What is Docker?

Docker is a set of Platforms as a service (PaaS) products that use Operating system-level virtualization to deliver software in packages called containers. Containers are isolated from one another and bundle their own software, libraries, and configuration files; they can communicate with each other through well-defined channels. All containers are run by a single operating system kernel and therefore use fewer resources than a virtual machine.

Docker is an open-source containerization platform by which you can pack your application and all its dependencies into a standardized unit called a container. Containers are light in weight which makes them portable and they are isolated from the underlying infrastructure and from each other container. You can run the docker image as a docker container in any machine where docker is installed without depending on the operating system.

Docker gained its popularity due to its impact on the software development and deployment. The following are the some of the main reasons for docker becoming popular:

1. Portability: Docker facilitates the developers in packaging their applications with all dependencies into a single lightweight containers. It facilities in ensuring the consistent performance across the different computing environments.
2. Reproducibility: Through encapsulating the applications with their dependencies within a container it ensures in software setups remaining consistent across the development, testing and production environments.
3. Efficiency: Docker through its container based architecture it optimizes the resource utilization. It allows the developers to run the multiple isolated applications on a single host system.
4. Scalability: Docker’s scalability features facilitated the developers in making easier of their applications handling at time of workloads increment.

The Dockerfile uses DSL (Domain Specific Language) and contains instructions for generating a Docker image. Dockerfile will define the processes to quickly produce an image. While creating your application, you should create a Dockerfile in order since the Docker daemon runs all of the instructions from top to bottom.

(The Docker daemon, often referred to simply as “Docker,” is a background service that manages Docker containers on a system.)

• It is a text document that contains necessary commands which on execution help assemble a Docker Image.
• Docker image is created using a Dockerfile.

To Know more about the Dockerfile refer to the Docker – Concept of Dockerfile.

Docker makes use of a client-server architecture. The Docker client talks with the docker daemon which helps in building, running, and distributing the docker containers. The Docker client runs with the daemon on the same system or we can connect the Docker client with the Docker daemon remotely. With the help of REST API over a UNIX socket or a network, the docker client and daemon interact with each other. To know more about working of docker refer to the Architecture of Docker.

It is a file, comprised of multiple layers, used to execute code in a Docker container. They are a set of instructions used to create docker containers. Docker Image is an executable package of software that includes everything needed to run an application. This image informs how a container should instantiate, determining which software components will run and how. Docker Container is a virtual environment that bundles application code with all the dependencies required to run the application. The application runs quickly and reliably from one computing environment to another.

Docker container is a runtime instance of an image. Allows developers to package applications with all parts needed such as libraries and other dependencies. Docker Containers are runtime instances of Docker images. Containers contain the whole kit required for an application, so the application can be run in an isolated way. For eg.- Suppose there is an image of Ubuntu OS with NGINX SERVER when this image is run with the docker run command, then a container will be created and NGINX SERVER will be running on Ubuntu OS.

Docker Hub is a repository service and it is a cloud-based service where people push their Docker Container Images and also pull the Docker Container Images from the Docker Hub anytime or anywhere via the internet. Generally it makes it easy to find and reuse images. It provides features such as you can push your images as private or public registry where you can store and share Docker images.

Mainly DevOps team uses the Docker Hub. It is an open-source tool and freely available for all operating systems. It is like storage where we store the images and pull the images when it is required. When a person wants to push/pull images from the Docker Hub they must have a basic knowledge of Docker. Let us discuss the requirements of the Docker tool.

Docker Compose will execute a YAML-based multi-container application. The YAML file consists of all configurations needed to deploy containers Docker Compose, which is integrated with Docker Swarm, and provides directions for building and deploying containers. With Docker Compose, each container is constructed to run on a single host.

Docker Desktop provides GUI to work on docker containers, docker images and docker networks. Docker desktop provides and separate environment which contains Docker Engine, Docker CLI, Docker Compose, Kubernetes, and other tools which are needed to build, ship and run the applications in the form of containers which makes it more user friendly. To know more how to install docker desktop refer to Docker Desktop Sample Image.

