System Design Plan
Overview
Portainer provides a centralized, web-based UI to manage Docker containers across your infrastructure, significantly simplifying deployment and monitoring.
System Components
- Proxmox Host (
pve)
- Manages all virtualized environments and LXC containers.
- Provides resources and network configurations for the LXC containers.
- LXC Container for Portainer (
portainer-lxc)
- Purpose: Hosts Portainer, which will be used to deploy and manage Docker containers.
- Resources:
- 2 CPU cores
- 4GB RAM
- 20GB Disk
- Nested virtualization enabled (
nesting=1)
- DHCP network configuration via
vmbr0 bridge
- Docker Containers Managed by Portainer
- Prometheus: Collects metrics from the Proxmox host and other targets.
- Grafana: Visualizes metrics collected by Prometheus.
- Proxmox Exporter: Exposes Proxmox metrics for Prometheus.
Deployment Plan
Step 1: Create LXC Container for Portainer
- Use Proxmox CLI to create an Ubuntu-based LXC container with the following specifications:
- Hostname:
portainer-lxc
- Resources: 4GB RAM, 2 CPUs, 20GB disk.
- Networking: DHCP via
vmbr0 bridge.
- Nested Virtualization: Enabled for Docker support.
Step 2: Install Docker in Portainer LXC
- Install Docker in the LXC container to support containerized workloads.
Step 3: Deploy Portainer in the LXC Container
- Deploy Portainer as a Docker container within the LXC container.
- Access the Portainer web UI via
https://<LXC_IP>:9443.
Step 4: Use Portainer to Deploy and Manage Containers
- Use Portainer to deploy the following Docker containers:
- Prometheus: Collects metrics from the Proxmox host.
- Grafana: Displays visualizations using metrics from Prometheus.
- Proxmox Exporter: Exposes metrics for Prometheus.
Step 5: Integrate Prometheus and Grafana
- Configure Prometheus to scrape metrics from the Proxmox Exporter.
- Add Prometheus as a data source in Grafana.
- Use prebuilt or custom Grafana dashboards to monitor Proxmox.
Benefits
- Simplified Management:
- Portainer provides an intuitive UI, reducing the need for complex automation scripts.
- Centralized Control:
- All Docker containers are managed in one place.
- Scalability:
- Easily expand the system by deploying additional containers or integrating multiple Docker environments.
Future Plans
- Extend Portainer to manage multiple Proxmox nodes as you expand your infrastructure.
- Add reverse proxies (e.g., Traefik or Nginx Proxy Manager) to enhance security and flexibility.
- Explore advanced monitoring setups using additional Grafana dashboards or other metrics sources.