Container networking
Estimated reading time: 3 minutesThe type of network a container uses, whether it is a bridge, an
overlay, a macvlan network, or a custom network
plugin, is transparent from within the container. From the container’s point of
view, it has a network interface with an IP address, a gateway, a routing table,
DNS services, and other networking details (assuming the container is not using
the none network driver). This topic is about networking concerns from the
point of view of the container.
Published ports
By default, when you create a container, it does not publish any of its ports
to the outside world. To make a port available to services outside of Docker, or
to Docker containers which are not connected to the container’s network, use the
--publish or -p flag. This creates a firewall rule which maps a container
port to a port on the Docker host. Here are some examples.
| Flag value | Description |
|---|---|
-p 8080:80 |
Map TCP port 80 in the container to port 8080 on the Docker host. |
-p 192.168.1.100:8080:80 |
Map TCP port 80 in the container to port 8080 on the Docker host for connections to host IP 192.168.1.100. |
-p 8080:80/udp |
Map UDP port 80 in the container to port 8080 on the Docker host. |
-p 8080:80/tcp -p 8080:80/udp |
Map TCP port 80 in the container to TCP port 8080 on the Docker host, and map UDP port 80 in the container to UDP port 8080 on the Docker host. |
IP address and hostname
By default, the container is assigned an IP address for every Docker network it connects to. The IP address is assigned from the pool assigned to the network, so the Docker daemon effectively acts as a DHCP server for each container. Each network also has a default subnet mask and gateway.
When the container starts, it can only be connected to a single network, using
--network. However, you can connect a running container to multiple
networks using docker network connect. When you start a container using the
--network flag, you can specify the IP address assigned to the container on
that network using the --ip or --ip6 flags.
When you connect an existing container to a different network using
docker network connect, you can use the --ip or --ip6 flags on that
command to specify the container’s IP address on the additional network.
In the same way, a container’s hostname defaults to be the container’s ID in
Docker. You can override the hostname using --hostname. When connecting to an
existing network using docker network connect, you can use the --alias
flag to specify an additional network alias for the container on that network.
DNS services
By default, a container inherits the DNS settings of the Docker daemon,
including the /etc/hosts and /etc/resolv.conf.You can override these
settings on a per-container basis.
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
--dns |
The IP address of a DNS server. To specify multiple DNS servers, use multiple --dns flags. If the container cannot reach any of the IP addresses you specify, Google’s public DNS server 8.8.8.8 is added, so that your container can resolve internet domains. |
--dns-search |
A DNS search domain to search non-fully-qualified hostnames. To specify multiple DNS search prefixes, use multiple --dns-search flags. |
--dns-opt |
A key-value pair representing a DNS option and its value. See your operating system’s documentation for resolv.conf for valid options. |
--hostname |
The hostname a container uses for itself. Defaults to the container’s ID if not specified. |
Proxy server
If your container needs to use a proxy server, see Use a proxy server.