Changemaker/mkdocs/docs/apps/portainer.md

Portainer: Docker Container Management UI

Portainer is a lightweight management UI that allows you to easily manage your Docker environments (or other container orchestrators like Kubernetes). Changemaker V5 runs its applications as Docker containers, and Portainer provides a visual interface to see, manage, and troubleshoot these containers.

Key Features

• Container Management: View, start, stop, restart, remove, and inspect Docker containers.
• Image Management: Pull, remove, and inspect Docker images.
• Volume Management: Manage Docker volumes used for persistent storage.
• Network Management: Manage Docker networks.
• Stacks/Compose: Deploy and manage multi-container applications defined in Docker Compose files (stacks).
• Logs & Stats: View container logs and resource usage statistics (CPU, memory).
• User-Friendly Interface: Simplifies Docker management for users who may not be comfortable with the command line.
• Multi-Environment Support: Can manage multiple Docker hosts or Kubernetes clusters (though in Changemaker, it's typically managing the local Docker environment).

Documentation

For more detailed information about Portainer, visit the official documentation.

Getting Started with Portainer

Accessing Portainer

1. URL: Access Portainer locally via http://localhost:9002/ (or your configured external URL).
2. Initial Setup/Login:
   • The first time you access Portainer, you will need to set up an administrator account (username and password).
   • You will then connect Portainer to the Docker environment it should manage. For Changemaker, this is usually the local Docker socket.

Basic Usage

1. Dashboard: The main dashboard provides an overview of your Docker environment (number of containers, volumes, images, etc.).

2. Containers List:

   • Navigate to "Containers" from the sidebar.
   • You'll see a list of all running and stopped containers (e.g., code-server, flatnotes, listmonk, etc., that make up Changemaker).
   • Actions: For each container, you can perform actions like:
     • Logs: View real-time logs.
     • Inspect: See detailed configuration and state.
     • Stats: View resource usage.
     • Console: Connect to the container's terminal (if supported by the container).
     • Stop/Start/Restart/Remove.

3. Images List:

   • Navigate to "Images" to see all Docker images pulled to your server.
   • You can pull new images from Docker Hub or other registries, or remove unused images.

4. Volumes List:

   • Navigate to "Volumes" to see Docker volumes, which are used by Changemaker apps to store persistent data (e.g., your notes in Flatnotes, your Listmonk database).

5. Stacks (Docker Compose):

   • Navigate to "Stacks."
   • Changemaker itself is likely deployed as a stack using its docker-compose.yml file. You might see it listed here.
   • You can add new stacks (deploy other Docker Compose applications) or manage existing ones.

Use Cases within Changemaker

• Monitoring Application Status: Quickly see if all Changemaker application containers are running.
• Viewing Logs: Troubleshoot issues by checking the logs of specific application containers.
• Restarting Applications: If an application becomes unresponsive, you can try restarting its container via Portainer.
• Resource Management: Check CPU and memory usage of containers if you suspect performance issues.
• Advanced Management: For users comfortable with Docker, Portainer provides an easier interface for tasks that would otherwise require command-line operations.

Editing the Site

Portainer is for managing the Docker containers that run the applications. It is not used for editing this documentation site. Site editing is done via Code Server.

Further Information

• Portainer Official Website: https://www.portainer.io/
• Portainer Documentation: https://docs.portainer.io/