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Docker containers

The Docker section of a server appears when Docker is installed. Its first page lists the containers. Portway runs the docker command on the server, so it shows exactly what docker ps and docker inspect report.

The container list grouped by the Compose project shop and by standalone containers, with status, ports marked as public, CPU and RAM, and a detail panel for the selected container.
Figure 1. The container list.

Reading the list

Section titled “Reading the list”

Containers are grouped by Compose project, followed by the group Standalone containers for those that were started with docker run. Each group header counts how many containers run.

Column Content
Container The name, the restart policy and the image
Status The state and, when the container has a health check, its result
Ports (host → container) The published ports. Ports that are open on every address are marked public
CPU % and RAM The current use. CPU is shown against the number of cores

Status values include Running, Running · healthy, Running · unhealthy, Completed for a job that ran once, Stopped · exit N, Failed · exit N and Restart loop · N times. The restart loop mark finds containers that start and crash again and again.

A port that is open on all addresses is flagged with an explanation. Docker adds its own iptables rules, so ufw cannot block such a port. A database or cache should be bound to 127.0.0.1 instead. Firewall shows how to fix this.

Details of a container

Section titled “Details of a container”

Select a row to open the panel on the right. It shows the status and the health check, the ports, the mounted volumes, the environment variables, the number of restarts, the command and the creation time. Environment variable values are hidden until they are clicked, because they often contain secrets.

Actions

Section titled “Actions”
Action Effect
Log Opens the log viewer for the container
Terminal Opens a terminal on this computer that runs docker exec -it in the container
Restart Restarts the container
Stop Stops the container
Start and Run again Starts a stopped container, or runs a one-time job again
Open tunnel to port Creates a tunnel to a published port

Restart, stop and run again ask for confirmation. The dialog names the role of the container, for example a database, and warns that dependent containers can fail while it restarts. Running a job again warns that the task runs with the same image and environment, so it must be safe to repeat.

The log viewer

Section titled “The log viewer”
The log viewer of the container shop-api-1 with the filters All, Warnings and errors, Errors, a text filter, a Follow live button and the lines of the log.
Figure 2. The log viewer of a container.

The viewer shows the last 300 lines with timestamps. The filters narrow the lines to warnings and errors or to errors, and the text filter matches any text. Follow live streams new lines while the container runs, and Open in Terminal continues in a terminal. For a container that is not running, only the old logs are available.

When Docker cannot be read

Section titled “When Docker cannot be read”
  • Docker is not installed. The page says so and shows the official installation script.
  • The user is not in the docker group. The page explains that /var/run/docker.sock cannot be read and offers to use the root connection. Turning on sudo also works.
  • The daemon is not running. The page offers to start docker.service. Containers with the restart policy always or unless-stopped start with it.
Section titled “Related pages”