Docker Desktop Windows Server

Hello,
I am the system admin for a department at a research university, and recently started getting requests to install Docker. Most recently I was able to get Docker Desktop running successfully on Windows 10 VMware Horizon vm’s. That is the extent of my experience so far. I now have a request to install Docker on a physical Windows 2016 server that is also a remote desktop host. So far I not found any articles or documentation about running Docker on a RDH server. I have also read some contradictory information about methods to install Docker on a 2016 server, for example to use the native Containers feature, or just download and install the Docker Desktop executable and enable Hyper V. I feel like the latter is probably the way to go. Before I plunge in and start experimenting on a production server any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks

There is a get started from Microsoft where it is explained how to install Docker on the different client and server operating systems. You can see here and on the requirements page for Docker Desktop that Desktop is made for Windows 10, not for Windows Server.

Hi tekki, yes thanks I am aware of that. Sometimes people get things to work outside of the approved boundaries, but the official Docker site may not be the best place to look for that LOL! I have seen some articles of getting Docker on Server 2016, but they are a bit old. Also Server 2016 introduced Docker Containers as a feature, but I don’t know enough about it to know if that would give this developer what she needs. But the biggest issue is that this is a RDH host, providing remote desktops for users, so I doubt it will work for Docker at all. I knew this question was a shot in the dark!

Yes of course, so maybe you should just try?

I’m not a Windows Server specialist at all, still I wonder why this should be an issue. In any case you want the Docker service to run independently of the users that are or are not logged in to their desktop.

I’d love to try but this server is in production providing a few users with logons for running Python, R, a little GIS stuff etc. I am afraid to break it! I suppose I could spin up a 2016 server VM and give it a try, I did get Docker running with Hyper-V on our VMware Horizon desktops.

@barryh123 I have got same requirement to install Docker on Windows 2016 server and trying to look for any recommendations/experience with this. Can you please share your exp and how it went with your installation?

Thanks