Photo by the author
# Entry
# 1. Hosting unchanging websites with Nginx and Docker
This video by Techdox shows you how to host a website using nginx in Docker. You containerize your web server, add your site files, and run everything in one container. The tutorial covers creating a plain file Dockerfile (or Docker Compose), configuring Nginx to serve the pages, and running the container to get the site up and running. There is no need to install Nginx on your computer because everything runs in Docker. This makes the setup neat and repeatable.
# 2. Multi-container Docker applications with Docker Compose
This video shows how to employ Docker Compose to run two services simultaneously: a Python Flask backend and a Redis database. All service configurations, including builds, ports and connections, are defined in one docker-compose.yml file. You start everything with one command, docker compose up. Containers communicate automatically and environment settings remain centralized. This makes it basic to run and manage the application on any computer, while providing a practical example of how to support multiple services in Docker.
# 3. One database shared by many containers
Including One database service for multiple Docker container services video the author shows how to run a single database container and allow multiple application containers to connect to it. Once you configure MySQL or another database in Docker, each service runs in its own container but connects to the same database via a shared Docker network or appropriate port mapping. You’ll learn how to configure your network, provide a database port, and connect containers for secure communication. This approach helps save resources by centralizing databases and also teaches you when a shared database works best versus separate instances.
# 4. Automated continuous integration with Jenkins in Docker
These videos show you how to build a complete continuous integration (CI) pipeline using Jenkins inside Docker to automatically create Docker images when code changes. First video, Build and push a React docker image using the Jenkins pipelinewalks you through setting up a Jenkins container, creating a pipeline to download the source code, building a Docker image, and optionally running tests or pushing the image to the registry. second movie, Automated CI with Jenkins in Docker to create Docker imagesfocuses on React applications and shows how to connect Jenkins to a source repository, build and tag Docker images, and automatically upload them. Both tutorials demonstrate how Jenkins containerization provides isolation, repeatability, and consistency for your build environment. Once configured, each code update triggers a recent build, making deployments reliable and automated.
# 5. Logging and monitoring docker
These videos show you how to build a full observability stack using Docker. Prometheus collects system and container metrics. Loki keeps the journals. Scrape displays everything on dashboards in real time. In the first movie Loki, Prometheus, Grafana and Docker: logging and monitoringYou’ll learn how to configure Docker for each service, connect them properly, and combine metrics with logs to see how your containers are performing. second movie, Server Monitoring: Prometheus and Grafana Tutorialfocuses on monitoring servers or container environments using Prometheus and Grafana in a portable, repeatable configuration. Shows how to configure Prometheus as a Grafana data source, configure metrics endpoints, and create dashboards to track CPU, memory, and container performance. Both approaches rely on containerization, making the stack basic to run, replicate, and expand on any machine.
# Summary
These five projects develop your Docker skills layer by layer. You host a website, connect multiple services, host databases, automate builds, and monitor everything. Each project gives you practical skills that you can employ in real work. Now it’s your turn to try out these projects and explore Docker for yourself.
Kanwal Mehreen is a machine learning engineer and technical writer with a deep passion for data science and the intersection of artificial intelligence and medicine. She is co-author of the e-book “Maximizing Productivity with ChatGPT”. As a 2022 Google Generation Scholar for APAC, she promotes diversity and academic excellence. She is also recognized as a Teradata Diversity in Tech Scholar, a Mitacs Globalink Research Scholar, and a Harvard WeCode Scholar. Kanwal is a staunch supporter of change and founded FEMCodes to empower women in STEM fields.