How to safely update docker on Ubuntu 15.04

March 22, 2016 3.6k views
Docker Ubuntu
m59
By:
m59

My droplet uses Ubuntu 15.04 and docker.io 1.5.0. The highest version of docker.io available is 1.6.2. I see various ways to update docker and am afraid to experiment for fear of losing my data container in the process. What is the best way to update to docker >= 1.7 and ensure containers are not lost?

2 comments
  • SphericalCow March 23, 2016

    not very well-versed on docker containers, but there is a backups feature from your DigitalOcean Control Panel. Looking at some of my mediocre Docker notes, however, my own understanding is that docker containers generally do not persist data, unless some application in the container writes to a separate volume from the container itself. If I read my notes correctly, the parameters of the container (mounts, port assignments, etc) is contained within the container image itself.

    I was able to find http://blog.thoward37.me/articles/where-are-docker-images-stored/ that seems to show that the docker image is stored in /var/lib/docker/

  • m59 March 23, 2016

    @SphericalCow It's common to use a data container for persistent data. I may need to backup the data container, but I'd like to avoid that if it is unnecessary in this process because the data is large.

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2 Answers
m59 March 23, 2016
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m59 March 23, 2016

I went ahead and exported my data container to be safe before trying to solve this.

docker export my_data_container > my-backup.tar

Here's what I did to update:

service docker stop
apt-get remove docker.io
wget -qO- https://get.docker.com/ | sh
service docker start
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  • SphericalCow March 24, 2016

    hey, thanks for the updates. i've updated my own personal notes in case i find myself poking around with docker containers in the future.

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