Lab 2: Run workshop components with Docker

Introduction

This guide shows you how to run a demo backend application and multiple NGINX OSS and Plus containers with Docker. The backend application runs in three nginxinc/ingress-demo containers, each serving a simple web page. You’ll also link each NGINX container to NGINX One Console for management and monitoring.

What you’ll learn

By the end of this tutorial, you’ll know how to:

  • Set up environment variables for your data plane key and license
  • Log in to the NGINX private registry
  • Generate self-signed certificates
  • Run Docker Compose to start 9 containers
  • Verify your containers in Docker and in NGINX One Console

Before you begin

Make sure you have:

  • An F5 Distributed Cloud (XC) account
  • NGINX One service enabled in your XC account
  • Docker and Docker Compose installed and running
  • An active data plane key from Lab 1: Get started with NGINX One Console
  • A trial or paid NGINX Plus JWT license (saved as nginx-repo.jwt) from MyF5.
  • Basic Linux and NGINX know-how
  • Git installed and SSH key set up for GitHub access

Clone the NGINX documentation repo

  1. Clone the repo via SSH

    git clone git@github.com:nginx/documentation.git

  2. Change to the Lab 2 directory

    cd static/workshops/nginx-one/lab2

This folder contains docker-compose.yml and generate_certs.sh.

Download docker-compose.yaml

Download generate_certs.sh

Set environment variables

  1. Set your data plane key

    export TOKEN="paste-your-data-plane-key-here"
echo "$TOKEN"

  2. Set your NGINX Plus JWT

    export JWT=$(cat path/to/nginx-repo.jwt)
echo "$JWT"

  3. Give your setup a unique name

    Replace your.initials with something that identifies you or your setup (for example, s.jobs)

    export NAME="your.initials"
echo "$NAME"

Log in to the private registry

Pipe your JWT into Docker login:

echo "$JWT" | docker login private-registry.nginx.com \
  --username "$JWT" --password-stdin

You should see Login Succeeded.

Generate certificates

Run the script to create self-signed certs:

chmod +x generate_certs.sh
./generate_certs.sh

This creates 1-day.key, 1-day.crt, 30-day.key, and 30-day.crt in the nginx-oss/etc/ssl/nginx subfolder.

Run Docker Compose

Start all nine containers in detached mode:

docker compose up --force-recreate -d

Wait until you see “Started” for each container.

Verify containers

  1. Check Docker

    docker ps | grep "$NAME"

    You should see 9 containers listed.

  2. Check NGINX One Console

    • Go to the Instances page in the NGINX One Console
    • Refresh and search by your $NAME (for example, s.jobs)
    • Confirm each instance shows a green *Online icon.

If you don’t see them, double-check your $TOKEN or generate a new data plane key.

Next steps

Now that your containers are up and registered, go on to explore NGINX One Console features in Lab 3.

Go to Lab 3: Explore NGINX One Console features

References