Docker provides a platform to package and run applications in a container.
Overview
Docker runs containers which are lighter than a VM. Processes in the container
will run using the host kernel. Images must match the kernel architecture (e.g. linux/amd64)
When running on Windows or MacOS, Docker containers will be run within a Linux VM. This is usually OK for development or testing as the typical production deployment will eventually be a Linux environment.
References
- Docker overview
- Images for multiple platforms: Multi-arch All The Things
Architecture
dockerd is the docker daemon process running a docker server. There is a separate command line client named docker.
This client server architecture means that docker and dockerd are not necessarily running on the same machine.
Once dockerd is started you can run commands using docker.