What is the relationship between running a docker container and creating a docker machine?

[dmaze (David Maze)]

@draav

My assumption was that when you use docker run and image is taken and turned into a running container. That container is running on a virtual machine that was created by docker-machine create. However I can create containers using docker run without having ever created a docker machine.

Are you using “Docker for Mac” or “Docker Toolbox”? Is there a whale icon on your menu bar?

The not-toolbox “Docker for Mac” product tries hard to hide the VM (it is there in reality, but it’s tricky to get at) and it doesn’t interact with docker-machine at all. When you run

docker run --rm -ti -p 45678:45678 -p 45679:45679 --name echo-server ubuntu:14.04 bash

you can access those published ports from the host on the localhost IPv4 address 127.0.0.1.