MSDN Documentation

Containers: Orchestrating Applications

This section provides comprehensive documentation for Microsoft's container technologies, enabling you to build, deploy, and manage modern applications efficiently and at scale. Leverage the power of containerization to achieve greater agility, portability, and consistency across your development and production environments.

Getting Started with Containers

Begin your journey with containers by following these essential steps. We'll guide you through setting up your development environment, understanding basic commands, and running your first containerized application.

Key Concepts in Containerization

Dive deeper into the fundamental building blocks and principles that underpin container technology.

Container Images

An image is a lightweight, standalone, executable package of software that includes everything needed to run an application: code, runtime, system tools, system libraries, and settings. Images are immutable, meaning they cannot be changed after they are created.

# Example Dockerfile snippet
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:6.0 AS build
WORKDIR /app
COPY *.csproj ./
RUN dotnet restore
COPY . .
RUN dotnet publish -c Release -o out
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet:6.0 AS runtime
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=build /app/out .
ENTRYPOINT ["dotnet", "MyApp.dll"]

Containers

A container is a runnable instance of a container image. When you run an image, you create a container. You can create, start, stop, move, or delete a container using the API or CLI. A container is the actual running process.

Orchestration

Container orchestration platforms automate the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. Microsoft offers robust solutions for orchestrating containers, ensuring high availability and efficient resource utilization.

Container APIs and Management

Explore the various APIs and tools available for managing your containerized workloads.

Container Runtime API

Interact with container runtimes programmatically. This API allows for fine-grained control over container lifecycle management.

Orchestration APIs

Manage your container clusters and deployments using powerful orchestration APIs.

Practical Examples

See real-world examples and code snippets to help you implement container solutions effectively.

Tutorials and Guides

Step-by-step guides to walk you through complex containerization scenarios.

  1. Deploying a .NET Application with Docker
  2. Managing Stateful Applications in Kubernetes
  3. Networking Containerized Applications

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Find solutions to frequently encountered problems and learn best practices for diagnosing and resolving container-related issues.