get portainer set up

A bunch of resources to help you get setup the right way, quickly.

Install Portainer

If you're a new Business Edition user 

Please follow the Install Portainer Business Edition guide in our docs to ensure a successful implementation. 

If you're a current CE User; Upgrade from CE to BE

If you're currently using Portainer Community Edition, follow the Upgrade from Portainer CE to Business Edition Guide to ensure a successful upgrade.

Secure your Portainer instance

It's really important to secure your Portainer installation properly (and it's quite easy to get it wrong) so please take a moment to check out the advice in this blog post: How to correctly secure your Portainer instance when presented on the internet.

Portainer Agent vs Edge Agent

Portainer supports a number of different connection methods for adding environments, but in a production setup we highly recommend the use of the Portainer Agent to connect.

The Portainer Agent is a lightweight container that runs on your environment and facilitates the communication between the environment and the Portainer Server instance.

The Portainer Agent can be deployed in two different configurations: Agent and Edge Agent, with the primary difference being how they communicate with the Portainer Server instance.

The Edge agent is more ideal for remote environments outside of your network. Find out more in our article: Standard agent vs Edge agent 

Best Practice Installation Guide

If you want to run Portainer in a Production environment, it's essential that you set it up correctly. Here's our Best Practice Installation Guide that covers the 10 critical steps: 

  1. Choosing your architecture
  2. Preparing your management environment 
  3. Deploying Portainer server
  4. Initial setup
  5. Securing your installation 
  6. Configuring access
  7. Adding environments 
  8. Managing environment access 
  9. Adding registries 
  10. Securing your environments 

Portainer's Best Practice Installation Guide

If you want to run Portainer in a Production environment, it's essential that you set it up correctly. Here's our Best Practice Installation Guide that covers the 10 critical steps: 
- Choosing your architecture
- Preparing your management environment 
- Deploying Portainer serverInitial setup
- Securing your installation 
- Configuring access
- Adding environments 
- Managing environment access 
- Adding registries 
- Securing your environments 

Learn how to deploy your apps on Docker or Kubernetes with Portainer

In these Portainer Academy courses, learn how you can use Portainer to deploy your applications on Docker and Docker Swarm environments, or Kubernetes environments; including an introduction to containerization and real world example deployments.

Available courses:
Deploying your apps on Docker with Portainer 
Deploying your apps on Kubernetes with Portainer

Persistent storage in containerization can be a complex topic. In our article "Persistent Storage: Docker Bind Mounts and Named Volumes", we look at persistent storage concepts in Docker, specifically the difference between bind mounts and named volumes. 

Use Portainer as part of your CI/CD

Learn more about how you can use the Portainer GitOps engine in your development pipeline; "Portainer as part of your CI/CD with Docker and Kubernetes GitOps".

Learn more about how you can use the Portainer GitOps using GitHub actions; "GitOps with Portainer using GitHub Actions".

Stay connected

Follow Us on Social Media: Keep up with the latest news, updates, and best practices by following us on social media. Join our growing community of infrastructure engineers and technical professionals.

Follow us on LinkedIn

Share Your Experience: If you’re excited about using Portainer.io, share your thoughts with your network. Your recommendation helps others discover a tool that could transform their container management.

Tag us on LinkedIn by mentioning @portainer

Explore more resources

Read our latest blog articles: Expand your knowledge with articles and case studies tailored to your interests. Whether you’re new to container management or a seasoned pro, there’s something for everyone.

Read our Case Studies: See how other engineers are leveraging Portainer.io to enhance their infrastructure management.

See you soon - we’re not far away

Contact us

Need help or have questions? Our team is here for you. Reach out to us at success@portainer.io.

Privacy Assurance: We respect your privacy. Your information will be used solely to enhance your experience with Portainer.io.