Container Networking with vSphere Integrated Containers Engine

The following sections present examples of how to perform container networking operations when using vSphere Integrated Containers Engine as your Docker endpoint.

To perform certain networking operations on containers, your Docker environment and your virtual container hosts (VCHs) must be configured in a specific way.

Publish a Container Port

Connect a container to an external mapped port on the public network of the VCH:

$ docker run -p 8080:80 --name test1 my_container my_app

Result: You can access Port 80 on test1 from the public network interface on the VCH at port 8080.

Add Containers to a New Bridge Network

Create a new non-default bridge network and set up two containers on the network. Verify that the containers can locate and communicate with each other:

$ docker network create -d bridge my-bridge-network
$ docker network ls
...
NETWORK ID          NAME                DRIVER
615d565d498c        my-bridge-network   bridge
...
$ docker run -d --net=my-bridge-network \
                --name=server my_server_image server_app
$ docker run -it --name=client --net=my-bridge-network busybox
/ # ping server
PING server (172.18.0.2): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 172.18.0.2: seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.073 ms
64 bytes from 172.18.0.2: seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.092 ms
64 bytes from 172.18.0.2: seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.088 ms

Result: The server and client containers can ping each other by name.

Bridged Containers with an Exposed Port

Connect two containers on a bridge network and set up one of the containers to publish a port via the VCH. Assume that server_app binds to port 5000.

$ docker network create -d bridge my-bridge-network
$ docker network ls
...
NETWORK ID          NAME                DRIVER
615d565d498c        my-bridge-network   bridge
...
$ docker run -d -p 5000:5000 --net=my-bridge-network \
                --name=server my_server_image server_app
$ docker run -it --name=client --net=my-bridge-network busybox
/ # ping -c 3 server
PING server (172.18.0.2): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 172.18.0.2: seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.073 ms
64 bytes from 172.18.0.2: seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.092 ms
64 bytes from 172.18.0.2: seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.088 ms
/ # telnet server 5000
GET /

Hello world!Connection closed by foreign host
$ telnet vch_public_interface 5000
Trying 192.168.218.137...
Connected to 192.168.218.137.
Escape character is '^]'.
GET /

Hello world!Connection closed by foreign host.

Result: The server and client containers can ping each other by name. You can connect to server on port 5000 from the client container and to port 5000 on the VCH public network.

Deploy Containers on Multiple Bridge Networks

Create containers on multiple bridge networks by mapping ports through the VCH. The VCH must have an IP address on the relevant bridge networks. To create bridge networks, use network create.

Run a container that is connected to two networks:

docker run -it --net net1 --net net2 busybox

Run containers that can each only reach one of the networks:

docker run -it --net net1 --name n1 busybox
docker run -it --net net2 --name n2 busybox

Run a container that can reach both networks:

docker run -it --net net1 --net net2 --name n12 busybox

Result:

  • n1 and n2 cannot communicate with each other
  • n12 can communicate with both n1 and n2

Connect Containers to External Networks

Configure two external networks in vSphere:

  • default-external is 10.2.0.0/16 with gateway 10.2.0.1
  • vic-production is 208.91.3.0/24 with gateway 208.91.3.1

Deploy a VCH that uses the default network at 208.91.3.2 as its public network.

docker network ls shows:

$ docker network ls
NETWORK ID          NAME                DRIVER
e2113b821ead        none                null
37470ed9992f        default-external    bridge
ea96a6b919de        vic-production      bridge
b7e91524f3e2        bridge              bridge

You have a container that provides a Web service to expose outside of the vSphere Integrated Containers Engine environment.

Output of docker network inspect default-external:

[
    {
        "Name": "default-external",
        "Id": "id",
        "Scope": "external",
        "Driver": "bridge",
        "IPAM": {
            "Driver": "default",
            "Options": {},
            "Config": [
                {
                    "Subnet": "10.2.0.0/16",
                    "Gateway": "10.2.0.1"
                }
            ]
        },
        "Containers": {},
        "Options": {}
    }
]

Output of docker network inspect vic-production:

[
    {
        "Name": "vic-production",
        "Id": "id",
        "Scope": "external",
        "Driver": "bridge",
        "IPAM": {
            "Driver": "default",
            "Options": {},
            "Config": [
                {
                    "Subnet": "208.91.3.0/24",
                    "Gateway": "208.91.3.1"
                }
            ]
        },
        "Containers": {},
        "Options": {}
    }
]

Set up a server on the vic-production network:

$ docker run -d --expose=80 --net=vic-production --name server my_webapp
$ docker inspect 
  --format='{{range .NetworkSettings.Networks}}{{.IPAddress}}{{end}}' 
  server
208.91.3.2
$ telnet 208.91.3.2 80
Trying 208.91.3.2...
Connected to 208.91.3.2.
Escape character is '^]'.
GET /

Hello world!Connection closed by foreign host.

NOTE: You can also use -p 80 or -p 80:80 instead of --expose=80. If you try to map to different ports with -p, you get a configuration error.

Result: The server container port is exposed on the external vic-production network.

Deploy Containers That Use Multiple Container Networks

Create multiple container networks by using vic-machine create --container-network.

NOTE: The networks known as container networks in vSphere Integrated Containers Engine terminology correspond to external networks in Docker terminology.

Example:

./vic-machine-darwin create --target 172.16.252.131 --image-store datastore1 --name vic-demo --user root --password 'Vmware!23' --compute-resource /ha-datacenter/host/*/Resources --container-network pg1:pg1 --container-network pg2:pg2 --container-network pg3:pg3

pg1-3 are port groups on the ESX Server that are now mapped into docker network ls.

$ docker -H 172.16.252.150:2376 --tls network ls
NETWORK ID   NAME   DRIVER
903b61edec66 bridge bridge
95a91e11b1a8 pg1    external
ab84ba2a326b pg2    external
2df4101caac2 pg3    external

If a container is connected to a container network, the traffic to and from that network does not go through the VCH.

You also can create more bridge networks via the Docker API. These are all backed by the same port group as the default bridge, but those networks are isolated via IP address management.

Example:
$ docker -H 172.16.252.150:2376 --tls network create mike
0848ee433797c746b466ffeb57581c301d8e96b7e82a4d524e0fa0222860ba44
$ docker -H 172.16.252.150:2376 --tls network create bob
316e34ff3b7b19501fe14982791ee139ce98e62d060203125c5dbdc8543ff641
$ docker -H 172.16.252.150:2376 --tls network ls
NETWORK ID   NAME   DRIVER
316e34ff3b7b bob    bridge
903b61edec66 bridge bridge
0848ee433797 mike  bridge
95a91e11b1a8 pg1    external
ab84ba2a326b pg2    external
2df4101caac2 pg3    external

Result: You can create containers with --net mike or --net pg1 and be on the correct network. With Docker you can combine them and attach multiple networks.

Deploy a Container with a Static IP Address

Deploy a container that has a static IP address on the container network. For you to be able to deploy containers with static IP addresses, the vSphere administrator must have specified the --container-network-ip-range option when they deployed the VCH. The IP address that you specify in docker network connect --ip must be within the specified range. If you do not specify --ip, the VCH assigns an IP address from the range that the vSphere administrator specified in --container-network-ip-range.

$ docker network connect --ip ip_address container-net container1

Result: The container container1 runs with the specified IP address on the container-net network.

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