Best Docker Containers for Home Server!

Many want to start getting into running Docker containers in their home lab environments. However, some struggle to understand what use cases, services, and solutions are good to run as containers. We take a look at the Best Docker Containers for Home Server environments, looking at my top 5 Docker containers I run in the home lab. Hopefully, this list will help inspire you guys to share what containers you are running and maybe try out some of the containerized services I am using.

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Introduction to the Best Docker Containers to run on a home server - 0:00
Number 1 - Introduction to Rancher and using it to manage Kubernetes - 0:33
Looking at cluster management in Rancher - 1:12
Node templates with Rancher - 1:44
Looking at the Apps catalog and helm charts - 1:57
Why Rancher is my top pick - 2:24
Number 2 - Introduction to Portainer - 2:42
Talking about Portainer and its graphical interface - 3:05
Talking about the Portainer dashboard - 3:19
Looking around the containers dashboard and capabilities - 3:41
Integration with Docker Compose - 4:10
Built-in registry for apps contained in Portainer - 4:43
Number 3 - Introduction to Gitlab - 5:17
Talking about DevOps and Platform engineering - 5:47
Use cases for Gitlab - Terraform, Ansible, CI/CD pipelines - 6:02
Checking in code in the home lab and triggering processes - 6:20
Looking at the Docker container for Gitlab - 6:36
Creating new Gitlab projects - 6:46
Talking about CI/CD pipelines with Packer to automate build processes - 7:20
Number 4 - Introduction to Hashicorp Vault - 8:23
Thinking about how you deal with passwords and secrets in Infrastructure as Code - 8:44
What Hashicorp Vault does - 9:02
How I use Hashicorp Vault - 9:20
Talking about installing Hashicorp Vault from the Rancher helm chart - 9:40
Looking at the Vault pods in Kubernetes - 10:05
Logging into Vault - 10:22
Different types of secrets engines and what you can do with them - 10:30
Creating new entries in Vault - 11:14
Number 5 - Introduction to Dashy - 11:55
The use case for a home lab dashboard - 12:11
How I use Dashy for my home lab dashboard - 12:25
Looking at my home lab dashboard - 12:36
Creating new sections and entries to your Dashy dashboard - 13:25
Wrapping up my thoughts on the top 5 Docker Containers for Home Server and home lab - 13:38

How to install Portainer on Ubuntu 22.04 and upgrade existing installations:

My detailed blog post on how to install Hashicorp Vault in Kubernetes:

How to create Kubernetes clusters with Rancher and VMware vSphere:

Home lab dashboard with Dashy:

[NonyaDamnbusiness]

I run Flame, Stringer, MeTube, Calibre-Web, AdGuard Home, PortainerCE, Teddit, Nitter, Whoogle, UpTime-Kuma, Plex, and Kiwix. I run straight VMs for my Unifi controller, Zerotier controller, and Home Assistant (HaOS). All of it sits on a locked-down Asustor AS6604 NAS I slapped 32GB of RAM into with 10TB split into 2 separate 5TB RAID-1 arrays as well as a RAID-1 nVME drive that houses just the NAS OS itself. I'm in an apartment so didn't have the room for anything bigger. It works well enough for me and thanks to ZeroTier I can securely access it from anywhere I have internet over an encrypted tunnel.

[mendozairis]

My personal pick of essential containers to spin up are Nextcloud, Jellyfin, Airsonic, Guacamole, and Xen Orchestra. My balance of productivity and media consumtion anytime, anywhere.

[lucashenke]

You FAVOURITE containers are management containers? Your server does nothing but manage itself?

[WillBelden]

Dashy might just've been what I've been looking for! Thanks!

[drhoratio]

My stack: Trilium (note taking app), Gitea (repo manager), Heimdall (dashboard), Vaultwarden (password manager), Plex, Transmission+OpenVPN, PiHole with DNSCrypt proxy, Watchtower, Dozzle (docker logs explorer) and Hoppscotch (API testing tool).

[Trains-With-Shane]

My top 5 are Portainer, Heimdall, Droppy, Ubooquity, and Chronograf. I was running some other stuff like Home Assistant, MariaDB, Grafana, and some data scrapers but I didn't really think the juice was worth the squeeze for Home Assistant given my small smart home device integrations, And the other stuff was just to scrape and graph stats for Proxmox, etc. Which I could do with Chronograf and InfluxDB a little more cleanly for my liking. Portainer I just use as a quick visual of logs, status, etc. I set up everything using Docker-Compose yml files.

[MathiasHomann]

My personal "top X container images for home use", in no particular order of preference: pihole, portainer, gogs, grafana and watchtower. Personally I also run freeipa and AWX but that would be a wee bit outside normal home user's scope of use.

[severtone]

Great video. I felt overwhelmed and clearly have a lot to learn. Sub earned.

[gman]

How do you create the cloud-init template to deploy Kubernetes nodes, while using vsphere. Also, do you have a write up on how to install rancher on a vsphere cluster.

[GadgeteerZA]

Mine for home use are: Portainer, Heimdall (lighter resources than Dashy), DuckDNS, MaridDB, Nginx Proxy Manager, Watchtower, Pi-Aleret, Glances, FreshRSS, and Home Assistant...

[MattHanr]

Portainer looks cool, thanks for bringing it to me

[WoodyDataAI]

Thanks so much. I really like Partainer.... it is quite powerful.

[MrShiffles]

Great video...really like Portainer and may try Dashy as an alternative to the Heimdall dashboard I've been running...Cheers!

[SB-qmwg]

I had a lot of problems with Vault/Consul/RabbitMQ at a gig. A single error in a YAML file would costs hours of trouble-shooting.

[seitbekir]

So, it is meta top 5)))

I was expecting something like smart home applications, documents and photos managers and etc... But all was about how to easily manage and run the things for the higher level, so you may provide all possible solutions in easiest way. It is ... Funny:)

[SwiatLinuksa]

Nice "disco" behind you ;)) thanks for interesting video.

[EagleTube-phwh]

HI LECTURE!HOW I USE REMOTE DOCKER FOR CODE EXECUTION TO DEVELOP ONLINE IDE

[KRMLN]

take a look at yacht its another alternative to portainer

[labloke]

Just wondering. What kind of businesses are you running at home? Most small businesses do not even have these setups.

[orangehatmusic]

I build my own orchestration management solution because all public available ones have severe pitfalls and shortcomings. If you are new to building up your cluster AVOID using any GUI at all cost so that you actually learn how things work. Using solutions like the ones mentioned in this video will quite literally teach you next to nothing.