Windows Server Containers allow running multiple isolated applications on a single Windows Server instance. Docker Engine for Windows enables building, deploying and managing Windows Server Containers. Containers can be created from prebuilt Windows Server Core images or custom images can be built and published. Common uses of containers include hosting microservices, improving server utilization through isolation, and easily scaling applications.

1. Windows Server Containers
Vishwanath Srikanth
Service Engineer 2, R&P, MPSIT
https://in.linkedin.com/in/vishsrik
Vishwanathsrikanth.wordpress.com

2. Physical Servers ContainersVirtual Servers
• Space/Scaling Constraints
• Higher Provisioning Time
• Over/Under Utilization
• Maintenance
Hypervisor/Hosted
Hypervisor
• Scalable, Lesser Provisioning
Time, Scale up/down easy, Less
Maintenance.
• Bare Metal - VMware, Hypervisor,
Xen
• Hosted – Virtual PC, Virtual Box
etc.1965 & Before
1965 & After
Bare Metal or Traditional OSBare Metal/Traditional OS
Hypervisor or Hosted Hypervisor
(Container Engtine)
Guest Operating System
(Optional)
Guest Operating System
Containers
2013 & Future
• 2013: Docker Introduced
Containers, followed by MS in
WS2016 (Aug-2015)
• Easily Shippable
• Complete Isolation
• Very less turn up times
• Programmable
Virtualization Trends

3. www.docker.com
• An Open Source framework built by Solomon Hykes and team @dotCloud to build,
manage and deploy containers on Linux.
• Written using Go (Google) Programming Language
• Standardized in collaboration with Amazon, Cisco, Google, VM Ware and Microsoft and
works consistently across all major Linux Brands. OCI – Open Container Initiative
• Docker is built using LXC, namespaces, CGroups features on Linux.
• Open Source, 2013: https://www.docker.com/contribute, 400 Million downloads so far.
• Steps to deploy a Docker container.
• Developers build application and package as Docker containers. These containers are published as images to
Docker Hub or Private Image repository or Host Machine.
• Containers are deployed on Linux Machine with Docker Engine Installed using any image repository. The images
in repositories are inherently discoverable.
• The Docker Engine on Host Machine can be invoked remotely via Docker CLI.
• Docker enabled Linux Machines are available on Azure Image Gallery. VS can be used to
perform 1-Click deployment to Docker machines.
• Docker also gels very well with Machine configuration tools like Puppet, Chef, Vagrant
and Ansible.
• Cluster Management Tools like Google Kubernetes and Mesosphere can be used to
manage containers across hosts.
• Docker 1.9 major milestone with Logging, Networking, Storage, Docker Swarm
C C C
Docker Engine
(Linux)
Docker Hub/Private Image Repository
C
Build Applications
Package using Docker CLI
Publish
Deploy

4. Windows Server Containers
• Docker Engine for Windows Server available on Windows
Server 2016 CTP 3 (Container Role) – Aug 2015.
• Create, Build and Manage Containers using PowerShell or
Docker (CLI) – Platform agnostic Docker Commands.
• Visual Studio tools for Docker available as an Extension to VS
2015 enables on click deployment to Docker enabled
Windows/Linux Machines.
• Docker Engine re-written for Windows Open Sourced
(libcontainer) is also open sourced – First Time Ever !!
• Docker Engine on Windows uses namespaces isolation and
resource governance for container isolation.
• Windows Server Container Preview available on Azure Today
!! (No GUI)

5. Use Cases for Containers  Micro services: Containerized app can be
converted to Images, multiple containers can be
deployed using image within seconds. Apt for
light-weight portable apps like micro services.
 Higher Utilization: Since a VM can be used to
host Multiple applications in isolated containers.
 Easy to Scale: Container Images can used to
scale the application to N instances within
seconds.
 Easy Procurement: Since the kernel is already
heated up, application deployment does not have
to wait for full OS boot times.
 Reusability: One can easily deploy a container
install custom applications (Redis, MySQL etc.)
from Docker Host, customize the configuration
and image it out and use many times.

6. Getting Started
• Create a HOST Machine
• Create a “Windows Server Container Preview”
machine from Azure Image Gallery. (Recommended)
• Create a “Windows Server 2016 CTP3” login and
enable Container Role.
• Preparing Dev Machine
• Download Docker Tools for VS 2015 from here.
• Quick Start Guides:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/virtualization/windowscontai
ners/containers_welcome
Pre-built
Windows
Server Core
Image
Create
Container
Customize
Container
Create
Customized
Image
Create N
Containers
using
Customized
Image

7. Creating NGINX container for web hosting
## Get VM Switch Name
Get-VMSwitch
## Create Container
$containername = "webcontainer"
$container = New-Container -Name $containername -
ContainerImageName WindowsServerCore -SwitchName "Virtual
Switch"
Start-Container -Name $containername
# Create container from custom image
$webservercontainer = New-Container -Name nginxwebserver -
ContainerImageName nginxwindows -SwitchName "Virtual Switch"
Start-Container $webservercontainer
Enter-PSSession -ContainerId $webservercontainer.ContainerId -
RunAsAdministrator
## Use Container
cd c:nginx-1.9.3
start nginx
## Configure Container
Enter-PSSession -ContainerId (Get-Container -Name
$containername).ContainerId -RunAsAdministrator
wget -uri 'http://nginx.org/download/nginx-1.9.3.zip' -OutFile
"c:nginx-1.9.3.zip"
Expand-Archive -Path C:nginx-1.9.3.zip -DestinationPath c: -
Force
Exit
## Build Image
Stop-Container -Name $containername
$webserverimage = New-ContainerImage -Container (Get-Container -
Name $containername) -Publisher srikanth -Name nginxwindows -
Version 1.0
Get-ContainerImage

8. Creating IIS Container for Web Hosting
## Create Container
$containername = "iiscontainer"
$container = New-Container -Name $containername -
ContainerImageName WindowsServerCore -SwitchName
"Virtual Switch"
Start-Container -Name $containername
New-Container -Name iiscontainer -ContainerImageName
iiswebserverimage -SwitchName "Virtual Switch"
Invoke-Command -ContainerName iiscontainer {ipconfig}
if (!(Get-NetNatStaticMapping | where {$_.ExternalPort -eq 80})) {
Add-NetNatStaticMapping -NatName "ContainerNat" -Protocol TCP -
ExternalIPAddress 0.0.0.0 -InternalIPAddress 172.16.0.2 -InternalPort
80 -ExternalPort 80
}
## Configure Container
Enter-PSSession -ContainerId (Get-Container -Name
$containername).ContainerId -RunAsAdministrator
Install-WindowsFeature web-server
Exit
##prep image
Stop-Container -Name $containername
$webserverimage = New-ContainerImage -Container (Get-Container -
Name $containername) -Publisher srikanth -Name iiswebserverimage -
Version 1.0
Get-ContainerImage

9. Limitations
 Docker Containers created on Linux cannot be ported to windows.
 Docker Containers cannot be managed using PS library for Windows.
 ASP.NET 4.5 and below does not run on WSC yet, only option is ASP.NET 5.0.
 Not all Docker commands work today.
 If the OS needs patchingupgrade, the changesupgrade might ripple into containers as well
• Do not share kernel with other containers
• More Isolation thus better Security with Hyper-V Containers
• They can be managed using Docker CLI/PowerShell.
• Not available on Azure today, needs on premise container host.
• MS working on Nano servers 1/20th size of previous servers specially designed for
containers/Micro Services
Hyper-V Containers