Can Windows Containers be hosted on linux

Question

Is it possible to run Windows Containers on Linux  The scenario is based on an app written in the  NET  old net  and the Linux user that wants to run this with Docker to provide a net462 written API on the localhost   I am using beta version from Docker Desktop for Windows  If no  then why can Windows run Linux containers and not vice-versa   EDIT   As some time has passed and this question is a popular one  I d like to add one note here that the workaround is to use the new netstandard  It allowed me to pack 4 6 2 framework into new library

User · Answer

Containers use the OS kernel  Windows Container utilize processes in order to run  So theoretically speaking Windows Containers cannot run on Linux   However there are workarounds utilizing VMstyle solutions   I Have found this solution which uses Vagrant and Packer on Mac  so it should work for Linux as well  https   github com StefanScherer windows-docker-machine      This Vagrant environment creates a Docker Machine to work on your   MacBook with Windows containers  You can easily switch between Docker   for Mac Linux containers and the Windows containers          building the headless Vagrant box    git clone https   github com StefanScherer packer-windows   cd packer-windows    packer build --only vmware-iso windows 2019 docker json   vagrant box add windows 2019 docker windows 2019 docker vmware box       Create the Docker Machine    git clone https   github com StefanScherer windows-docker-machine   cd windows-docker-machine   vagrant up --provider vmware fusion 2019       Switch to Windows containers    eval   docker-machine env 2019

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No  you cannot run windows containers directly on Linux     But you can run Linux on Windows    Windows Server 10 comes packaged with base image of ubuntu OS  after september 2016 beta service pack   That is the reason you can run linux on windows and not other wise  Check out here  https   thenewstack io finally-linux-containers-really-will-run-windows-linuxkit   You can change between OS containers Linux and windows by right clicking on the docker in tray menu

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Windows containers are not running on Linux and also You can t run Linux containers on Windows directly

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While Docker for Windows is perfectly able to run Linux containers  the converse  while theoretically possible  is not implemented due to practical reasons   The most obvious one is  while Docker for Windows can run a Linux VM freely  Docker for Linux would require a Windows license in order to run it inside a VM   Also  Linux is completely customizable  so the Linux VM used by Docker for Windows has been stripped down to just a few MB  containing only the bare minimum needed to run the containers  while the smallest Windows distribution available is about 1 5 GB  It may not be an impracticable size  but it is much more cumbersome than the Linux on Windows counterpart   While it is certainly possible for someone to sell a Docker for Linux variation bundled with a Windows license and ready to run Windows containers under Linux  and I don t know if such product exists   the bottom line is that you can t avoid paying Windows vendor lock-in price  both in money and storage space

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Unlike Virtualization  containerization uses the same host os  So the container built on linux can not be run on windows and vice versa   In windows  you have to take help of virtuallization  using Hyper-v  to have same os as your containers s os and then you should be able to run the same   Docker for windows is similar app which is built on Hyper-v and helps in running linux docker container on windows   But as far as I know  there is nothing as such which helps run windows containers on linux

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You can use Windows Containers inside a virtual machine  the guest OS should match the requirements - Windows 10 Pro or Windows 2016    For example you can use VirtualBox  just enable Hyper-V inside System   Acceleration   Paravirtualization Interface    After that if Docker doesn t start up because of an error  use the  Switch to Windows containers     in the settings    this could be moved as a comment to the accepted answer  but I don t have enough reputation to do so

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Solution 1 - Using VirtualBox  As Muhammad Sahputra suggested in this post  it is possible to run Windows OS inside VirtualBox  using VBoxHeadless - without graphical interface  inside Docker container   Also  a NAT setup inside the VM network configurations can do a port forwarding which gives you the ability to pass-through any traffic that comes to and from the Docker container  This eventually  in a wide perspective  allows you to run any Windows-based service on top of Linux machine   Maybe this is not a typical use-case of a Docker container  but it definitely an interesting approach to the problem     Solution 2 - Using Wine  For simple applications and maybe more complicated  you can try to use wine inside a docker container   This docker hub page may help you to achieve your goal     I hope that Docker will release a native solution soon  like they did with docker-machine on Windows several years ago

