The first time I set up Docker, I installed Portainer first, and its polished web interface made me assume I had a production-ready server. However, the frantic Googling to fix broken containers that followed brought me back to reality. I had built the roof without a foundation. Luckily, my years of provisioning servers have helped me refine my approach. Now, six containers go on fresh installations before anything else. They cover auto-updates, reverse proxy, monitoring, logging, password management, and GUI. They are my top recommendations for anyone starting with Docker. Installing them in this order helps you avoid problems with SSL certs, corrupted databases, or blind log files. Related I access my home server from anywhere in the world without port forwarding Homelabbing made real easy. Watchtower The first thing I automate is maintenance Afam Onyimadu / MUO As containers grow, they become harder to manage, and it’s easy to miss when they are behind on security patches. This is one of the biggest dangers to your setup. Watchtower is the permanent fix. Watchtower automates …