vSphere Docker Volume Service (vDVS) enables customers to address persistent storage requirements for Docker containers in vSphere environments. This service is integrated with Docker Volume Plugin framework. Docker users can now consume vSphere Storage (vSAN, VMFS, NFS) to stateful containers using Docker.

vDVS is Docker Certified to use with Docker Enterprise Edition and available in Docker store.

To read more about code development and testing please read CONTRIBUTING.md as well as the FAQ on the project site.

Detailed documentation can be found on our GitHub Documentation Page.

Click here to download from Github releases

The download consists of 2 parts:

1. VIB (vDVS driver): The ESX code is packaged as a vib or an offline depot
2. Managed plugin (vDVS plugin): Plugin is available on Docker store.

Pick the latest release and use the same version of vDVS plugin (on Docker host VM) and driver (on ESX).

The demos are located on the project site and wiki

Project page is located @ https://vmware.github.io/docker-volume-vsphere/. Documentation, FAQ and other content can be found @ https://vmware.github.io/docker-volume-vsphere/documentation

ESXi: 6.0 and above Docker: 1.12 and higher (Recommended 1.13/17.03 and above to use managed plugin)

Install vSphere Installation Bundle (VIB). Please refer to vSphere documentation.

Install using localcli on an ESX node

esxcli software vib install -v /tmp/<vib_name>.vib

Make sure you provide the absolute path to the .vib file or the install will fail.

1. Please make sure to uninstall older releases of DEB/RPM using following commands.

sudo dpkg -r docker-volume-vsphere # Ubuntu or deb based distros
sudo rpm -e docker-volume-vsphere # Photon or rpm based distros

2. Docker service needs to be restarted until Issue #32635 is resolved.

systemctl restart docker

For Docker 1.13 and above, install managed plugin from Docker Store.

docker plugin install --grant-all-permissions --alias vsphere vmware/docker-volume-vsphere:latest

For Docker 1.12 and earlier, use DEB or RPM package.

sudo dpkg -i <name>.deb # Ubuntu or deb based distros
sudo rpm -ivh <name>.rpm # Photon or rpm based distros

Note: DEB/RPM packages will be deprecated going forward and will not be available.

Refer to tenancy documentation for setting up tenants.

# To select datastore use --name=MyVolume@<Datastore Name>
$ docker volume create --driver=vsphere --name=MyVolume -o size=10gb
$ docker volume ls
$ docker volume inspect MyVolume
# To select datastore use MyVolume@<Datastore Name>
$ docker run --rm -it -v MyVolume:/mnt/myvol busybox
$ cd /mnt/myvol # to access volume inside container, exit to quit
$ docker volume rm MyVolume

$ /usr/lib/vmware/vmdkops/bin/vmdkops_admin.py volume ls

The relevant logging for debugging consists of the following:

• Docker Logs
• Plugin logs - VM (docker-side)
• Plugin logs - ESX (server-side)

Docker logs: see https://docs.docker.com/engine/admin/logging/overview/

/var/log/upstart/docker.log # Upstart
journalctl -fu docker.service # Journalctl/Systemd

VM (Docker-side) Plugin logs

• Log location: /var/log/docker-volume-vsphere.log
• Config file location: /etc/docker-volume-vsphere.conf.
• This JSON-formatted file controls logs retention, size for rotation and log location. Example:

 {"MaxLogAgeDays": 28,
 "MaxLogSizeMb": 100,
 "LogPath": "/var/log/docker-volume-vsphere.log"}

• Turning on debug logging:

  • Package user (DEB/RPM installation): Stop the service and manually run with --log_level=debug flag

  • Managed plugin user: You can change the log level by passing VDVS_LOG_LEVEL key to docker plugin install.

    e.g.

    docker plugin install --grant-all-permissions --alias vsphere vmware/docker-volume-vsphere:latest VDVS_LOG_LEVEL=debug
    

ESX Plugin logs

• Log location: /var/log/vmware/vmdk_ops.log
• Config file location: /etc/vmware/vmdkops/log_config.json See Python logging config format for content details.
• Turning on debug logging: replace all 'INFO' with 'DEBUG' in config file, restart the service

VMware ESXi:

• 6.0, 6.0U1, 6.0U2
• 6.5

Guest Operating System:

• Ubuntu 14.04 or higher (64 bit)
  • Needs Upstart or systemctl to start and stop the service
  • Needs open vm tools or VMware Tools installed sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools
• RedHat and CentOS
• Photon 1.0, Revision 2 (v4.4.51 or later)

Docker: 1.12 and higher (Recommended 1.13/17.03 and above to use managed plugin)

• Volume metadata file got deleted while removing volume from VM(placed on Esx2) which is in use by another VM(placed on Esx1) #1191. It's an ESX issue and will be available in the next vSphere release.
• Full volume name with format like "volume@datastore" cannot be specified in the compose file for stack deployment. #1315. It is a docker compose issue and a workaround has been provided in the issue.

• [email protected]
• Issues
• 
• VMware Code Slack requires joining VMware Code

• Cormac Hogan
  • Overview
    • Docker Volume Driver for vSphere
    • Docker Volume Driver for vSphere – short video
  • Docker + VSAN
    • Docker Volume Driver for vSphere on Virtual SAN
    • Using vSphere docker volume driver to run Project Harbor on VSAN
    • Docker Volume Driver for vSphere using policies on VSAN
  • 0.7 Release Overview
    • Some nice enhancements to Docker Volume Driver for vSphere v0.7
• William Lam
  • Getting Started with Tech Preview of Docker Volume Driver for vSphere - updated
• Virtual Blocks
  • vSphere Docker Volume Driver Brings Benefits of vSphere Storage to Containers
  • vSphere Docker Volume Service is now Docker Certified!
• Ryan Kelly
  • How to use the Docker Volume Driver for vSphere with Photon OS