Docker
Alpine makes a great docker container, because it is so small and optimized to be run in RAM. It might also might make a good controller for several docker containers with enough RAM. I haven't tested this yet Docker's setup is easy to use from command line. Commands can be run from an interactive shell, or through a configuration file called a "Dockerfile". docker.com has excellent walk-throughs on how to run, pull, setup a container, commit an image, and create a configuration file. hub.docker.com is a freemium setup, where the first private repository is free.
Installation
Run apk add docker to install Docker on Alpine Linux.
The Docker package is in the 'Community' repository, so if the apk add fails with unsatisfiable constraints, you need to edit the /etc/apk/repositories file to add (or uncomment) a line like:
http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community
To start the Docker daemon at boot, run:
rc-update add docker boot
Then to start the Docker daemon manually, run:
service docker start
sysctl -w kernel.grsecurity.chroot_deny_chmod=0
sysctl -w kernel.grsecurity.chroot_deny_mknod=0
For more information, have a look at the corresponding Github issue.
Anyway, this weakening of security is not necessary to do with Alpine 3.4.x and Docker 1.12 as of August 2016 anymore.
Docker Compose
To install docker-compose, first install pip:
apk add py-pip
Then install docker-compose, run:
pip install docker-compose
Example: How to install docker from Arch
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Docker
How to use docker
The best documentation for how to use Docker and create containers is at the main docker site. Adding anything more to it here would be redundant.
if you create an account at docker.com you can browse through other user's images and learn from the syntax in contributor's dockerfiles.
Official Docker image files are denoted by a blue ribon on the website.