Portainer (Container Management)
Portainer is a web UI for managing Docker containers, images, volumes, and stacks across your environment VMs — without SSH.
Aithroyz installs Portainer CE on a dedicated VM. It manages containers on its own host by default; you can add other VMs as remote environments using their internal IPs.
Access
URL:
https://portainer.<env-name>.ops.aithroyz.comCredentials: Shown in Environments detail → Credentials panel.
Key tasks
View containers
Home → select the local environment → Containers. See status, image, uptime, and resource usage at a glance.
View logs
Click a container → Logs tab. Stream live output or search for specific strings in historical output.
Exec a shell
Click a container → Console tab → Connect. Runs an interactive shell inside the container — no SSH needed.
Deploy a stack
Stacks → Add Stack → paste your docker-compose YAML → Deploy. Portainer manages the full stack lifecycle.
Pull images
Images → Pull → enter the image name (e.g. nginx:latest). Pulling before restarting avoids downtime on updates.
Inspect resource usage
Click a container → Stats tab. CPU, memory, network I/O, and block I/O shown in real time.
Adding a remote environment
Portainer can manage Docker on any other VM in your sandbox using the internal network.
1. Open Environments
Settings → Environments → Add environment.
2. Choose Docker Standalone
Select the Docker Standalone option (not Swarm or Kubernetes).
3. Set the internal IP
Enter the internal IP of the target VM (e.g. 10.0.0.21) and port 2375, or 9001 if using the Portainer agent.
4. Save and connect
Click Add environment. The remote host appears in the Home dropdown for all future container management.
ℹ
All sandbox VMs share the same internal VPC network (10.0.0.x), so internal IPs are always reachable between VMs without firewall changes.
Tips
✓
Use the Console exec tab for quick debugging without SSH — faster than setting up keys and useful for read-only inspection.
✓
Resource stats help you right-size VMs. If a container consistently uses more than 80% of memory, consider requesting a larger machine type for that environment.
ℹ
Always pull the new image before restarting a container to avoid downtime caused by a slow pull during the restart window.
Related Articles