I’ve used this process multiple times to create quick Docker host VMs running on VMware Workstation in my home lab. It is important to note that although I’m using VMware Workstation, the type 2 hypervisor you use here is fairly unimportant. You could just as well use VirtualBox, or Fusion for this purpose.
Download the latest uBuntu 16.04 LTS server ISO from: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/server (I believe 16.04 comes only in 64-bit, but make sure its 64-bit)
Create a new Virtual Machine for your Docker host using your type 2 hypervisor software (Workstation in my case).
Give the VM following hardware/spec:
- OS – Linux/uBuntu 64bit
- 1 or 2 vCPUs
- 512 MB RAM
- 9GB disk
- 2 x vNICs (1st is set to the default NAT option and the 2nd should be set to Host-only)
Here is my VM’s setup:
Attach the uBuntu ISO and start the VM up.
Install a standard uBuntu OS using the text based installer, and just be sure to also install OpenSSH server when prompted for features to install. After the install completes, reboot, login with your user account you created during install, run ‘ifconfig’ to check the assigned IP address, and then use your favourite SSH client to connect to that IP. Using a PuTTy session will just make copy/pasting commands into your uBuntu VM easier.
Now you’ll install docker – the package includes both the docker server and client.
Run the commands above in sequence, and after the apt-get install docker-engine at the end, run ‘sudo service docker status’ to check that docker is running. You should see it listed as Active (running)
● docker.service – Docker Application Container Engine
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/docker.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Wed 2016-07-06 21:20:39 BST; 2h 0min ago
Run a quick ‘docker info’ command to ensure that you get information back from Docker and that everything looks OK.
