Deploying a MySQL Container Using the Portainer Application Image

Application Scenario

Portainer is a graphical tool for Docker management. It offers a range of functions such as status display, quick deployment of application templates, basic operations on Docker (containers, images, networks, and database logical volumes), log display, container console operations, centralized management and operations of Swarm clusters and services, and user login management and control. Supported By FlexusL, the Portainer application image uses Ubuntu 22.04 and is deployed using Docker. The Docker and Portainer have been preconfigured in the image. You can use this application image to visualize Docker management.

Resource Planning and Costs

Resource	Configuration	Description
Cloud server	vCPUs: 2 Memory: 4 GiB	Select appropriate instance specifications based on your service requirements.
Image	Portainer	Select the Portainer application image.
Security group	Inbound rule: Protocol/Application: TCP Port: 80,9001,3306 Source: 0.0.0.0/0	3306: Allows access to MySQL databases. 80: Specifies the internal forwarding port of application images. 9000: Allows external access to the dashboard of the application preinstalled in the image. 9001: Allows external access to the application management page.

Resource

Configuration

Description

Cloud server

vCPUs: 2
Memory: 4 GiB

Select appropriate instance specifications based on your service requirements.

Image

Portainer

Select the Portainer application image.

Security group

Inbound rule:

Protocol/Application: TCP
Port: 80,9001,3306
Source: 0.0.0.0/0

3306: Allows access to MySQL databases.

80: Specifies the internal forwarding port of application images.
9000: Allows external access to the dashboard of the application preinstalled in the image.
9001: Allows external access to the application management page.

Process

Procedure	Description
Step 1: Purchase a FlexusL Instance	Purchase a FlexusL instance and select the Portainer application image.
Step 2: Configure Security Groups	Add inbound security group rules to ensure that the application preinstalled in the image can be accessed.
Step 3: Initialize Portainer	Log in to the dashboard and install and initialize Portainer.
Step 4: Use Portainer to Deploy a MySQL Container	Use Portainer to visualize Docker management (using MySQL container as an example)

Step 1: Purchase a FlexusL Instance

Specify required parameters for the FlexusL instance.

Parameter	Example	Description
Region	CN-Hong Kong	For low network latency and quick resource access, select the region nearest to your target users. After a FlexusL instance is created, the region cannot be changed. Exercise caution when selecting a region.
Application Images	Portainer	Select the Portainer application image.
Instance Specifications	2 vCPUs \| 4 GiB memory and 80 GiB system disk	Select instance specifications as needed.
Instance Name	Portainer-Example	Customize an instance name that is easy to identify, for example, Portainer-Example.
(Optional) Associated Services	Data disk: 10 GiB Host security Cloud backup vault: 90 GiB	You can bundle any of the services to your FlexusL instances as needed: EVS, HSS (basic edition), and CBR and set specifications as needed.
Required Duration	1 month	The minimum duration of a purchase is one month and the maximum duration is three years. Auto-renew is enabled by default, which means the purchased FlexusL instances will be automatically renewed before they expire. If you do not enable auto-renew during the purchase process, you can still enable it later after the instances are created. For more information about auto-renewal rules, see Auto-Renewal Rules.
Quantity	1	Set the number of FlexusL instances to be purchased.

Click Buy Now and complete the payment as prompted.
Go back to the FlexusL console and view the purchased FlexusL instance.

After a FlexusL instance is created using an application image, wait until the image with the pre-installed application is up and running. Then, you can perform operations such as restarting or stopping the instance, or resetting the password. Otherwise, the installation may fail and you cannot log in to the image application dashboard.

Step 2: Configure Security Groups

Add inbound security group rules to ensure that the application preinstalled in the image can be accessed.

Log in to the FlexusL console and click a resource card to go to the instance details page.
In the navigation pane on the left, choose Cloud Servers. Locate the server and click its name.

On the Security Groups tab, click Add Rule. In the displayed dialog box, add rules displayed in the following figure and click OK.

The following figure only displays common rules. You can add more rules as needed.

**Table 1** Security group rules
Priority	Action	Type	Protocol & Port	Source	Description
1	Allow	IPv4	TCP: 80	0.0.0.0/0	Specifies the internal forwarding port of application images
1	Allow	IPv4	TCP: 3306	0.0.0.0/0	Allows access to MySQL databases.
1	Allow	IPv4	TCP: 9001	0.0.0.0/0	Allows external access to the application dashboard.

Step 3: Initialize Portainer

The image application dashboard needs to be initialized only when you log in for the first time.

On the Overview page, click Access in the Dashboard field in the Image area.

If the dashboard of WordPress cannot be accessed, it may be because the port for accessing the dashboard is not allowed or the application has not been up and running. To solve this problem, see Why Can't I Open the Dashboard of the Application Pre-installed in the Application Image?

If you use a Portainer application image to create, reinstall, or change the OS of a FlexusL instance, Portainer initialization has a certain validity period. If no users are created within the validity period, a message in the following figure is displayed. In this case, log in to the server and run sudo docker restart portainer to restart Portainer, and then create a user as soon as possible.
Set the username and password of the Portainer administrator and click Create user.
If you have backup data for Portainer, click Restore Portainer from backup and upload the backup data to quickly set up the Portainer environment.
Choose Home and click local to use Portainer for Docker visual management.

Then, you have obtained a Portainer hosting server. You can start using Portainer or follow the instructions provided in Step 4: Use Portainer to Deploy a MySQL Container to create and connect to a MySQL container.

Step 4: Use Portainer to Deploy a MySQL Container

This section uses the MySQL container as an example to describe how to use Portainer to visualize Docker management.

Choose Containers in the left navigation pane and click Add container.
Specify MySQL container parameters.
- ① Name: user-defined container name.
- ② Image: container image name. For example, if you set this parameter to mysql:5.7, the system automatically pulls the MySQL5.7 container image from Docker Hub.
- ③ Click publish a new network port and add port 3306 to ensure that the MySQL database can be accessed.
- ④ Env: environment variables.
  - MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: password of the root user of the database. This parameter is mandatory. It is used for logging in to the MySQL container. Keep the password secure.
    
    Ensure that the MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD parameter name is correctly entered, or the database cannot be connected.
  - MYSQL_DATABASE: name (such as wordpress) of the database which is automatically created in the value row after the MySQL container is created. This parameter is optional.
- ⑤ Restart policy: You are advised to select Always so that the container is always automatically restarted when it is stopped.
Click Deploy the container to create a MySQL container.

Return to the container list and click in the MySQL container row.
On the displayed page, click Connect to connect to the container.
Run the following command to log in to the MySQL database:
mysql -uroot –p123456, in which 123456 is the value of MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD.