Docker engine windows server 2019

In this series, we will try to sort out confusing topics such as Docker Engine Enterprise Edition (EE) vs. Docker Enterprise, Docker Engine Community Edition (CE) vs. Docker Desktop, dockerd vs. docker vs. containerd vs. runc, and so on.

We’ll also try to understand the current state of Docker on Windows by demystifying the differences between the Docker experience on Windows and Linux. In today’s article, we will begin with launching our first Windows container on Windows Server 2019, and along the way, we will go through some of the current aspects of Docker on Windows.

When Docker first released a containerization product, they started with Linux as a base platform. In 2014, Docker and Microsoft announced partnership to provide a consistent platform to build, ship, and run any application. On Windows Server 2016, Docker and Microsoft came out with container technology that provided a consistent experience across both Linux and Windows Server environments.

In 2017, they released Docker Swarm with the ability to create mixed Windows Server and Linux clusters. In 2018, this release followed with added support for the Semi-Annual Channel (SAC) Windows Server 1709 and 1803 versions. With Windows Server 2019 (the 1809 build), Microsoft managed to bring the containers to Windows on par with containers on Linux systems.

At present, thousands of enterprise customers are widely using Docker on Windows in production environments. However, there’s always been a subtle functionality difference between Windows containers and Linux containers. Microsoft Windows Server is closing that gap rapidly with new releases.

Install the Hyper-V feature

On Windows platforms, you can run containers in two modes: process isolation and Hyper-V isolation. In process isolation mode, containers share the OS kernel with the host and hence are lightweight and similar to how containers work on Linux systems.

Conversely, in Hyper-V isolation mode, each container runs inside a special minimal virtual machine. Thus, it provides secure kernel-level isolation and enhanced compatibility. You need to enable Hyper-V in the host OS to run containers in Hyper-V isolation mode.

When we install Docker on a Windows server, the default mode of operation is process isolation. And enabling Hyper-V is optional. However, if we need to run Linux containers, enabling Hyper-V is required.

The second factor that determines whether to go for the Hyper-V feature is the OS build. Windows containers need to have the same build version as the version of the container host OS they run on. Container images tagged as 1809 would work on the latest 1809 Windows version builds. However, if we have built container images on a lower version of Windows than the container host OS, we can run these containers with Hyper-V isolation, which requires enabling Hyper-V.

You can install Hyper-V on Windows Server using the PowerShell command below:

Install-WindowsFeature -Name Hyper-V -IncludeManagementTools -Restart

Also, we need to note here that we can switch between process isolation and Hyper-V isolation during runtime using the parameter isolation while spinning up Docker containers.

Container host prerequisites

Though this article’s scope is for Windows Server 2019 (1809), the steps demonstrated here could also very well apply to other Windows Server builds, including Windows Server version 1803, Windows Server version 1709, and Windows Server 2016.

If you want to use Hyper-V isolation in your container, you need to enable virtualization in the hosting platform. If the container host is running on hardware, you need to enable the hardware virtualization feature, such as Intel VT-x, in BIOS. And if the container host is running from Hyper-V or from a cloud environment, you need to enable nested virtualization in the base platform.

Install the containers feature

For containerization to work, you need to install the Windows container feature on the Windows container host. Use the command below to install the containers feature and reboot the computer.

Install-WindowsFeature containers -Restart

Install Docker

Docker consists of two major components: the Docker engine and the Docker client. The Docker engine is available in two editions: Docker Engine CE and Docker Engine EE. The Docker Engine CE is a free product. Conversely, the Docker Engine EE requires a license. The diagram below illustrates the architectural difference between the two.

From a user-experience perspective, Docker provides two sets of products or packaged bundles: namely, Docker Desktop and Docker Enterprise.

As for Docker Desktop Community/Enterprise, they designed this product set considering developers and a development environment in mind. Docker Desktop provides an installation wizard, a management UI, and several other utilities for improving deployment. Docker Desktop is supported on Windows 10 and Mac. Docker Desktop comes with the Docker Engine CE or EE depending on the product tier we choose.

Docker targets its enterprise product suite toward production environments. This includes the Docker enterprise engine along with its certified plug-ins, well-integrated product line, and trusted repositories. Overall, it aligns with the enterprise requirements for use in a production environment.

In this article, we are going to install Docker Engine EE on Windows Server 2019. To get the full functionality of the EE edition, we need to purchase the EE license from Docker.

