Difficutlties understanding new architecture related to Docker for Windows

Well Microsoft is using Well Microsoft is quite interested in Docker and they are improving it steadily. 1709 update made Docker fundamentally different than before. I would recommend using native Windows images if possible. (e.g. not using VM and Moby underneath) If you cannot find the required images for Windows, 1709 update allows running Windows and Linux containers side by side, without switching modes. Unfortunately, it is not yet available for WS2016 Long term support channel. In Windows 10, however, this is not an issue. Also, networking and swarm has many problems in WS2016 LTS, whereas it is fixed in 1709 and later updates.

I recommend Docker for Windows, especially since now it has process-level isolation, it is much easier on the resources for Windows Images. Or you can always spin up a Linux machine, Docker is more stable for linux, has less problems in Networking, also third party orchestrators like Kubernetes run more smoothly on linux machines.

In WS16 LTS channel, you cannot run more than one instance of each service, unless you manage scaling and load balancing somewhat manually and you would need other machines to test your swarm. Services have problems binding to ports. In 1709 update, this is not an issue. And networking is getting better with each update.