If I create a container with windows image on it, is it possible to use a remote connection to actually see the desktop and , for example, play minesweeper?
My use case is this:
I have hundreds of users. Each user need to create their our infrastructure consisting in about 6 machines linked together. After creating, the user will open some desktop gui apps on each one using a remote desktop connection.
No, this isn't something you will be able to do.
There are currently two Windows container images, microsoft/windowsservercore and microsoft/nanoserver
nanoserver
This blog post about TP4 (one of the earlier releases) says
The only option available when logging into console of a virtual machine running Nano Server or connecting a crash cart to a physical Nano Server is this very plain emergency console
This section on managing Nano server also states
Nano Server is managed remotely. There is no local logon capability at all, nor does it support Terminal Services.
There is also this article, admittedly not from Microsoft, about Windows Nano server
Nano Server strips back the operating system further still, dropping things like the GUI stack, 32-bit Win32 support, local logins, and remote desktop support.
Nano Server is designed for two kinds of workload: cloud apps built on runtimes such as .NET, Java, Node.js, or Python, and cloud infrastructure, such as hosting Hyper-V virtual machines.
servercore
Docker blog has a pretty interesting entry
Introducing Docker for Windows Server 2016. This part addresses the question of GUI apps
The Windows Server Core image comes with a mostly complete userland with the processes and DLLs found on a standard Windows Server Core install. With the exception of GUI apps and apps requiring Windows Remote Desktop, most apps that run on Windows Server can be dockerized to run in an image based on microsoft/windowsservercore with minimal effort.
If you wanted to set up that kind of an environment, one option is to use something like Vagrant to orchestrate starting and provisioning regular windows VMs. Though 6 windows VMs will not be easy on memory.
Related
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
I want a Windows 10 x64 Professional hosted on AWS, is that possible? And if so, how might one go about it?
To expound.
I just want a real windows 10 environment hosted remotely with static IP address so i can use it like a personal computer + server for some dev stuffs.
This is likely what you are looking for:
https://aws.amazon.com/workspaces/
Amazon WorkSpaces is a managed, secure cloud desktop service. You can
use Amazon WorkSpaces to provision either Windows or Linux desktops in
just a few minutes and quickly scale to provide thousands of desktops
to workers across the globe. You can pay either monthly or hourly,
just for the WorkSpaces you launch, which helps you save money when
compared to traditional desktops and on-premises VDI solutions. Amazon
WorkSpaces helps you eliminate the complexity in managing hardware
inventory, OS versions and patches, and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
(VDI), which helps simplify your desktop delivery strategy. With
Amazon WorkSpaces, your users get a fast, responsive desktop of their
choice that they can access anywhere, anytime, from any supported
device.
and this is how you can give it a static ip:
https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/knowledge-center/associate-elastic-ip-workspace/
Edit:
Amazon WorkSpaces now offers bundles that come with a Windows 10
desktop experience, powered by Windows Server 2016. Amazon WorkSpaces
Windows 10 bundles provides you an easy way to move users to a modern
operating system, while also simplifying licensing. Amazon WorkSpaces
continues to offer bundles that come with a Windows 7 desktop
experience, provided by Windows Server 2008 R2. You can also run
Windows 7 and Windows 10 Enterprise operating systems with Amazon
WorkSpaces if your organization meets the licensing requirements set
by Microsoft.
#BrownChiLD
You can create your own AMI on AWS. Steps are below:
1. create the machine on your system by using vmware wokrstation or hyper-v
2. Export the VM
3. Upload it to S3 bucket
once your vm is uploaded to S3, follow the steps on the below link
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vm-import/latest/userguide/vmimport-image-import.html#import-vm-image
At present time the only way to achieve what you want is by spinning your own Win10 instance assigning the static internal IP while creating it or by adding an Elastic IP if it's in an Internet Gateway enabled subnet.
It's not that convenient, you'll need to set up the environment yourself, including Security Groups, ACLs, etc to allow a bit of security and connecting using RDP will be a bit of a pain (beside doing so over internet isn't exactly advisable). You might start thinking about Chrome Remote Desktop or even Teamviewer.. and will be very pricey running it. First things first, apparently there's no Win10 available as AMI, so you'll need to deploy it yourself. Once running you'll need to license it. A type suitable for this could cost around 80$ per month.. unreserved.
