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Portainer

What is Portainer?​

Portainer is a web-based UI for managing Docker: containers, images, volumes, networks, and logs, all from a browser instead of the CLI. Laradock runs it with access to the host's Docker socket so it can manage the whole stack, including containers outside Laradock itself.

Start Portainer​

docker compose up -d portainer

Stop Portainer​

docker compose stop portainer

This stops the container without deleting its data. Portainer's own state (users, settings) lives under DATA_PATH_HOST/portainer_data on your host.

Configuration​

Portainer has no defaults.env file of its own, it isn't parameterized per-service in Laradock. It uses the shared top-level settings from the root .env:

VariableDefaultWhat it does
DATA_PATH_HOST~/.laradock/dataHost folder for all Laradock data volumes; Portainer's state lives at DATA_PATH_HOST/portainer_data.
DOCKER_HOST_IP10.0.75.1Added as an extra_hosts entry (dockerhost) so the container can reach services running directly on your host.

The published port (9010 on the host, mapping to 9000 in the container) is hardcoded in portainer/compose.yml, not driven by an env var. To change it, edit the ports: line in that file directly.

Open the dashboard​

Start the container, then open http://localhost:9010 and create your admin account on first visit.

Common issues​

  • Port 9010 already in use. Since the port isn't controlled by an env var, edit the ports: mapping in portainer/compose.yml directly, then docker compose up -d portainer.
  • Portainer can't see other containers. It needs /var/run/docker.sock mounted (this is the default in portainer/compose.yml); confirm that mount wasn't removed.
  • Can't reach services running on your host machine from inside Portainer. Confirm DOCKER_HOST_IP in .env matches your actual host IP for your OS/Docker setup (defaults assume Docker Desktop's typical gateway).
  • Lost dashboard settings after recreating the container. Data persists in DATA_PATH_HOST/portainer_data; if you changed DATA_PATH_HOST or wiped that folder, Portainer starts fresh and asks you to create a new admin account.

Prefer managing containers straight from the terminal? See the Getting Started guide for core docker compose commands.