Dockhand Deployment

⚠️ Prerequisite: This repository assumes you already have Docker and Docker Compose installed on your host system. If you need to install Docker, please follow the Ben's Cloud Docker Installation Guide for a brief overview of what Docker is and step-by-step instructions for your Linux distribution of choice.

What is Dockhand?

Docker is an incredible tool for containerization, but managing everything strictly through the command line can become cumbersome and confusing as your homelab grows.

Dockhand is a rising star in the world of container management, offering a streamlined, user-friendly interface to monitor and manage your Docker environments without relying entirely on the CLI. While industry veterans like Portainer remain solid and reliable choices, Dockhand provides a fresh, modern approach that is rapidly gaining popularity for self-hosters.

This repository provides a streamlined, "plug-and-play" Docker Compose configuration to get your own instance of Dockhand up and running in seconds.

Features of this Repo

Production-Ready Compose File: Optimized configuration for a quick spin-up.
Git-and-Go Workflow: Designed to be cloned and deployed immediately with minimal configuration.
Persistent Storage: Pre-configured volumes to ensure your Dockhand data survives container updates.

Quick Start

Getting started is designed to be as simple as possible. Just run the following commands in your terminal:

Clone the repository:

git clone [https://git.bens-cloud.com/angel/dockhand.git](https://git.bens-cloud.com/angel/dockhand.git)
cd dockhand

Deploy the container using Docker Compose
```
docker compose up -d
```
To Access the logs if needed
```
docker compose logs
```

Accessing the Dashboard

Once the container is running, open your web browser and navigate to:

http://<YOUR_SERVER_IP>:3000

Setting up the First Environment

Follow these steps to connect Dockhand to your local Docker host and start monitoring your containers:

Step 1: Access the Dashboard

When you first log into Dockhand, you will be greeted by an empty dashboard indicating that no environments have been configured yet. Click on the Go to Settings button in the center of the screen, or click Settings at the bottom of the left sidebar.

Step 2: Add an Environment

Once inside the Settings panel, ensure you are on the Environments tab. Click the blue + Add environment button located on the right side of the screen.

Step 3: Configure the Unix Socket

An "Add environment" modal will appear. Configure it with the following details:

Name: Give it a recognizable name (e.g., local).
Connection type: Select Unix socket from the dropdown menu.
Socket path: Leave this as the default /var/run/docker.sock (Dockhand will auto-detect it).

Click Test connection at the bottom left of the modal. Once you see the green Connected! toast notification in the bottom right corner, click the blue + Add button.

Step 4: Verify Environment Overview

You will be redirected back to the main Dashboard view. Your local environment card will now be visible, showing real-time CPU utilization, memory usage, and the total count of running vs. stopped containers.

Step 5: Explore Running Containers

Click on the Containers tab in the left sidebar. You will see a complete, live list of all containers running on your host (including the dockhand container itself), along with individual uptime stats, IP allocations, internal ports, and resource metrics.

Conclusion

Congratulations on making it this far. You have successfully deployed Dockhand and connected it to your local Docker environment. All the containers you have deployed on the host you deployed Dockhand on should appear here. As you can see you can explore Stacks, Images, Volumes, etc. You can even go into Stacks, click Create Stack, and paste a docker-compose.yml content and deploy it right from here.

Of course on the test machine I deployed this to the only container running is the Dockhand I just deployed. Hence why it looks empty. Now all thats left is for you to explore and see what it can do. See if it fits you needs. I will be doing a separate git repo for the Hawser Agent which can be used to connect Dockhand to other nodes.

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