'How to copy Docker images from one host to another without using a repository
How do I transfer a Docker image from one machine to another one without using a repository, no matter private or public?
I create my own image in VirtualBox, and when it is finished I try to deploy to other machines to have real usage.
Since it is based on my own based image (like Red Hat Linux), it cannot be recreated from a Dockerfile. My dockerfile isn't easily portable.
Are there simple commands I can use? Or another solution?
Solution 1:[1]
You will need to save the Docker image as a tar file:
docker save -o <path for generated tar file> <image name>
Then copy your image to a new system with regular file transfer tools such as cp, scp or rsync(preferred for big files). After that you will have to load the image into Docker:
docker load -i <path to image tar file>
PS: You may need to sudo all commands.
EDIT: You should add filename (not just directory) with -o, for example:
docker save -o c:/myfile.tar centos:16
Solution 2:[2]
Transferring a Docker image via SSH, bzipping the content on the fly:
docker save <image> | bzip2 | ssh user@host docker load
Note that docker load automatically decompresses images for you. It supports gzip, bzip2 and xz.
It's also a good idea to put pv in the middle of the pipe to see how the transfer is going:
docker save <image> | bzip2 | pv | ssh user@host docker load
(More info about pv: home page, man page).
Important note from @Thomas Steinbach: on high bandwidth, bzip won't be able to compress fast enough. In case you can upload at 10 MB/s and more, gzip/gunzip will be much faster than bzip2.
If you're on 3G and your Internet is slow, @jgmjgm suggests that you can use xz: it offers a higher compression ratio.
Solution 3:[3]
To save an image to any file path or shared NFS place see the following example.
Get the image id by doing:
docker images
Say you have an image with id "matrix-data".
Save the image with id:
docker save -o /home/matrix/matrix-data.tar matrix-data
Copy the image from the path to any host. Now import to your local Docker installation using:
docker load -i <path to copied image file>
Solution 4:[4]
You can use a one-liner with DOCKER_HOST variable:
docker save app:1.0 | gzip | DOCKER_HOST=ssh://user@remotehost docker load
Solution 5:[5]
First save the Docker image to a compressed archive:
docker save <docker image name> | gzip > <docker image name>.tar.gz
Then load the exported image to Docker using the below command:
zcat <docker image name>.tar.gz | docker load
Solution 6:[6]
Run
docker images
to see a list of the images on the host. Let's say you have an image called awesomesauce. In your terminal, cd to the directory where you want to export the image to. Now run:
docker save awesomesauce:latest > awesomesauce.tar
Copy the tar file to a thumb drive or whatever, and then copy it to the new host computer.
Now from the new host do:
docker load < awesomesauce.tar
Now go have a coffee and read Hacker News...
Solution 7:[7]
For a flattened export of a container's filesystem, use;
docker export CONTAINER_ID > my_container.tar
Use cat my_container.tar | docker import - to import said image.
Solution 8:[8]
docker-push-ssh is a command line utility I created just for this scenario.
It sets up a temporary private Docker registry on the server, establishes an SSH tunnel from your localhost, pushes your image, then cleans up after itself.
The benefit of this approach over docker save (at the time of writing most answers are using this method) is that only the new layers are pushed to the server, resulting in a MUCH quicker upload.
Oftentimes using an intermediate registry like dockerhub is undesirable, and cumbersome.
https://github.com/brthor/docker-push-ssh
Install:
pip install docker-push-ssh
Example:
docker-push-ssh -i ~/my_ssh_key [email protected] my-docker-image
The biggest caveat is that you have to manually add your localhost to Docker's insecure_registries configuration. Run the tool once and it will give you an informative error:
Error Pushing Image: Ensure localhost:5000 is added to your insecure registries.
More Details (OS X): https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32808215/where-to-set-the-insecure-registry-flag-on-mac-os
Where should I set the '--insecure-registry' flag on Mac OS?
Solution 9:[9]
When using docker-machine, you can copy images between machines mach1 and mach2 with:
docker $(docker-machine config <mach1>) save <image> | docker $(docker-machine config <mach2>) load
And of course you can also stick pv in the middle to get a progess indicator:
docker $(docker-machine config <mach1>) save <image> | pv | docker $(docker-machine config <mach2>) load
You may also omit one of the docker-machine config sub-shells, to use your current default docker-host.
docker save <image> | docker $(docker-machine config <mach>) load
to copy image from current docker-host to mach
or
docker $(docker-machine config <mach>) save <image> | docker load
to copy from mach to current docker-host.
Solution 10:[10]
I assume you need to save couchdb-cartridge which has an image id of 7ebc8510bc2c:
stratos@Dev-PC:~$ docker images
REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED VIRTUAL SIZE
couchdb-cartridge latest 7ebc8510bc2c 17 hours ago 1.102 GB
192.168.57.30:5042/couchdb-cartridge latest 7ebc8510bc2c 17 hours ago 1.102 GB
ubuntu 14.04 53bf7a53e890 3 days ago 221.3 MB
Save the archiveName image to a tar file. I will use the /media/sf_docker_vm/ to save the image.
stratos@Dev-PC:~$ docker save imageID > /media/sf_docker_vm/archiveName.tar
Copy the archiveName.tar file to your new Docker instance using whatever method works in your environment, for example FTP, SCP, etc.
Run the docker load command on your new Docker instance and specify the location of the image tar file.
stratos@Dev-PC:~$ docker load < /media/sf_docker_vm/archiveName.tar
Finally, run the docker images command to check that the image is now available.
stratos@Dev-PC:~$ docker images
REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED VIRTUAL SIZE
couchdb-cartridge latest 7ebc8510bc2c 17 hours ago 1.102 GB
192.168.57.30:5042/couchdb-cartridge latest bc8510bc2c 17 hours ago 1.102 GB
ubuntu 14.04 4d2eab1c0b9a 3 days ago 221.3 MB
Please find this detailed post.
