Docker Container Networking with Docker-in-Docker

Question

I would like to network with a child docker container from a parent docker container, with a docker-in-docker setup.

Let's say I'm trying to connect to a simple Apache httpd server. When I run the httpd container on my host machine, everything works fine:

asnyder:~$ docker run -d -p 8080:80 httpd:alpine
asnyder:~$ curl localhost:8080
<html><body><h1>It works!</h1></body></html>
But when I do the same from a docker-in-docker setup, I get a Connection refused error:
asnyder:~$ docker run -d --name mydind --privileged docker:dind
asnyder:~$ docker run -it --link mydind:docker docker:latest sh
/ # docker run -d -p 8080:80 httpd:alpine
/ # curl localhost:8080
curl: (7) Failed to connect to localhost port 8080: Connection refused
asnyder:~$ docker run -d --name mydind --privileged docker:dind
asnyder:~$ docker run -it --link mydind:docker docker:latest sh
/ # docker run -d -p 0.0.0.0:8080:80 httpd:alpine
/ # curl 0.0.0.0:8080
curl: (7) Failed to connect to 0.0.0.0 port 8080: Connection refused

Using the host network:

asnyder:~$ docker run -d --name mydind --privileged docker:dind
asnyder:~$ docker run -it --link mydind:docker docker:latest sh
/ # docker run -d --network host httpd:alpine
/ # curl localhost:80
curl: (7) Failed to connect to localhost port 80: Connection refused

Surprisingly, I was unable to find any existing articles on this. Does anyone here have some insight?

Kalgi · Answer 1 · Jul 30, 2018

Given your example docker-in-docker setup above, you can access Apache httpd server in one of two ways:

1) From inside the docker:dind container, it will be available on localhost:8080.

2) From inside the docker:latest container, where you were trying to access it originally, it will be available on whatever hostname is set for the docker:dind container. In this case, you used --name mydind, therefore curl mydind:8080 would give you the standard

Apache <html><body><h1>It works!</h1></body></html>.

answered Jul 30, 2018 by Kalgi
• 52,350 points

I tried exactly this, but it did not work for me.

to boot up the parent container i do :

docker run -v //var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock -it myLocalDockerImage /bin/bash

then from inside the container I run:

docker run -d -p 5432:5432 --name db myPostgresImage

but then i type:

ping db

and it says Temporary failure in name resolution (this also happens if i type ping db:5432)