Use docker-machine create from java

Question

I have an application that (I want to) uses Java to start and stop Docker containers. It seems that the way to do this is using docker-machine create, which works fine when I test from the command line.

However, when running using Commons-Exec from Java I get the error:

(aa4567c1-058f-46ae-9e97-56fb8b45211c) Creating SSH key...                                                          
Error creating machine: Error in driver during machine creation: /usr/local/bin/VBoxManage modifyvm aa4567c1-058f-46ae-9e97-56fb8b45211c --firmware bios --bioslogofadein off --bioslogofadeout off --bioslogodisplaytime 0 --biosbootmenu disabled --ostype Linux26_64 --cpus 1 --memory 1024 --acpi on --ioapic on --rtcuseutc on --natdnshostresolver1 off --natdnsproxy1 on --cpuhotplug off --pae on --hpet on --hwvirtex on --nestedpaging on --largepages on --vtxvpid on --accelerate3d off --boot1 dvd failed:                                                                             
VBoxManage: error: Could not find a registered machine with UUID {aa4567c1-058f-46ae-9e97-56fb8b45211c}             
VBoxManage: error: Details: code VBOX_E_OBJECT_NOT_FOUND (0x80bb0001), component VirtualBoxWrap, interface IVirtualBox, callee nsISupports                                                                                              
VBoxManage: error: Context: "FindMachine(Bstr(a->argv[0]).raw(), machine.asOutParam())" at line 500 of file VBoxManageModifyVM.cpp                                                                                                      

I have set my VBOX_USER_HOME variable in an initializationScript that I'm using to start the machine:

export WORKERID=$1
export VBOX_USER_HOME=/Users/me/Library/VirtualBox

# create the machine
docker-machine create $WORKERID && \            # create the worker using    docker-machine
eval $(docker-machine env $WORKERID) && \       # load the env of the newly created machine
docker run -d myimage

And I'm executing this from Java via the Commons Exec CommandLine class:

CommandLine cmdline = new CommandLine("/bin/sh");
cmdline.addArgument(initializeWorkerScript.getAbsolutePath());
cmdline.addArgument("test");
Executor executor = new DefaultExecutor();

If there is another library that can interface with docker-machine from Java I'm happy to use that, or to change out Commons Exec if that's the issue (though I don't understand why). The basic requirement is that I have some way to get docker-machine to create a machine using Java and then later to be able to use docker-machine to stop that machine.

Answer 1

As it turns out the example that I posted should work, the issue that I was having is that I was provisioning machines with a UUID name. That name contained dash (-) characters which apparently break VBoxManage. This might be because of some kind of path problem but I'm just speculating. When I changed my UUID to have dot (.) instead of dash it loaded and started the machine just fine.

I'm happy to remove this post if the moderators want, but will leave it up here in case people are looking for solutions to problems with docker-machine create naming issues.