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Docker installation

  • to install the most recent version we recommend the following Docker installation
  • they also describe how to install docker on debian, or other distros
  • in the following section we describe how to install docker on ubuntu

For Ubuntu

  • we are using this installation guide but shorten it to the bare minimum for you
  • so we skip a few steps that are not necessary

Setting up the repository

Before you install Docker Engine for the first time on a new host machine, you need to set up the Docker repository. Afterward, you can install and update Docker from the repository (via apt update and apt upgrade).

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install \
    apt-transport-https \
    ca-certificates \
    curl \
    gnupg-agent \
    software-properties-common

curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo apt-key add -

Note: The lsb_release -cs sub-command below returns the name of your Ubuntu distribution, such as xenial. Sometimes, in a distribution like Linux Mint, you might need to change $(lsb_release -cs) to your parent Ubuntu distribution. For example, if you are using Linux Mint Tessa, you could use bionic. Docker does not offer any guarantees on untested and unsupported Ubuntu distributions.

  • for x86_64 / amd64
sudo add-apt-repository \
   "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
   $(lsb_release -cs) \
   stable"

Install Docker Engine

  • install via
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io

Verify that Docker Engine is installed correctly by running the hello-world image.

sudo docker run --rm hello-world

This command downloads a test image and runs it in a container. When the container runs, it prints an informational message and exits.

Docker Engine is installed and running.

Create docker group

  • docker needs to run without sudo for nextflow so we need to add user that want to use docker to the docker group

  • Create the docker group (should be already created after the installation)

sudo groupadd docker
  • add a user to the docker group.
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
  • Restart