Start by pulling the official Nginx image from Docker Hub. The default tag retrieves the latest stable release optimized for general use:

docker pull nginx

For environments prioritizing minimal resource usage, use the Alpine Linux-based variant instead:

docker pull nginx:alpine

Confirm the image exists in your local registry:

docker image ls | grep nginx

Expected output includes repository details, image digests, and size differences between standard and Alpine builds.

Launch a detached container mapping host port 8080 to the standard HTTP port:

docker run -d \
  --name http-gateway \
  -p 8080:80 \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  nginx

The --restart policy ensures the service resumes after system reboots. For persistent custom configurations, mount configuration and content direcotries from the host filesystem:

docker run -d \
  --name configured-proxy \
  -v $(pwd)/nginx.conf:/etc/nginx/nginx.conf:ro \
  -v $(pwd)/html:/usr/share/nginx/html:ro \
  -p 8080:80 \
  nginx

Verify active containers filtering by the Nginx ancestor image:

docker ps --filter "ancestor=nginx" --format "table {{.Names}}\t{{.Status}}\t{{.Ports}}"

Access the deployment via http://localhost:8080 to view the default welcome page, confirming the web server operates correctly inside the containeirzed environment.

To discover available image variants including specific version tags:

docker search nginx --filter is-official=true --limit 5

This query returns official repositories suitable for production deployments, excluding community modifications.