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.

cacert_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.

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_load

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

docker_image_info module

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

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

The 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. Supports compose versions 1 and 2.

Next to Docker SDK for Python, you need to install docker-compose on the remote machines to use the module.

Docker Machine

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

Docker stack

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