Using AWS Workspaces isn't really an option: besides it is not "Windows 10" but Windows server 2016 (I needed WSL, which has been introduced with Server 2019 so, no joy), the only way to have a proper Win10 is using BYOL but... (cit from FAQ) :
You need to commit to running 200 Amazon WorkSpaces in a region per month on hardware that is dedicated to you. If you want to bring your own Windows desktop licenses for graphics use cases, you need to commit to at least 4 monthly or 20 hourly GPU-enabled WorkSpaces.
:-/
Amazon WorkSpaces is a virtual desktop that runs on AWS but you connect through an Amazon client software that acts a lot like virtualbox, except the OS that you're using is not on your local machine. So it's more like a Thin Client environment over the internet. I believe the OS through Workspaces is managed by AWS as far as patching and updates through a software called A.C.M.E. (Amazon Client Management Engine).
https://youtu.be/jsqI7KU3S8I
Amazon EC2 instances also provide Windows instances that you would connect through an RDP connection. You'll have to manage the patching and updates yourself though.
Here's a link for your reading pleasure
https://aws.amazon.com/windows/resources/licensing/
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 have a cluster of machines running windows server 2012R2.
I would like to manage them with mesos.
To the best of my knowledge, microsoft is actively contributing to mesos (DC/OS) and will support containers natively on windows server 2016. Furthermore, it looks like there is another type of container flavour using hyper-v.
I can run my mesos masters on linux hosts. However I need my slaves on windows server 2012R2 hosts. It is not clear to me which technologies are already available (and production-ready) for my windows server version.
What are my options to use mesos to manage the resources of my windows server machines ?
Is the mesos-agent for windows (server 2012 R2) production ready ?
Can I use containers (hyper-v or docker) ? If not, is the resource isolation working in Windows (in linux you can use cgroups) ?
Can I run any framework I like or there are some not compatible with windows ?
Mesos version 1.0.0 was recently released that allows you to run the slave and launcher on windows. Not the master unfortunately. Its still Linux, but it doesn't really ever need to be Windows? The slave was the important bit for bringing Windows machines into the Mesos domain.
I've just been investigating using the Mesos-Slave on windows. Pleased to say that it appears to be working OK (this opinion is subject to change as I'm still testing it). Production ready is something any business would have to decide for themselves.
Mesos have always had their own isolation technology, interestingly they have redone their own containerizer implementation and this now takes a number of container image formats, so you can use your Docker images as well as a few others, so this is going to suit you. There was a good presentation on this at MesosCon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHUngcGgzVM
Docker's been stealing the show to some extent. But if you use Mesos-Agent, Windows 2016 and its container technology (Docker) isn't needed and therefore it should run on Windows 2012. I've not got around to trying this yet but its definitely a test worth trying, it opens up deployment options. Anyone?
One thing to remember about containers, they are not VM's. The guest image must be a derivative of the hosts OS, you can't run a Linux image on a Windows machine. Causing me a headache, I can't use servernano at the moment, so my image sizes are 4Gb+, the initial deploy time is hours.
I need a virtual server for web development, it'll host Apache+Postgres+Ruby+something else.
What's the most effective software to run such a server? (ie with least virtualization overhead)
Is there a way to run Linux as as service?
I use VirtualBox at the moment, but it's inconvenient in some ways, such as it needs an emulator window open which also captures keyboard input when alttabbed into.
(Also, coLinux hangs at boot on my machine, so it's probably not an option)
Check out the features of VMWare Server. It's free, you just have to register.
I've never found VMware to be much of a performance hog unless running 3+ virtual machines.
The latest free server version (VMware Server 2) runs as a service IIRC, so you can set up your dev server to start up and shut down when your PC does, and you can either log on to the VM's console through the web interface, or create a shortcut on your desktop so it's fairly non-obtrusive.
There is a very convenient utility that hides VirtualBox from the foreground completely: vboxctrl. With vboxctrl you can run a Linux server on your Windows machine, make it automatically go to sleep when Windows shuts down or hibernates; then use any SSH client to log in to the server. Or you can use Xming to open graphical windows from the Linux server; I've worked quite a lot of time in GVim open through Xming.
If anyone needs more details, leave a comment, I may write an article about this.