From inside of a Docker container, how do I connect to the localhost of the machine?
Edit:
If you are using Docker-for-mac or Docker-for-Windows 18.03+, just connect to your mysql service using the host host.docker.internal (instead of the 127.0.0.1 in your connection string).
If you are using Docker-for-Linux 20.10.0+, you can also use the host host.docker.internal if you started your Docker container with the --add-host host.docker.internal:host-gateway option.
Otherwise, read below
TLDR
Use --network="host" in your docker run command, then 127.0.0.1 in your docker container will point to your docker host.
Note: This mode only works on Docker for Linux, per the documentation.
Note on docker container networking modes
Docker offers different networking modes when running containers. Depending on the mode you choose you would connect to your MySQL database running on the docker host differently.
docker run --network="bridge" (default)
Docker creates a bridge named docker0 by default. Both the docker host and the docker containers have an IP address on that bridge.
on the Docker host, type sudo ip addr show docker0 you will have an output looking like:
[vagrant@docker:~] $ sudo ip addr show docker0
4: docker0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UP group default
link/ether 56:84:7a:fe:97:99 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 172.17.42.1/16 scope global docker0
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 fe80::5484:7aff:fefe:9799/64 scope link
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
So here my docker host has the IP address 172.17.42.1 on the docker0 network interface.
Now start a new container and get a shell on it: docker run --rm -it ubuntu:trusty bash and within the container type ip addr show eth0 to discover how its main network interface is set up:
root@e77f6a1b3740:/# ip addr show eth0
863: eth0: <BROADCAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000
link/ether 66:32:13:f0:f1:e3 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 172.17.1.192/16 scope global eth0
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 fe80::6432:13ff:fef0:f1e3/64 scope link
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
Here my container has the IP address 172.17.1.192. Now look at the routing table:
root@e77f6a1b3740:/# route
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
default 172.17.42.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0
172.17.0.0 * 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
So the IP Address of the docker host 172.17.42.1 is set as the default route and is accessible from your container.
root@e77f6a1b3740:/# ping 172.17.42.1
PING 172.17.42.1 (172.17.42.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 172.17.42.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.070 ms
64 bytes from 172.17.42.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.201 ms
64 bytes from 172.17.42.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.116 ms
docker run --network="host"
Alternatively you can run a docker container with network settings set to host. Such a container will share the network stack with the docker host and from the container point of view, localhost (or 127.0.0.1) will refer to the docker host.
Be aware that any port opened in your docker container would be opened on the docker host. And this without requiring the -p or -P docker run option.
IP config on my docker host:
[vagrant@docker:~] $ ip addr show eth0
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000
link/ether 08:00:27:98:dc:aa brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 10.0.2.15/24 brd 10.0.2.255 scope global eth0
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 fe80::a00:27ff:fe98:dcaa/64 scope link
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
and from a docker container in host mode:
[vagrant@docker:~] $ docker run --rm -it --network=host ubuntu:trusty ip addr show eth0
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000
link/ether 08:00:27:98:dc:aa brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 10.0.2.15/24 brd 10.0.2.255 scope global eth0
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 fe80::a00:27ff:fe98:dcaa/64 scope link
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
As you can see both the docker host and docker container share the exact same network interface and as such have the same IP address.
Connecting to MySQL from containers
bridge mode
To access MySQL running on the docker host from containers in bridge mode, you need to make sure the MySQL service is listening for connections on the 172.17.42.1 IP address.
To do so, make sure you have either bind-address = 172.17.42.1 or bind-address = 0.0.0.0 in your MySQL config file (my.cnf).
If you need to set an environment variable with the IP address of the gateway, you can run the following code in a container :
export DOCKER_HOST_IP=$(route -n | awk '/UG[ \t]/{print $2}')
then in your application, use the DOCKER_HOST_IP environment variable to open the connection to MySQL.
Note: if you use bind-address = 0.0.0.0 your MySQL server will listen for connections on all network interfaces. That means your MySQL server could be reached from the Internet ; make sure to setup firewall rules accordingly.
