page_title: Installation on Amazon EC2 page_description: Installation instructions for Docker on Amazon EC2. page_keywords: amazon ec2, virtualization, cloud, docker, documentation, installation

Amazon EC2

There are several ways to install Docker on AWS EC2:

You'll need an AWS account first, of course.

Amazon QuickStart

  1. Choose an image:

    • Launch the Create Instance Wizard menu on your AWS Console.
    • Click the Select button for a 64Bit Ubuntu image. For example: Ubuntu Server 12.04.3 LTS
    • For testing you can use the default (possibly free) t1.micro instance (more info on pricing).
    • Click the Next: Configure Instance Details button at the bottom right.

  2. Tell CloudInit to install Docker:

    • When you're on the “Configure Instance Details” step, expand the “Advanced Details” section.
    • Under “User data”, select “As text”.
    • Enter #include https://get.docker.io into the instance User Data. CloudInit is part of the Ubuntu image you chose; it will bootstrap Docker by running the shell script located at this URL.

  3. After a few more standard choices where defaults are probably ok, your AWS Ubuntu instance with Docker should be running!

If this is your first AWS instance, you may need to set up your Security Group to allow SSH. By default all incoming ports to your new instance will be blocked by the AWS Security Group, so you might just get timeouts when you try to connect.

Installing with get.docker.io (as above) will create a service named lxc-docker. It will also set up a docker group and you may want to add the ubuntu user to it so that you don't have to use sudo for every Docker command.

Once you`ve got Docker installed, you're ready to try it out – head on over to the User Guide.

Amazon QuickStart (Release Candidate - March 2014)

Amazon just published new Docker-ready AMIs (2014.03 Release Candidate). Docker packages can now be installed from Amazon's provided Software Repository.

  1. Choose an image:

    • Launch the Create Instance Wizard menu on your AWS Console.
    • Click the Community AMI menu option on the left side
    • Search for 2014.03 and select one of the Amazon provided AMI, for example amzn-ami-pv-2014.03.rc-0.x86_64-ebs
    • For testing you can use the default (possibly free) t1.micro instance (more info on pricing).
    • Click the Next: Configure Instance Details button at the bottom right.

  2. After a few more standard choices where defaults are probably ok, your Amazon Linux instance should be running!

  3. SSH to your instance to install Docker : ssh -i <path to your private key> ec2-user@<your public IP address>

  4. Once connected to the instance, type sudo yum install -y docker ; sudo service docker start to install and start Docker

Standard Ubuntu Installation

If you want a more hands-on installation, then you can follow the Ubuntu instructions installing Docker on any EC2 instance running Ubuntu. Just follow Step 1 from Amazon QuickStart to pick an image (or use one of your own) and skip the step with the User Data. Then continue with the Ubuntu instructions.

Continue with the User Guide.