Docker Guide

The community.docker collection offers several modules and plugins for orchestrating Docker containers and Docker Swarm.

Requirements 

Most of the modules and plugins in community.docker require the Docker SDK for Python. The SDK needs to be installed on the machines where the modules and plugins are executed, and for the Python version(s) with which the modules and plugins are executed. You can use the community.general.python_requirements_info module to make sure that the Docker SDK for Python is installed on the correct machine and for the Python version used by Ansible.

Note that plugins (inventory plugins and connection plugins) are always executed in the context of Ansible itself. If you use a plugin that requires the Docker SDK for Python, you need to install it on the machine running ansible or ansible-playbook and for the same Python interpreter used by Ansible. To see which Python is used, run ansible --version.

You can install the Docker SDK for Python for Python 3.6 or later as follows:

$ pip install docker

For Python 2.7, you need to use a version between 2.0.0 and 4.4.4 since the Python package for Docker removed support for Python 2.7 on 5.0.0. You can install the specific version of the Docker SDK for Python as follows:

$ pip install 'docker==4.4.4'

Note that the Docker SDK for Python was called docker-py on PyPi before version 2.0.0. Please avoid installing this really old version, and make sure to not install both docker and docker-py. Installing both will result in a broken installation. If this happens, Ansible will detect it and inform you about it. If that happens, you must uninstall both and reinstall the correct version. If in doubt, always install docker and never docker-py.

Connecting to the Docker API 

You can connect to a local or remote API using parameters passed to each task or by setting environment variables. The order of precedence is command line parameters and then environment variables. If neither a command line option nor an environment variable is found, Ansible uses the default value provided under Parameters.

Parameters

Most plugins and modules can be configured by the following parameters:

docker_host
The URL or Unix socket path used to connect to the Docker API. Defaults to unix:///var/run/docker.sock. To connect to a remote host, provide the TCP connection string (for example: tcp://192.0.2.23:2376). If TLS is used to encrypt the connection to the API, then the module will automatically replace tcp in the connection URL with https.

api_version
The version of the Docker API running on the Docker Host. Defaults to the latest version of the API supported by the Docker SDK for Python installed.

timeout
The maximum amount of time in seconds to wait on a response from the API. Defaults to 60 seconds.

tls
Secure the connection to the API by using TLS without verifying the authenticity of the Docker host server. Defaults to false.

validate_certs
Secure the connection to the API by using TLS and verifying the authenticity of the Docker host server. Default is false.

ca_path
Use a CA certificate when performing server verification by providing the path to a CA certificate file.

cert_path
Path to the client’s TLS certificate file.

key_path
Path to the client’s TLS key file.

tls_hostname
When verifying the authenticity of the Docker Host server, provide the expected name of the server. Defaults to localhost.

ssl_version
Provide a valid SSL version number. The default value is determined by the Docker SDK for Python.

This option is not available for the CLI based plugins. It is mainly needed for legacy systems and should be avoided.

Module default group

To avoid having to specify common parameters for all the modules in every task, you can use the community.docker.docker module defaults group, or its short name docker.

Note

Module default groups only work for modules, not for plugins (connection and inventory plugins).

The following example shows how the module default group can be used in a playbook:

---
- name: Pull and image and start the container
  hosts: localhost
  gather_facts: false
  module_defaults:
    group/community.docker.docker:
      # Select Docker Daemon on other host
      docker_host: tcp://192.0.2.23:2376
      # Configure TLS
      tls: true
      validate_certs: true
      tls_hostname: docker.example.com
      ca_path: /path/to/cacert.pem
      # Increase timeout
      timeout: 120
  tasks:
    - name: Pull image
      community.docker.docker_image_pull:
        name: python
        tag: 3.12

    - name: Start container
      community.docker.docker_container:
        cleanup: true
        command: python --version
        detach: false
        image: python:3.12
        name: my-python-container
        output_logs: true

    - name: Show output
      ansible.builtin.debug:
        msg: "{{ output.container.Output }}"

Here the two community.docker tasks will use the options set for the module defaults group.

Environment variables

You can also control how the plugins and modules connect to the Docker API by setting the following environment variables.

For plugins, they have to be set for the environment Ansible itself runs in. For modules, they have to be set for the environment the modules are executed in. For modules running on remote machines, the environment variables have to be set on that machine for the user used to execute the modules with.

DOCKER_HOST: The URL or Unix socket path used to connect to the Docker API.

DOCKER_API_VERSION: The version of the Docker API running on the Docker Host. Defaults to the latest version of the API supported by Docker SDK for Python.

DOCKER_TIMEOUT: The maximum amount of time in seconds to wait on a response from the API.

DOCKER_CERT_PATH: Path to the directory containing the client certificate, client key and CA certificate.

DOCKER_SSL_VERSION: Provide a valid SSL version number.

DOCKER_TLS: Secure the connection to the API by using TLS without verifying the authenticity of the Docker Host.

DOCKER_TLS_HOSTNAME: When verifying the authenticity of the Docker Host, uses this hostname to compare to the host’s certificate.

DOCKER_TLS_VERIFY: Secure the connection to the API by using TLS and verify the authenticity of the Docker Host.

