How to setup docker on ubuntu desktop to use folder outside boot?

Question

I want to use docker to run a couple of dockerized 'apps/services' from time to time on my laptop running ubuntu 18.04. I have a boot partition with 100 gb (50gb occupied) and a 900 gb home folder setup via fstab and ext4.

I installed docker using

sudo apt install docker.io

And spun up a container using the standard command. But things escalated quickly as my workload involves tons of image data and I ran out of space on my boot partition very fast. My question is:

How to setup docker, so that it only uses the minimal space on the boot partition and preferably keeps all containers, app data, temp files, etc in a specific folder in the home directory, e.g. 'home/user/data/docker'?

Bonus question: Is there a good docker management GUI application? I like the way I can setup docker containers on openmediavault, but its not an option here.

Answer 1

How to setup docker, so that it only uses the minimal space on the boot partition and preferably keeps all containers, app data, temp files, etc in a specific folder in the home directory, e.g. 'home/user/data/docker'?

You can edit /etc/default/docker and add to DOCKER_OPTS the following:

-g /directory/to/install/images/to

As an example here is how it looks in a practical example, where the images are being installed in the /mnt directory:

DOCKER_OPTS="-dns 8.8.8.8 -dns 8.8.4.4 -g /mnt"

Is there a good docker management GUI application?

I have not used it so it is not my opinion, but kitematic is widely known and popular for doing a good job as a Docker GUI and it has an Ubuntu installer. Other GUI front-ends for Docker are dockstation (closed-source) and portainer (web-based and runs as a container).