Folks, I have a node.js script running on my Windows machine that uses the dockerode npm package to talk to docker on said box and starts and kills docker containers.
However, after the containers have been killed off, docker still holds on to the memory that it blocked for those containers and this means downstream processes fail due to lack of RAM.
To counter this, I have powershell scripts to start docker desktop and to kill docker desktop.
All of this is a horrid experience.
On my Mac, I just use Colima with Portainer and couldn’t be happier.
I’ve explored some options to replace Docker Desktop and it seems Rancher Desktop is a drop-in replacement for Docker Desktop, including the docker remote API.
- Is this true? Is Rancher Desktop that good of a drop-in replacement?
- Does Rancher Desktop better manage RAM for containers that have been killed off? Or does it do the same thing as Docker Desktop and hold on to the RAM?
Are there other options which I’m not thinking of which might solve my problems? I’ve seen a few alternatives but haven’t tried them yet -
moby,
containerd,
podman
I don’t actually need the Docker Desktop interface. So pure CLI docker would also just work. How are you all running pure docker on Windows boxes?
thanks for that :)
BTW, if I fire up a bunch of docker containers in WSL2 using podman or native docker, and then kill them, does WSL2 release the RAM it acquired to run those containers?
At this point i would just install a linux distro like ubuntu/debian/arch as a VM on virtualbox/vmware/hyperv and do it from there, WSL2 is supposed to be custom ubuntu minus gui running on hypervany way.
WSL2 runs ubuntu on Hyper-V. It isn’t really as custom as you’d think. You can install other distros besides ubuntu. Or you can install regular ubuntu instead of LTS.
Take a look at this for running other distros: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/use-custom-distro
It’s using Hyper-V technology, but it’s not just a VM, and can run on OSes that don’t run Hyper-V, like home editions. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/faq
Meant to say a guo DE, not sure you can run plasma/jde on that, maybe with vnc/rdp? But still its with x11 server iirc.
And as such it’s perfectly suited for what OP is trying to achieve. A custom VM will be a lot more work than using WSL2.
I wouldnt say a lot, maybe its more, but i would estimate 15min for wsl2 vs 45min for virtual box. Plus you get lot more featues than plain wsl2 and its quirks.
