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How to Manage Containers with Windows Admin Center

ViniciusApolinario's avatar
Jun 15, 2020

As a Windows admin you know that managing containers is not as easy as managing VMs. Using PowerShell commands, writing docker files, and so on can be a daunting process - specially if you just want to containerize an existing application.

 

Just recently we launched an update to the Containers extension in Windows Admin Center and today I wanted to give you a tour of the new functionality!

 

 

With this new update we are expanding the capabilities of Windows Admin Center to help you in your journey of containerizing existing applications. Containers are created based on a container image that in turn are created based on a docker file with instructions on how to create that container image. However, writing a docker file requires which commands to run and when - and even some best practices to avoid large container images.
 

With the new update in Windows Admin Center you can now just answer some simple questions to get started - it's as easy as letting Windows Admin Center know what type of application you have and directing it to the source folder. Windows Admin Center will do the rest for you! Once finished, the docker file will be stored in the same folder as your application and you can run the image locally and even push it to an external container registry! All without writing a single line of code/script for your docker file or command lines.

 

We hope you like this update and we're looking forward for your feedback! Let us know what you think and if you have any feedback, please let us know via User Voice.

 

Vinicius

You can find me on Twitter @vrapolinario.

Updated Jun 15, 2020
Version 3.0

13 Comments

  • skorzen's avatar
    skorzen
    Brass Contributor

    For me, in Windows 11, it just says Docker is not running.

  • Hi Ross,

    This is a known bug and we've been trying to fix it. We have an internal build with a fix for this that will be published soon.

    There are some work arounds:

    - If you're using a local instance of WAC on your own container host, you can change the username/password to manage the server on WAC's landing page. See that you can continue to use the same user, just provide the username and password manually, rather than SSO.

    - You can use the browser from another machine while still keeping the WAC instance on the same container host. In this case you can use SSO.

    - You can install WAC on another machine and target the container host remotely (This is recommended for production scenarios). In this case you can use SSO.

     

    Hopefully this will be fixed soon.

    Regards,

    Vinicius.

    Twitter: @vrapolinario

  • Ross_Presser's avatar
    Ross_Presser
    Copper Contributor

    When using this plugin and browsing from the local machine, there are frequent black boxes appearing and disappearing, which I am guessing are command windows running docker commands. Can we hide them?