How to move Docker containers between different hosts

Question

I cannot find a way of moving docker running containers from one host to another   Is there any way I can push my containers to repositories like we do for images   Currently  I am not using data volumes to store the data associated with applications running inside containers  So some data resides inside containers  which I want to persist before redesigning the setup

User · Answer

I tried many solutions for this  and this is the one that worked for me     1 commit save container to new image        commit the container        docker stop        docker commit CONTAINER NAME        docker save --output IMAGE NAME tar IMAGE NAME TAG   ps  Our container CONTAINER NAME has a mounted volume at   var home     you have to inspect your container to specify its volume path      docker inspect CONTAINER NAME        save its volume   we will use an ubuntu image to do the thing        mkdir backup        docker run --rm --volumes-from CONTAINER NAME -v   pwd  backup  backup ubuntu   bash -c    cd  var home  amp  amp  tar  cvf   backup volume backup tar         Now when you look at   pwd  backup   you will find our volume under tar format  Until now  we have our conatainer s image  IMAGE NAME tar  and its volume  volume backup tar    Now you can   recreate the same old container on a new host

User · Answer

Use this script  https   github com ricardobranco777 docker-volumes sh  This does preserve data in volumes   Example usage     Stop the container    docker stop  CONTAINER    Create a new image    docker commit  CONTAINER  CONTAINER    Save image docker save -o  CONTAINER tar  CONTAINER    Save the volumes  use   tar gz  if you want compression  docker-volumes sh  CONTAINER save  CONTAINER-volumes tar    Copy image and volumes to another host scp  CONTAINER tar  CONTAINER-volumes tar  USER  HOST     On the other host  docker load -i  CONTAINER tar docker create --name  CONTAINER   lt PREVIOUS CONTAINER OPTIONS gt    CONTAINER    Load the volumes docker-volumes sh  CONTAINER load  CONTAINER-volumes tar    Start container docker start  CONTAINER

User · Answer

What eventually worked for me  after lot s of confusing manuals and confusing tutorials  since Docker is obviously at time of my writing at peek of inflated expectations  is   Save the docker image into archive  docker save image name  gt  image name tar copy on another machine on that other docker machine  run docker load in a following way  cat image name tar   docker load  Export and import  as proposed in another answers does not export ports and variables  which might be required for your container to run  And you might end up with stuff like  quot No command specified quot  etc    When you try to load it on another machine  So  difference between save and export is that save command saves whole image with history and metadata  while export command exports only files structure  without history or metadata   Needless to say is that  if you already have those ports taken on the docker hyper-visor you are doing import  by some other docker container  you will end-up in conflict  and you will have to reconfigure exposed ports  Note  In order to move data with docker  you might be having persistent storage somewhere  which should also be moved alongside with containers

User · Answer

From Docker documentation      docker export does not export the contents of volumes associated   with the  container  If a volume is mounted on top of an existing   directory in the container  docker export will export the contents   of the underlying  directory  not the contents of the volume  Refer   to Backup  restore  or migrate data   volumes   in the user guide for examples on exporting data in a volume

User · Answer

You cannot move a running docker container from one host to another   You can commit the changes in your container to an image with docker commit  move the image onto a new host  and then start a new container with docker run   This will preserve any data that your application has created inside the container   Nb  It does not preserve data that is stored inside volumes  you need to move data volumes manually to new host

User · Answer

Alternatively  if you do not wish to push to a repository    Export the container to a tarball  docker export  lt CONTAINER ID gt   gt   home export tar  Move your tarball to new machine Import it back  cat  home export tar   docker import - some-name latest

[docker] How to move Docker containers between different hosts?

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