Docker Desktop Alternatives for macOS

... when starting the Virtual Machine I opted to keep the default settings which uses Ubuntu as its base, the output of the `limactl start` command is below ...

```bash frame="terminal" title="Output"
``` plaintext
? Creating an instance "default" Proceed with the default configuration
INFO[0007] Downloading "https://github.com/containerd/nerdctl/releases/download/v0.11.1/nerdctl-full-0.11.1-linux-amd64.tar.gz" (sha256:ce7a6e119b03c3fb8ded3d46d929962fd17417bea1d5bbc07e0fce49494d8a09)
172.67 MiB / 172.67 MiB [----------------------------------] 100.00% 62.32 MiB/s
INFO[0011] Downloaded "nerdctl-full-0.11.1-linux-amd64.tar.gz"
INFO[0012] Attempting to download the image from "~/Downloads/hirsute-server-cloudimg-amd64.img"
INFO[0012] Attempting to download the image from "https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/hirsute/current/hirsute-server-cloudimg-amd64.img"
554.25 MiB / 554.25 MiB [----------------------------------] 100.00% 37.21 MiB/s
INFO[0028] Downloaded image from "https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/hirsute/current/hirsute-server-cloudimg-amd64.img"
INFO[0030] [hostagent] Starting QEMU (hint: to watch the boot progress, see "/Users/russ.mckendrick/.lima/default/serial.log")
INFO[0030] SSH Local Port: 60022
INFO[0030] [hostagent] Waiting for the essential requirement 1 of 4: "ssh"
INFO[0040] [hostagent] Waiting for the essential requirement 1 of 4: "ssh"
INFO[0059] [hostagent] The essential requirement 1 of 4 is satisfied
INFO[0059] [hostagent] Waiting for the essential requirement 2 of 4: "sshfs binary to be installed"
INFO[0068] [hostagent] The essential requirement 2 of 4 is satisfied
INFO[0068] [hostagent] Waiting for the essential requirement 3 of 4: "/etc/fuse.conf to contain \"user_allow_other\""
INFO[0083] [hostagent] The essential requirement 3 of 4 is satisfied
INFO[0083] [hostagent] Waiting for the essential requirement 4 of 4: "the guest agent to be running"
INFO[0083] [hostagent] The essential requirement 4 of 4 is satisfied
INFO[0083] [hostagent] Mounting "/Users/russ.mckendrick"
INFO[0083] [hostagent] Mounting "/tmp/lima"
INFO[0083] [hostagent] Waiting for the optional requirement 1 of 2: "systemd must be available"
INFO[0083] [hostagent] Forwarding "/run/user/501/lima-guestagent.sock" (guest) to "/Users/russ.mckendrick/.lima/default/ga.sock" (host)
INFO[0083] [hostagent] The optional requirement 1 of 2 is satisfied
INFO[0083] [hostagent] Waiting for the optional requirement 2 of 2: "containerd binaries to be installed"
INFO[0083] [hostagent] Not forwarding TCP 127.0.0.53:53
INFO[0083] [hostagent] Not forwarding TCP 0.0.0.0:22
INFO[0083] [hostagent] Not forwarding TCP [::]:22
INFO[0084] [hostagent] The optional requirement 2 of 2 is satisfied
INFO[0084] READY. Run `lima` to open the shell.

From here you can prefix any command you want to be run within the Linux Virtual machine with `lima` so running the following ...

```bash frame="terminal" title="uname -a"
``` awk
lima uname -a

... returns the following output ...

```bash frame="terminal" title="Output"
``` plaintext
Linux lima-default 5.11.0-31-generic #33-Ubuntu SMP Wed Aug 11 13:19:04 UTC 2021 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Lets now take a look at running a container.

### Running a container

Any good Docker introduction will always have you running the [hello-world](https://hub.docker.com/_/hello-world) container, so that seems like a good place to start. To run the container the following command ...

```bash frame="terminal" title="Running the Docker hello-world"
``` awk
lima nerdctl container run hello-world

... this gives the following output ...

```bash frame="terminal" title="Output"
``` plaintext
docker.io/library/hello-world:latest:                                             resolved       |++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++|
index-sha256:7d91b69e04a9029b99f3585aaaccae2baa80bcf318f4a5d2165a9898cd2dc0a1:    done           |++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++|
manifest-sha256:1b26826f602946860c279fce658f31050cff2c596583af237d971f4629b57792: done           |++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++|
config-sha256:d1165f2212346b2bab48cb01c1e39ee8ad1be46b87873d9ca7a4e434980a7726:   done           |++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++|
layer-sha256:b8dfde127a2919ff59ad3fd4a0776de178a555a76fff77a506e128aea3ed41e3:    done           |++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++|
elapsed: 1.9 s                                                                    total:  4.5 Ki (2.3 KiB/s)

Hello from Docker!
This message shows that your installation appears to be working correctly.

