In part-one in this multi-part series, Sr. App Dev Managers Joseph Flanigen and Bill Bevan show us how to get up and running with Docker.
The intention of this two-part blog series is to provide a foundational understanding of Docker from Docker installation through Azure Web App deployment. After a brief overview of Docker itself, we’ll dive right in by getting Docker installed and configured. Next, we will show you how to get up and running with a simple sample app and expand from there.
A brief recap of the journey to Docker containers
Developing, testing, and deploying enterprise applications has become increasing complicated and costly over the years. Fifteen years ago, it was common to run enterprise applications exclusively on physical hardware. Ten years ago, physical machines started to be replaced by virtual machines, increasing scaling and reliability opportunities. Each of these milestones essentially targeted increased performance and decreased administration overhead. Five years ago, a company called Docker introduced standards to virtualize at the application layer, a.k.a. ‘Containerization’.
What Is Docker?
Docker is both a company and a technology that enables users to package their application software in a way that allows the application to run in a variety of environments or ‘containers’ with minimal configuration changes. A Docker container image is a lightweight, standalone, executable package of software that includes everything needed to run an application: code, runtime, system tools, system libraries and settings. Once the application and its underlying components are packaged into a Docker ‘image’, the application can run within a local container or a variety of virtual environments. This includes, but is not limited to Azure, AWS and other cloud providers supporting Kubernetes or Docker image orchestration services like Service Fabric. Read more about Docker here.
Get Docker
Begin by navigating to Docker Desktop for Windows to download the installer. Before being able to download, a Docker Account must be created and used to sign in at the Docker website and installation base images.