Guide to Docker Graphical Management Tools: DockerUI, Shipyard, and Portainer

1. Docker Graphical Tools

There are three commonly used Docker graphical management tools: DockerUI, Portainer, and Shipyard. DockerUI is the predecessor of Portainer; all three retrieve resource information via the Docker API.

Using the command‑line interface can be tedious, so a visual interface that displays Docker resources intuitively is very convenient.

In this article we set up single‑node versions of the three tools, with Portainer being the most popular.

2. DockerUI

Lightweight graphical management with DockerUI.

1. View DockerUI images

[root@localhost ~]# docker search dockerui

2. Choose a preferred DockerUI image and download it

[root@localhost ~]# docker pull abh1nav/dockerui

3. Run the DockerUI container (note the --privileged flag to elevate permissions)

[root@localhost ~]# docker run -d --privileged --name dockerui -p 9000:9000 -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock abh1nav/dockerui

Before accessing the web UI, open port 9000 on the server:

firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-port=9000/tcp
firewall-cmd --reload

4. View DockerUI in a browser: http://192.168.2.119:9000 or via curl http://192.168.2.119:9000

3. Shipyard

Lightweight graphical management with Shipyard.

4. Portainer

Lightweight graphical management with Portainer.

1. View Portainer images

[root@localhost ~]# docker search portainer

2. Choose a preferred Portainer image and download it

docker pull portainer/portainer

3. Launch the Portainer container

docker volume create portainer_data
docker run -d -p 9000:9000 --name portainer --restart always -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock -v portainer_data:/data portainer/portainer

Parameter explanations:

-v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock : mounts the host's Docker daemon Unix socket into the container.

-v portainer_data:/data : mounts the host's portainer_data volume to the container's /data directory.

4. Web management

1) Log in at http://x.x.x.x:9000 and set an admin username and password.

2) For a single‑node setup, select Local ; for a cluster, choose Remote , enter the Swarm IP address, and click Connect .

Access the UI at http://192.168.2.119:9000 , set a password, and create a user.

We installed the single‑node version, selected Local , and clicked Connect to reach the dashboard.

Now the interface is ready for use; click Local to enter the main dashboard.

Container page screenshot follows.