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aweigert
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Contributor

Windows Server 2016 Containers on VMware

Does anyone know if the Containers role in Windows Server 2016 is supported to run on VMware? It works on our environment unless we try to change the graph/data-root config to another drive other than the system drive.

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zotric
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Hi

Nobody seems to have come up with a definite fix for this; which is a very common problem.

I believe it happens if  VMWare drive 'D', for example, is a 'portable device' in device manager.

One suggested solution is to switch off removable storage auditing in the Windows VMWare VM.

By default it is 'not configured' in Local Security Policy.  You just need to switch the setting on under 'Audit Removable Storage'  (configure success and failure), restart the policy editor, uncheck previous settings then reboot the server.  (Please see link for a better description)

Maybe the 'not configured' default is to audit.  That would make sense.

Ref:  https://forums.docker.com/t/unable-to-run-docker-containers-on-a-different-drive-than-system-drive/4...

Other suggestions I have seen but not yet tried:

1. Disable the portable device from Device Manager in the Windows VMWare VM.  Obviously this needs to be done with care!

2. Disable UAC in the Windows VMWare VM.

For volumes:

Like others, I have taken a different approach for now which is to create a volume, move it from c:\ProgramData\docker to drive 😧 then create a directory join in C:\ProgramData\docker.

This appears to work and as far as I know there are no side effects but I'm still investigating.

For images and containers:

I have similarly moved the windowsfilter directory (starting with an empty one) to drive D and created a directory join from ProgramData\docker.  This seems OK so far.
Again, I'm making enquiries on whether or not this is supportable. No interest so far!

Ref: "Validating methods for relocating docker data to another drive" under:

"https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-us/home?forum=windowscontainers"

Hope this helps a bit

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