Docker - How to enable the Remote API ?

Docker Remote API

Recently, I have been playing around with Docker through the CLI command over the Ubuntu (14.04), and I started getting frustrated with managing some containers by a shell script. Depending on your case or for the initial understanding, run the commands through the CLI is completely enough, but why not move on to the next level ? The Docker has a remote API that can be invoked by Rest service.

So, to start, let's stop the Docker service.

• service docker stop

To enable the service, just edit the /etc/default/docker and update the DOCKER_OPTS variable to the following: -H tcp://0.0.0.0:2376 -H unix://var/run/docker.sock.

	# Docker Upstart and SysVinit configuration file
	# Customize location of Docker binary (especially for development testing).
	#DOCKER="/usr/local/bin/docker"
	# Use DOCKER_OPTS to modify the daemon startup options.
	DOCKER_OPTS="--dns 8.8.8.8 --dns 8.8.4.4 -g /home/user/docker -H tcp://0.0.0.0:2376 -H unix://var/run/docker.sock"
	# If you need Docker to use an HTTP proxy, it can also be specified here.
	#export http_proxy="http://127.0.0.1:3128/"
	# This is also a handy place to tweak where Docker's temporary files go.
	#export TMPDIR="/mnt/bigdrive/docker-tmp"

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Then, start the Docker service.

• service docker start

BOOM. Now you can see a JSON through http://localhost:2376/info, with some details about the Docker's state, how many containers are running/paused/stopped and so on.

This link docker_remote_api shows how you can play with the rest service.