Soren Learning

Docker in Depth: From Basics to Orchestration

A 9-chapter series taking you from zero Docker knowledge through containers, images, networking, volumes, Compose, security, CI/CD, and orchestration — everything you need to run Docker confidently in production.

dockercontainersdevopsci-cdorchestrationkubernetes

9 Chapters

  1. 01What is Docker?
  2. 02Containers in Practice — The Docker CLI
  3. 03Building Images — Dockerfile From Scratch
  4. 04Networking — How Containers Talk to Each Other
  5. 05Volumes & Data — Persisting State Beyond the Container
  6. 06Docker Compose — Multi-Container Apps Made Simple
  7. 07Docker Security — Hardening Containers for Production
  8. 08Docker in CI/CD — Automating Builds and Deployments
  9. 09Orchestration — From Docker Swarm to Kubernetes

Overview

Docker changed how software gets built, shipped, and run. But most engineers learn just enough to get the app running locally — then hit a wall the first time something breaks in staging, or when they need to harden a container for production.

Docker in Depth is a 9-chapter series that builds a complete mental model: from why containers exist and how they work at the OS level, through networking and data persistence, Compose-based multi-service stacks, security hardening, CI/CD integration, and finally production-grade orchestration with Swarm and Kubernetes.

Each chapter is self-contained enough to reference directly, but the series is designed to be read in order — each layer builds on the last.

Series Structure

Part I — Core Concepts

# Chapter What you'll understand
1 What is Docker? Why containers exist, VM vs container, image vs container, namespaces/cgroups
2 Containers in Practice docker run, container lifecycle, logs, exec, inspect
3 Building Images Dockerfile, layer caching, multi-stage builds, push to registry

Part II — Networking & Data

# Chapter What you'll understand
4 Networking Bridge networks, container DNS, port publishing, network segmentation
5 Volumes & Data Named volumes, bind mounts, tmpfs, practical persistence patterns

Part III — Building Real Applications

# Chapter What you'll understand
6 Docker Compose compose.yaml, healthchecks, env vars, multi-compose files
7 Docker Security Non-root, capabilities, secrets, image scanning, network segmentation

Part IV — Production

# Chapter What you'll understand
8 Docker in CI/CD GitHub Actions pipeline, build cache, vulnerability scanning, registry push
9 Orchestration Docker Swarm, Kubernetes, Deployments, Services, HPA

Who This Is For

Backend and fullstack engineers — from developers who've never run a Docker command to those who want a structured, production-grade understanding from first principles through deployment pipelines.

Start with Chapter 1: What is Docker?

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