The process for installing Docker EE on Windows Server is quite simple with the introduction of the OneGet provider PowerShell Module. As a first step, install the Docker-Microsoft PackageManagement Provider module from the PowerShell Gallery.

Install-Module -Name DockerMsftProvider -Repository PSGallery -Force

We can use the commands below to view the installed package provider and the Docker package made available through it.

Get-PackageProvider -ListAvailableget-packagesource -ProviderName DockerMsftProvider

Next, we will use the PackageManagement PowerShell module command Install-Package to install the latest version of Docker.

Install-Package -Name docker -ProviderName DockerMsftProvider

Docker verification

After installing the Docker package and we have our command prompt back, we need to start the Docker service using the command below.

Start-Service Docker

When we run the Docker service for the first time, it creates a virtual switch/interface viewable through our Control Panel pane.

Also, we can verify the Docker virtual network creation using the Docker command below. The default name of the bridge or switch in a Windows environment is NAT.

docker network ls

This virtual switch lays the foundation of networking for containers to communicate with each other as well as talk with the container host.

Next, we can run the Docker version command to check the details of our deployment setup. We can verify the Docker engine and client version from the command output.

docker version

And lastly, to confirm the Docker client-engine communication is working fine and installation is complete, run the command docker info. This provides us with system metadata along with the current container stats.

Launch a Windows container on Windows Server 2019

Now that we have completed the installation and verified everything is working smoothly, it’s time to run our first Windows container on Docker.

Here we need to consider two factors. First, we can create Windows container images with four container base images: Windows Server Core, Nano Server, Windows, and IoT Core.

When we spin a container from these images, we need to verify the compatibility between the container host OS and the container base image. In other words, containers based on Windows Server Core, Nano Server, or Windows as the base image can run on a Windows 2019 container host. However, a container based on an IoT Core image cannot run on Windows Server 2019. An IoT Core container requires Windows IoT Core as a container host.

Second, to repeat, Windows containers need to match the version of the container host OS. Container images with the 1809 tag work with the latest Windows versions. However, if we have container images built on a lower version of Windows than the container host OS, we can run these containers with Hyper-V isolation

Considering these two factors, let’s verify the build version of our container host.

winver

As the container host build version is 1809, let’s try to download a Nano Server image from the Microsoft image/container registry to the local machine.

docker image pull mcr.microsoft.com/windows/nanoserver:1809

We can verify the locally available image along with its metadata information, such as size, image ID, and creation date.

docker image ls

We can use the downloaded image for baking our application into it and creating a new container. But for simplicity, let’s launch a basic container that will run just a simple command inside the OS and exit.

docker container run mcr.microsoft.com/windows/nanoserver:1809 hostname

This command created a new container from the Windows Nano Server image, and the container outputted the machine name of the container, a random ID set by Docker. To see more information about the container we created just now, run the command below.

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docker container ls -a

Thus, we have launched a Windows container on Windows Server 2019, considering some of the factors for Docker on Windows. In the next article, we’ll discuss Linux containers on Windows (LCOW), LinuxKit, Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 and how to run your first Linux container on Windows Server 2019.

В нашем справочнике есть мануал по установке Docker на сервере, работающем под управлением Ubuntu 20.04. Настоящая же статья посвящена тому, как запустить хранилище Docker на операционной системе Windows Server 2019.

На виртуальном сервере, работающем под управлением Windows Server 2019, производить установку Docker наиболее оптимально при помощи интегрированной среды PowerShell. Запустить PowerShell можно из командной строки, используя команду powershell, либо из оболочки Server Manager – Tools → Windows PowerShell.

Установка Docker

Первым шагом необходимо будет установить функцию контейнеров. Сделать это можно при помощи следующей команды:

Install-Module -Name DockerMsftProvider -Repository PSGallery -Force

Далее нужно установить сам Docker, для чего используйте следующую инструкцию:

Install-Package -Name docker -ProviderName DockerMsftProvider

Во время инсталляции система попросит вашего согласия на установку пакета. Для продолжения установки нужно нажать Y.

