Enable Linux Containers On Windows Server 2016

According to this from stefan scherer it is possible to run linux containers on server 2016.

Enable linux containers on windows server 2016. It turns out the linux containers on windows lcow server is a preview feature of both windows server version 1709 and docker ee. Microsoft announced linux containers on windows server 2016 using windows hyper v containers. One of the new features is native linux containers on windows. It won t work on windows server 2016 of which the version is older than 1709.

Windows server 2016 1709 contains several enhancements for docker customers. You cannot run linux containers on windows server 2016 yet. Deploying a windows container host has different steps depending on the operating system and the host system type physical or virtual. On windows 10 using docker for windows linux containers run inside a full hyper v vm.

Last time i checked the docker hub repository i saw that microsoft. The base container images available on windows containers are. Windows server core 2016 container image. For testing you can download a copy of windows server 2019 evaluation or a windows server insider preview.

To run containers on windows server you need a physical server or virtual machine running windows server semi annual channel windows server 2019 or windows server 2016. In windows server 2016 microsoft introduced windows containers. Now that windows server 1709 has been released we have some new features to play with. There is no release date for that yet.

Windows server 2016 version 1709 which is the only support os for running linux containers docker enterprise edition 17 10 preview 3 the docker linuxkit feature this is the feature that allows us to run linux containers and i ll show you how to enable it. As a side learning of this topic i also got some ideas about the windows server semi annual channel. It means that you can now run windows and linux containers at the same time on a windows server container host running windows server 1709 or windows 10 with the fall creators update 1709. If you want to try out multi architecture you also use docker machine to create a linux docker engine running in hyper v.

Create a linux docker machine in hyper v. To run containers on windows 10 you need the following. Currently docker is the most used linux and windows containers management tools and also consider as the standard in the industry. In this article i am going to walk through how to setup a container host using windows server 2016 version 1709 to run both windows and linux containers.