Through introducing the essential docker commands, docker became a powerful software in streamlining the container management process. It helps in ensuring a seamless development and deployment workflows. The following are the some of docker commands that are used commonly:

• Docker Run: It used for launching the containers from images, with specifying the runtime options and commands.
• Docker Pull: It fetches the container images from the container registry like Docker Hub to the local machine.
• Docker ps: It helps in displaying the running containers along with their important information like container ID, image used and status.
• Docker Stop: It helps in halting the running containers gracefully shutting down the processes within them.
• Docker Start: It helps in restarting the stopped containers, resuming their operations from the previous state.
• Docker Login: It helps to login in to the docker registry enabling the access to private repositories.

To Know more about the docker commands refer tot the Docker – Instruction Commands.

The software that hosts the containers is named Docker Engine. Docker Engine is a client-server based application. The docker engine has 3 main components:

1. Server: It is responsible for creating and managing Docker images, containers, networks, and volumes on the Docker. It is referred to as a daemon process.
2. REST API: It specifies how the applications can interact with the Server and instructs it what to do.
3. Client: The Client is a docker command-line interface (CLI), that allows us to interact with Docker using the docker commands.

Docker can be used to pack the application and its dependencies which makes it lightweight and easy to ship the code faster with more reliability. Docker make its very simple to run the application in the production environment docker container can be platform independent if the docker engine is installed in the machine.

• Resource Efficiency: Docker helps in maximizing the resource utilization by running the multiple containers on a single host. It helps in reducing the infrastructure costs and improves the efficiency.
• Version Control: It simples the versioning for the applications and their dependencies ensuring the consistency and making easier of collaboration across the teams.
• Microservices Agility: It enables the adoption of microservices architecture, promoting the scalability, flexibility and fault isolation agile application development.

Docker is the most powerful tool to run the application in the form of containers. Docker container are light in weight and can be run on any operating system.

AWS provides the Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) it is an fully managed container service by which you can deploy, scale and manage the docker containers. Amazon ECS is the most reliable platform according to the performance and also it can be integrated with the other AWS Service like load balancing, service discovery, and container health monitoring. To know more about Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS).

The following are the differences between docker containers and Virtual Machines:

The following steps guide you in installation of docker on ubuntu:

Step 1: Remove old version of Docker

• Execute the following command to remove the old versioned docker software:

$ sudo apt-get remove docker docker-engine docker.io containerd runc

Step 2: Installing Docker Engine

• The following command is used for installation of docker engine:

$ sudo apt-get update
 
$ sudo apt-get install \
    ca-certificates \
    curl \
    gnupg \
    lsb-release
$ sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
$ curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg
$ echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  $(lsb_release -cs) stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
  
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-compose-plugin
$ sudo groupadd docker
$ sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

Step 3: Verify Docker Installation

• Check if docker is successfully installed in your system by trying to run a container with the following command:

$ sudo docker run hello-world

To more detailing on the installation of docker on ubuntu, refer this – Article

The following steps guides in containerizing the application using Docker:

Step 1: Create Dokcerfile and Python Application

• Create a folder with 2 files (Dockerfile and main.py file) in it

Step 2: Develop Python Code

• Edit main.py with the below code, or else you can try on developing your own python code.

Step 3: Develop a Dockerfile

• Edit Dockerfile with the below instructions for developing the Dockerfile:

FROM python:latest
COPY main.py /
CMD [ "python", "./main.py" ]

Step 4: Create a Docker Image

• Once you have created and edited the main.py file and the Dockerfile, create your image contain your application by running the following command:

$ sudo docker build -t python-test .

• The ‘-t’ option allows to define the name of your image. ‘python-test’ is the name we have chosen for the image.

Step 5: Run Docker Container

• Once the image is created, your code is ready to launch.

$ sudo docker run python-test

To know more about this containerization of your application, refer this – Article

The following steps guides in pushing an image to the Dockerhub:

Step 1: Create an account on Docker Hub or use an existing one if you already have one.

