Run docker containers without Visual Studio.

Question

Run docker containers without Visual Studio.

Simone Demuro 50

I have a problem running any .Net project created in Visual Studio, without using Visual Studio UI to run the container.

In fact, the minimal reproductible steps are creating a new .net project and try to run the container using docker run or docker compose commands from the terminal.

Reproduction Steps:

Open Visual Studio and Create new project > ASP.NET Core Web Api > Keep the default configuration: WebApplication1 > .NET 7, configured for HTTPS, Enable for Docker (Linux), Controller, OpenApi Support.

Now we have a standard .NET API project. I defined the SSL port in the launch.settings.json so that every test can reuse the same url.

"Docker": {
       …
      "sslPort": 32769
}

Pressing the run button in Visual Studio opens up a browser at this url: https://localhost:32769/swagger/index.html that shows swagger working perfectly on the given port and in https

Now, I want to run this container without Visual Studio. For this reason I intercepted the run command that Visual Studio claims to run when starting the debugger (intercepting it from visual studio container tools)

1>docker run -dt -v "C:\Users\demur\vsdbg\vs2017u5:/remote_debugger:rw" -v "C:\Users\demur\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\UserSecrets:/root/.microsoft/usersecrets:ro" -v "C:\Users\demur\AppData\Roaming\ASP.NET\Https:/root/.aspnet/https:ro" -v "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\MSBuild\Sdks\Microsoft.Docker.Sdk\tools\TokenService.Proxy\linux-x64\net7.0:/TokenService.Proxy:ro" -v "C:\Users\demur\source\repos\WebApplication1\WebApplication1:/app" -v "C:\Users\demur\source\repos\WebApplication1:/src/" -v "C:\Users\demur\.nuget\packages\:/root/.nuget/fallbackpackages" -e "ASPNETCORE_LOGGING__CONSOLE__DISABLECOLORS=true" -e "ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT=Development" -e "ASPNETCORE_URLS=https://+:443;http://+:80" -e "ASPNETCORE_HTTPS_PORT=32769" -e "DOTNET_USE_POLLING_FILE_WATCHER=1" -e "NUGET_PACKAGES=/root/.nuget/fallbackpackages" -e "NUGET_FALLBACK_PACKAGES=/root/.nuget/fallbackpackages" -p 32769:443 -P --name WebApplication1 --entrypoint tail webapplication1:dev -f /dev/null

1>docker run -dt -v "C:\Users\demur\vsdbg\vs2017u5:/remote_debugger:rw" -v "C:\Users\demur\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\UserSecrets:/root/.microsoft/usersecrets:ro" -v "C:\Users\demur\AppData\Roaming\ASP.NET\Https:/root/.aspnet/https:ro" -v "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\MSBuild\Sdks\Microsoft.Docker.Sdk\tools\TokenService.Proxy\linux-x64\net7.0:/TokenService.Proxy:ro" -v "C:\Users\demur\source\repos\WebApplication1\WebApplication1:/app" -v "C:\Users\demur\source\repos\WebApplication1:/src/" -v "C:\Users\demur\.nuget\packages\:/root/.nuget/fallbackpackages" -e "ASPNETCORE_LOGGING__CONSOLE__DISABLECOLORS=true" -e "ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT=Development" -e "ASPNETCORE_URLS=https://+:443;http://+:80" -e "ASPNETCORE_HTTPS_PORT=32769" -e "DOTNET_USE_POLLING_FILE_WATCHER=1" -e "NUGET_PACKAGES=/root/.nuget/fallbackpackages" -e "NUGET_FALLBACK_PACKAGES=/root/.nuget/fallbackpackages" -p 32769:443 -P --name WebApplication1 --entrypoint tail webapplication1:dev -f /dev/null

So I delete Visual studio container, and run that command, a new container is created, but the browser on https://localhost:32769/swagger/index.html gives connection refused.

I tried playing with the arguments passed to the docker run, but I wasn't able to make one that works.

How can I run a simple .NET 7 project image in docker without visual studio?

Anonymous

2023-07-26T08:09:05.99+00:00
Hi @Simone Demuro

Is there any error message after running the container using your command.

When using VS template to create Asp.net core application with docker, the Docker file is in the project directory, instead of the solution directory. So. when using docker build to build or running the container, we need to use the -f flag to specify the Dockerfile with path.

so, refer to the following command to build the container and then run it:

docker build -f path/to/Dockerfile . -t counter-image

and

docker run -it --rm -p "32769:80" counter-image
Simone Demuro 50 Reputation points

2023-07-26T08:34:35.08+00:00
Hi @Anonymous and thanks for your answer.
I built the image from Visual Studio (right click on the Dockerfile and build image), I can see it from the images:

PS C:\Users\demur> docker image ls REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED SIZE webapplication1 dev 70617117df2d 10 days ago 212MB

If I run the docker run you suggested:

PS C:\Users\demur> docker run -it --rm -p "32769:80" webapplication1:dev root@d11c9692806f:/app#

The container starts, but visiting the URL on the browser yields to empty response both http://localhost:32769/swagger/index.html and https://localhost:32769/swagger/index.html , here is a screenshot for clarity:

But if I press the debug button the exact same image (I see because docker desktop tells me when it is in use by a container) runs and is reachable from the outside browser.
Yesa, Allen Daniel 0 Reputation points

2023-08-29T23:12:38.3766667+00:00

Did you get this sorted?
Simone Demuro 50 Reputation points

2023-08-31T12:12:46.5133333+00:00

In my personal experience,
It looks like you either have to both: create the image from visual studio and run it from visual studio, or run both docker build and docker run manually.
Otherwise you get unexpected behaviors. IMHO there is a lack of clarity around what VS is doing behind the scenes.

Your answer

Anonymous

2023-07-26T08:09:05.99+00:00

Hi @Simone Demuro

Is there any error message after running the container using your command.

When using VS template to create Asp.net core application with docker, the Docker file is in the project directory, instead of the solution directory. So. when using docker build to build or running the container, we need to use the -f flag to specify the Dockerfile with path.

so, refer to the following command to build the container and then run it:

docker build -f path/to/Dockerfile . -t counter-image

and

docker run -it --rm -p "32769:80" counter-image
Simone Demuro 50 Reputation points

2023-07-26T08:34:35.08+00:00

Hi @Anonymous and thanks for your answer.
I built the image from Visual Studio (right click on the Dockerfile and build image), I can see it from the images:

PS C:\Users\demur> docker image ls REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED SIZE webapplication1 dev 70617117df2d 10 days ago 212MB

If I run the docker run you suggested:

PS C:\Users\demur> docker run -it --rm -p "32769:80" webapplication1:dev root@d11c9692806f:/app#

The container starts, but visiting the URL on the browser yields to empty response both http://localhost:32769/swagger/index.html and https://localhost:32769/swagger/index.html , here is a screenshot for clarity:

But if I press the debug button the exact same image (I see because docker desktop tells me when it is in use by a container) runs and is reachable from the outside browser.
Yesa, Allen Daniel 0 Reputation points

2023-08-29T23:12:38.3766667+00:00

Did you get this sorted?
Simone Demuro 50 Reputation points

2023-08-31T12:12:46.5133333+00:00

In my personal experience,
It looks like you either have to both: create the image from visual studio and run it from visual studio, or run both docker build and docker run manually.
Otherwise you get unexpected behaviors. IMHO there is a lack of clarity around what VS is doing behind the scenes.

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Run docker containers without Visual Studio.

Your answer