To generate this message, Docker took the following steps:
 1. The Docker client contacted the Docker daemon.
 2. The Docker daemon pulled the "hello-world" image from the Docker Hub.
    (amd64)
 3. The Docker daemon created a new container from that image which runs the
    executable that produces the output you are currently reading.
 4. The Docker daemon streamed that output to the Docker client, which sent it
    to your terminal.

To try something more ambitious, you can run an Ubuntu container with:
 $ docker run -it ubuntu bash

Share images, automate workflows, and more with a free Docker ID:
 https://hub.docker.com/

For more examples and ideas, visit:
 https://docs.docker.com/get-started/

... success 🥳, we have pulled and download our first image using `nerdctl` and containerd.

### Building and working with containers

For this I took one of the examples from [Mastering Docker (Fourth Edition)](https://www.packtpub.com/product/mastering-docker-fourth-edition/9781839216572) which installs NGINX and deploys a simple static HTML file, the `Dockerfile` for this is below, however if you want to follow along you will need all the files which can be found at [russmckendrick/lima-dockerfile-example](https://github.com/russmckendrick/lima-dockerfile-example):

```bash frame="terminal" title="The Dockerfile"
``` dockerfile
FROM alpine:latest
LABEL maintainer="Russ McKendrick <russ@mckendrick.io>"
LABEL description="This example Dockerfile installs NGINX."
RUN apk add --update nginx && \
        rm -rf /var/cache/apk/* && \
        mkdir -p /tmp/nginx/

COPY files/nginx.conf /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
COPY files/default.conf /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
ADD files/html.tar.gz /usr/share/nginx/

EXPOSE 80/tcp

ENTRYPOINT ["nginx"]
CMD ["-g", "daemon off;"]

To build all you need to is change your current directory to the folder containing the `Dockerfile` and run the following command:

```bash frame="terminal" title="Running the Docker hello-world"
``` awk
lima nerdctl image build --tag local:lima-example .

You should see something which looks like the following output:

```bash frame="terminal" title="Output"
``` plaintext
[+] Building 3.8s (10/10) FINISHED
 => [internal] load build definition from Dockerfile                                           0.1s
 => => transferring dockerfile: 474B                                                           0.0s
 => [internal] load .dockerignore                                                              0.0s
 => => transferring context: 2B                                                                0.0s
 => [internal] load metadata for docker.io/library/alpine:latest                               1.7s
 => [1/5] FROM docker.io/library/alpine:latest@sha256:e1c082e3d3c45cccac829840a25941e679c25d4  0.4s
 => => resolve docker.io/library/alpine:latest@sha256:e1c082e3d3c45cccac829840a25941e679c25d4  0.0s
 => => sha256:a0d0a0d46f8b52473982a3c466318f479767577551a53ffc9074c9fa7035982 2.81MB / 2.81MB  0.2s
 => => extracting sha256:a0d0a0d46f8b52473982a3c466318f479767577551a53ffc9074c9fa7035982e      0.1s
 => [internal] load build context                                                              0.0s
 => => transferring context: 59.58kB                                                           0.0s
 => [2/5] RUN apk add --update nginx &&         rm -rf /var/cache/apk/* &&         mkdir -p /  1.1s
 => [3/5] COPY files/nginx.conf /etc/nginx/nginx.conf                                          0.0s
 => [4/5] COPY files/default.conf /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf                               0.0s
 => [5/5] ADD files/html.tar.gz /usr/share/nginx/                                              0.1s
 => exporting to oci image format                                                              0.4s
 => => exporting layers                                                                        0.2s
 => => exporting manifest sha256:1b8d360cd195595bca09b64ad110ea31ca793d33a220fdd49b78a58ca6c2  0.0s
 => => exporting config sha256:ee2c8c52cc0fc3892d8b7538306a5e630d47e82cb07df57fb5b71b44c1b241  0.0s
 => => sending tarball                                                                         0.1s
unpacking docker.io/library/local:lima-example (sha256:1b8d360cd195595bca09b64ad110ea31ca793d33a220fdd49b78a58ca6c2f968)...done
unpacking fuse-overlayfs@sha256:1b8d360cd195595bca09b64ad110ea31ca793d33a220fdd49b78a58ca6c2f968 (sha256:1b8d360cd195595bca09b64ad110ea31ca793d33a220fdd49b78a58ca6c2f968)...done

Now that we have our custom NGINX image, let's launch it by running:

```bash frame="terminal" title="Running a container from our image"
``` awk
lima nerdctl container run -d --name lima-example -p 8080:80 local:lima-example

Finally, going to [http://localhost:8080/](http://localhost:8080/) should show you the following page:

<Img src="/assets/2021-09-05-docker-desktop-alternatives-for-macos/images/01.png" alt="We're no strangers to love, You know the rules and so do I" />

Now you might be thinking to yourself "Big deal, thats what I would have expected to have seen 🤷" and that is really a testament to what the developers have done, to get you into the the position where you can simply change folders on your local machine run a command and have your local folder mounted as the context within the Linux Virtual Machine means that they had to add some very complicated "stuff" in the background to enable both the mounting and also exposing the container port so it is bound to your local machine and not the Linux Virtual Machine itself.

