28-at-12-35-28-pm.png?q=70&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=1" previous-src="https://i0.wp.com/media.pmnsports.co.uk/2026/09/localimages/screenshot-2026-01-28-at-12-35-28-pm.png?q=70&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=1">
    </picture>

I simply revealed you how to utilize both docker run and Docker Compose, however Docker Compose is actually what you must utilize if at all possible. It’s an easier approach, specifically with more complex implementations.

With Docker Compose, you can take your time to construct a file for the Docker container you’re wishing to launch. Customizing a Compose file is likewise extremely simple to do. With a docker run command, if you require to alter a release setting(ecological variable, port, bind install, or anything else), then you require to stop the container, reword the docker run command, and redeploy it.

<p>With Docker Compose, you have the docker-compose. yml file inside a folder that you wish to run the container from. The file itself is simple to alter at any time. To release the container, you either run <code>docker compose up</code> to simply run it when and shut it down, or <code>docker compose up -d</code> if you desire the container to run in the background. If you make modifications to the Compose file, <code>docker compose up -d</code> once again, and now those modifications work.</p>    <p>Unless you're utilizing a web UI for Docker like Portainer(which I do), Docker Compose is just the simplest method to user interface with Docker. You can quickly make modifications to a container's settings and redeploy it without needing to attempt and remember what your initial command appeared like.</p>    Trust the procedure

Docker is a very important tool. Docker runs my whole homelab. I would not have the ability to run the services that I do without Docker.

<p>If you have not utilized Docker previously, then provide it a shot. It'll transform how you release and preserve services in your homelab (or production) environment.</p>    <br>Find out more</source></sourcemedia>