Docker (or Podman) for Your Station
What it is, why a station needs it, and how to get it running on a fresh VPS.
What Is Docker?
Docker packages a piece of software together with everything it needs to run -- no separate install steps, no version conflicts with anything else on your machine. A self-hosted station ships as one of these packages (a container image), so running it is copying two small text files and typing one command, not compiling anything yourself. Podman is a drop-in alternative with the same commands -- use whichever your VPS provider's image already has, or whichever you're more comfortable with.
Why a Station Needs It
One image, no build step
The station software is pulled pre-built; your VPS never compiles anything.
Auto-updates
Watchtower (bundled in the generated config) keeps your station current on its own.
Isolated
The station runs in its own sandbox, alongside anything else on your VPS.
Installing It
Many VPS providers (Hetzner, DigitalOcean, Linode) offer a "Docker" image you can pick when creating the machine -- if yours does, you're already done. Otherwise, on a fresh Ubuntu or Debian VPS:
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh
That's Docker's own official install script -- it detects your distribution and
sets everything up, including the docker compose
command the station's setup steps use. Prefer Podman instead? Most distributions
package it directly:
apt install podman podman-compose # Debian/Ubuntudnf install podman podman-compose # Fedora/RHELYou Don't Need to Be a Docker Expert
Provisioning a station generates the two files you need
(docker-compose.yml
and a Caddyfile) with your hostname and credentials
already filled in. Installing Docker/Podman above, pasting those two files, and
running one command is genuinely the whole thing -- most operators are done in
under five minutes.