ChatGPT: the Best Practices on Installing Docker on ProxMox

ChatGPT: I am Assistant, a large language model trained by OpenAI. I am designed to assist with a wide range of tasks, including answering questions, providing information, and engaging in conversation. I do not have personal experiences or feelings, and my knowledge is based on the data that was used to train me. I am here to help you to the best of my ability. Please let me know if you have any questions or if there is anything else I can help with.

I was thinking how to install Docker container on my ProxMox with best practice, and best performance, checked a lot of YouTube videos, and googled many, still didn’t get answers that satisfied me.

I talked to ChatGPT if he (or she? ) could give me something useful. And the answer is far above my expectations. For fun, i would like to share with you guys, probably you might be interested in it.

ME: What is the best practice for installing docker on ProxMox VE? eg install it directly on ProxMox host or install on the VM that runs on the ProxMox VE?

ChatGPT: The best practice for installing Docker on ProxMox Virtual Environment (VE) depends on your specific needs and requirements.

Here are a few things to consider when deciding whether to install Docker directly on the ProxMox host or in a virtual machine (VM) that runs on the host:

• Isolation: If you want to isolate your Docker containers from the host system and other VMs, then running Docker inside a VM may be a better choice. This would provide an additional layer of isolation between the containers and the host, as well as other VMs running on the same host.
• Resource allocation: If you want to allocate specific resources to your Docker containers, such as CPU, memory, and storage, then running Docker inside a VM may be a better choice. This would allow you to assign resources to the VM, and then assign resources to the containers running inside the VM.
• Management: If you want to manage your Docker containers using Proxmox’s built-in management interface, then running Docker inside a VM may be a better choice. This would allow you to use Proxmox’s web interface to manage the VM, and then use Docker’s command line interface to manage the containers running inside the VM.
• Performance: If you want the best performance possible, then installing Docker directly on the Proxmox host may be a better choice. This would avoid the overhead of running the Docker containers in a VM.

It’s also worth noting that it is possible to run Docker containers on Proxmox VE without installing Docker on the host. Instead, you can use Proxmox’s built-in container management capabilities to run and manage Docker containers on the host.

Ultimately, the best choice will depend on your specific needs and requirements, and it’s often a good idea to test different options and see what works best for you.

ME: So built-in container means install Docker on ProxMox hosted LXC container?

ChatGPT: Yes, it is possible to install Docker on a Linux Container (LXC) running on a Proxmox host. However, it is important to note that when you install Docker inside an LXC container, the containers that you run with Docker will be isolated within the LXC container, rather than on the host itself.

To install Docker on an LXC container, you will need to first create and start the container, and then log in to the container using a command-line interface. Once you are logged in, you can follow the Docker installation instructions for the Linux distribution that is running inside the container.

After installing Docker, you can use the docker command-line interface to manage Docker containers within the LXC container. However, keep in mind that the containers that you run with Docker will be isolated within the LXC container and will not have direct access to the host’s resources.

ME: what is the lightweight Linux VM for docker that hosted on ProxMox?

ChatGPT: When it comes to choosing a lightweight Linux virtual machine (VM) to run Docker on Proxmox Virtual Environment (VE), some popular choices include:

• Alpine Linux: Alpine Linux is a minimalistic Linux distribution that is well-suited for running in containers because of its small size and resource efficiency. It can be used as a base image for many other images in the Docker ecosystem.
• Ubuntu: Ubuntu is a popular Linux distribution that is well-documented and has a large community. Ubuntu LTS (long-term support) versions are often used for servers, and can be a good choice for people who are new to Linux.
• Debian: Debian is another popular Linux distribution that is well-suited for running in containers because of its stability and robust package management system. It’s often used as a base image for many other images in the Docker ecosystem,
• CoreOS: CoreOS is a lightweight Linux distribution that is specifically designed for running containers at scale in a production environment.

The choice of the base image will depend on your specific needs and requirements.

The most important things to keep in mind when choosing a lightweight Linux VM for Docker on Proxmox is the stability, performance and security. You also need to consider the supported package, and the security updates.

It’s recommended to use the latest available version of the Linux distro, to take advantage of the latest features and the security patches.

ME: In order to have the best performance with docker and less power consumption, what should i do? Maybe hardware passthrough for the ProxMox host to VM?

ChatGPT: There are a few steps you can take to optimize the performance and power efficiency of Docker when running on Proxmox:

• Choose a lightweight Linux distribution: As mentioned earlier, using a lightweight Linux distribution as the base for your Proxmox VM can help to improve the performance and reduce the resource requirements of Docker.
• Use hardware passthrough: If you want to give your VM direct access to the host’s hardware resources, such as the CPU or GPU, you can use hardware passthrough to pass the hardware through to the VM. This can improve the performance of the VM and the containers running within it, but it may also increase the power consumption of the host.
• Use resource limits: You can use the --cpus and --memory options of the docker run command to limit the amount of CPU and memory that a container can use. This can help to ensure that your containers do not consume too many resources, which can improve the performance of the system as a whole.
• Use a lighter-weight container runtime: Instead of using the Docker daemon to run containers, you can use a lighter-weight container runtime such as containerd or CRI-O. These runtimes are designed to be more efficient and can help to reduce the resource requirements of your containers.

Ultimately, the best approach will depend on your specific use case and requirements. It may be helpful to experiment with different configurations and evaluate the trade-offs to determine the optimal setup for your needs.

Finally, I’ve made my decision: I’m going to set up an Ubuntu VM on ProxMox (cause I’m a big fan of Ubuntu) and then fire up Docker with Portainer on top of that. Since this is just for my test environment, I’m not too worried about performance – what’s more important to me is keeping my test Docker setup separate from the host. Plus, I’ll be able to easily roll back with snapshots if anything goes awry!