How to Install Docker, Docker‑Compose, Nginx and Jenkins on Alibaba Cloud

The tutorial uses an Alibaba Cloud server with 2 vCPU and 2 GiB RAM, running CentOS 8.5 64‑bit.

Step 1: Install Docker

Run the following command to install Docker from the Alibaba Cloud mirror:

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | bash -s docker --mirror Aliyun

If the command finishes without error, Docker is installed successfully.

Step 2: Install Docker‑Compose

Download Docker‑Compose using the command below (may require retry due to network issues):

curl -L https://get.daocloud.io/docker/compose/releases/download/v2.4.1/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m) > /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

If you encounter a Permission denied error, apply one of the following fixes:

Add your user to the Docker group: sudo usermod -aG docker $USER Make the Docker‑Compose binary executable: chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose When the download still fails with a 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable HTML response, retry the command or download directly from GitHub:

curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.29.2/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

After making the file executable, verify the installation with docker-compose -v.

Step 3: Install Nginx and Jenkins

Pull the required images:

docker pull nginx
docker pull jenkins/jenkins

Create the directory structure for Docker, Nginx and Jenkins:

mkdir /docker
mkdir /docker/compose
mkdir /docker/jenkins_home
mkdir /docker/nginx
mkdir /docker/nginx/conf
mkdir /docker/html
mkdir /docker/html/dev
mkdir /docker/html/release
mkdir /docker/html/pro

Create placeholder configuration files:

cd /docker/compose && touch docker-compose.yml
cd /docker/nginx/conf && touch nginx.conf

nginx.conf (excerpt)

user  nginx;
worker_processes  1;
error_log  /var/log/nginx/error.log warn;
pid        /var/run/nginx.pid;

events { worker_connections 1024; }

http {
    include       /etc/nginx/mime.types;
    default_type  application/octet-stream;
    log_format  main  '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] "$request" '
                      '$status $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" '
                      '"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"';
    access_log  /var/log/nginx/access.log  main;
    sendfile        on;
    keepalive_timeout  65;
    gzip  on;

    # dev environment
    server {
        listen 8001;
        server_name localhost;
        location / {
            root  /usr/share/nginx/html/dev/dist;
            index index.html;
            try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html;
        }
    }

    # sit environment
    server {
        listen 8002;
        server_name localhost;
        location / {
            root  /usr/share/nginx/html/sit/dist;
            index index.html;
            try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html;
        }
    }
}

docker-compose.yml (excerpt)

version: '3'
networks:
  frontend:
    external: true

services:
  docker_jenkins:
    user: root
    restart: always
    image: jenkins/jenkins:lts
    container_name: jenkins
    environment:
      - TZ=Asia/Shanghai
      - "JENKINS_OPTS=--prefix=/jenkins_home"
    ports:
      - 8080:8080
      - 50000:50000
    volumes:
      - /docker/jenkins_home/:/var/jenkins_home
      - /usr/local/bin/docker-compose:/usr/local/bin/docker-compose

  docker_nginx_dev:
    restart: always
    image: nginx
    container_name: nginx_dev
    ports:
      - 8001:8001
    volumes:
      - /docker/nginx/conf/nginx.conf:/etc/nginx/nginx.conf
      - /docker/html:/usr/share/nginx/html
      - /docker/nginx/logs:/var/log/nginx

  docker_nginx_sit:
    restart: always
    image: nginx
    container_name: nginx_sit
    ports:
      - 8002:8002
    volumes:
      - /docker/nginx/conf/nginx.conf:/etc/nginx/nginx.conf
      - /docker/html:/usr/share/nginx/html
      - /docker/nginx/logs:/var/log/nginx

Explanation of key fields: docker_jenkins – service name for Jenkins. user: root – runs the container as root. restart: always – ensures the container restarts on failure. image: jenkins/jenkins:lts – specifies the Jenkins LTS image. ports – maps host ports to container ports (8080 for Jenkins UI, 8001/8002 for Nginx dev and sit environments). volumes – mounts host directories into the containers for persistence and configuration.

Removing Jenkins Container

List containers: docker ps -a Stop the Jenkins container: docker stop <container_id> Remove the container: docker rm <container_id> Optionally remove the image: docker rmi <image_id> Use docker system prune to clean up unused resources.

Step 4: Start the Environment

Start Docker if it is not already running: systemctl start docker Enable Docker to start on boot:

sudo systemctl enable docker
sudo systemctl start docker

From the directory containing docker-compose.yml, launch all services: docker-compose up -d Check the status of the containers: docker-compose ps -a Access the services via the following URLs (replace the server IP accordingly):

Jenkins UI: http://<server_ip>:8080 Dev site: http://<server_ip>:8001 SIT site: http://<server_ip>:8002 Additional useful Docker commands mentioned: docker run – create and start a new container. docker start/stop/restart – control container lifecycle. docker exec – run a command inside a running container. docker logs – view container logs. docker rm – remove a container. docker images – list local images. docker pull – download an image. docker push – upload an image. docker build – build an image from a Dockerfile.

Version checks performed on the server:

docker -v
# Docker version 20.10.5, build 55c4c88

docker-compose -v
# docker-compose version 1.28.6, build 5db8d86f

For further details on Jenkins configuration and usage, refer to the follow‑up article.