Recently, I’ve been playing with Docker quite a bit more, trying to educate myself on what it can and cannot do and where it fits in to NetApp and file services/NAS.
I wrote a blog on setting up a PaaS container that can do Firefox over VNC (for Twitter, of all things), as well as one on using NFS in Docker. People have asked me (and I have wondered), what about CIFS/SMB? Now, we could totally do this via the Linux container I created via mount -t cifs or Samba. But I’m talking about Windows-based CIFS/SMB.
Microsoft supports Docker?
Recently, Microsoft issued an announcement that it will be integrating Docker into Windows Server and Windows Azure, as well as adding Server container images in Docker hub. In fact, you can find Microsoft containers in GitHub today. But the content is a bit sparse, as far as I could see. This could be due to new-ness, or worse, apathy. Time will tell.
As far as Server containers, it seems that Windows containers won’t support RDP, nor local login. Only PowerShell and WMI, as per this Infoworld article on Microsoft doing a Docker demo. And when I look for PowerShell images, I found just one:
# docker search powershell
NAME DESCRIPTION STARS OFFICIAL AUTOMATED
docker.io: docker.io/solarkennedy/powershell
It would be totally valid to connect to a CIFS/SMB share via PowerShell, but it looks like there’s a bit of work to do to get this image running – namely, running it on a Windows server rather than Linux:
# docker run -t -i --privileged docker.io/solarkennedy/powershell:latest
Application tried to create a window, but no driver could be loaded.
Make sure that your X server is running and that $DISPLAY is set correctly.
Encountered a problem reading the registry. Cannot find registry key SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PowerShell.
Registry errors? That sure looks familiar… 🙂
What about Azure?
Microsoft also has Azure containers out there. I installed one of the Azure CLI containers, just to see if we could do anything with it. No dice. The base OS for Azure appears to be Linux:
# docker run -t -i --privileged docker.io/microsoft/azure-cli:latest
root@b23878ec46c4:/# uname -a
Linux b23878ec46c4 3.10.0-229.1.2.el7.x86_64 #1 SMP Fri Mar 27 03:04:26 UTC 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
This is the set of commands I get:
# help
GNU bash, version 4.3.11(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
These shell commands are defined internally. Type `help' to see this list.
Type `help name' to find out more about the function `name'.
Use `info bash' to find out more about the shell in general.
Use `man -k' or `info' to find out more about commands not in this list.
A star (*) next to a name means that the command is disabled.
job_spec [&] history [-c] [-d offset] [n] or history -anrw [filename] or history -ps arg [arg..>
(( expression )) if COMMANDS; then COMMANDS; [ elif COMMANDS; then COMMANDS; ]... [ else COMMANDS; >
. filename [arguments] jobs [-lnprs] [jobspec ...] or jobs -x command [args]
: kill [-s sigspec | -n signum | -sigspec] pid | jobspec ... or kill -l [sigspec]
[ arg... ] let arg [arg ...]
[[ expression ]] local [option] name[=value] ...
alias [-p] [name[=value] ... ] logout [n]
bg [job_spec ...] mapfile [-n count] [-O origin] [-s count] [-t] [-u fd] [-C callback] [-c quantum] >
bind [-lpsvPSVX] [-m keymap] [-f filename] [-q name] [-u name] [-r keyseq] [-x keys> popd [-n] [+N | -N]
break [n] printf [-v var] format [arguments]
builtin [shell-builtin [arg ...]] pushd [-n] [+N | -N | dir]
caller [expr] pwd [-LP]
case WORD in [PATTERN [| PATTERN]...) COMMANDS ;;]... esac read [-ers] [-a array] [-d delim] [-i text] [-n nchars] [-N nchars] [-p prompt] [->
cd [-L|[-P [-e]] [-@]] [dir] readarray [-n count] [-O origin] [-s count] [-t] [-u fd] [-C callback] [-c quantum>
command [-pVv] command [arg ...] readonly [-aAf] [name[=value] ...] or readonly -p
compgen [-abcdefgjksuv] [-o option] [-A action] [-G globpat] [-W wordlist] [-F fu> return [n]
complete [-abcdefgjksuv] [-pr] [-DE] [-o option] [-A action] [-G globpat] [-W wordl> select NAME [in WORDS ... ;] do COMMANDS; done
compopt [-o|+o option] [-DE] [name ...] set [-abefhkmnptuvxBCHP] [-o option-name] [--] [arg ...]
continue [n] shift [n]
coproc [NAME] command [redirections] shopt [-pqsu] [-o] [optname ...]
declare [-aAfFgilnrtux] [-p] [name[=value] ...] source filename [arguments]
dirs [-clpv] [+N] [-N] suspend [-f]
disown [-h] [-ar] [jobspec ...] test [expr]
echo [-neE] [arg ...] time [-p] pipeline
enable [-a] [-dnps] [-f filename] [name ...] times
eval [arg ...] trap [-lp] [[arg] signal_spec ...]
exec [-cl] [-a name] [command [arguments ...]] [redirection ...] true
exit [n] type [-afptP] name [name ...]
export [-fn] [name[=value] ...] or export -p typeset [-aAfFgilrtux] [-p] name[=value] ...
false ulimit [-SHabcdefilmnpqrstuvxT] [limit]
fc [-e ename] [-lnr] [first] [last] or fc -s [pat=rep] [command] umask [-p] [-S] [mode]
fg [job_spec] unalias [-a] name [name ...]
for NAME [in WORDS ... ] ; do COMMANDS; done unset [-f] [-v] [-n] [name ...]
for (( exp1; exp2; exp3 )); do COMMANDS; done until COMMANDS; do COMMANDS; done
function name { COMMANDS ; } or name () { COMMANDS ; } variables - Names and meanings of some shell variables
getopts optstring name [arg] wait [-n] [id ...]
hash [-lr] [-p pathname] [-dt] [name ...] while COMMANDS; do COMMANDS; done
help [-dms] [pattern ...] { COMMANDS ; }
There is an Azure command set also, but that seems to connect directly to an Azure cloud instance, which requires an account, etc. I suspect I’d have to pay to use commands like “azure storage,” which is why I haven’t set one up yet. (I’m cheap)
root@b23878ec46c4:/# azure storage share show
info: Executing command storage share show
error: Please set the storage account parameters or one of the following two environment variables to use storage command. 1.AZURE_STORAGE_CONNECTION_STRING, 2. AZURE_STORAGE_ACCOUNT and AZURE_STORAGE_ACCESS_KEY
info: Error information has been recorded to /root/.azure/azure.err
error: storage share show command failed
Whither Windows file services?
The preliminary results of using Docker to connect to CIFS/SMB shares aren’t promising. That isn’t to say it won’t be possible. I still need to install Docker on a Windows server and try that PowerShell container again. Once I do that, I’ll update this blog, so stay tuned!
Plus, it’s entirely possible that more containers will pop up as the Microsoft repository grows. However, I do hope this works or is at least in the plans for Microsoft. While it’s cool to connect to a cloud share via CIFS/SMB and Azure, I’d like to be able to have control over connecting to shares on my private storage, such as NetApp.