Следующей командой необходимо перезагрузить сервер по окончании установки Docker:

Restart-Computer -Force

Проверить версию установленного пакета можно при помощи команды:

Get-Package -Name Docker -ProviderName DockerMsftProvider

Для этого также можно использовать следующую команду:

docker version

Теперь необходимо запустить Docker:

Start-Service Docker

Запуск контейнера

После чего уже можно будет загрузить и установить базовый образ контейнера. Например, следующей командой вы сможете произвести загрузку базового образа Nano Server для Windows Server 2019:

docker pull mcr.microsoft.com/windows/nanoserver:ltsc2019

Список установленных образов можно вывести при помощи команды:

docker images

Теперь можно приступить к созданию образа. Команды, при помощи которых создаются и запускаются образы, лучше выполнять в командной строке, запущенной от имени администратора. Использование интегрированной среды Windows PowerShell не позволяет работать с контейнерами, так как контейнеры в конечном итоге перестают отвечать на запросы.

Запуск загруженного контейнера Nano Server с интерактивным сеансом производится следующей командой:

docker run -it mcr.microsoft.com/windows/nanoserver:ltsc2019 cmd.exe

В качестве примера на диске C:\ запущенного контейнера создайте каталог TEMP:

mkdir C:\TEMP

Перейдите в созданный каталог и создайте файл my_file.txt, содержащий текст My File:

cd C:\TEMP
echo "My File" > my_file.txt

После чего выйдите из контейнера:

exit

Следующая команда нужна будет для получения идентификатора контейнера, из которого вы только что вышли:

docker ps -a

В нашем примере идентификатор контейнера выглядит как 722200a246df. Исходя из этого вы можете создать новый образ, в котором будут учитываться изменения, внесённые в изначальный образ. Для этого нужно будет использовать команду docker commit. Новый образ мы назовём my_container, поэтому команда для его создания будет выглядеть следующим образом:

docker commit 722200a246df my_container

При помощи команды docker images можно вывести список образов, в котором будет присутствовать новый образ:

Теперь вы можете запустить созданный контейнер при помощи команды docker run. Использование параметра --rm позволяет удалить запущенный контейнер после завершения работы оболочки командной строки. В нашем примере мы запустим контейнер my_container и выведем содержимое файла my_file.txt из директории TEMP на диске C:\.

docker run --rm my_container cmd.exe /s /c type C:\TEMP\my_file.txt

В итоге Docker создаст контейнер из образа my_container, запустит экземпляр командной строки, в которой выведет содержимое файла C:\TEMP\my_file.txt, после чего Docker остановит работу контейнера и удалит его.

Initially, the inception of Docker containerization started out with Linux as its base platform. However, over the years, Docker and Microsoft have continuously grown their partnership, creating a conveniently consistent interface for building, shipping, and running applications without the usual dependence hurdles associated with virtual machines.

Though a huge number of enterprises are already using Docker on Windows platforms, there has been a number of subtle functionality disparities between Windows and Linux containers. However, Windows Server 2019 (1809 build) has successfully addressed most of the inconsistencies between Docker containers in Linux and Windows environments.

Requirements for Installation of Docker on Windows

Docker containers are powered by a Docker engine. Though initially designed for Linux, extensive work has been done to allow Docker containers to run on Windows and macOS environments.

To run Docker containers on a Windows platform, one prerequisite is the installation of a Windows server. You can do this in a physical server machine, on a cloud environment running in Azure, or an on-premise virtual machine.

Install the Hyper-V feature on your Windows server 2019

There are two distinct modes to run Decker containers on Windows platforms: Process isolation and Hyper-V isolation. With the Process isolation mode, the Docker containers share the OS kernel with the host platform, hence they are lightweight and identical to Linux system Docker containers.

On the other hand, the running of Docker containers in the Hyper-V mode is confined to a special nominal virtual machine. This enables improved compatibility and secure kernel-level. To run Docker containers in this mode, you must first enable Hyper-V in the host operating system.

The default operation mode for Docker installation on a Windows server is the operation mode (enabling Hyper-V is optional). However, it’s a prerequisite to enable the Hyper-V isolation mode if you need to run Linux containers on a Windows Server interface.

The OS build is another crucial determinant on the need for Hyper-V mode as Windows containers should be of the same build version as the container host OS’s version. Still, Windows container images with a lower build version than the container host OS can run with Hyper-V isolation.

To install Hyper-V on Windows Server 2019, run the PowerShell as Administrator and run the commands below:

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature –Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V –All -NoRestart

Install-WindowsFeature RSAT-Hyper-V-Tools -IncludeAllSubFeature

Next, restart your Windows Server VM.

Prerequisites for the container host

You must enable virtualization in the hosting Windows server platform to utilize Hyper-V isolation in your containers: enable hardware virtualization for a container host running on hardware and nested virtualization in the base interface for a container host running on a cloud space or Hyper-V.

