Some Linux distributions don't have a pre-installed Docker engine. Public Vagrant boxes (e.g., those in Atlas and Vagrantbox.es) also lack quality support for Docker. So I build these Vagrant boxes to aid my Docker development.

I also install some handy tools for Docker.

Use the following public box names (all available from Atlas service):

• Ubuntu 14.04.x LTS ("Trusty") x64:

  • williamyeh/ubuntu-trusty64-docker, basically ubuntu-14.04.4-server-amd64 + Docker

  • williamyeh/insecure-registry, basically williamyeh/ubuntu-trusty64-docker + Docker Registry 2.x

• Debian 8 ("Jessie") x64:

  • williamyeh/debian-jessie64-docker, basically debian-8.3.0-amd64 + Docker

  • williamyeh/k8s, basically williamyeh/debian-jessie64-docker + Kubernetes

• CentOS 7 x64:

  • williamyeh/centos7-docker, basically CentOS 7.2 + Docker

• Docker Engine

• Docker CLI

• Docker Compose: Fast, isolated development environments using Docker.

• Docker Swarm: a Docker-native clustering system.

• Docker Machine: Machine management for a container-centric world.

• docker-bench-security: a script that checks for all the automatable tests included in the CIS Docker 1.6 Benchmark.

• dockviz: Visualizing Docker data (docker images --tree replacement).

• Pipework: Software-Defined Networking for Linux Containers.

• docker-gen: Generate files from docker container meta-data.

• dockerize: Utility to simplify running applications in docker containers.

• cAdvisor: Analyzes resource usage and performance characteristics of running containers.

• weave: creates a virtual network that connects Docker containers deployed across multiple hosts and enables their automatic discovery.

• Docker host tools: Some handy tools for managing Docker images and containers (also written by me).

• Docker Registry 2.x (only provided in williamyeh/insecure-registry box)

• Kubernetes (only provided in williamyeh/k8s box)

Here are steps you can follow to build these boxes on your own.

First, install the Packer tool on your host machine.

Second, pull the Bento submodule:

# pull the Bento project
git submodule init

# copy Bento stuff to sub-directories
# since Packer doesn't push soft links to Atlas (defects!)...
./copy-bento.sh

Third, choose the box directory of your choice:

# change working directory to any specific OS;
# for example, "ubuntu-trusty"
cd ubuntu-trusty

Now, you can either generate the Vagrant box file on your machine:

# build `ubuntu-trusty64-docker`:
packer build ubuntu-trusty64-docker.json


# build `ubuntu-trusty64-docker`, VirtualBox version only:
packer build -only=virtualbox-iso  \
       ubuntu-trusty64-docker.json


# build `ubuntu-trusty64-docker`, VirtualBox version only,
# with pre-downloaded ISO file from `file:///Volumes/ISO/`:
packer build -only=virtualbox-iso  \
       -var 'mirror=file:///Volumes/ISO/'  \
       ubuntu-trusty64-docker.json

you'll get an 'XXX.box' file in the builds directory, if successful.

Or, you can delegate the building and hosting tasks to Atlas:

# make sure the following environment variables are set:
#   ATLAS_TOKEN
#   ATLAS_USERNAME
packer push ubuntu-trusty64-docker.json

Some nice alternatives you may try:

• Ubuntu 14.04 LTS ("Trusty") x64:

  • box-cutter/ubuntu1404-docker supports parallels, virtualbox, and vmware_desktop providers.

• CentOS 7.x x64:

  • box-cutter/centos72-docker supports parallels, virtualbox, and vmware_desktop providers.

• CoreOS x64:

  • AntonioMeireles/coreos-stable
  • AntonioMeireles/coreos-beta
  • AntonioMeireles/coreos-alpha

Licensed under MIT license.

Copyright © 2014-2016 William Yeh - https://github.com/William-Yeh.