Containerized Website: Docker & Nginx

Core stack

• Beelink mini PC
• Windows 11 host operating system
• Docker Desktop with WSL2 backend
• Nginx base image
• Custom Dockerfile
• Custom index.html served through the container
• Browser based localhost testing

What I built

• Created a dedicated project folder for the containerized site.
• Built a simple custom HTML page to be served through Nginx.
• Created a Dockerfile to define how the image should be built.
• Built a custom image instead of relying only on the default Nginx image as is.
• Mapped host port 8080 to container port 80.
• Stopped, removed, and recreated the container to apply changes properly.
• Verified the page was loading successfully in the browser from the rebuilt container.

Issues I had to solve

I worked through missing files, incorrect paths, and container lifecycle errors.

• Learned that docker run requires an image name at the end of the command.
• Learned that docker stop requires an existing container name or ID.
• Hit a build failure because the project folder did not yet contain a Dockerfile.
• Corrected the Dockerfile after initially using the wrong nginx file path.
• Learned that a successful image build does not automatically update an already running container.
• Reinforced the difference between an image and a container through rebuilding and rerunning the project.

Commands I used

• docker build -t beelink-nginx-site .
• docker stop beelink-nginx
• docker rm beelink-nginx
• docker run -d -p 8080:80 --name beelink-nginx beelink-nginx-site
• docker ps