We have decided to utilize Portainer recently. And I must admit that the experience been a positive one for us.
We have been using DevOps tools such as Jenkins, Terraform, Cloud Formation, Ansible, Prometheus, Docker, Docker Compose, Kubernetes, etc. however for containerized applications we wanted to try one of the visualization tools. We have had some experience with Rancher however this time the team decided me to experiment with Portainer. I must admit that you cannot have some functionalities you can imagine however simplicity and lightweight nature of the user interface was the convincing part for Portainer decision. Portainer CE (Community Edition) is a free version and Portainer Business is paid version. Portainer may not be heavy-duty enough for some solutions however we found the free version sufficient for our purpose for the time being.
However, I believe given many alternatives freely available in the market, everyone must make their own decision based on their own needs and experience. Depending on the workload and architecture of your solution you may find someone else’s suitable solution useless therefore this article will not advocate or recommend Portainer at all. The aim is to share our experience so far. We believe sharing is caring.
What is Portainer?
Portainer is an open-source lightweight management graphical user interface that allows you to easily manage your Docker or Kubernetes environments. Portainer is available on Windows, Linux, and Mac. It works with Kubernetes, Docker, Docker Swarm, Azure ACI in both data centers and at the edge as per the introduction page of the Official website: https://www.portainer.io
Web graphical user interface over default port 9000. Mainly user over GUI, free template library available for some frequently used images. On the other hand, you can also use JSON-based templates.
Why do I need to use Portainer?
If you are not very familiar with setting up the stack you require and if you are after visualizing what has been done Portainer is useful. Another reason for using Portainer may well be your wish to manage your containers easier especially if you are not very familiar with the command-line interface. Portainer makes it easier to run environments with multiuser by giving you the ability to assign specific roles to certain uses or groups. In addition, Portainer logs all container management actions so that you can monitor what has been done, when and by whom.
What are the pros of Portainer?
- For beginners, utilization of Portainer enables them to start using containerized applications right away. Therefore, reduces the Docker learning or Kubernetes learning curve a lot.
- Docker developer-friendly. Containers just work and you use less time to run them.
- Operations, documentation, and monitoring gets easier due to the simple graphical interface.
- You can edit the containers and re-deploy them in a matter of seconds saving time for those who require quick environment variable changes.
- Web graphical interface makes monitoring and container management simpler than CLI and takes the weight off your mind.
How to install Portainer?
$ sudo apt update -y$ sudo apt upgrade -y$ sudo apt install docker.io$ sudo systemctl start docker$ sudo systemctl enable docker$ sudo apt install docker-composesudo docker run -d \
--name=”portainer” \
--restrat on-failure \
-p 9000:9000 \
-v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
-v portainer_data:/data \
portainer/portainer-ce
Please go to your internet browser and enter <ip address>:9000 to reach the Portainer login interface page. Once you entered and confirmed your password the page will take you to Portainer’s home page. From there you will be able to launch containers, manage endpoints, manage access, use readily available templates, add external templates, manage volumes, manage users, use registries, review logs, monitor stats, and more from graphical user interface without needing to use a single line of script. Clear graphics and a logically laid menu make usage of Portainer much more user-friendly comparing the docker command-line interface.
Final verdict
If you are using containerized applications and need to manage your containers with less time and want to have quick visibility of the status of your containers you will probably like using Portainer.
Author:
M. Altun
28Apr2021, London
DevOps Engineer @ Finspire Technology
