Under this blog, I will deep dive into Docker for Mac architecture and show how to access service containers running on top of LinuxKit VM.Īt the base of architecture, we have hypervisor called Hyperkit which is derived from xhyve. The xhyve hypervisor is a port of bhyve to OS X. Top 5 Exclusive Features of Docker For Mac That You Can’t Afford to Ignore

It provides binfmt_misc multi architecture support, so you can run containers for different Linux architectures, such as arm, mips, ppc64le, and even s390x. Docker for Mac has now Multi-Architectural support.This interface is actually within the virtual machine.

There is no docker0 bridge on macOS. Because of the way networking is implemented in Docker for Mac, you cannot see a docker0 interface on the host.

When you install Docker for Mac, machines created with Docker Machine are not affected.

This is the default location Docker and Docker Compose clients use to connect to the Docker daemon, so you to use docker and docker-compose CLI commands on your Mac. The Docker Engine API is exposed on a socket available to the Mac host at /var/run/docker.sock.

Docker for Mac does not use docker-machine to provision its VM.

Hyperkit is a lightweight macOS virtualization solution built on top of amework in macOS 10.10 Yosemite and higher.

Docker for Mac uses HyperKit instead of Virtual Box.

The way the filesystem sharing maps OSX volumes seamlessly into Linux containers and remapping macOS UIDs into Linux is one of the most anticipated feature. One of the most amazing feature about Docker for Mac is “drag & Drop” the Mac application to /Applications to run Docker CLI and it just works flawlessly. At installation time, it creates symlinks in /usr/local/bin for docker & docker-compose and others, to the commands in the application bundle, in /Applications/Docker.app/Contents/Resources/bin. It embeds a hypervisor (based on xhyve), a Linux distribution which runs on LinuxKit and filesystem & network sharing that is much more Mac native. It is a Mac native application, that you install in /Applications. It runs on a LinuxKit VM and NOT on VirtualBox or VMware Fusion. Docker is a full development platform for creating containerized apps, and Docker for Mac is the most efficient way to start and run Docker on your MacBook.

Mac os for virtual machine