Inspecting Running Containers (Docker Containers)

These are some of the shortcuts for inspecting running containers.

First, of course, get the ID of the running container

docker container ls -a (show me all the running containers on this host).

 

docker exec -i -t 1aa86f5bf93a | PS
docker run -it <image-name> powershell docker r

To connect to docker and launch a PS prompt inside the container

docker exec CONTAINERID

To Inspect a folder or a file inside the container

docker exec containeriD | ls <dir path>

To List all the processes inside the container

First connect to it using docker exec and launch a PS prompt

 docker exec <container> | PS

Then, just use Powershell’s

        List-processes

 

To view the event log inside the container (once you have a PS prompt using     docker exec <container> | PS  )

get-eventlog system -newest 10000 | format-table -wrap > c:\data\syslog.txt (if c:\data is defined as a volume, it can be read from the host)

# this shows source as ‘Docker’ but can change you ‘Application’ or custom

Get-EventLog -LogName Application -Source Docker -After (Get-Date).AddMinutes(-5) | Sort-Object Time

#To search for specific terms in an event log

Get-WinEvent –listlog *mykeyword*

To Copy files from host to container

 docker cp foo.txt mycontainer:/foo.txthttp:

To Inspect all the properties (volumes, ports…) of a running container

First get the ip address of the running container – lookup the container id (docker container ls)

docker inspect c5e8de7faf05 - will give you the IP

 

docker inspect --format='{{range .NetworkSettings.Networks}}{{.IPAddress}}{{end}}' $INSTANCE_ID

To Automate hitting a container URL

curl -i "https://$(docker-machine ip node-1) (If no curl, use powershell as shown below)
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://$(docker-machine ip node-1)  | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Content
Invoke-WebRequest http://localhost -method GET

To push/pull docker images from an external registry (e.g. Azure Container Registry)

$env:docker_registry = “myregistry.azurecr.io“

docker login -u myregistry –p password myregistry.azurecr.io

docker-compose push/pull

Summary

I have been fortunate to work as a docker architect for a few oil and gas companies in Houston, TX – as well as state agencies in Austin, TX. These are just some commands I found helpful while working with and testing containers – in my role as a docker architect. docker exec should be your go to command for getting access to a running container. Once in, you can run powershell just like you would on a windows host. Of course, if you are on linux, you would use bash or some other scripting platform.

Thoughts? Comments?