How to Containerize Application using Docker
This article will show you how to use Docker to containerize your application so you can run them on any server. When we deploy an application at first everything seems to work fine but when it is moved to different environment faces compatibility issues due to OS, library files etc. We can overcome this by using Docker.
Containerize asp.net Application with Docker.
Let’s implement this. Please walk-through the steps to Containerize asp.net application.
Pre-Requisites
- Install Visual Studio 2022. Download here
- Install Docker Desktop . Download here. The Docker Desktop is available for Linux, windows and mac.
- Create Docker hub Account and Create repository.
Create a simple asp.net core web application using visual studio 2022.
Create New Project
Search for ASP.NET Core Web project template and select asp.net core web app MVC template and click Next.
Enter project name
Select Target Framework and Click Create
Edit index.cshtml file in Home folder and add “Welcome to my Image Gallery” html tag
Click the Project Name in the Solution Explorer -> Select Add->Docker support.
You can now see the Dockerfile created in the Solution Explorer.
Dockerfile commands:
FROM – Creates a Layer from Microsoft asp dotnet:6.0 base image. We can have multi stage Builds for dev, test and prod.
WORKDIR – Define Working Directory
COPY – copy your local files/directories to Docker Container
RUN-Builds Container
ENTRYPOINT – Defines command and argument for executing a container.
Check Docker version
C:\>docker –version
Docker version 20.10.12
Build and Run the Application.
Open browser and enter the following URL to get the results.
http://localhost:<portno>
Yes , Now you are running your Application inside the Docker Container locally from Windows Docker Desktop.
Check if your Container and Docker images are running.
Open Docker desktop, click Containers/Apps. You can see a new container named MyimageGallery running as shown below
Select Image tab to view the imagegallery image
Note: You can also use the below commands from windows command prompt or PowerShell.
Open windows command prompt
Check Docker version
C:\>docker –version
Docker version 20.10.12, build e91ed57
View the Container running in Docker desktop Application.
>docker container ls
View all the Docker images
>docker images
Note : You can also push the image to Docker Hub.
Now View the image in the Remote Repository tab after logging into docker desktop using Docker Hub Username & Password
Docker Commands
docker ps -a
docker start <containerid>
docker stop <containerid>
docker rm -f <containerid>
This container has executable component to run the application. The Container can be pushed to ant Registry service and pull it to any environment without the need of any installation of operating system, dependencies and application software.