Use and Limitations of Containers in vSphere Integrated Containers Engine

vSphere Integrated Containers Engine currently includes the following capabilities and limitations:

Supported Docker Features

This version of vSphere Integrated Containers Engine supports these features:

  • Docker Compose (basic)
  • Registry pull from docker hub and private registry
  • Named Data Volumes
  • Anonymous Data Volumes
  • Bridged Networks
  • External Networks
  • Port Mapping
  • Network Links/Alias

Limitations

vSphere Integrated Containers Engine includes these limitations:

  • Container VMs only support root user.
  • When you do not configure a PATH environment variable, or create a container from an image that does not supply a PATH, vSphere Integrated Containers Engine provides a default PATH.
  • You can resolve the symbolic names of a container from within another container, except in the following cases:
    • Aliases
    • IPv6
    • Service discovery
  • Containers can acquire DHCP addresses only if they are on a network that has DHCP.

Unsupported Docker Features

This version of vSphere Integrated Containers Engine does not support these features:

  • Pulling images via image digest
  • Pushing a registry
  • Sharing concurrent data volume between containers
  • Mapping a local host folder to a container volume
  • Mapping a local host file to a container
  • Docker build
  • Docker copy files into a container, both running and stopped
  • Docker container inspect does not return all container network for a container

For limitations of using vSphere Integrated Containers with volumes, see Using Volumes with vSphere Integrated Containers Engine.