Running Linux Docker Containers on Windows Server 2019 - docker

I am exploring docker for one of my company project. In this project I need to run the MemCached on CentOS and I prefer to run this in a docker container. I have successfully able to run this on Windows 10 machine with Docker Community Edition installed. But our project needs Windows Server 2019 in production and I want to run the container of same image (MemCached on CentOS) on windows server 2019. I googled a lot and found a link for running Linux Containers on Windows Server 2019. But as per the above link we are installing docker package in Preview version. I believe that this Preview version I should not use in Production. Is my understanding is correct or not?
Also is there any other stable released way to run Linux containers on Windows Server 2019.
Thanks in advance.

As per the Preview version you can remove the -RequiredVersion preview tag and then install. The process will install Docker Enterprise Edition on Server 2019 and not the CE version as the one for WIN 10.
If the container you want to run is a Linux container then you may face some tough times reason being
The containers(linux) runs on Server 2019 using LCOW way and the LCOW way is an experimental feature.
You said that you want to run container in Production environment and I would say not to use and experimental feature for Production.
Incase you need to run the containers on a server edition of Windows ie Server 2016 or Server 2019 you can go with the Docker CE (ie the same .exe that works on Win 10).
One important point to note is that on server 2016 all the docker versions are not supported.
Docker 2.0.0.31259 is the supported version of Docker on Server 2016.(Latest Docker 2.1.0.3 does not work on server 2016 but it works on Server 2019
Note : I face the same issues as you face ie you want the run the containers on Server 2019. The above are my findings so far. There is no clarity from windows side about how to run docker containers. Please refer to my answer :Here for better understanding

I'm struggling with the same issue for some time, and for me the only working combination of Windows Server and Docker that can effectively run with Linux containers is Windows Server 2019 Standard Edition with an edge release Docker Desktop Community 2.1.3.0 published on 2019-09-16.
The link to read about edge releases and to download them is:
https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-windows/edge-release-notes/
In my case, there was also an issue of nested virtualization, since my Windows Server is installed on VMware machine, and Docker requires Hyper-V inside Windows Server in order to work.
Fixed that issue according to instructions provided here:
https://doitfixit.com/blog/2014/03/06/qhyper-v-components-is-not-runningq-nested-in-vmware-workstation/

as far as my understanding goes, it is experimental feature, however it can be done and works quite OK.
The only requirement is that this feature works on server with hypervisor enabled.
Follow this link: https://www.altaro.com/msp-dojo/linux-containers-windows-server-2019/ for further instructions on how to set it up.

Related

How to Run Docker Linux Containers on Windows Server 2016 Build 14393

I'm in a situation where:
I have no choice of server OS (Windows Server 2016 Build 14393).
And no choice of container OS (I need Linux Containers).
And I don't need Docker EE (Enterprise), CE (Desktop Edition) will do.
The easiest way to get Linux containers without hacky workarounds is to download Docker Community Edition 2.0.0.3 2019-02-15
Link: https://download.docker.com/win/stable/31259/Docker%20for%20Windows%20Installer.exe
Page with all versions: https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-windows/release-notes/
Simply download/copy the file to the Windows Server 2016 machine and run it.
It can also run offline for air gapped systems.
Uncheck the "Use Windows containers" during setup. Unchecked by default.
You will get a message after installing saying that windows so and so is deprecated. Click OK.
Log out and log back in.
If you hadn't installed Hyper-V it'll prompt you to do it automatically. Allow it, let it finish and restart. You're good to go now.
I've tested this by running several Linux containers, it works fine. If I'm missing something do share for the benefit of others. The downside is you cannot update to a later version of Docker.
Update:
Disclaimers:
This can help you avoid the hardware limitations and complexities of using LCOW with Docker-EE for Windows.
It is more recent than the latest official version of LCOW available.
This won't let you run Windows and Linux containers in parallel. You can only run one or the other.
This also won't start docker automatically at startup (not until you login). To start docker without login you'll need to add Docker Desktop Executable to Windows Task Scheduler and configure it to run on startup whether user is logged in or not. You'll have to provide an account for it (ideally a service account, or an account with a permanent password)

