In part 2 we created a Domino container image. Now we want to start the image. Of course, we could just use docker run <options> <imagename>, but with the scripts from the Domino Docker project, there’s a much easier option. In this part, I’ll show you what to do to make running, restarting and stopping images super easy.

n the previous part, I looked at reasons why you might want to run your Domino server inside a container. In this part, I’m going to show how to create your first Domino image. We have to take one step back though, as since a couple of years, HCL provides their own docker image for Domino. So why would you want to create your own image? My experience is that it leads to a better image and it gives options to add your own tooling to the image. Nevertheless, using HCL’s image is an option and the script also provides an option to build on top of the standard HCl image. My advice: create your own.

In November 2018, Thomas Hampel (at that time still working for IBM) created the domino-docker github repository as an open source initiative to create scripts that would make it easier to run Domino inside a container. Even though the repository was started by IBM, the work was done by the community with most of the work done by one man in particular: Daniel Nashed. He contributed his Linux start/stop scripts to the project, but also wrote scripts to completely automate the build of the images. While working with the scripts, I realised two things: Daniel has built fantastic scripts to both build and run Domino containers With so much functionality added, the project didn’t manage to document this new functionality in detail With help from Daniel, I managed to build my own customised container and I experienced in the past months all the benefits from running Domino as a container, combined with the scripts from the Domino Docker project. However, if this project wants to get the attention it deserves, the documentation needs to be fixed and this is exactly what I’ll try to do in a series of 6 articles: