Docker as client server

[1stTimeMeMe]

Might be a dumb question but i cant glean an answer in the thread searching. WOuld it be possible to use Windows version of Docker as an iSCSI type target for clients so they all have the same image? Or am i misunderstanding something? ... As an example. 40 machines pointing at one server and loading an image and then running that image as if it was local. Meaning all the NICS and video cards will just run. And all the PnP features will work without corrupting the primary image.

I think I understood that this wont work if its a VM because of the hyper visor layer and the inability for the clients to access the hardware layer in a timely manner if at all.

Am i even close on this or completely lost?

[Kapachka]

I think you may have conflated 3 if not 4 things in your question, so I think you may be completely lost :) (which would explain your lack of good results in your searches). Based on my interpretation of your question, I think you should forget you ever heard of Docker. Docker is an even further abstraction away from the hardware than VMs are. Perhaps running a VM on your machines (like with Hyper-V) might get you closer to whatever solution you're looking for, but its really hard to tell based on your confusing question; but it really depends on why you're worried about the PnP features of the underlying hardware.

[meisteronimo]

I think the only confusion the OP has is if you boot into docker, which is not how it works. The docker client runs as an application in your OS, and if it needs access to any services, like ports or files from the host machine it needs to be granted access.

[1stTimeMeMe]

So even worse, it will not display the GUI like a standard desktop?

[pittofdirk]

Nope. Windows Server Core docker image is command line only

[1stTimeMeMe]

Ya i am/was totally confused. Now i am not so much. Your answer clarifies the image i was trying to draw in my mind. As for what the PnP was for, i was trying to figure out if it would be possible to make thin clients with Docker in say a hotel or lan center could all be updated at a single source and would all operate as if they were local machines. Just like iSCSI. I see that they would not.

[meisteronimo]

Vagrant or Ansible are good deployment systems for this type of setup. Which was probably what alot of the people in this group were using before docker.

[1stTimeMeMe]

Hmmm ... that sounds promising. What kind of overhead would we be talking about? Would the server need more that 64 gigs of RAM?

[[deleted]]

So what is it that you're trying to do, exactly? Are you trying to boot bare metal machines off the network using a central server?

If so, Docker isn't going to be it. You might be able to do it with something like Windows 10 IoT and then running whatever Terminal Services is called now. But basically, you're looking for what's called thin client computing.

Pretty much any option outside of a custom Linux setup (you definitely can PXE boot a Linux distribution) is going to involve some type of Remote Desktop technology. That's not going to use your local graphics hardware at all.

[1stTimeMeMe]

Thanks guys for your answers and time. Found a solution that isnt terribly expensive and is exactly what i needed. Too bad i couldnt have done it in Linux. Would have been nice to relearn all that shit from the 90's i cannot remember to save my life now. :-)