How to Install Docker and Docker Compose on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

Step-by-step instructions for installing the Docker Engine with Docker Compose on Ubuntu.

Docker Requirements

To install and configure Docker, your system must meet the following minimum requirements:

  1. A 64-bit Linux or Windows system

  2. If using Linux, the kernel version must be 3.10 or later

  3. A user with sudo privileges

  4. VT (Virtualization Technology) support enabled in your system BIOS

  5. Your system should be connected to the internet

Install Docker on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

1. Update Ubuntu

First, update your Ubuntu system.

Open a terminal and run the following commands one by one:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt full-upgrade

2. Add the Docker Repository

First, install the required certificates and allow the apt package manager to use repositories over HTTPS with the following command:

sudo apt install apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl software-properties-common gnupg lsb-release

Then, run the following command to add Docker’s official GPG key:

curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg

Add the official Docker repository:

echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

Update the Ubuntu source list with the command:

sudo apt update

3. Install Docker

Install the latest version

Finally, run the following command to install the latest Docker CE on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS:

sudo apt install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-compose-plugin

Manually install another version

Of course, you can also install another version of Docker. Run the following command to check which Docker versions are available:

apt-cache madison docker-ce

Sample output:

        docker-ce | 5:20.10.17~3-0~ubuntu-jammy | https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu jammy/stable amd64 Packages
    docker-ce | 5:20.10.16~3-0~ubuntu-jammy | https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu jammy/stable amd64 Packages
    docker-ce | 5:20.10.15~3-0~ubuntu-jammy | https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu jammy/stable amd64 Packages
    docker-ce | 5:20.10.14~3-0~ubuntu-jammy | https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu jammy/stable amd64 Packages
    docker-ce | 5:20.10.13~3-0~ubuntu-jammy | https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu jammy/stable amd64 Packages1.2.3.4.5.

You can choose any version from the list above to install. For example, to install version 5:20.10.16~3-0~ubuntu-jammy, run:

sudo apt install docker-ce=5:20.10.16~3-0~ubuntu-jammy docker-ce-cli=5:20.10.16~3-0~ubuntu-jammy containerd.io

After the installation is complete, run the following command to verify that the Docker service is running:

sudo systemctl status docker

If it is not running, start the Docker service with the following command:

sudo systemctl start docker

Enable the Docker service to start automatically on every reboot:

sudo systemctl enable docker

You can check the installed Docker version with the following command:

sudo docker version

Install Docker Compose on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

Docker Compose is a tool for defining and running multi-container Docker applications. With Compose, you can use a Compose file to configure your application’s services. Then, with a single command, you can create and start all services from your configuration.

You can install Docker Compose using any of the following methods.

Method 1. Install Docker Compose using the binary file

Download the latest Docker Compose from here.

At the time of writing, the latest version is 2.6.1.

Run the following command to install the latest stable Docker Compose binary:

sudo curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/v2.6.1/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

If a newer version is available, simply replace v2.6.1 in the command above with the latest version number. Do not forget the "v" before the number.

Finally, make the binary executable with the following command:

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

Run the following command to check the installed Docker Compose version:

sudo docker-compose version

Method 2. Install Docker Compose using pip

Alternatively, you can install Docker Compose using pip. pip is the Python package manager used to install applications written in Python.

Refer to the following link to install pip.

  • How to manage Python packages with pip

After installing pip, run the following command to install Docker Compose. The following command is the same for all Linux distributions!

pip install docker-compose

After installing Docker Compose, check the version with the following command:

docker-compose --version