Running Docker Containers on Windows Server 2019

Before running multiple isolated applications using Windows Containers, you need to activate (enable) the containers feature and install Docker on your Windows Server 2019. Here’s the process:

1. Enable the containers feature in Windows Server 2019.

Run PowerShell as an Administrator and run this command:

Install-Module -Name DockerMsftProvider -Repository PSGallery -Force

This command will install the Docker-Microsoft Package Management Provider from the PowerShell Gallery.

When prompted to install and import NuGet provider, type Y and hit ENTER

1. Install Docker on your Windows Server 2019

After installing the Containers feature on Windows Server 2019, it’s time to install the latest versions of Docker Engine and Docker Client. Run this command in your PowerShell session:

Install-Package -Name docker -ProviderName DockerMsftProvider

Accept the installation by selecting “Yes”, “Y” or “A” to Agree to all the installation requests.

After the completion of this installation, reboot your computer.

Restart-Computer –Force

You can check your installed Docker version via the PowerShell command:

Get-Package -Name Docker -ProviderName DockerMsftProvider

You can also confirm the installed Docker version using the docker –version command:

docker –version

You can opt to upgrade anytime by running the commands below on PowerShell:

Install-Package -Name Docker -ProviderName DockerMsftProvider -Update -Force

Then start the docker service.

Start-Service Docker

1. Launch (Run) Docker Containers on Windows Server 2019

Run the following commands on PowerShell:

Start-Service Docker

After starting the Docker Engine service, proceed to download the pre-created .NET sample image on the Docker Hub registry:

docker pull microsoft/dotnet-samples:dotnetapp-nanoserver-1809

After the download, you can deploy a simple Docker container that runs the .Net ‘Hello World’ application:

docker run microsoft/dotnet-samples:dotnetapp-nanoserver-1809

After running the command, an ASCII image will be printed to the shell accompanied by the “Hello” message.

Running Linux Containers on your Window Server 2019

By default, Docker on Windows only runs Windows containers. To launch Linux containers on Windows Server, use the Docker Enterprise Edition Preview that comes with a full LinuxKit system to run Docker Linux containers.

1. First, uninstall the already installed Docker CE.

Uninstall-Package -Name docker -ProviderName DockerMSFTProvider

1. Enable Nested Virtualization in case you’re running Docker Containers on a Linux Virtual Machine running on Hyper-V.

Get-VM WinContainerHost | Set-VMProcessor -ExposeVirtualizationExtensions $true

NOTE: WinContainerHost is the name of your virtual machine

1. Install the Module Docker Provider

Install-Module DockerProvider

Install-Package Docker -ProviderName DockerProvider -RequiredVersion preview

A restart will be required after this operation

1. Enable LinuxKit system to run Linux containers

[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable(“LCOW_SUPPORTED”, “1”, “Machine”)

1. Restart the Docker Service after the change above and restart the Service Docker

Restart-Service docker

To switch back to running Windows containers, execute the following command in PowerShell:

[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable(“LCOW_SUPPORTED”, “$null”, “Machine”)

You have finally installed and configured Docker your Windows Server machine to run both Linux and Windows containers. We hope this guide was insightful.

Windows Server 2019 is the next long-term support release of Windows Server, and it’s available now! It comes with some very useful improvements to running Docker Windows containers — which Docker Captain Stefan Scherer has already summarized in his blog post What’s new for Docker on Windows Server 2019.

UPDATE: the second edition of my book Docker on Windows is out now. It focuses entirely on Windows Server 2019

You need Windows Server to run «pure» Docker containers, where the container process runs directly on the host OS. You can use the same Docker images, the same Dockerfiles and the same docker commands on Windows 10, but there’s an additional virtualization overhead, so it’s good to use a Windows Server VM for test environments.

On Windows 10 Docker Desktop is the easiest way to get started

If you want to check out the newest version of Windows Server and get running Docker containers, here’s what you need to do.

Get Windows Server 2019

You can download the ISO to install Windows Server 2019 now, from your Visual Studio subscription if you have one, or a 180-day evaluation version if you don’t. VMs with Windows Server 2019 already deployed will be available on Azure shortly.

The installation procedure for 2019 is the same as previous Windows Server versions — boot a VM from the ISO and the setup starts. I prefer the core installation with no GUI:

I installed Server 2019 onto a Hyper-V VM running on my Windows 10 machine, with the VM disks stored on an external SSD drive. The setup finished in a few minutes, and it runs very quickly — even with just 4GB RAM allocated.

