Docker Support (post-3.8 update)
#### Welcome back to the blog!
#### In this post I'll explain options for self-hosting the bot. I'll talk about Docker - what it is, how it works and how you can set it up in a short amount of time.
##### FYI: This blog post assumes basic knowledge of Linux
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# Docker... what?
For those unfamiliar with it, **Docker** is a virtualization software that makes running both basic and complex software "stacks" much simpler.
If you don't care what it is, **that's fine**. If you want to read more about Docker, you can do so [on their website](https://docker.com/).
Before continuing though, you need to install Docker on your machine - see [this guide](https://docs.docker.com/install/). I **highly** recommend having a Linux server for this, but Windows 10 Pro and Mac are both supported as well.
After installation, verify that Docker is properly installed on your machine with this command:
You will also need **Docker compose** - install it [here](https://docs.docker.com/compose/install/) and verify proper installation by typing this command:
## Setting everything up
To start off, there are a few things you will need. Firstly, download [these files](https://github.com/DefaltSimon/Nano/releases/download/v3.8/SelfhostingPackage.zip) and extract them into a folder.
After you have done that, there are a few things you will need to fill out.
To fill out the **token**, follow this guide: [Creating a discord bot and getting a token](https://github.com/reactiflux/discord-irc/wiki/Creating-a-discord-bot-&-getting-a-token)
For **ownerid**, you must first turn on Developer mode in *User Settings -> Appearance*. Then, right click on yourself and click *Copy ID* to get the ID you need. With this ID, you give yourself all permissions, so be careful.
You should leave the **server** setting as well as both *Redis* and *RedisCache* alone as messing with these settings will cause the bot to stop working correctly.
Now onto **config.ini**. This configuration file holds tokens for features like game and movie search, cat images, osu, Giphy, Steam and other things.
Each of these features has their own token and this guide would be too long if I went into detail for getting tokens for all of these sites, but it should be relatively simple.
Here are the links:
* [Steam](https://steamcommunity.com/dev/apikey)
* [backpack.tf](https://backpack.tf/developer)
* [Giphy](https://developers.giphy.com/)
* [osu!](https://osu.ppy.sh/p/api)
* [imgflip.com](https://api.imgflip.com/)
* [thecatapi.com](http://thecatapi.com/)
* [tmdb.com](https://www.themoviedb.org/documentation/api)
* [igdb.com](https://api.igdb.com)
If you wish to disable one of these features, simply do not put the token into the configuration file.
Now that the hard part is done, it's time for the fun part!
## Starting the bot
Now everything should be ready, all that is left is to actually start the bot 😊.
This is very simple - all you have to do is run `docker-compose up` to start Nano and all needed components. If you want to be able to close the terminal and still have Nano running in the background (on a Linux host), use `docker-compose up -d`
Here is what you should be seeing when doing this for the first time:
**Congratulations! You now have a fully functioning Nano instance!**
(If you want to stop Nano, use `docker-compose stop`)
This concludes the guide. If you have *any* other questions, don't hesitate to ask me in our [Discord server](https://discord.nanobot.pw), I'll happily assist you in getting your instance online.
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###### Note: you are not allowed to run Nano for anything but "private" purposes (such as hosting your own bot for a group of friends or a bigger server). You are also not allowed to profit in any way by self-hosting Nano.
###### P.S.: Thank you Grimpy for that proofreading ;)