moby--moby/docs/sources/use/networking.md

page_title: Configure Networking page_description: Docker networking page_keywords: network, networking, bridge, docker, documentation

Configure Networking

Introduction

Docker uses Linux bridge capabilities to provide network connectivity to containers. The docker0 bridge interface is managed by Docker for this purpose. When the Docker daemon starts it :

• creates the docker0 bridge if not present
• searches for an IP address range which doesn't overlap with an existing route
• picks an IP in the selected range
• assigns this IP to the docker0 bridge

# List host bridges
$ sudo brctl show
bridge      name    bridge id               STP enabled     interfaces
docker0             8000.000000000000       no

# Show docker0 IP address
$ sudo ifconfig docker0
docker0   Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
     inet addr:172.17.42.1  Bcast:0.0.0.0  Mask:255.255.0.0

At runtime, a specific kind of virtual interface is given to each container which is then bonded to the docker0 bridge. Each container also receives a dedicated IP address from the same range as docker0. The docker0 IP address is used as the default gateway for the container.

# Run a container
$ sudo docker run -t -i -d base /bin/bash
52f811c5d3d69edddefc75aff5a4525fc8ba8bcfa1818132f9dc7d4f7c7e78b4

$ sudo brctl show
bridge      name    bridge id               STP enabled     interfaces
docker0             8000.fef213db5a66       no              vethQCDY1N

Above, docker0 acts as a bridge for the vethQCDY1N interface which is dedicated to the 52f811c5d3d6 container.

How to use a specific IP address range

Docker will try hard to find an IP range that is not used by the host. Even though it works for most cases, it's not bullet-proof and sometimes you need to have more control over the IP addressing scheme.

For this purpose, Docker allows you to manage the docker0 bridge or your own one using the -b=<bridgename> parameter.

In this scenario:

• ensure Docker is stopped
• create your own bridge (bridge0 for example)
• assign a specific IP to this bridge
• start Docker with the -b=bridge0 parameter

# Stop Docker
$ sudo service docker stop

# Clean docker0 bridge and
# add your very own bridge0
$ sudo ifconfig docker0 down
$ sudo brctl addbr bridge0
$ sudo ifconfig bridge0 192.168.227.1 netmask 255.255.255.0

# Edit your Docker startup file
$ echo "DOCKER_OPTS=\"-b=bridge0\"" >> /etc/default/docker

# Start Docker
$ sudo service docker start

# Ensure bridge0 IP is not changed by Docker
$ sudo ifconfig bridge0
bridge0   Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
          inet addr:192.168.227.1  Bcast:192.168.227.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

# Run a container
docker run -i -t base /bin/bash

# Container IP in the 192.168.227/24 range
root@261c272cd7d5:/# ifconfig eth0
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
          inet addr:192.168.227.5  Bcast:192.168.227.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

# bridge0 IP as the default gateway
root@261c272cd7d5:/# route -n
Kernel IP routing table
Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
0.0.0.0         192.168.227.1   0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 eth0
192.168.227.0   0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 eth0

# hits CTRL+P then CTRL+Q to detach

# Display bridge info
$ sudo brctl show
bridge      name    bridge id               STP enabled     interfaces
bridge0             8000.fe7c2e0faebd       no              vethAQI2QT

Container intercommunication

The value of the Docker daemon's icc parameter determines whether containers can communicate with each other over the bridge network.

• The default, -icc=true allows containers to communicate with each other.
• -icc=false means containers are isolated from each other.

Docker uses iptables under the hood to either accept or drop communication between containers.

What is the vethXXXX device?

Well. Things get complicated here.

The vethXXXX interface is the host side of a point-to-point link between the host and the corresponding container; the other side of the link is the container's eth0 interface. This pair (host vethXXX and container eth0) are connected like a tube. Everything that comes in one side will come out the other side.

All the plumbing is delegated to Linux network capabilities (check the ip link command) and the namespaces infrastructure.

I want more

Jérôme Petazzoni has create pipework to connect together containers in arbitrarily complex scenarios: https://github.com/jpetazzo/pipework