Note 2: if you use bind-address = 172.17.42.1 your MySQL server won't listen for connections made to 127.0.0.1. Processes running on the docker host that would want to connect to MySQL would have to use the 172.17.42.1 IP address.
host mode
To access MySQL running on the docker host from containers in host mode, you can keep bind-address = 127.0.0.1 in your MySQL configuration and all you need to do is to connect to 127.0.0.1 from your containers:
[vagrant@docker:~] $ docker run --rm -it --network=host mysql mysql -h 127.0.0.1 -uroot -p
Enter password:
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 36
Server version: 5.5.41-0ubuntu0.14.04.1 (Ubuntu)
Copyright (c) 2000, 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.
mysql>
note: Do use mysql -h 127.0.0.1 and not mysql -h localhost; otherwise the MySQL client would try to connect using a unix socket.
What does localhost means inside a Docker container?
From inside a container, localhost always refers to the current container. It never refers to another container, and it never refers to anything else running on your physical system that's not in the same container. It's not usually useful to make outbound connections to localhost or configure localhost as your database host.
From a shell on your host system, localhost could refer to daemons running on your system outside Docker, or to ports you've published with docker run -p options.
From a different system, localhost refers to the system it's called from.
In terms of IP addresses, localhost is always 127.0.0.1, and that IP address is special and is always localhost and behaves the same way as above.
If you want to make a connection to a container...
...from another container, the best way is to make sure they're on the same Docker network (you started them from the same Docker Compose YAML file; you did a docker network create and then did docker run --net ... on the same network) and use Docker's internal DNS service to refer to them by the container's --name or its name in the Docker Compose YAML file and the port number inside the container. Even if the target has a published port with a docker run -p option or Docker Compose ports: setting, use the second (container-internal) port number.
...from outside Docker space, make sure you started the container with a docker run -p or Docker Compose ports: option, and connect to the host's IP address or DNS name using the first port number from that option.
...from a terminal window or browser on the same physical host, not in a container, in this case and in this case only, localhost will work consistently.
Except:
If you started a container with --net host, localhost refers to the physical host, and you're in the "terminal window on the same physical host" scenario.
If you've gone out of your way to have multiple servers in the same container, you can use localhost to communicate between them.
If you're running in Kubernetes, and you have multiple containers in the same pod, you can use localhost to communicate between them. Between pods, you should set up a service in front of each pod/deployment, and use DNS names of the form service-name.namespace-name.svc.cluster.local.
Why does localhost have to replaced with host.docker.internal when a container needs to connect to the host machine?
docker understands perfectly well what "localhost" means: When you create a container you are creating an isolated set of processes that can see only each other. They exist in their own cgroup for process isolation and network namespace for network isolation.
So, when some service in some container listens on "localhost:8080", other processes in that container can connect to that port. But processes in other containers cannot. They might, necessarially, have their own process listening on localhost:8080.
In this environment, where each container has its own ip address on a virtual network, and needs to be bridged to the hosts network, localhost will of course mean "the container", not "the containers host OS".
Its not a case of docker not understanding. This localhost redirection to the container is fundamental to the isolation that containerization brings.
From inside of a Docker container, how do I connect to the localhost of the machine?
Edit:
If you are using Docker-for-mac or Docker-for-Windows 18.03+, just connect to your mysql service using the host host.docker.internal (instead of the 127.0.0.1 in your connection string).
If you are using Docker-for-Linux 20.10.0+, you can also use the host host.docker.internal if you started your Docker container with the --add-host host.docker.internal:host-gateway option.
Otherwise, read below
TLDR
Use --network="host" in your docker run command, then 127.0.0.1 in your docker container will point to your docker host.
Note: This mode only works on Docker for Linux, per the documentation.
Note on docker container networking modes
Docker offers different networking modes when running containers. Depending on the mode you choose you would connect to your MySQL database running on the docker host differently.
docker run --network="bridge" (default)
Docker creates a bridge named docker0 by default. Both the docker host and the docker containers have an IP address on that bridge.
on the Docker host, type sudo ip addr show docker0 you will have an output looking like:
[vagrant@docker:~] $ sudo ip addr show docker0
4: docker0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UP group default
link/ether 56:84:7a:fe:97:99 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 172.17.42.1/16 scope global docker0
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 fe80::5484:7aff:fefe:9799/64 scope link
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
So here my docker host has the IP address 172.17.42.1 on the docker0 network interface.