Solution 11:[11]
To transfer images from your local Docker installation to a minikube VM:
docker save <image> | (eval $(minikube docker-env) && docker load)
Solution 12:[12]
REAL WORLD EXAMPLE
#host1
systemctl stop docker
systemctl start docker
docker commit -p 1d09068ef111 ubuntu001_bkp3
#create backup
docker save -o ubuntu001_bkp3.tar ubuntu001_bkp3
#upload ubuntu001_bkp3.tar to my online drive
aws s3 cp ubuntu001_bkp3.tar s3://mybucket001/
#host2
systemctl stop docker
systemctl start docker
cd /dir1
#download ubuntu001_bkp3.tar from my online drive
aws s3 cp s3://mybucket001/ubuntu001_bkp3.tar /dir1
#restore backup
cat ./ubuntu001_bkp3.tar | docker load
docker run --name ubuntu001 -it ubuntu001_bkp3:latest bash
docker ps -a
docker attach ubuntu001
Solution 13:[13]
All other answers are very helpful. I just went through the same problem and figure out an easy way with docker machine scp.
Since Docker Machine v0.3.0, scp was introduced to copy files from one Docker machine to another. This is very convenient if you want copying a file from your local computer to a remote Docker machine such as AWS EC2 or Digital Ocean because Docker Machine is taking care of SSH credentials for you.
Save you images using
docker savelike:docker save -o docker-images.tar app-webCopy images using docker-machine scp
docker-machine scp ./docker-images.tar remote-machine:/home/ubuntu
Assume your remote Docker machine is remote-machine and the directory you want the tar file to be is /home/ubuntu.
Load the Docker image
docker-machine ssh remote-machine sudo docker load -i docker-images.tar
Solution 14:[14]
The best way to save all the images is like this :
docker save $(docker images --format '{{.Repository}}:{{.Tag}}') -o allimages.tar
And to load the images :
docker load -i allimages.tar
Just make sure to use this commands in power shell and not in cmd
Solution 15:[15]
I want to move all images with tags.
```
OUT=$(docker images --format '{{.Repository}}:{{.Tag}}')
OUTPUT=($OUT)
docker save $(echo "${OUTPUT[*]}") -o /dir/images.tar
```
Explanation:
First OUT gets all tags but separated with new lines. Second OUTPUT gets all tags in an array. Third $(echo "${OUTPUT[*]}") puts all tags for a single docker save command so that all images are in a single tar.
Additionally, this can be zipped using gzip. On target, run:
tar xvf images.tar.gz -O | docker load
-O option to tar puts contents on stdin which can be grabbed by docker load.
Solution 16:[16]
If you are working on a Windows machine and uploading to a linux machine commands such as
docker save <image> | ssh user@host docker load
will not work if you are using powershell as it seems that it adds an additional character to the output. If you run the command using cmd (Command Prompt) it will however work. As a side note you can also install gzip using Chocolatey and the following will also work from cmd.
docker save <image> | gzip | ssh user@host docker load
Solution 17:[17]
The fastest way to save and load docker image through gzip command:
docker save <image_id> | gzip image_file.tgz
To load your zipped image on another server use immediate this command, it will be recognized as zipped image:
docker load -i image_file.tgz
to rename, or re-tag the image use:
docker image tag <image_id> <image_path_name>:<version>
for example:
docker image tag 4444444 your_docker_or_harbor_path/ubuntu:14.0
Solution 18:[18]
You may use sshfs:
$ sshfs user@ip:/<remote-path> <local-mount-path>
$ docker save <image-id> > <local-mount-path>/myImage.tar
Solution 19:[19]
1. Pull an image or a repository from a registry.
docker pull [OPTIONS] NAME[:TAG|@DIGEST]
2. Save it as a .tar file.
docker save [OPTIONS] IMAGE [IMAGE...]
For example:
docker pull hello-world
docker save -o hello-world.tar hello-world
Solution 20:[20]
Script to perform Docker save and load function (tried and tested):
Docker Save:
#!/bin/bash
#files will be saved in the dir 'Docker_images'
mkdir Docker_images
cd Docker_images
directory=`pwd`
c=0
#save the image names in 'list.txt'
doc= docker images | awk '{print $1}' > list.txt
printf "START \n"
input="$directory/list.txt"
#Check and create the image tar for the docker images
while IFS= read -r line
do
one=`echo $line | awk '{print $1}'`
two=`echo $line | awk '{print $1}' | cut -c 1-3`
if [ "$one" != "<none>" ]; then
c=$((c+1))
printf "\n $one \n $two \n"
docker save -o $two$c'.tar' $one
printf "Docker image number $c successfully converted: $two$c \n \n"
fi
done < "$input"
Docker Load:
#!/bin/bash
cd Docker_images/
directory=`pwd`
ls | grep tar > files.txt
c=0
printf "START \n"
input="$directory/files.txt"
while IFS= read -r line
do
c=$((c+1))
printf "$c) $line \n"
docker load -i $line
printf "$c) Successfully created the Docker image $line \n \n"
done < "$input"
Solution 21:[21]
Based on the @kolypto 's answer, this worked great for me but only with sudo for docker load:
docker save <image> | bzip2 | pv | ssh user@host sudo docker load
or if you don't have / don't want to install the pv:
docker save <image> | bzip2 | ssh user@host sudo docker load
No need to manually zip or similar.
Sources
This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Overflow and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Source: Stack Overflow