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⇱ Deploying Dokku Lightweight Open-Source PaaS on Ubuntu 24.04 - DEV Community

Dokku is an open-source, Heroku-like Platform-as-a-Service that lets you git push apps and have them built and deployed automatically. This guide deploys Dokku on Ubuntu 24.04 with Docker Compose, registers an SSH key, deploys a sample Ruby app, and switches the proxy to Traefik for automatic HTTPS. By the end, you'll have a Dokku PaaS running an app at your domain over HTTPS.

Set Up the Directory Structure

1. Create the project directory:

$mkdir -p ~/dokku/data
$cd ~/dokku

2. Create the environment file:

$nano .env

DOKKU_HOSTNAME=dokku.example.com
DOKKU_VERSION=0.37.6

Deploy with Docker Compose

1. Add your user to the Docker group:

$sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
$newgrp docker

2. Create the Docker Compose manifest:

$nano docker-compose.yml

services:
 dokku:
 image: dokku/dokku:${DOKKU_VERSION}
 container_name: dokku
 network_mode: bridge
 ports:
 - "3022:22"
 volumes:
 - "./data:/mnt/dokku"
 - "/var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock"
 environment:
 DOKKU_HOSTNAME: ${DOKKU_HOSTNAME}
 DOKKU_HOST_ROOT: /var/lib/dokku/home/dokku
 DOKKU_LIB_HOST_ROOT: /var/lib/dokku/var/lib/dokku
 restart: unless-stopped

3. Start the service:

$docker compose up -d
$docker compose ps

Register an SSH Key

1. Generate a key on your workstation:

$ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 -C "dokku"
$cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

2. Register the public key with Dokku:

$echo "YOUR_SSH_KEY" | docker compose exec -T dokku dokku ssh-keys:add admin
$docker compose exec -it dokku dokku ssh-keys:list

3. Add a Dokku entry to your SSH config:

$nano ~/.ssh/config

Host dokku-server
 HostName YOUR_SERVER_IP
 User dokku
 Port 3022
 IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

Deploy a Sample App

1. Create the app on the server:

$ssh dokku-server apps:create ruby-getting-started
$ssh dokku-server apps:list

2. Clone the sample app locally and push it:

$git clone https://github.com/heroku/ruby-getting-started
$cd ruby-getting-started
$git remote add dokku dokku-server:ruby-getting-started
$git push dokku main

Switch to Traefik with Let's Encrypt

1. Stop the default Nginx proxy and enable Traefik:

$ssh dokku-server nginx:stop
$ssh dokku-server proxy:set --global traefik
$ssh dokku-server traefik:set --global letsencrypt-email username@example.com

2. Assign the domain and start Traefik:

$ssh dokku-server domains:set ruby-getting-started dokku.example.com
$ssh dokku-server traefik:start
$ssh dokku-server ps:rebuild ruby-getting-started

Open https://dokku.example.com to confirm the app is served over HTTPS.

Manage Environment Variables 

$ssh dokku-server config:set ruby-getting-started SECRET_KEY=your-secret-value
$ssh dokku-server config:set ruby-getting-started DB_HOST=localhost DB_USER=admin DB_PASS=secret
$ssh dokku-server config:show ruby-getting-started
$ssh dokku-server config:unset ruby-getting-started SECRET_KEY

Next Steps

Dokku is running with an app deployed via git push and Traefik handling HTTPS. From here you can:

  • Install plugins for PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, and other backing services
  • Configure zero-downtime deploys with checks and procfile health endpoints
  • Deploy multiple apps under subdomains by repeating the apps:create flow

For the full guide with additional tips, visit the original article on Vultr Docs.