What Is Container Networking

Containers are similar to virtual machines though with a few key differences.

What is container networking.

The host networking service hns and the host compute service hcs work together to create containers and attach endpoints to a network. Windows supports five different networking drivers or modes which can be created through docker. Hns creates network namespace per container endpoint. If you do an ifconfig on the docker host you will see the docker ethernet adapter.

What is container networking. Each container has a virtual network adapter vnic which is connected to a hyper v virtual switch vswitch. Container networking is a method of virtualization that separates out applications into independent boxes. Docker takes care of the networking aspects so that the containers can communicate with other containers and also with the docker host.

Container networking is an emerging application sandboxing mechanism used in home desktops and web scale enterprise networking solutions similar in concept to a virtual machine isolated inside the container from the host and all other containers are a full featured linux environment with its own users file system processes and network stack. Essentially the networking stack within a container it is an isolated environment to contain a container s network configuration. Container networking estimated reading time. 4 minutes the 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.

Beyond connectivity most higher level network services like quality of service qos virtual private networking security policy complex and dynamic firewalling and topology optimization are still emerging. Endpoints join exactly one network and multiple endpoints can exist within a single. This adapter is created when docker is installed on the docker host. To date container networking has largely been focused on simple network services like connectivity ip addressing ipam domain name services and load balancing.

Hns creates a hyper v virtual switch for each network. Hns creates nat and ip pools as required. Windows containers function similarly to virtual machines in regards to networking. Benefits such as sharing localhost communication and sharing the same ip address are inherent to the notion that containers run in the same pod which is the behavior of rkt containers.

Container mapped networking may be used to emulate pod style networking in which multiple containers share the same network namespace.