Docker Container Basics

Comprehensive guide to containerization with Docker, from image fundamentals to production deployments.

When to Use

• Building and running Docker containers
• Understanding Docker networking and volumes
• Debugging container issues
• Resource management and limits
• Container security best practices
• Multi-stage builds for optimization
• Registry operations (push/pull/login)
• Debugging container runtime issues

Core Concepts

Container Lifecycle

# Build image
docker build -t myapp:latest .

# Run container (foreground)
docker run --rm -it myapp:latest

# Run container (background)
docker run -d --name my-container myapp:latest

# View logs
docker logs -f my-container

# Stop/start container
docker stop my-container
docker start my-container

# Remove container
docker rm my-container

# View processes
docker ps -a

Image Management

# List images
docker images

# Tag image
docker tag myapp:latest myapp:v1.0.0

# Remove image
docker rmi myapp:latest

# Inspect image
docker inspect myapp:latest

# View image layers
docker history myapp:latest

Dockerfile Best Practices

Structure

# Use specific version tags (NOT latest)
FROM node:20.11-alpine

# Set working directory
WORKDIR /app

# Copy package files
COPY package*.json ./

# Install dependencies
RUN npm ci --only=production

# Copy application code
COPY . .

# Expose port (documentation only)
EXPOSE 3000

# Health check
HEALTHCHECK --interval=30s --timeout=5s --start-period=10s --retries=3 \
  CMD node healthcheck.js

# Run application
CMD ["node", "server.js"]

Multi-Stage Builds

# Build stage
FROM node:20-alpine AS builder
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci
COPY . .
RUN npm run build

# Production stage
FROM node:20-alpine
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=builder /app/dist ./dist
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci --only=production
EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["node", "dist/server.js"]

Optimization

• Use .dockerignore to exclude unnecessary files
• Minimize layer count (combine RUN commands with &&)
• Order commands by change frequency (stable → frequently changing)
• Use specific base image versions (not latest)
• Leverage layer caching for faster builds

Networking

Network Types

# List networks
docker network ls

# Create custom bridge network
docker network create myapp-net

# Run container on network
docker run -d --network myapp-net --name db postgres:15
docker run -d --network myapp-net --name api myapp:latest

# Container DNS resolution
# Services on same network can reach each other by container name

Port Mapping

# Map single port
docker run -p 8080:3000 myapp:latest

# Map multiple ports
docker run -p 8080:3000 -p 8443:3000 myapp:latest

# Map to random port
docker run -p 3000 myapp:latest

# View port mappings
docker port my-container

Volumes and Mounts

Named Volumes

# Create volume
docker volume create mydata

# Run container with volume
docker run -v mydata:/app/data myapp:latest

# View volume details
docker volume inspect mydata

# Clean up unused volumes
docker volume prune

Bind Mounts

# Mount host directory into container
docker run -v /host/path:/container/path myapp:latest

# Read-only mount
docker run -v /host/path:/container/path:ro myapp:latest

Tmpfs Mounts

# Mount temporary filesystem (memory-backed)
docker run --tmpfs /tmp:rw,size=1gb myapp:latest

Resource Limits

Memory and CPU

# Limit memory
docker run -m 512m myapp:latest

# Limit CPU (1.0 = 1 core, 0.5 = half core)
docker run --cpus 1.0 myapp:latest

# Memory swap limit
docker run -m 512m --memory-swap 1g myapp:latest

# CPU shares (relative priority)
docker run --cpu-shares 1024 myapp:latest

Viewing Resource Usage

# Monitor container resources
docker stats

# Specific container
docker stats my-container

Container Debugging

Execute Commands

# Execute command in running container
docker exec -it my-container /bin/sh

# Run one-off command
docker exec my-container npm test

Inspect Container

# View detailed container info
docker inspect my-container

# View environment variables
docker inspect my-container | grep -A 20 "Env"

# View mounted volumes
docker inspect my-container | grep -A 10 "Mounts"

View Logs

# Tail logs
docker logs -f my-container

# Last 100 lines
docker logs --tail 100 my-container

# With timestamps
docker logs -t my-container

# Since specific time
docker logs --since 2025-01-15T10:00:00 my-container

Security Best Practices

Non-Root User

# Create non-root user
RUN groupadd -r appuser && useradd -r -g appuser appuser

# Use non-root user
USER appuser

Read-Only Filesystem

docker run --read-only -v /tmp:/tmp myapp:latest

Capability Dropping

# Drop unnecessary capabilities
docker run --cap-drop=ALL --cap-add=NET_BIND_SERVICE myapp:latest

Security Scanning

# Scan image for vulnerabilities
docker scan myapp:latest

# Build with BuildKit (enables better layer caching and features)
DOCKER_BUILDKIT=1 docker build .

Registry Operations

Docker Hub

# Login
docker login

# Tag for registry
docker tag myapp:latest username/myapp:latest

# Push image
docker push username/myapp:latest

# Pull image
docker pull username/myapp:latest

# Logout
docker logout

Private Registry

# Login to private registry
docker login registry.example.com

# Tag for private registry
docker tag myapp:latest registry.example.com/myapp:latest

# Push to private registry
docker push registry.example.com/myapp:latest

Troubleshooting

Container Won't Start

# Check exit code and error logs
docker logs my-container

# View container events
docker events --filter "container=my-container"

# Inspect container config
docker inspect my-container | grep -A 20 "State"

High Resource Usage

# Monitor in real-time
docker stats

# Identify processes consuming resources
docker top my-container

Network Issues

# Test DNS resolution
docker exec my-container nslookup db

# Test connectivity
docker exec my-container curl http://db:5432

# View network settings
docker network inspect myapp-net

Production Patterns

Health Checks

HEALTHCHECK --interval=30s --timeout=5s --start-period=10s --retries=3 \
  CMD curl -f http://localhost:3000/health || exit 1

Signal Handling

# Applications should handle SIGTERM gracefully
# Docker gives 10 seconds (default) before SIGKILL
docker stop --time 30 my-container

Graceful Shutdown

# Wait for container to stop (with timeout)
docker stop -t 30 my-container

# Verify container stopped
docker wait my-container
echo $?  # Exit code

Common Patterns

Development Container

docker run -it \
  -v $(pwd):/app \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  -e NODE_ENV=development \
  myapp:dev

Production Container

docker run -d \
  --name myapp \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  -m 1g \
  --cpus 2 \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  -e NODE_ENV=production \
  --health-cmd="curl -f http://localhost:3000/health" \
  --health-interval=30s \
  myapp:latest

Sidecar Pattern

# Main application
docker run -d --name app myapp:latest

# Sidecar (logging, monitoring, etc)
docker run -d --network container:app --volumes-from app logging-agent:latest

References

• Docker documentation: https://docs.docker.com/
• Best practices: https://docs.docker.com/develop/dev-best-practices/
• Security: https://docs.docker.com/engine/security/