How to install and setup the docker on Ubuntu

In this tutorial, we are going to install and setup docker on an Ubuntu server.

Update and Prepare the System

Install Dependencies

Let's first install the necessary dependencies. Use the following commands.

bash

sudo apt update
sudo apt install apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl software-properties-common -y

Add Docker’s GPG Key

bash

curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg

This indicates that the software we are installing is authentic.

Add the Docker Repository

bash

echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

This will use the latest version of Docker.

Installing Docker

bash

sudo apt update
sudo apt install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io -y

Verify the Docker installation

Check the Docker status using the following command.

bash

sudo systemctl status docker

If everything is good, it will show as below.

● docker.service - Docker Application Container Engine
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/docker.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Fri 2026-05-01 04:08:44 UTC; 1 day 8h ago
TriggeredBy: ● docker.socket
       Docs: https://docs.docker.com
   Main PID: 73211 (dockerd)
      Tasks: 41
     Memory: 234.1M (peak: 249.4M)
        CPU: 56.968s

Docker container testing

To run the test, run the Hello World container

bash

sudo docker run hello-world

Output:

Unable to find image 'hello-world:latest' locally
latest: Pulling from library/hello-world
4f55086f7dd0: Pull complete 
Digest: sha256:f9078146db2e05e794366b1bfe584a14ea6317f44027d10ef7dad65279026885
Status: Downloaded newer image for hello-world:latest

Hello from Docker!
This message shows that your installation appears to be working correctly.

Docker Commands

Let's look into the example of running container:

np@np:~$ docker image ls
REPOSITORY        TAG         IMAGE ID       CREATED       SIZE
oracle/database   19.3.0-ee   dd6c130762a3   11 days ago   6.54GB

Command	Description
`docker ps -a`	List all the running containers
`docker images`	List all the images
`docker stop <container_id>`	Stop the running container with the container ID e.g `docker stop 767c0a92e087`
`docker rm <container_id>`	Remove the container e.g: `docker rm 767c0a92e087`
`docker rm -f <container_id>`	To force to remove the running container in one command
`docker container prune`	To remove all the stopped containers(not recommended)
`docker stop $(docker ps -aq)`	To stop all the containers(not recommended)
`docker rm $(docker ps -aq)`	Remove all the docker containers permanently
`docker rmi <image_id>`	To delete the specific image
`docker rmi -f <image_id>`	To remove the docker image forcefully
`docker image prune`	To remove unused images(not recommended)
`docker rmi -f $(docker images -aq)`	Remove all the images(Not recommended)

Note: the deleted images need to be re-downloaded if we need it later

Now we do have a fully functional Docker environment with Docker commands. Now we can use it to manage pulling Docker images, for e.g mysql, our own app images etc.