Docker commands
- High level summary of what’s active docker container ls
- Display active econtainers docker ps
- Display all containers docker ps -a
- Create and run an image
- Stop a container docker stop name
- Stop all containers docker stop $(docker ps -a -q)
- Remove a stopped container docker rm name
- Run a container and have it be removed at shutdown docker run –rm …
- Run a container in the background docker run -d…
- Display the logs docker logs name
- Show the docker configuration file docker inspect name
- Issue a command to a container docker exec name ls
- Which ports are in use within a container? docker ports name
Docker network commands
- List active docker networks
- Give details about one network docker network inspect name
Monitoring docker
Docker image
- What images do I have installed? docker image ls
- Show details of an image docker image inspect name
High level summary of what’s active. For all containers
docker container ls
Gave (I’ve formatted it to make it easy to read – the data is a very long line)
CONTAINER ID :f6e04a6aabac
IMAGE :otel/opentelemetry-collector
COMMAND :"/otelcol --config o…"
CREATED :8 minutes ago
STATUS : Up 8 minutes
PORTS: :0.0.0.0:4318->4318/tcp, [::]:4318->4318/tcp, 55679/tcp, 0.0.0.0:9999->4317/tcp, [::]:9999->4317/tcp
NAME :otelcollector
Issue a command in a container
To issue the ls command in the jaeger2 container.
docker exec jaeger2 ls
Create and run an image
docker run -p 4317:4317 -p 8888:8888 -p 9464:9464 –name otel otel/opentelemetry-collector:latest -v /home/colin/otel/otel.yaml:/etc/oteltol/config.yaml
- This runs otel/opentelemetry-collector:latest (downloading it if necessary)
- -p map port -p external_port:internal_port
- -v map volume(file) -v external:internal the otel image uses a file /etc/oteltol/config.yaml. When the program running in the container accesses /etc/oteltol/config.yaml it uses the file /home/colin/otel/otel.yaml in Linux.
Display active images docker ps
Displays all images docker ps -a
colin@ColinNew:~/otel$ docker ps -a
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND ... NAMES
ee578b476ac1 prom/prometheus "/bin/prometheus --c…" ... prom
0f51508e07a2 otel/opentelemetry...:latest "/otelcol -v /home/c…" ... otel
You can refer to a container using the container id (ee578b476ac1) or the name(prom).
Docker inspect – show the configuration
docker inspect otel
gave
[
{
"Id": "2fb850a85e31125f936eb6994440757be33c509d2c80ef66864f55341219c6a0",
"Created": "2026-06-28T10:33:31.048547624Z",
"Path": "/otelcol",
"Args": [
"--config",
"/etc/otelcol/config.yaml"
],
"State": {
"Status": "exited",
...
"StartedAt": "2026-06-28T10:33:31.151675197Z",
"FinishedAt": "2026-06-28T10:33:35.449264219Z"
},
"Image": "sha256:140cdb56eeea12ebc33bb4f7109fd4eef90391933f8d85b33384fcfe1cf040c4",
Docker network
List active docker networks
docker network ls
gave
NETWORK ID NAME DRIVER SCOPE
b5bbab0b08f1 bridge bridge local
4e4dc158fa88 host host local
0cfcba5bb0ff none null local
b027e6a0f6ed otel-jaeger-network bridge local
Give details about one network
docker network inspect otel-jaeger-network
gave
[
{
"Name": "otel-jaeger-network",
"Id": "b027e6a0f6edc5f290b25c10852cf6022cb3dc05ab47c5ec6175910354c1d8ce",
"Created": "2026-06-28T17:32:51.894552966+01:00",
"Scope": "local",
"Driver": "bridge",
"EnableIPv4": true,
"EnableIPv6": false,
"IPAM": {
"Driver": "default",
"Options": {},
"Config": [
{
"Subnet": "172.18.0.0/16",
"IPRange": "",
"Gateway": "172.18.0.1"
}
]
},
...
"Containers": {
"a979647ba520ccc44ff600dd445b50606a91252fb0850318b823b7b51d3d2329": {
"Name": "otelcollector",
...
"IPv4Address": "172.18.0.2/16",
"IPv6Address": ""
}
},
...
Which ports are in use within a container?
docker port otelcollector
4317/tcp -> 0.0.0.0:4317
4317/tcp -> [::]:4317
4318/tcp -> 0.0.0.0:4318
4318/tcp -> [::]:4318
What is my container doing ?
docker stats otelcollector
CONTAINER ID NAME CPU % MEM USAGE / LIMIT MEM % NET I/O BLOCK I/O PIDS
68cf3ad47887 otel... 0.00% 16.24MiB / 27.05GiB 0.06% 85.3kB / 12.3kB 131kB / 0B 14
Images
What images do I have installed?
docker image ls
gave
IMAGE ID DISK USAGE CONTENT SIZE EXTRA
cr.jaegertrac...jaeger:2.19.0 ede4864215be 192MB 56.6MB
jaegertracing/all-in-one:... ab6f1a1f0fb4 123MB 37.4MB
otel/opentelemet... 140cdb56eeea 240MB 48.5MB U
prom/prometheus:latest a75c5a35bc21 427MB 118MB
Details of an image
docker image inspect jaegertracing/all-in-one
[
{
"Id": "sha256:ab6f1a1f0fb49ea08bcd19f6b84f6081d0d44b364b6de148e1798eb5816bacac",
"RepoTags": [
"jaegertracing/all-in-one:1.76.0",
"jaegertracing/all-in-one:latest"
],
"RepoDigests": [
"jaegertracing/all-in-one@sha256:ab6f1a1f0fb49ea08bcd19f6b84f6081d0d44b364b6de148e1798eb5816bacac"
],
"Comment": "buildkit.dockerfile.v0",
"Created": "2025-12-03T17:07:31.304698052Z",
"Config": {
"User": "10001",
"ExposedPorts": {
"14250/tcp": {},
"14268/tcp": {},
"16686/tcp": {},
"4317/tcp": {},
"4318/tcp": {},
"9411/tcp": {}
},
...