You can also upgrade from previous Windows Server versions to 2019 using the ISO.

Connect to the Server

When you RDP into a Windows Server Core machine you just see a command prompt. The first time you connect you’ll need to set the password for the default Administrator account. Then I like to set PowerShell as the default command shell, so whenever you RDP you get into a PowerShell session:

Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon' -name Shell -Value 'PowerShell.exe -noExit'  

Configure Windows Features

To run containers you need to enable the Containers feature, and for a non-production VM I also disable Windows Defender to stop it burning CPU cycles. You’ll need to reboot after these steps:

Install-WindowsFeature -Name Containers

Uninstall-WindowsFeature Windows-Defender

Restart-Computer -Force  

Configure Windows Updates

You’ll want to make sure you have the latest updates, but then I disable automatic updates so I only get future updates when I want them. There’s no GUI in Windows Server Core, so run sconfig and then select:

• option 5, to set Windows Updates to manual

• option 7, to enable Remote Desktop Access to the server

• option 6, to download and install all updates

Then you’re ready to install Docker.

Install Docker on Window Server 2019

Windows Server licensing includes the licence cost for Docker Enterprise, so you can run the enterprise edition with production support for containers from Microsoft and Docker.

The latest Docker Enterprise engine is version 19.03 18.03, which you can explicitly install with PowerShell:

Install-Module -Name DockerMsftProvider -Repository PSGallery -Force

Install-Package -Name docker -ProviderName DockerMsftProvider -Force -RequiredVersion 19.03  

This sets up Docker as a Windows Service, which you need to start:

Start-Service docker  

Pull the Windows Base Images

Any Docker containers you run on Windows Server 2019 will be based on Windows Server Core or Nano Server. You’ll need both those images, and be aware that the base images are now hosted on Microsoft’s container registry, MCR:

docker image pull mcr.microsoft.com/windows/servercore:ltsc2019

docker image pull mcr.microsoft.com/windows/nanoserver:1809  

These images are tiny compared to the Windows Server 2016 versions. Windows Server Core has shrunk from over 10GB to a 1.5GB download, and Nano Server has shrunk from over 1GB to a 90MB download!

[Optional] Pull the .NET Core Images

The .NET Core team released versions of their SDK and runtime images as soon as Windows Server 2019 launched. You can pull those now and start running your .NET Core apps in 2019 (there are also .NET Framework SDK and ASP.NET images available — hopefully SQL Server will get some attention soon…)

docker image pull mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/core/aspnet:3.0

docker image pull mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/core/sdk:3.0.100  

The upstream Docker images are still listed on Docker Hub, so that’s where you go for discovery — but they get served from Microsoft’s own image registry, MCR.

Try it Out!

I’ve pushed an updated version of my .NET Core whoami image, so you can try out ASP.NET Core 3.0 running in Windows Server Core 2019 containers:

docker container run -d -p 8080:80 sixeyed/whoami-dotnet:3.0  

One of the enhancements for Docker in Windows Server 2019 is that loopback addresses now work, so you can visit this container using localhost on the server, and using the same published port from an external machine:

And in Swarm Mode…

I’ll post a longer explanation of what you can do with Docker in Windows Server 2019 that you couldn’t do in Windows Server 2016, but here’s just one other thing: Windows Server 2019 now supports ingress networking for Docker swarm mode. That means you can run multiple containers on one server, all listening on the same port, and Docker will load-balance incoming requests between the containers.

I have lots more detail on this in my Pluralsight course Managing Load Balancing and Scale in Docker Swarm Mode Clusters

Switch your server to a single-node swarm:

docker swarm init --advertise-addr 127.0.0.1  

Now deploy the whoami app as a swarm service, with multiple replicas and a published port:

docker service create `  
  --publish 8070:80 `
  --replicas 5 `
  sixeyed/whoami-dotnet:nanoserver-1809

Now when you browse to the VM from outside, Docker will load-balance requests across the five containers which are hosting the service:

There’s More

Windows Server 2019 is an evolution to the container functionality you get with Docker. Windows Server 2016 is still perfectly fine for production, but 2019 brings Windows containers much closer to feature parity with Linux containers, and smooths over some things which are tricky in 2016.

And the next big thing is Windows support in Kubernetes, which is expected to GA before the end of the year went GA this year. Windows containers are now supported in mixed Linux-Windows Kubernetes clusters — find out more from my post Getting Started with Kubernetes on Windows.