Dokku commands: Heroku like deployment with support for docker

Initial setup

• Use digital ocean image with Dokku pre-installed, set up ssh key through web.
• apt update && apt full-upgrade to update packages.
• dokku apps:create myapp.somedomain.com and add git remote add dokku dokku@DOKKU_HOSTNAME:myapp.somedomain.com
• I used /etc/hosts to access the image from a hostname instead of IP.
• More detailed setup in the various deploy with dokku guides I was following.

Database

• dokku plugin:install https://github.com/dokku/dokku-postgres.git
• dokku postgres:create somedatabasename
• dokku postgres:link somedatabasename myapp.somedomain.com
• Use DATABASE_URL from app

Configuring

• dokku git:set --global deploy-branch production
• dokku git:set myapp.somedomain.com deploy-branch staging
• dokku config:set myapp.somedomain.com MY_ENV_VAR=value
• dokku config:unset myapp.somedomain.com MY_ENV_VAR

Checking

• dokku domains:report lists domains used per app
• dokku apps:list for a simple list
• dokku report myapp.somedomain.com to get some detailed output
• docker ps --all to see containers that have been running
• dokku run myapp.subdomain.com 'whoami' runs shell commands in a container

SSL

Configure with the LetsEncrypt plugin:

• dokku plugin:install https://github.com/dokku/dokku-letsencrypt.git
• dokku config:set --no-restart myapp.somedomain.com DOKKU_LETSENCRYPT_EMAIL=your@e.mail
• dokku letsencrypt myapp.somedomain.com
• dokku letsencrypt:cron-job --add to set up auto-renewal