Step 2: Click on the “Create Repository” button, put the name of the file, and click on “Create”.

Step 3: Now will “tag our image” and “push it to the Docker Hub repository” which we just created.

• Now, run the below command to list docker images:

$ docker images

• The above will give us this result

REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE_ID CREATED SIZE afrozchakure/python-test latest c7857f97ebbd 2 hours ago 933MB

• Image ID is used to tag the image. The syntax to tag the image is:

docker tag <image-id> <your dockerhub username>/python-test:latest
$ docker tag c7857f97ebbd afrozchakure/python-test:latest

Step 4: Push image to Docker Hub repository

$ docker push afrozchakure/python-test

To know more about publishing the images to dockerhub, refer this – Article

1. To remove all versions of a particular image from our local system, we use the Image ID for it.

$ docker rmi -f af939ee31fdc

2. Now run the image, it will fetch the image from the docker hub if it doesn’t exist on your local machine.

$ docker run afrozchakure/python-test

The following are the some of the benefits of Docker:

• Portability: Docker facilities with creation of lightweight portable containers that can be unable on any machine regardless of the underlying operating systems.
• Isolation: Docker through containers provides a high level of isolation with enabling the applications to run independently of each other addressing the issues that one container doesn’t impact on other.
• Reproducibility: With, Docker developers can easily package their applications and their dependencies into a reusable images. It allows for consistent and repoduciable builds across the development, testing and production environments.
• DevOps Integration: It promotes the collaboration and automation across the software development life cycle in handing the increasing workloads.

The following are the alternatives of Docker:

• Podman: Offers a Docker-compatible container engine with a focus on security and compatibility, ideal for environments where Docker is not preferred or available.
• rkt: A lightweight container runtime developed by CoreOS, designed for simplicity, security, and composability, offering an alternative to Docker’s container runtime.
• LXC (Linux Containers): Provides operating-system-level virtualization for running multiple isolated Linux systems (containers) on a single host, offering a lightweight alternative to Docker for certain use cases.
• containerd: An industry-standard core container runtime developed by Docker, Inc., offering a minimal and stable platform for building containerized applications, often used as a lower-level alternative to Docker for more advanced container orchestration systems like Kubernetes.

The following are the some of the insights on docker security:

• Isolation: Docker containers provides the strong isolation ensuring the applications and processing its running.
• Immutable Infrastructure: It promotes the use of immutable infrastructure, where containers are build from the immutable images that are version controlled.
• Resource Constraints: It allows you to define the resource constraints for containers such as CPU and memory limits.
• Security Scanning: It provides the built-in security scanning tools that allows you to scan the container images for known vulnerabilities and malware before deployment.

So you have learned about the basics of Docker, the difference between Virtual Machines and Docker Containers along some common terminologies in Docker. Also, we went through the installation of Docker on our systems. We created an application using Docker and pushed our image to Docker Hub. Lastly, we learned how we could remove a particular image from our local system and later pull the image from Docker Hub if it doesn’t exist locally.

What is Docker Hub in short?

Docker Hub is a public registry where user/developers can store and share system images created by them and making them to easily access and reuse images for other software developers.

What is needed to use Docker Hub?

To use Docker Hub user should have an account on Docker Hub platform. If you don’t have an account on Docker Hub you can create one by singing up. Once you have an account on Docker, then you can perform operations like push and pull images to and from Docker Hub.

What are Docker Logs?

Docker daemon and Docker containers will generate the docker logs in the form of text messages which will helps you in further to troubleshoot problems, monitor the performance of your applications, and gather information about the state of your Docker environment.

What is Docker Build?

Docker build is an command which is used to build the docker image by using the Dockerfile.

What is Docker Ubuntu?

“Docker Ubuntu” is the term used for utilizing the Docker service with Ubuntu-based operating systems. Running Docker is best suited for the popular Linux distribution Ubuntu.