Docker on Windows10 home - inside docker container connect to the docker engine

Question

When creating a Jenkins Docker container, it is very useful to able to connect to the Docker daemon. In that way, I can start docker commands inside the Jenkins container.

For example, after starting the Jenkins Docker container, I would like to 'docker exec -it container-id bash' and start 'docker ps'.

On Linux you can use bind-mounts on /var/run/docker.sock. On Windows this seems not possible. The solution is by using 'named pipes'. So, in my docker-compose.yml file I tried to create a named pipe.

version: '2'
services:
  jenkins:
    image: jenkins-docker
    build:
      context: ./
      dockerfile: Dockerfile_docker
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
      - "50000:50000"
    networks:
      - jenkins
    volumes:
      - jenkins_home:/var/jenkins_home
      - \\.\pipe\docker_engine:\\.\pipe\docker_engine
      # - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
      # - /path/to/postgresql/data:/var/run/postgresql/data
      # - etc.

Starting docker-compose with this file, I get the following error:

Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///var/run/docker.sock. Is the docker daemon running?

How can I setup the docker-compose file so that I can use the docker.sock (or Docker) inside the started container?

On Linux you can use something like volumes: /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock. This does not work in a Windows environment. When you add this folder (/var) to Oracle VM Virtualbox, it won't get any IP forever. And on many posts

Answer 1

You can expose the daemon on tcp://localhost:2375 without TLS in the settings. This way you can configure Jenkins to use the Docker API instead of the socket. I encourage you to read this article by Nick Janetakis about "Understanding how the Docker Daemon and the Docker CLI work together" .

And then there are several Docker plugins for Jenkins that allows this connection:

Also, you can find additional information in the Docker plugin documentation on wiki.jenkins.io :

def dockerCloudParameters = [
  connectTimeout:   3,
  containerCapStr:  '4',
  credentialsId:    '',
  dockerHostname:   '',
  name:             'docker.local',
  readTimeout:      60,
  serverUrl:        'unix:///var/run/docker.sock', // <-- Replace here by the tcp address
  version:          ''
]

EDIT 1:

I don't know if it is useful, but the Docker Daemon on Windows is located to C:\\ProgramData\\docker according to the Docker Daemon configuration doc .

EDIT 2:

You need to say explicitly the container to use the host network because you want to expose both Jenkins and Docker API. Following this documentation , you only have to add --network=host (or network_mode: 'host' in docker-compose) to your container/service. For further information, you can read this article to understand what is the purpose of this network mode.

Answer 2

First try was to start a Docker environment using "Docker Quickstart terminal". This is a good solution when running Docker commands within that environment .

When installing a complete CI/CD Jenkins environment via Docker means that WITHIN the Jenkins Docker container you need to access the Docker daemon. After trying many solutions, reading many posts, this did not work. @Paul Rey, thank you very much for trying all kinds of routes.

A good solution is to get an Ubuntu Virtual Machine and install it via the Oracle VM Virtualbox. It is then VERY IMPORTANT to install Docker via this official description .

Before installing Docker, of course you need to install Curl, Git, etc.