Now start a new container and get a shell on it: docker run --rm -it ubuntu:trusty bash and within the container type ip addr show eth0 to discover how its main network interface is set up:
root@e77f6a1b3740:/# ip addr show eth0
863: eth0: <BROADCAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000
link/ether 66:32:13:f0:f1:e3 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 172.17.1.192/16 scope global eth0
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 fe80::6432:13ff:fef0:f1e3/64 scope link
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
Here my container has the IP address 172.17.1.192. Now look at the routing table:
root@e77f6a1b3740:/# route
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
default 172.17.42.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0
172.17.0.0 * 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
So the IP Address of the docker host 172.17.42.1 is set as the default route and is accessible from your container.
root@e77f6a1b3740:/# ping 172.17.42.1
PING 172.17.42.1 (172.17.42.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 172.17.42.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.070 ms
64 bytes from 172.17.42.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.201 ms
64 bytes from 172.17.42.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.116 ms
docker run --network="host"
Alternatively you can run a docker container with network settings set to host. Such a container will share the network stack with the docker host and from the container point of view, localhost (or 127.0.0.1) will refer to the docker host.
Be aware that any port opened in your docker container would be opened on the docker host. And this without requiring the -p or -P docker run option.
IP config on my docker host:
[vagrant@docker:~] $ ip addr show eth0
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000
link/ether 08:00:27:98:dc:aa brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 10.0.2.15/24 brd 10.0.2.255 scope global eth0
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 fe80::a00:27ff:fe98:dcaa/64 scope link
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
and from a docker container in host mode:
[vagrant@docker:~] $ docker run --rm -it --network=host ubuntu:trusty ip addr show eth0
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000
link/ether 08:00:27:98:dc:aa brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 10.0.2.15/24 brd 10.0.2.255 scope global eth0
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 fe80::a00:27ff:fe98:dcaa/64 scope link
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
As you can see both the docker host and docker container share the exact same network interface and as such have the same IP address.
Connecting to MySQL from containers
bridge mode
To access MySQL running on the docker host from containers in bridge mode, you need to make sure the MySQL service is listening for connections on the 172.17.42.1 IP address.
To do so, make sure you have either bind-address = 172.17.42.1 or bind-address = 0.0.0.0 in your MySQL config file (my.cnf).
If you need to set an environment variable with the IP address of the gateway, you can run the following code in a container :
export DOCKER_HOST_IP=$(route -n | awk '/UG[ \t]/{print $2}')
then in your application, use the DOCKER_HOST_IP environment variable to open the connection to MySQL.
Note: if you use bind-address = 0.0.0.0 your MySQL server will listen for connections on all network interfaces. That means your MySQL server could be reached from the Internet ; make sure to setup firewall rules accordingly.
Note 2: if you use bind-address = 172.17.42.1 your MySQL server won't listen for connections made to 127.0.0.1. Processes running on the docker host that would want to connect to MySQL would have to use the 172.17.42.1 IP address.
host mode
To access MySQL running on the docker host from containers in host mode, you can keep bind-address = 127.0.0.1 in your MySQL configuration and all you need to do is to connect to 127.0.0.1 from your containers:
[vagrant@docker:~] $ docker run --rm -it --network=host mysql mysql -h 127.0.0.1 -uroot -p
Enter password:
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 36
Server version: 5.5.41-0ubuntu0.14.04.1 (Ubuntu)
Copyright (c) 2000, 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.
mysql>
note: Do use mysql -h 127.0.0.1 and not mysql -h localhost; otherwise the MySQL client would try to connect using a unix socket.
Docker container talks to docker container in the same local host?
localhost is always a question of perspective, it refers to the current machine. This means if you call localhost from a container it speaks to himself and not the machine you see as localhost. If you want to call a service running on this one you have to use its real IP address.
identify the localhost IP address
No. It is not docker address. In example, it is meant to be host system address. You can use your host system address, because docker port is mapped with command above, which contains port mapping from docker to your hosting machine - -p 8181:8181
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