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). The ISO can be download here.

See Frequently asked questions for more details.

Features

Kernel 3.14.1 with AUFS, Docker 0.11.1 - using libcontainer
Container persistence via disk automount on /var/lib/docker
SSH keys persistence via disk automount

Installation

Installation using the boot2docker manage script

OSX

$ brew update
$ brew install boot2docker

For backup / Time Machine exclusion considerations: The virtual machine disk image lives in ~~/.boot2docker, not in the standard place (~~/VirtualBox VMs).

Linux/Unix (works also on OSX)

$ curl -L -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/boot2docker/boot2docker/master/boot2docker
$ chmod +x boot2docker

Installing by hand

You can also use the boot2docker.iso and make your own virtual machine, or install on physical hardware.

Please remember to give the VM/hardware at least 512MB RAM - and you will need more if you want to do docker development on boot2docker.

How to use

boot2docker comes with an init script that leverages VirtualBox's VBoxManage. You can start, stop and delete the VM right from the command line.

Initialize

$ boot2docker init

Start vm

$ boot2docker up

Upgrade the boot2docker vm image

$ boot2docker stop
$ boot2docker download
$ boot2docker up

Advanced usage

Port forwarding / folder sharing

In order to use this features refer to these workarounds

Customize

You can customise the values of VM_NAME, DOCKER_PORT, SSH_HOST_PORT, VM_DISK, VM_DISK_SIZE, VM_MEM and BOOT2DOCKER_ISO by setting them in $HOME/.boot2docker/profile

Persist data

When you run boot2docker init, the boot2docker manage script auto-creates a disk that will be automounted and used to persist your docker data in /var/lib/docker and /var/lib/boot2docker. This virtual disk will be removed when you run boot2docker delete. It will also persist the SSH keys of the machine.

If you are not using the boot2docker VirtualBox manage script, you can create an ext4 formatted partition with the label boot2docker-data (mkfs.ext4 -L boot2docker-data /dev/sdX5) to your VM or host, and boot2docker will automount it on /mnt/sdX and then softlink /mnt/sdX/var/lib/docker to /var/lib/docker.

SSH into VM

$ boot2docker ssh

boot2docker auto logs in, but if you want to SSH into the machine, the credentials are:

user: docker
pass: tcuser

Install on any device

To 'install' the ISO onto an SD card, USB-Stick or even empty hard disk, you can use dd if=boot2docker.iso of=/dev/sdX. This will create the small boot partition, and install an MBR.

Build your own boot2docker.iso

Goto How to build for Documentation on how to build your own boot2docker ISO's.

bunam/boot2docker