Installing VS2017 in a docker container

Question

I want to create a docker image with a specific build environment, which involves having a VS2017 installed. I tried several approaches but overall I can't get VS2017 to install in a docker container. Reducing the dockerfile to the minimum, I try to run this:

FROM  microsoft/windowsservercore

SHELL [ "powershell", "-Command", "$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'; $ProgressPreference = 'SilentlyContinue';" ]

RUN   iwr -uri https://aka.ms/vs/15/release/vs_community.exe -outfile C:\vs_community.exe ; \
      C:\vs_community.exe --allWorkloads --includeRecommended --includeOptional -q --passive --norestart --wait --all

And here is the log of the installation: https://gist.github.com/bazzilic/81fa3d8c4663540872be1d66cd1b0301

It looks like everything went fine, however, VS2017 is not installed in the end:

PS C:\> ls


    Directory: C:\


Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                -------------         ------ ----
d-----        7/16/2016   9:18 PM                PerfLogs
d-r---         9/3/2017   7:45 PM                Program Files
d-----         9/3/2017   7:41 PM                Program Files (x86)
d-r---         8/8/2017   5:27 AM                Users
d-----         8/8/2017   5:25 AM                Windows
-a----       11/23/2016   6:45 AM           1894 License.txt
-a----         9/3/2017   7:41 PM        1069968 vs_community.exe


PS C:\> cd '.\Program Files\'
PS C:\Program Files> ls


    Directory: C:\Program Files


Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                -------------         ------ ----
d-----        7/16/2016   9:18 PM                Common Files
d-----        7/16/2016   9:18 PM                internet explorer
d-----         9/3/2017   7:45 PM                Windows Defender
d-----        7/16/2016   9:18 PM                WindowsPowerShell


PS C:\Program Files> cd '..\Program Files (x86)\'
PS C:\Program Files (x86)> ls


    Directory: C:\Program Files (x86)


Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                -------------         ------ ----
d-----        7/16/2016   9:18 PM                Common Files
d-----        7/16/2016   9:18 PM                internet explorer
d-----        7/16/2016   9:18 PM                Microsoft.NET
d-----         8/8/2017   5:16 AM                Windows Defender
d-----        7/16/2016   9:18 PM                WindowsPowerShell


PS C:\Program Files (x86)>

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

I am pasting a Dockerfile below which I used to successfully build a container with VS2017 community, git, Chocolatey, and NuGet installed. I did not install all the VS workloads, just 4, but it results in a large container.

You can run it with "docker container run -it -v C:/Temp:C:/DATA vs2017/community" to run it interactively and mount C:\\Temp on your host as C:\\data in your container (and presents you with the developer cmd prompt)

Hope this helps. Mark

# USAGE NOTES:
# 
# Step 1)
# Docker => Settings => Daemon => Switch from Basic to Advanced
#    Add :
#           "storage-opts": [
#             "size=120GB"
#           ]
#
# Step 2)
#           docker image build -t vs2017/community -m 2GB .
#
# References: 
#            https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/install/use-command-line-parameters-to-install-visual-studio
#            https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/install/workload-component-id-vs-community
#
# NOTE: this build takes ~01:56:17.6201326 hrs on a surface book 2 15" with 16 GB RAM
#       and results in an image size of 23.6GB
#

# Use the latest Windows Server Core image 
FROM microsoft/windowsservercore:latest


# Download the tools 
SHELL ["cmd", "/S", "/C"]
ADD "https://aka.ms/vs/15/release/vs_community.exe" "C:\TEMP\vs_community.exe"
ADD "https://dist.nuget.org/win-x86-commandline/v4.7.0/nuget.exe" "C:\TEMP\nuget.exe"


# Install VS 2017 community 
RUN C:\TEMP\vs_community.exe --includeRecommended --includeOptional --quiet --nocache --norestart --wait \
    --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.Azure \
    --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.ManagedDesktop \
    --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NetCoreTools \
    --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NetWeb \
    || IF "%ERRORLEVEL%"=="3010" EXIT 0


# Install SSDT NuGet
RUN "C:\TEMP\nuget.exe" install Microsoft.Data.Tools.Msbuild -Version 10.0.61804.210


# Install Chocolatey
ENV chocolateyUseWindowsCompression = false

SHELL ["powershell.exe", "-ExecutionPolicy", "Bypass", "-Command"]
RUN Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1')); \
    [System.Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable('PATH', "\"${env:PATH};%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\chocolatey\bin\"", 'Machine'); \
    choco feature enable -n allowGlobalConfirmation;


# Install git tools with chocolatey
RUN choco install git -y \
    git-lfs -y \
    git-credential-manager-for-windows -y


# Launch VS2017 developer command prompt when started
SHELL ["cmd", "/S", "/C"]
ENTRYPOINT [ "CMD", "/k", "C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2017/Community/Common7/Tools/VsDevCmd.bat" ]