Running Docker Containers on VeloxaHost: Patterns and Best Practices

VeloxaHost instances run on Incus, which natively supports Docker as a workload inside container and VM instances. Here's how to get the most out of Docker on VeloxaHost.

Installing Docker

On a fresh Ubuntu 22.04 instance:

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

Deploying with docker compose

Create /srv/myapp/docker-compose.yml:

services:
  web:
    image: myapp:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports: ["80:8000"]
    environment:
      DATABASE_URL: ${DATABASE_URL}
  db:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    restart: always
    volumes: [db_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data]
volumes:
  db_data:

docker compose up -d

Using VeloxaHost Storage for Persistent Volumes

Mount a VeloxaHost storage volume (not an instance disk) for data you need to persist across instance replacements:

volumes:
  db_data:
    driver: local
    driver_opts:
      type: none
      device: /mnt/gh-storage/db
      o: bind

Networking Between Instances

Use VeloxaHost's private networking to connect containers across instances without exposing ports publicly. Instances on the same network can reach each other by hostname.

Monitoring Docker Containers

VeloxaHost's built-in monitoring tracks instance-level CPU and memory. For container-level visibility, add cAdvisor:

docker run -d --restart always \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  gcr.io/cadvisor/cadvisor:latest

Then create a VeloxaHost alert for instance CPU > 80% to get notified when any container is misbehaving.