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We can run Linux containers on Windows  Docker for Windows uses Hyper-v based Linux-Kit  or WSL2 as backend to facilitate Linux containers  If any Linux distribution having this kind of setup  we can run Windows containers  Docker for Linux supports only Linux containers

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You can run MSSQL and  NET Core on Linux  and hence inside Linux containers  nowadays    See  https   hub docker com r microsoft mssql-server-linux   Also  https   hub docker com r microsoft dotnet   The direct question to your answer  is of course  unless there is a version compiled especially for Linux  no

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Update3  06 2019 Some of the comments says that the answer is not clear  I ll try to clarify   TL DR   Q  Can Windows containers run on Linux   A  No  They cannot   Containers are using the underlying Operating System resources and drivers  so Windows containers can run on Windows only  and Linux containers can run on Linux only   Q  But what about Docker for Windows  Or other VM-based solutions   A  Docker for Windows allows you to simulate running Linux containers on Windows  but under the hood a Linux VM is created  so still Linux containers are running on Linux  and Windows containers are running on Windows   Bonus  Read this very nice article about running Linux docker containers on Windows   Q  So  what should I do with a  Net Framework 462 app  if I would like to run in a container   A  It depends  Following several recommendations    If it is possible - move to  Net Core  Since  Net Core brings support to most major features of  Net Framework  and  Net Framework 4 8 will be the last version of  Net framework If you cannot migrate to  Net Core - As  Sebastian mentioned - you can convert your libraries to  Net Standard  and have 2 versions of app - one on  Net Framework 4 6 2  and one on  Net Core - it is not always obvious  Visual Studio supports it pretty well  with multi-targeting   but some dependencies can require extra care   Less recommended  In some cases  you can run windows containers  Windows containers are becoming more and more mature  with better support in platforms like Kubernetes  But to be able to run  Net Framework code  you still need to run on base image of  Server Core   which occupies about 1 4 GB  In same rare cases  you can migrate your code to  Net Core  but still run on Windows Nano servers  with an image size of 95 MB    Leaving also the old updates for history  Update2  08 2018 If you are using Docker-for-Windows  you can run now both windows and linux containers simultaneously  https   blogs msdn microsoft com premier developer 2018 04 20 running-docker-windows-and-linux-containers-simultaneously   Bonus  Not directly related to the question  but you can now run not only the linux container itself  but also orchestrator like kubernetes  https   blog docker com 2018 07 kubernetes-is-now-available-in-docker-desktop-stable-channel   Updated at 2018   Original answer in general is right  BUT several months ago  docker added experimental feature LCOW  official github repository    From this post      Doesn   t Docker for Windows already run Linux containers  That   s right    Docker for Windows can run Linux or Windows containers  with support   for Linux containers via a Hyper-V Moby Linux VM  as of Docker for   Windows 17 10 this VM is based on LinuxKit        The setup for running Linux containers with LCOW is a lot simpler than   the previous architecture where a Hyper-V Linux VM runs a Linux Docker   daemon  along with all your containers  With LCOW  the Docker daemon   runs as a Windows process  same as when running Docker Windows   containers   and every time you start a Linux container Docker   launches a minimal Hyper-V hypervisor running a VM with a Linux   kernel  runc and the container processes running on top       Because there   s only one Docker daemon  and because that daemon now   runs on Windows  it will soon be possible to run Windows and Linux   Docker containers side-by-side  in the same networking namespace  This   will unlock a lot of exciting development and production scenarios for   Docker users on Windows    Original   As mentioned in comments by  PanagiotisKanavos  containers are not for virtualization  and they are using the resources of the host machine  As a result  for now windows container cannot run  as-is  on linux machine   But - you can do it by using VM - as it works on windows  You can install windows VM on your linux host  which will allow to run windows containers   With it  IMHO run it this way on PROD environment will not be the best idea   Also  this answer provides more details

[linux] Can Windows Containers be hosted on linux?

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