Set up Docker

Use Docker to run your node operations locally or on a remote server. This guide covers our recommended setups for each platform.

Linux

1. Uninstall any conflicting packages:

   for pkg in docker.io docker-doc docker-compose docker-compose-v2 podman-docker containerd runc; do sudo apt-get remove $pkg; done

2. Install Docker:

   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl
   sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
   sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
   sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
   echo \
     "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
     $(. /etc/os-release && echo "${UBUNTU_CODENAME:-$VERSION_CODENAME}") stable" | \
     sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

3. Verify Docker is installed:

   sudo docker run hello-world

4. Add your user to the docker group:

   sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
   newgrp docker

macOS

1. Install Colima and the Docker client with Homebrew:

   brew install colima docker

   If you prefer another package manager, follow the Colima install docs.

2. Start Colima with default settings:

   colima start

   Note

   After the initial start, configure --cpu and --memory to match your workload. See the Colima docs for guidance.

3. Confirm Docker works:

   docker info
   docker run hello-world

4. We prefer Colima for lightweight local development and because it’s awesome. If you need a graphical UI or Kubernetes features, install Docker Desktop for Mac.

Windows

1. Install Docker Desktop for Windows. The installer enables WSL 2 and the Docker backend automatically.

2. Open PowerShell and verify Docker works:

   docker version
   docker run hello-world