Leveraging the VMware Docker Plugin in your environment

You may have heard that VMware released a docker plugin. This plugin allows the developers use persistent storage and store it in the VMware datastore while allowing IT Administrators the capability to manage their environment their way.

In this post I will go thru the steps to add the all the components to the ESXi server and to the VM's

Download Binaries

To download the binaries I used a Ubuntu machine.

1. create a folder to download the files. ex: mkdir vmware

2. change to the directory. cd vmware

3. download the files:

ubuntu package: https://github.com/vmware/docker-volume-vsphere/releases/download/1.0.beta/docker-volume-vsphere_1.0.beta_amd64.deb

ESXi vib package: https://github.com/vmware/docker-volume-vsphere/releases/download/1.0.beta/vmware-esx-vmdkops-1.0.beta.vib

Optional: I created a script that you can use to download all the files directly to your Linux Machine Download the Script from GitLab

Example: curl https://gitlab.com/carlosvargas/devops/raw/master/ubuntu/downvmdockplugin | sh

Copy the VIB to your ESXi server

To copy the VIB file you can follow these steps

scp vmware-esx-vmdkops-1.0.beta.vib root@1.2.3.4:/vmfs/volume/datastorename/foldername/vmware-esx-vmdkops-1.0.beta.vib

Enable Community Support for VIB

Connect to your ESXi host: ssh root@1.2.3.4

Enable community support for VIB files: esxcli software acceptance set –level communitysupported

Install the VMware Plugin VIB: esxcli software vip install –no-sig-check -v /vmfs/…./vmware-esx-vmdkops-1.0.beta.vip

Copy VMware Docker Plugin to your Docker VM

scp docker-volume-vsphere_1.0.beta_amd64.deb user@1.2.3.4:/home/user/docker-volume-vsphere_1.0.beta_amd64.deb

Install the VMware Plugin in your Ubuntu VM

Login to your VM and install the plugin. Ex: sudo dpkg -i docker-volume-vsphere_1.0.beta_amd64.deb

Reboot your node: sudo reboot

Create Docker Volume with the VMware Plugin

To create the volume you need to use the –driver=vmdk parameter. here is an example:  docker volume create –driver=vmdk –name=MyVolume -o size 10gb

To check your volumes execute: docker volume ls

Where are this volumes stored? 

Go to to your vsanDatastore, you will see a new folder called docksvols. There you will find your new volume created.