Plain Docker daemon: images, networks, volumes, and containers 

For working with a plain Docker daemon, that is without Swarm, there are connection plugins, an inventory plugin, and several modules available:

docker connection plugin
The community.docker.docker connection plugin uses the Docker CLI utility to connect to Docker containers and execute modules in them. It essentially wraps docker exec and docker cp. This connection plugin is supported by the ansible.posix.synchronize module.

docker_api connection plugin
The community.docker.docker_api connection plugin talks directly to the Docker daemon to connect to Docker containers and execute modules in them.

docker_containers inventory plugin
The community.docker.docker_containers inventory plugin allows you to dynamically add Docker containers from a Docker Daemon to your Ansible inventory. See Working with dynamic inventory for details on dynamic inventories.

The docker inventory script is deprecated. Please use the inventory plugin instead. The inventory plugin has several compatibility options. If you need to collect Docker containers from multiple Docker daemons, you need to add every Docker daemon as an individual inventory source.

docker_host_info module
The community.docker.docker_host_info module allows you to retrieve information on a Docker daemon, such as all containers, images, volumes, networks and so on.

docker_login module
The community.docker.docker_login module allows you to log in and out of a remote registry, such as Docker Hub or a private registry. It provides similar functionality to the docker login and docker logout CLI commands.

docker_prune module
The community.docker.docker_prune module allows you to prune no longer needed containers, images, volumes and so on. It provides similar functionality to the docker prune CLI command.

docker_image module
The community.docker.docker_image module provides full control over images, including: build, pull, push, tag and remove.

docker_image_build
The community.docker.docker_image_build module allows you to build a Docker image using Docker buildx.

docker_image_export module
The community.docker.docker_image_export module allows you to export (archive) images.

docker_image_info module
The community.docker.docker_image_info module allows you to list and inspect images.

docker_image_load
The community.docker.docker_image_load module allows you to import one or multiple images from tarballs.

docker_image_pull
The community.docker.docker_image_pull module allows you to pull a Docker image from a registry.

docker_image_push
The community.docker.docker_image_push module allows you to push a Docker image to a registry.

docker_image_remove
The community.docker.docker_image_remove module allows you to remove and/or untag a Docker image from the Docker daemon.

docker_image_tag
The community.docker.docker_image_tag module allows you to tag a Docker image with additional names and/or tags.

docker_network module
The community.docker.docker_network module provides full control over Docker networks.

docker_network_info module
The community.docker.docker_network_info module allows you to inspect Docker networks.

docker_volume_info module
The community.docker.docker_volume_info module provides full control over Docker volumes.

docker_volume module
The community.docker.docker_volume module allows you to inspect Docker volumes.

docker_container module
The community.docker.docker_container module manages the container lifecycle by providing the ability to create, update, stop, start and destroy a Docker container.

docker_container_copy_into
The community.docker.docker_container_copy_into module allows you to copy files from the control node into a container.

docker_container_exec
The community.docker.docker_container_exec module allows you to execute commands in a running container.

docker_container_info module
The community.docker.docker_container_info module allows you to inspect a Docker container.

docker_plugin
The community.docker.docker_plugin module allows you to manage Docker plugins.

Docker Compose 

Docker Compose v2

There are two modules for working with Docker compose projects:

community.docker.docker_compose_v2
The community.docker.docker_compose_v2 module allows you to use your existing Docker compose files to orchestrate containers on a single Docker daemon or on Swarm.

community.docker.docker_compose_v2_pull
The community.docker.docker_compose_v2_pull module allows you to pull Docker compose projects.

These modules use the Docker CLI “compose” plugin (docker compose), and thus needs access to the Docker CLI tool. No further requirements next to to the CLI tool and its Docker Compose plugin are needed.

Docker Compose v1

The deprecated community.docker.docker_compose module allows you to use your existing Docker compose files to orchestrate containers on a single Docker daemon or on Swarm. This module uses the out-dated and End of Life version 1.x of Docker Compose. It should mainly be used for legacy systems which still have to use that version of Docker Compose. The module is deprecated and will be removed from community.docker 4.0.0. Please use the Docker Compose v2 modules instead.

You need to install the old Python docker-compose on the remote machines to use the Docker Compose v1 module.

Docker Machine 

The community.docker.docker_machine inventory plugin allows you to dynamically add Docker Machine hosts to your Ansible inventory.

Docker Swarm stack 

The community.docker.docker_stack module module allows you to control Docker Swarm stacks. Information on Swarm stacks can be retrieved by the community.docker.docker_stack_info module, and information on Swarm stack tasks can be retrieved by the community.docker.docker_stack_task_info module.

Docker Swarm 

The community.docker collection provides multiple plugins and modules for managing Docker Swarms.

Swarm management

One inventory plugin and several modules are provided to manage Docker Swarms:

docker_swarm inventory plugin
The community.docker.docker_swarm inventory plugin allows you to dynamically add all Docker Swarm nodes to your Ansible inventory.

docker_swarm module
The community.docker.docker_swarm module allows you to globally configure Docker Swarm manager nodes to join and leave swarms, and to change the Docker Swarm configuration.

docker_swarm_info module
The community.docker.docker_swarm_info module allows you to retrieve information on Docker Swarm.

docker_node module
The community.docker.docker_node module allows you to manage Docker Swarm nodes.

docker_node_info module
The community.docker.docker_node_info module allows you to retrieve information on Docker Swarm nodes.

Configuration management

The community.docker collection offers modules to manage Docker Swarm configurations and secrets:

docker_config module
The community.docker.docker_config module allows you to create and modify Docker Swarm configs.

docker_secret module
The community.docker.docker_secret module allows you to create and modify Docker Swarm secrets.

Swarm services

Docker Swarm services can be created and updated with the community.docker.docker_swarm_service module, and information on them can be queried by the community.docker.docker_swarm_service_info module.