Linux container on Windows docker host

Docker Desktop
2

Hi,

Short: Yes, it should be possible if you meet some requirements.

Long: ---------

IMO there’s some confusion going on, since several different things are called: “Docker for/on Windows”

You can install “Docker for Windows” as described at the [1] Getting Started page from docker.com … There are some requirements you’ll need. Windows 10 Pro or higher, with Hyper-V support enabled.

The following will happen:

  • You’ll install a native windows App “Docker for Windows.exe” that’s basically a “manager app” the does several things:
  • It sets up a “Hyper-V VM” named: MobyLinuxVM, which contains a minimal linux system, that is able to run docker containers.
  • If you start your: Hyper-V Manager program, you’ll be able to see it.
  • If started, it shows up at the bottom right app toolbar with the “Docker Moby Icon”
  • If you start PowerShell and type: docker version you should see something like this (I’m using the beta channel here):
> docker version

Client:
 Version:      1.13.0-rc3
 API version:  1.25
 Go version:   go1.7.3
 Git commit:   4d92237
 Built:        Tue Dec  6 01:15:44 2016
 OS/Arch:      windows/amd64

Server:
 Version:      1.13.0-rc3
 API version:  1.25 (minimum version 1.12)
 Go version:   go1.7.3
 Git commit:   4d92237
 Built:        Tue Dec  6 01:15:44 2016
 OS/Arch:      linux/amd64
 Experimental: true
  • Now you should be able to run the following command:
    • docker run -it --rm centos bash
    • It will pull down the CentOs image [5] from docker-hub ~70 MB and run a bash console.

Microsoft supports the “container mechanism” natively with their latest OSes. See [2] and [3]. They refer to it as “Docker on Windows”, which imo is a bit confusing since there isn’t enough difference to “Docker for Windows” described above. That’s not what you want. It’s for native windows server / nanoserver stuff.

To make the confusion perfect there is Docker Toolbox, that provides you with a VirtualBox based system, if you don’t have the possibility to use Hyper-V. Have a look at the Docker Docs [4] for more info about this one.

hope that helps
have fun!

[1] Getting Started: https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-windows/
[2] Additional Info from MS: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/windowscontainers/about/index
[3] “Docker on Windows” https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/windowscontainers/docker/configure_docker_daemon
[4] Docker Toolbox: https://docs.docker.com/toolbox/overview/
[5] https://hub.docker.com/_/centos/

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