Your First Deployment

• RamNode VPS (2GB RAM / 2 vCPU minimum recommended)
• Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
• A domain name (or use the server IP for testing)
• SSH access

SSH into your fresh VPS:

ssh root@your-server-ip

Update packages and install essentials:

apt update && apt upgrade -y
apt install -y curl git ufw

Configure the Firewall

Open only what Dokploy needs:

ufw allow 22/tcp    # SSH
ufw allow 80/tcp    # HTTP
ufw allow 443/tcp   # HTTPS
ufw allow 3000/tcp  # Dokploy dashboard
ufw enable

Dokploy runs everything in containers. Install Docker with the official convenience script:

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh

Verify it's working:

docker --version
docker run --rm hello-world

You should see "Hello from Docker!" — you're ready for Dokploy.

One command:

curl -sSL https://dokploy.com/install.sh | sh

This pulls the Dokploy containers and starts the service. Takes 2-3 minutes.

Verify it's running:

docker ps | grep dokploy

You should see multiple containers: dokploy, dokploy-postgres, dokploy-redis, and dokploy-traefik.

Open your browser to:

http://your-server-ip:3000

You'll see the Dokploy setup wizard:

1. Create your admin account — use a strong password
2. Server settings — defaults are fine for now
3. Git provider — connect GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket (or skip for now)

Once complete, you're in the dashboard.

Let's deploy something real. We'll use a simple static site to prove the pipeline works.

Option A: Deploy from GitHub (Recommended)

If you connected a Git provider:

1. Click Create Project → give it a name like "hello-world"
2. Inside the project, click Create Service → Application
3. Choose GitHub and select a repository
4. Dokploy auto-detects most frameworks. For a static site or Node app, it usually just works.
5. Click Deploy

Watch the build logs stream in real-time. When you see "Deployment successful," your app is live.

Option B: Deploy from Docker Image

No Git repo? Deploy an existing image:

1. Create Project → Create Service → Application
2. Choose Docker as the source
3. Enter an image: nginx:alpine (simple web server)
4. Click Deploy

In 30 seconds, you have a running Nginx container.

Access Your App

After deployment, Dokploy shows you the app URL. By default it's http://your-server-ip:RANDOM_PORT. We'll fix that with a proper domain next.

This is where Dokploy shines. No manual certificate management.

Point Your Domain

In your DNS provider, add an A record:

Type: A
Name: app (or @ for root domain)
Value: your-server-ip
TTL: 300

Wait a few minutes for DNS propagation.

Configure in Dokploy

1. Go to your application → Domains tab
2. Click Add Domain
3. Enter your domain: app.yourdomain.com
4. Toggle HTTPS on
5. Save

Dokploy's built-in Traefik proxy automatically:

• Routes traffic to your container
• Requests a Let's Encrypt certificate
• Redirects HTTP → HTTPS
• Handles certificate renewal

Within a minute, visit https://app.yourdomain.com — it works.