Deploying a remote Docker server using cloud-init

It can be very handy to have a remote Docker server instead of the default local configuration from our workstation because of bandwidth issues, testing a production environment, maybe a customer demonstration, or distant team collaboration. Being able to send the usual Docker commands to a remote server has a multitude of advantages. For speed and comfort, we'll deploy a basic CoreOS system, add one user (Jane) and its public key. Docker will be modified to listen to the network through a socket kind of systemd service, and we'll configure the server time zone to be in New York.

Getting ready

To step through this recipe, you will need:

• Access to a cloud-config enabled infrastructure

How to do it...

Let's start by simply calling this server "docker":

#cloud-config
hostname: "docker"

In the final system, this will set the hostname to the correct value:

$ hostname
docker
$ cat /etc/hostname
docker

Now let's create the Jane user, so she can log in...