Okay, so I’ve been messing around with this “Captain” thing, specifically Captain, to see if I could get it to, you know, actually do something useful. I’d heard some buzz, figured I’d give it a whirl. Here’s how it went down.
Getting Started (and Getting Stuck)
First, I gotta say, the initial setup wasn’t too bad. I followed some basic guide, installed Docker – which I’m already pretty familiar with, thank goodness – and then pulled down the Captain image. So far, so good.
I ran the command to get it going, something like docker run… (I’m not gonna get into the super nitty-gritty details, you can find those anywhere). Boom, Captain server supposedly running. Cool.
Then… I hit a wall. I tried to deploy a super simple “Hello, World” type app, just to see if the whole thing worked. Nope. Kept getting weird errors, stuff about not being able to connect, network issues… the usual frustrating stuff.
Troubleshooting (aka Head-Scratching)
This is where I spent a good chunk of my time, I’m not gonna lie. I went down a rabbit hole of forums and documentation. Tried tweaking the config files, restarting everything a million times, the whole nine yards.
- Checked my firewall.
- Made sure Docker was running correctly.
- Double-checked, triple-checked all the Captain settings.
I even considered sacrificing a small rubber duck to the coding gods. (Spoiler alert: I didn’t, but I was tempted.)
The “Aha!” Moment (Finally!)
Turns out, the problem was something ridiculously simple. I had a typo in the application’s name. One. Single. Letter. Off. 🤦♂️
I felt like a complete idiot, but hey, it happens, right? Fixed the typo, re-ran the deploy command, and… BAM! It worked! My little “Hello, World” app was up and running. I could’ve cried, I was so relieved.
Actually Deploying Something (For Real This Time)
Once I got past that initial hurdle, deploying other stuff was actually pretty smooth. I tried a slightly more complex app, one with a database and a couple of different services. No major issues!
I played around with the Captain web interface, which is pretty straightforward. You can see your apps, their status, logs, all that good stuff. It’s not the prettiest thing in the world, but it gets the job done.
Wrapping Up (and My Two Cents)
So, after all that, would I recommend Captain? Maybe. It definitely has a learning curve, and those initial setup hiccups can be a real pain. But once you get past that, it seems pretty solid.
It’s not a magic bullet, and it’s probably not for everyone. But if you’re comfortable with Docker and you’re looking for a relatively simple way to deploy your apps, it might be worth checking out. Just remember to double-check those typos!
