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How can I run a docker windows container on osx?
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I want to be able to run Windows Docker Containers on my Mac, it seems this was sort of supported using Docker Toolbox
How can I run a docker windows container on osx?
But it seems that this is now deprecated and we should be using Docker Desktop now.
Docker Desktop has a better and New Hypervisor called HyperKit instead of Virtual Box https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-mac/docker-toolbox/
Docker toolbox allowed starting Windows Containers using VirtualBox, so not sure if that mean's that this is still possible?
I have found a reference to putting Docker Desktop into "Windows Container Mode" here https://www.clearpeople.com/insights/blog/2018/june/sitecore-demo-in-a-docker-container
But I cannot find anywhere to enable this, any help or insight would be very much appreciated.
There is a related question here How can I run a docker windows container on osx? but it's so old that is irrelevant and should not be a reason to lock this question.
Docker only runs natively on Linux machines because it needs Linux kernel features called namespaces and control groups. Docker containers are built from cut down Linux distributions.
The original solution to running Docker on OS X and Windows was Docker Toolkit. This was actually a Linux virtual machine running in the VirtualBox Hypervisor. The VM had Docker installed and could run containers.
Docker Desktop for Mac still makes use of a virtual machine running Linux running in the HyperKit Hypervisor. This virtual machine is lightweight and effectively hidden from the user.
Likewise Docker Desktop for Windows makes use of a virtual machine running in the Hyper-V Hypervisor. It can also run Windows containers.
To run Windows containers you need to have a Windows machine running Docker. The Windows machine can be virtual machine running on a Mac or Linux machine.
I know I am late to the party but as of 2021, this is the easiest setup to get a windows container running on macOS:
https://github.com/StefanScherer/windows-docker-machine
Install vagrant and virtual box
Clone the repository above and change directory into it
vagrant up --provider virtualbox 2019-box
docker context use 2019-box
I followed this setup and I could use the following windows image
mcr.microsoft.com/windows/servercore:ltsc2019
Please note that the windows version of your host must match the container image. This is mentioned here: https://hub.docker.com/_/microsoft-windows
Windows requires the host OS version to match the container OS
version. If you want to run a container based on a newer Windows
build, make sure you have an equivalent host build.
Related
I have installed the Docker toolbox on Windows 8 and I am able to run Docker containers. However I don't have the Docker icon in the system tray and thus I can't change the Docker settings. Specifically I need to switch the Docker OS from Linux to Windows.
Is there a way how can I get the icon to be shown in the system tray? Has anyone ever had this issue?
Alternatively, is it possible to switch the Docker OS from CLI? According to the Docker forum I need to run SwitchDeamon, however I don't have this tool in the Docker installation folder and VisualStudio is also not able to switch the OS.
See microsoft doc:
Windows Containers include two different container types, or runtimes: Windows Server Containers & Hyper-V Isolation
This means windows container can only work with hyper-v or windows server 2016+, so if you not use server version, windows 10 professional which support hyper-v is a must to run windows container.
With docker toolbox(not docker for windows), you can just use virtualbox to run linux containers. So if you use windows7, windows8, windows10 home edition, then you surely use docker toolbox, then you can just use linux container.
Here also a discussion on docker forums.
As a result, there is no meaning to afford a switch on windows8 as docker toolbox just support linux container.
Can I run a full Windows 7 or 10 on Docker for Windows?
I am not aware of any fully dockerized Windows 7 OS.
You can acheive that in an indirect way. You can start virualbox inside a container and run Windows7 from there. Check the following Dockerfile to start virtualbox inside a container (Instructions are in the comments)
Docker runs containers. Containers are fundamentally different from a virtual machine. A VM runs an entire operating system. A container is used to run an isolated application with the same host OS kernel. So by definition of the tool, docker cannot run an entire operating system.
