I am trying to run the GUI(file.exe) application in the docker container. Is there any possibility to run the GUI in the background in the containers.
The short answer is that is not (yet) possible.
Windows containers are mainly for IIS apps or .Net based services (Like linux containers in fact but this is often less sensitive as Linux services are meant to be GUI less).
I know this is a much awaited feature that is available if you run a Windows Insider preview but i didn't have the time to review it yet.
There is also the possibility to use some hacks that can be useful but i would keep for non production uses : https://dev.to/darksmile92/run-gui-app-in-linux-docker-container-on-windows-host-4kde
My question is: If you use Docker tool box (that is required for windows 10 home to run Docker) you are essentially using a virtual machine (vm)?
If you are using a vm already the only reason to use docker from that point is to save on many more multiple instances?
Meaning if you only want 1 extra (guest instance): you can have a vm. Though, with docker (toolbox on windows 10 home) you would have 1 vm and it runs docker?
The only way that is useful is if you want many more instances as in: 1 vm + 1 docker or + 1000 more dockers?
Or am I missing something?
Yes, docker toolbox uses Oracle VirtualBox cause Windows 7, 8, and Windows 10 home cannot use Hyper V. And yes, If you are using a VM already the only reason to use docker from that point is to save on many more multiple instances but it also allows easy backup and deployment. But you are losing a decent amount of memory when running a VM and then even more when you are running docker.
So although Docker CE will tell you your Windows doesn't support Hyper-V, this isn't always the case (if you check in System Info you might have Hyper-V enabled, if you're on an Insider build or many builds on GPU computers after Anniversary update then you probably have Hyper-V on Windows 10 Home). There are a few workarounds until the Docker team addresses this issue.
You could use Docker from inside WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux). Microsoft claims WSL accesses everything directly without Hyper-V so this should be theoretically at the same speed. Of course you can't use your GPU at all because of limitations with GPU passthrough on WSL, which you can ask to be resolved here.
You can also use Docker Toolbox as the other answer stated with Virtualbox, but this will be inherently much slower as you're virtualizing a container inside a virtualized container. You should be able to theoretically get GPU support through this, as well as other features e.g. GUI that you wouldn't be able to with WSL.
To answer the "usefulness" portion of the question:
It's also useful if you run code on a server, but need to develop/debug/update it. You want to test it locally, but to make sure the environment in which it executes is the same (to avoid unexpected, environment specific behavior), you use Docker both locally and on the server. In such a case, even though it's slow, I'll spin up a VM on my W10 Home laptop and run Docker in it.
The greatest feature of the Windows 10 Home May 2020 Update is Windows Subsystem for Linus 2. You can docker in it without the need for a complete virtual machine as in Virtual Box.
Install Docker Desktop that it will automatically indentify WSL2.
I'm using dockers on a Windows server 2016, to run all sorts of Windows applications/tasks.
There are several solutions to manage dockers, such as swarm and marathon, but they don't work on Windows (or do work on Windows but via virtual box vm, which is problematic for my needs).
In the future mesos and dc/os will support Windows, but in the meanwhile,
is there an alternative that can work for Windows?
I'd suggest setting up a docker container to manage the rest of your docker.
A couple containers which do exactly that:
http://portainer.io/
DockerUI
If you don't like that you could use a (local) gui to manage it, the only one I know of is:
simple-docker-ui
I am running a game on Windows, and it requires every OS can only run one. And If I want to run more, currently I open vmware and run the game inside. But the problem is it takes too much memory and disk to run a whole another virtual OS. I know docker will reduce this, but it doesn't seem to support Windows.
Am I right? If so, any other solutions?
Docker uses LXC (linux containers) so cannot run a Windows operating system.
You can use docker on Windows using a boot2docker VM, but this is not the same as docker running a Windows operating system (your containers will run unix based operating systems inside the boot2docker VM).
To do what you're after, you'll need to use separate VMs.
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I was reading a nice question about docker - answer has overview of docker implementation details. I was wondering if anything like this is possible to do on Windows platform.
Do Windows alternatives for Docker exist?
Is it theoretically possible to use other (Windows based) components to build it?
Update1:
Slightly related question (sandboxing): Is there a lightweight, programmable Sandbox API for the Windows platform?
Update2::
For info how to install docker on windows (unrelated) - official docs has great instructions how to set up the environment by using boot2docker VM.
You can run docker in a virtual machine.
New Update
Vagrant has now integrated docker support. It can be used as provider or as provisioner. Here are some useful links.
Feature Preview: Docker-Based Development Environments
Vagrant Docs: Docker Provisioner
Vagrant Docs: Docker Provider
Old Update
As seanf pointed out in a comment below, Vagrant support was dropped. Instead they point to boot2docker:
boot2docker is a lightweight Linux distribution based on Tiny Core
Linux made specifically to run Docker containers. It runs completely
from RAM, weighs ~24MB and boots in ~5s (YMMV).
