Getting Started with Dokploy on Your Etheron VPS

Dokploy is a self-hosted Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) alternative to Vercel, Netlify and Heroku. With Dokploy you can easily deploy and manage applications, databases and Docker containers from your own VPS. This article will help you get started after installing Dokploy.

What do you need?

A VPS at Etheron Hosting with Dokploy installed
SSH access to your VPS
Root or sudo privileges
A domain or subdomain (optional, but recommended for production)

Accessing Dokploy

Logging into the web interface

Step 1. Open your web browser and go to http://[your-vps-ip]:3000

Step 2. On your first visit you will be asked to create an admin account. Choose a strong username and password and store them securely.

Security tip: After initial setup, always enable a firewall and restrict access to port 3000 to your IP address, or configure a reverse proxy with SSL.

Checking installation status

After logging in you'll see the Dokploy dashboard. Check here:

Whether all services have "running" status
The available resources (CPU, RAM, disk)
Which Docker version is active

Configuring basic settings

Server settings

Step 1. Navigate to Settings in the main menu

Step 2. Configure the following basic settings:

Server Domain: add your primary domain (if applicable)
Let's Encrypt Email: enter a valid email address for SSL certificates
Registry Settings: optional - configure access to private Docker registries

Adding SSH Key for Git deployments

If you want to deploy from private Git repositories:

Step 1. Go to Settings → SSH Keys

Step 2. Generate a new SSH key or upload an existing public key

Step 3. Add the public key to your Git provider (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket)

Deploying your first application

Creating a project

Step 1. Click Create Project in the dashboard

Step 2. Give the project a name (for example "my-first-app")

Step 3. Optionally add a description

Adding an application

Dokploy supports different deployment methods:

Method A: Deploying from Git repository

Step 1. Click Add Service → Application within your project

Step 2. Select Git Source

Step 3. Configure the following settings:

Repository URL: for example https://github.com/username/repo.git
Branch: for example main or master
Build Pack: choose automatic detection or select manually (Nixpacks, Dockerfile, Buildpacks)

Step 4. Click Deploy

Method B: Deploying from Docker image

Step 1. Click Add Service → Application within your project

Step 2. Select Docker Image

Step 3. Configure the following settings:

Image: for example nginx:latest or username/custom-image:tag
Port mapping: map the container port to a host port

Step 4. Click Deploy

Linking a domain

Step 1. Open the deployed application in Dokploy

Step 2. Go to the Domains tab

Step 3. Click Add Domain

Step 4. Enter your domain (for example app.yourname.com)

Step 5. Enable SSL for automatic Let's Encrypt certificates

Step 6. Configure DNS at your domain registrar:

Create an A record pointing to your VPS IP address
Or create a CNAME if you're using a subdomain

Adding a database

Creating a database service

Step 1. Click Add Service → Database within your project

Step 2. Choose a database type:

PostgreSQL
MySQL/MariaDB
MongoDB
Redis

Step 3. Configure the database:

Database name
Username and password
Version (select the desired database version)
Storage: allocate sufficient disk space

Step 4. Click Create

Linking database to your application

Step 1. Open your application in Dokploy

Step 2. Go to Environment Variables

Step 3. Add the database connection string, for example:

DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:password@database-service:5432/dbname

Step 4. Restart the application to load the new variables

Monitoring and logs

Viewing logs

Step 1. Open a service (application or database)

Step 2. Go to the Logs tab

Step 3. Here you'll see real-time logs from your containers

Step 4. Use filters to view specific log levels

Resource monitoring

The dashboard shows an overview of:

CPU usage per service
RAM usage per service
Disk I/O
Network traffic

Keep an eye on the resource limits of your VPS package.

Common problems

Cannot log in on port 3000

Check if Dokploy is active:

sudo docker ps | grep dokploy

Check the firewall settings:

sudo ufw status

Open port 3000 if necessary:

sudo ufw allow 3000/tcp

SSL certificate is not automatically created

This can have different causes:

DNS is not configured correctly (Let's Encrypt requires the domain to point to your server)
Port 80 and 443 are not open in the firewall

Verify DNS propagation:

nslookup yourdomain.com

Open the required ports:

sudo ufw allow 80/tcp && sudo ufw allow 443/tcp

Deployment fails without clear error message

Review the build logs in detail via the Logs tab
Check if there is sufficient disk space: df -h
Check if there is sufficient RAM available: free -h
Increase your VPS resources if necessary via https://cloud.ping64.net

Container doesn't start after deployment

Check environment variables (especially database connections)
Verify that the port in the application matches the configuration in Dokploy
Review container logs for specific error messages

Basic security measures

Configuring firewall

Configure your firewall with the following commands:

sudo ufw allow 22/tcp    # SSH
sudo ufw allow 80/tcp    # HTTP
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp   # HTTPS
sudo ufw allow 3000/tcp  # Dokploy (or block and use reverse proxy)
sudo ufw enable

Change the default port (optional)

For extra security you can:

Configure a reverse proxy (Nginx/Traefik)
Only allow access via HTTPS

Regular backups

Configure automated backups in Dokploy Settings
Or use VPS backup functionality via https://cloud.ping64.net

Updates

Keep Dokploy up-to-date by checking regularly via Settings → Updates

Useful commands for troubleshooting

# Status of all Dokploy containers
sudo docker ps -a | grep dokploy

# Logs of Dokploy core service
sudo docker logs dokploy

# Check disk space
df -h

# Check RAM usage
free -h

# Active Docker containers and resource usage
sudo docker stats

Next steps

After this initial setup you can:

Deploy multiple projects and applications
Configure CI/CD pipelines with GitHub Actions or GitLab CI
Add custom domains for each application
Add teams and users for collaboration
Configure advanced monitoring

More information

External resources:

Official Dokploy documentation: https://docs.dokploy.com
Dokploy GitHub: https://github.com/Dokploy/dokploy

Need help? Contact us via support.etheron.nl