Hi there! I'm Maneshwar. Right now, I’m building LiveAPI, a first-of-its-kind tool that helps you automatically index API endpoints across all your repositories. LiveAPI makes it easier to discover, understand, and interact with APIs in large infrastructures.
If you're managing infrastructure with Ansible, installing Docker the right way — using Docker's official apt repository — ensures you're getting the latest stable version.
This post walks you through setting up Docker + Docker Compose on Ubuntu entirely via Ansible.
What This Playbook Does
- Updates APT cache
- Installs required dependencies
- Adds Docker's official GPG key and APT repo
- Installs Docker CE, CLI, Compose, Buildx, and Containerd
- Enables and starts the Docker daemon
- Adds your user (
ubuntu) to thedockergroup so you don’t needsudofor every Docker command
Ansible Playbook: install-docker.yml
---
- name: Install Docker on Ubuntu using official Docker repo
hosts: all
become: true
tasks:
- name: Update apt cache
ansible.builtin.apt:
update_cache: yes
- name: Ensure dependencies are installed
ansible.builtin.package:
name:
- bc
- curl
- expect
- git
- ca-certificates
state: present
- name: Create Docker GPG key directory
ansible.builtin.file:
path: /etc/apt/keyrings
state: directory
mode: "0755"
- name: Download Docker's official GPG key
ansible.builtin.get_url:
url: https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg
dest: /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
mode: "0644"
- name: Add Docker repository to Apt sources
ansible.builtin.apt_repository:
repo: "deb [arch={{ ansible_architecture }} signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu {{ ansible_distribution_release }} stable"
state: present
filename: docker
- name: Update apt cache after adding Docker repository
ansible.builtin.apt:
update_cache: yes
- name: Install Docker and Docker Compose
ansible.builtin.package:
name:
- docker-ce
- docker-ce-cli
- containerd.io
- docker-buildx-plugin
- docker-compose-plugin
state: present
- name: Ensure Docker service is enabled and started
ansible.builtin.service:
name: docker
state: started
enabled: yes
- name: Add ubuntu user to docker group
ansible.builtin.user:
name: ubuntu
groups: docker
append: yes
After Running the Playbook
Once this finishes:
Logout and log back in to apply the group change.- Confirm everything works:
docker --version
docker compose version
docker run hello-world
Why Use This Over apt install docker.io?
- You get the latest Docker packages direct from Docker Inc.
- It includes Buildx and Docker Compose v2 (plugin style).
- Cleaner integration with CI/CD, servers, and dev boxes.
How to Run
ansible-playbook -i inventory install-docker.yml
Use your own inventory/host setup as needed.
LiveAPI helps you get all your backend APIs documented in a few minutes.
With LiveAPI, you can generate interactive API docs that allow users to search and execute endpoints directly from the browser.
If you're tired of updating Swagger manually or syncing Postman collections, give it a shot.