I'm running docker for mac and want to start up a windows container. From what I see this should work via a virtual machine. But I'm unclear where to find out how to get it to work? Or does it only work for linux containers? Thanks in advance!
docker build nanoserver/
Sending build context to Docker daemon 2.56kB
Step 1/6 : FROM microsoft/nanoserver:10.0.14393.1480
10.0.14393.1480: Pulling from microsoft/nanoserver
bce2fbc256ea: Pulling fs layer
baa0507b781f: Pulling fs layer
image operating system "windows" cannot be used on this platform
I know I am late to the party but as of 2021, this is the easiest setup to get a windows container running on macOS:
https://github.com/StefanScherer/windows-docker-machine
Install vagrant and virtual box
Clone the repository above and change directory into it
vagrant up --provider virtualbox 2019-box
docker context use 2019-box
I followed this setup and I could use the following windows image
mcr.microsoft.com/windows/servercore:ltsc2019
Please note that the windows version of your host must match the container image. This is mentioned here: https://hub.docker.com/_/microsoft-windows
Windows requires the host OS version to match the container OS
version. If you want to run a container based on a newer Windows
build, make sure you have an equivalent host build.
See this link:
https://forums.docker.com/t/how-do-i-start-a-windows-docker-container-on-my-mac-os-x/12953/2
Text if you can't follow the link:
On OS X, get VirtualBox.
Get Windows Server 2016 Tech Preview 5 ISO167 (free download from Microsoft)
Create WS 2016 TP5 VM in virtualbox
Run this206 in the new VM
Now you can run Windows Containers in the VM. To make the setup a little easier to use, see this: https://forums.docker.com/t/windows-server-2016-tp5-docker-server-remote-management/10315/5317
You could also install Bootcamp on your machine which allows you to dual boot your computer between OS X and Windows 10. You could then use the full power of your hardware dedicated to Windows and docker instead of virtualization.
Additionally, you can make the use of VMWare Fusion for Mac OS or Parallels, which allow you to ALSO access the dual boot windows partition from within the Mac OS for maximum flexibility. During installation make sure you do not create a Virtual Machine drive, but instead access the bootcamp partition directly.
I have Docker installed on Windows 7 platform. However when I try to run boot2docker start, the console gives me:
Failed to get machine 'boot2docker-vm': machine does not exist.
Ok, so I try to initialize the machine: boot2docker init. What now happens is even though I have the ISO image on the same path as docker, it tries to download a new image (and then fails to do so).
I uninstalled both OracleVM and GIT before installing them with boot2docker bundle as advised on Docker forums, but now I don't know how to proceed.
I had the same problem on a Windows 7 64 bit system when I installed the entire boot2docker package. It seems that running the solely 64-bit based boot2docker image from a 32-bit OS image (e.g. created by Virtualbox) does not work.
The solution for me was
to activate Intel Virtualisation Technolologies in my BIOS
(Lenovo X61 for me). Note that the settings can be found either
under CPU or Security.
choose a 64 bit OS version in VirtualBox and boot in with the
image obtained by boot2docker.
In case you're trying to do this now
For Windows 10 64-bit: Pro, Enterprise, or Education (Build 15063 or later), follow the instructions to install Docker Desktop here https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-windows/install/.
If you have Windows systems that do not meet the requirements of Docker Desktop for Windows(in my case Microsoft Windows 10 Home Single Language), you can install Docker Toolbox by following the instructions here https://docs.docker.com/toolbox/toolbox_install_windows/.
boot2docker does not support sharing directories on Windows IIRC. The way I run Docker on windows is:
install VirtualBox
install Vagrant
create a directory (let's say c:\vm\docker)
download this Vagrantfile and save it under c:\vm\docker\Vagrantfile
open a DOS command prompt
go to the directory cd c:\vm\docker
start the VM vagrant up and wait for it to install, start up and get provisionned
connect to the VM vagrant ssh
play with docker docker images, etc
Also you might want a real console instead of using the DOS command prompt:
install Git Bash for Windows
install Console
setup Console to use Git Bash (see this guide)
use Console to run the vagrant up and vagrant ssh commands
I'm just getting started with Docker and use a MacBook Pro for development work. I see the Docker instructions recommend using Virtual Box and Boot2Docker in this environment. Anyone know if it would also work in a Linux VM in Parallels?
You can totally run Docker in another kind of Linux VM.
If you already have some kind of Linux VM running, just check Docker installation instructions for the distro installed in the Linux VM.
If you don't have a Linux VM, or if you don't want to touch your existing Linux VM, you can also download boot2docker, and when creating the new VM, just attach the boot2docker image as a virtual CD-ROM image or a virtual hard disk image (yes, it actually supports both).