Linux Docker container on Windows Server 2016

What is the way to run Linux docker container on Windows Server 2016? With Docker for Windows it easy to do in Windows 10. Is the only way to install Docker Toolbox and ignore the build-in containers feature all together?
It is possible to use Linux containers on W2016. It's a bit hacky though. User "Algore" described it here but I've copied it into this answer, of course.
Download "Docker for Windows": https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-windows/
Install "Docker for Windows" on Windows 10 Pro.
Copy C:\Program Files\Docker from the Windows 10 machine to C:\Program Files on your Server 2016 box.
On the W2016 box run install-windowsfeature hyper-v,containers
Copy these registry entries to a file and import them on your Server 2016 box (reg import):
---START---
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Docker Inc.]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Docker Inc.\Docker]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Docker Inc.\Docker\1.0]
"AppPath"="\"C:\Program Files\Docker\Docker\Docker for Windows.exe\""
"BinPath"="\"C:\Program Files\Docker\Docker\resources\bin\""
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\Application\DockerService]
"EventMessageFile"=hex(2):43,00,3a,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,6f,00,77,\
00,73,00,5c,00,4d,00,69,00,63,00,72,00,6f,00,73,00,6f,00,66,00,74,00,2e,00,\
4e,00,45,00,54,00,5c,00,46,00,72,00,61,00,6d,00,65,00,77,00,6f,00,72,00,6b,\
00,36,00,34,00,5c,00,76,00,34,00,2e,00,30,00,2e,00,33,00,30,00,33,00,31,00,\
39,00,5c,00,45,00,76,00,65,00,6e,00,74,00,4c,00,6f,00,67,00,4d,00,65,00,73,\
00,73,00,61,00,67,00,65,00,73,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,00,00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\com.docker.service]
"Type"=dword:00000010
"Start"=dword:00000002
"ErrorControl"=dword:00000000
"ImagePath"=hex(2):22,00,43,00,3a,00,5c,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,\
6d,00,20,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,5c,00,44,00,6f,00,63,00,6b,00,65,\
00,72,00,5c,00,44,00,6f,00,63,00,6b,00,65,00,72,00,5c,00,63,00,6f,00,6d,00,\
2e,00,64,00,6f,00,63,00,6b,00,65,00,72,00,2e,00,73,00,65,00,72,00,76,00,69,\
00,63,00,65,00,22,00,00,00
"DisplayName"="Docker for Windows Service"
"ObjectName"="LocalSystem"
"Description"="Run Docker for Windows backend service"
---END---
You can add an entry to currentversion\run or a scheduled job if you want docker for windows.exe to start up automatically.
Restart the computer and run the PowerShell script C:\Program Files\Docker\Docker\Resources\mobylinuxvm.ps1 -Create
Look into this ps1 file and notice that you can set various options. Please refer to these websites:
https://docker-saigon.github.io/post/Docker-Beta/
https://jpetazzo.github.io/2013/10/16/configure-docker-bridge-network/
Make sure the docker service com.docker.service (start-service com.docker.service) is running before you start C:\Program Files\Docker\Docker for Windows.exe
If you are running on server core and don't have the tray icon, click "change privacy settings" when the notification comes up after it starts to get to settings (or modify the json in programdata)
If you run into issues when trying things and rebuilding, check out the C:\Program Files\Docker\Docker\Resources\forceremovedocker.ps1 file for locations to delete settings such as in C:\programdata. I would advise against running the script as it deletes all docker related things. Just use pieces of it.
According to this from Stefan Scherer it is possible to run Linux containers on Server 2016. The instructions are:
Create a Linux Docker machine in Hyper-V
If you want to try out multi architecture you also use docker-machine
to create a Linux Docker Engine running in Hyper-V. I have prepared a
script that will set up everything as there are some known issues.
C:\vagrant\scripts\create-hyperv-linux-docker-machine.ps1
This PowerShell script creates a Docker machine and updates Docker
Engine to the latest so that the Windows Docker client is able to
communicate with the Linux Docker Engine.
Use the Linux Docker machine
Open a PowerShell terminal as an administrator and select the Linux
Docker machine with
docker-machine env --shell powershell | iex
Now run your first busybox container with
docker run -it busybox uname -a
Unfortunately, right now it is not possible to easily install the "Docker for Windows" tool. This installer provides a thin VM called MobyLinux which allows running of Linux containers on Windows Server 2016. You can find a hacky install attempt (which I have not tried) on the Docker forums.
For reference there is a good discussion about what is going on behind the scenes with "Docker for Windows".
The below worked on Windows Server 2016 build 14393.693 (January 2017) without hacky workarounds.
It may work on higher/lower builds but I tried to replicate on a recently updated version of Windows Server 2016 and it failed spectacularly! Feels like this hole had to be patched!
Download Docker Community Edition 2.0.0.3 2019-02-15
Link: https://download.docker.com/win/stable/31259/Docker%20for%20Windows%20Installer.exe
Page with all versions: https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-windows/release-notes/
Simply download/copy the file to the Windows Server 2016 machine and run it.
It can also run offline for air-gapped systems.
Uncheck the "Use Windows containers" during setup. Unchecked by default.
You will get a message after installing saying that windows so and so is deprecated. Click OK. enter image description here
Log out and log back in.
If you hadn't installed Hyper-V it'll prompt you to do it automatically. Allow it, let it finish and restart. You're good to go now. You may need to restart again if it fails to switch to Linux.
I've tested this by running several Linux containers, it works fine. If I'm missing something do share for the benefit of others. The downside is you cannot update to a later version of Docker.
Simply download and install Docker on Windows Server 2016 https://www.docker.com/docker-windows
If you run Windows Server 2016 as a VM using Hyper-V make sure to check this MS doc https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/hyper-v-on-windows/user-guide/nested-virtualization

