Windows Server Containers on Azure

Azure has grown by leaps and bounds to become a top class public cloud platform for on demand provisioning of VMs or pay-per-use services. With the focus shifting towards resource optimization and microservices, Azure also provides a plethora of options for running both LXC and Windows Containers on Azure.

Windows Server 2016 Core with containers image is readily available on Azure. Developers can log in to the portal and create a Windows Server 2016 Core machine and run containers within minutes. It comes preinstalled with Docker runtime environment. Users can download the Remote Desktop Client from the portal and run Docker native commands using Windows CLI or PowerShell. Windows Server Containers are the only option on Azure, it does not support Hyper-V Containers. In order to use Hyper-V Containers on premise, a container host is required.

Azure Container Service (ACS) is a PaaS offering from Microsoft, which helps you create and manage a cluster of containers using orchestration services such as Swarm or DC/OS. ACS can be used as a hosted cluster environment, managed using your favorite open source tools or APIs. For example, you can log in to the portal and create a Docker Swarm by filling a few parameters such as Agent count, Agent virtual machine size, Master count, and DNS prefix for container service. Once the cluster is created it can be managed using your favorite tool set such as Docker CLI or API in this case.

Azure also provides ready to deploy Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates to automate provisioning of Windows Server Core with containers. Azure ARM templates can be used for deploying dev/test Docker Swarm on Azure within minutes. ARM (JSON) templates are great tools to integrate with your continuous build and deployment process. Azure also provides prebuilt Docker images such as MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, and so on, as shown in the following screenshot:

Azure provides a free trial account for a period of one month. Microsoft offers you $200 for a 30-day period, which helps you learn anything on Azure.