Old answer
The official docker documentation contains a small guide to install docker inside a Vagrant box. Vagrant is a great vm management wrapper. The guide is for Mac/Linux, but you get the idea to do the same in Windows:
http://docs.docker.io/en/latest/installation/vagrant/
This way you can share docker images across multiple systems with different operating systems.
If you're just searching for a way to deploy a pre-packaged set of applications in some sort of container for Windows, with registry and file access being virtualized but without using a full-blown virtual machine image, these (commercial) sandbox-like applications might be worth looking at:
Symantec Workspace Virtualization (get some ready-to-use packages from here)
Evalaze
Cameyo
BoxedApp
Edit: There's a new kid on the block, Spoon supports containers for Windows, and it actually looks very promising.
I have found that at least file system related functionality has Windows (7,8) already in place. One can use VHD files (virtual disks) for handling "images" concept in Docker. These image are used for virtual machine but can be created/attached/used directly by Windows too:
diskpart
DISKPART> create vdisk file=c:\base-image.vhd maximum=200 type=expandable
New image can be layered on top of base image:
DISKPART> create vdisk file=c:\image-2.vhd parent=c:\base-image.vhd
See more information about managing virtual disks.
Unfortunately, process lightweight isolation/sandboxing is probably not possible (at least not simple), although some methods do exists (http://www.sandboxie.com/, Native Client in Google Chrome ...)
Microsoft is working on their own Hyper-V Container that is similar to Docker - Azure also supports the Docker infrastructure.
That aside, it's hard to give precise alternatives but on the Windows side we've had App-V for quite a long time which virtualises and sand-boxes applications so they can be run or streamed without being actually installed on a specific system. I've never meddled with it but it seems to be able to run as a standalone client without any need of the intricate server infrastructure usually involved for anything Microsoft.
From another perspective the disk image format used by Windows (VHD) supports standard differencing so you can easily run many virtual machines from a single read-only OS image where each virtual machine have a tiny write image to handle the differences. These are still fullblown virtual machines though.
I currently don't know of any way to do the same thing on native windows as of right now.
I don't think the windows kernel was built for this sort of thing, so in order for it to be supported Microsoft would have to add the capabilities to the windows kernel. If I'm wrong, someone please correct me.
The most common way for people to do something like this is to use a VM in windows that runs a Linux based OS, and running everything inside of that. You could also do the same thing using FreeBSD (Jails), and Solaris (zones), if that is more your cup of tea. But Docker currently doesn't support FreeBSD or Solaris, so you will need to use the native tools for those.
Now you can run docker natively on windows
See http://docs.master.dockerproject.com/installation/windows/
And
http://azure.microsoft.com/blog/2015/04/16/docker-client-for-windows-is-now-available?Ocid=OutgoingPromotion_Social_TW_Azure_20150416_169251868&linkId=13596123
Starting in june 2016, Docker can be run on Microsoft's Hyper-V virtualization on Windows 10 hosts. This is now the preferred and "official" way to run Docker on Windows.
https://docs.docker.com/engine/installation/windows/
Hyper-V is a Type-1-Hypervisor, meaning docker will run one layer closer to the host hardware and perform significantly faster than boot2docker (which uses VirtualBox, a Type-2-Hypervisor, running inside the host OS).
The performance benefit for docker has a downside too: Enabling Hyper-V will prevent hardware virtualization features for Type-2-Hypervisors, therefore existing VirtualBox images can not be used with VTx, and you might want to consider moving other virtualized OSes to Hyper-V as well.
Windows 7-8.1 hosts can still use boot2docker to run Docker containers, but the main development focus for Docker on Windows is the "new" Hyper-V-Docker.
Hyper-V is only on Windows Pro. Install it for £110.
Or simply install Vagrant, install VirtualBox, install GIT bash, then from your GIT bash terminal.
git clone git#github.com:danday74/vagrant-docker-skelly.git
cd vagrant-docker-skelly
vagrant up # takes approx 5 mins to create VM
vagrant ssh
docker -v
docker-compose -v
The Vagrantfile shows that:
1 - this is a Xenial VM with docker and compose installed on it
2 - Ports mapped from Host to the VM are 9900-9920
3 - The shared folder is shared from host to VM
Tweak this as desired.
I got tired fighting with a maven docker plugin so I figured I would be able to fake it. This is how:
Using boot2docker and the following bat file makes it look like you're running docker natively. Place it on your path.
#set SSH="C:\Program Files (x86)\Git\bin\ssh.exe"
#set RUN_REMOTE='docker %*'
# %SSH% -o IdentitiesOnly=yes -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null -o LogLevel=quiet -p 2022 -i %HOMEPATH%/.ssh/id_boot2docker -tt docker#localhost %RUN_REMOTE%
The ssh.exe comes from the msys-git package which is bundled with boot2docker.
I'm pretty sure this solution have quite a few caveats, but it works pretty good for me.
Place this file on your path and bob's yer uncle.