Where is windows server 2012 container feature

I have read on some forums and tutorials that windows server offers a containers feature. I suppose this is a kind of "docker" but for windows.
I tried to add the feature in the server manager but the container item is not available.
Is it because a i need a special edition or version of windows server ?
Or is there a way to download the feature ?
The container feature is only available starting with Windows Server 2016 which is not released yet but you can test it with the technical preview versions of it
See the FAQ for it:
What are the prerequisites for Windows Server Containers and Hyper-V
Containers?
Both Window Server Containers and Hyper-V Containers require Windows
Server 2016. These technologies will not work with previous versions
of Windows.

Access Windows 2016 Server Container (Docker container) via GUI?

I need to use Docker / Windows containers on Windows 2016 Server and prepare it Windows applications to run on it.
Configuring Windows via Powershell just is not as convenient though as it is on Ubuntu, especially if you never worked with Windows Server really and need to learn all the Powershell commands ;)
Is there a way to access a Windows Container via GUI?
It's possible with Docker, Ubuntu, VNC:
Can you run GUI apps in a docker container?
Wondering if anything similar can be done for Windows Containers?
(I am working on-premise, not using Azure. Found a similar but unanswered question here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32721422/windows-server-containers-azure-how-to-create-a-container-with-gui)
Thanks.
== Update ==
RDP is definitely not an option as per February 2016 - not sure if they plan to support it in the final release?!
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/windowscontainers/about/work_in_progress#remote-desktop
Remote Desktop
Windows Containers cannot be managed/interacted with through a RDP session in TP4.
So far I managed to have at least a decent file explorer by using Midnight Commander, but still command line on Windows is not much fun.
in this video MS-container-developer Taylor Brown says that they break up with RDP from TP3 to TP4 and will very probably do not support RDP in RTM Version Server 2016:
https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechNetVirtualConference/TechNetVC2016/Day-3-Containers-Session-with-QA
Update as of Dez. 2018:
Server 2019 is out and RDP is still not possible / supported for all container images. (of course it does not make any sense for nano images)
check this nice intro to what has changed: https://stefanscherer.github.io/docker-on-windows-server-2019/
to have a somewhat complete overview, it should be mentioned that there are some hacks out in the wild, that may RDP make work in some images and setups, e.g.:
https://withinrafael.com/2018/03/09/using-remote-desktop-services-in-containers/

Is it possible to run docker client in window server as done in Windows 7?

Presently is it possible to run docker client in Window Server2008 or 2012
in similar line as done in Windows 7 and 8 ?
I know they have been working on window container as well hyper V container which is supposed to release in next version in 2016. but is there any way to use docker client in it directly presently ?
Yes, if you can install VirtualBox on that Windows server, you can run the docker client (through boot2docker and its Tiny Core OS).
Since Windows Server 2008 is supported as a host server, the installation of boot2docker should be possible.
See also How to get Docker to run on a Windows System behind a corporate firewall?.

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