Also, the syntax for other common `docker` commands it pretty much the same, as you can see below - we are listing all containers:

```bash frame="terminal" title="List all containers"
``` plaintext
$ lima nerdctl container ls -a
CONTAINER ID    IMAGE                                   COMMAND                   CREATED           STATUS                       PORTS                   NAMES
0cd4757d4af0    docker.io/library/local:lima-example    "nginx -g daemon off;"    8 minutes ago     Up                           0.0.0.0:8080->80/tcp    lima-example
5181bb58d69a    docker.io/library/hello-world:latest    "/hello"                  10 seconds ago    Exited (0) 10 seconds ago

Here we are listing the images:

```bash frame="terminal" title="List all images"
``` plaintext
$ lima nerdctl image ls
REPOSITORY     TAG             IMAGE ID        CREATED               SIZE
hello-world    latest          7d91b69e04a9    About a minute ago    20.0 KiB
local          lima-example    47ad7ea849a6    10 minutes ago        7.8 MiB

Finally, stop and remove the NGINX container:

```bash frame="terminal" title="Stop and remove NGINX container"
``` awk
lima nerdctl container stop lima-example
lima nerdctl container rm lima-example

There is one more thing though ...

### Tidying up

As the `limactl start` command basically launched a full Ubuntu Linux Virtual machine on your host machine you probably don't want that running all of the time so the following commands will stop and also you can remove the VM:

<WarningCallout title="Warning">
**Please Note** running the "limactl remove" command will delete the virtual machine loosing any customization you have done along with any data you have explicitly stored on the virtual machine itself
</WarningCallout>

```bash frame="terminal" title="Stop and remove Lima VM"
``` awk
limactl stop
limactl remove default

## Rancher Desktop

While watching "AzUpdate S03E05" [@TheAprilEdwards](https://twitter.com/TheAprilEdwards) mentioned [Rancher Desktop](https://rancherdesktop.io), you can find the full episode below:

<YouTube id="R4kVNtVwMmo" /><br />

Up until that point I hadn't heard of Rancher Desktop, so lets take a quick look at it.

### Installing Rancher Desktop

Rancher Desktop is very new, its first first release was May and it is still a very early alpha, because of this there is no Homebrew installer for it (just yet) so to install you will have to goto [the projects GitHub release page](https://github.com/rancher-sandbox/rancher-desktop/releases) and down the dmg file, once download mount it and then drag the application to your Applications folder.

Open the application and then give it about 5 minutes.

<TipCallout title="Tip">
There is are a few issues in Rancher Desktop 0.4.1 which stopped me from using the latest version, I ended up having to run the 0.3.0.
</TipCallout>

Once launched you should see something similar to the following screen:

<Img src="/assets/2021-09-05-docker-desktop-alternatives-for-macos/images/02.png" alt="General" />

The other options look like the following (click to zoom):

{/* Old gallery removed - please add images manually if needed */}
<Img src="/assets/2021-09-05-docker-desktop-alternatives-for-macos/images/03.png" alt="Kubernetes Settings" />
<Img src="/assets/2021-09-05-docker-desktop-alternatives-for-macos/images/04.png" alt="Port Forwarding" />
<Img src="/assets/2021-09-05-docker-desktop-alternatives-for-macos/images/05.png" alt="Images" />
<Img src="/assets/2021-09-05-docker-desktop-alternatives-for-macos/images/06.png" alt="Troubleshooting" />

### Using Rancher Desktop

Once up and running, Rancher Desktop is no real different from any Kubernetes installation, drop to the command line and use `kubectl`, for example running:

```bash frame="terminal" title="List the nodes"
``` awk
kubectl get nodes

Will show something like:

```bash frame="terminal" title="Output"
``` plaintext
NAME      STATUS   ROLES            AGE     VERSION
default   Ready    builder,master   8m57s   v1.19.11+k3s1

```bash frame="terminal" title="Install a helm chart"
``` awk
helm repo add opsmx https://helmcharts.opsmx.com/
helm install my-hello-kubernetes opsmx/hello-kubernetes --version 1.0.3  --set service.type=ClusterIP

I could go on, but Rancher Desktop is very alpha and I ended up having to mess about a lot to get things running.

<InfoCallout title="Info">
Make sure you quit the desktop app from the menu bar and don't just close the window otherwise Rancher Desktop will remain running in the background.
</InfoCallout>

## Minikube

Minikube has been around a longtime and while it does not have a Desktop front-end it remains more than capable to run your Kubernetes workload locally.

### Installing Minikube

```bash frame="terminal" title="Install a minikube, kubectl and helm"
``` awk
brew install minikube kubectl helm
minikube start

You should then see some like the following output:

```bash frame="terminal" title="Output"
``` plaintext
😄  minikube v1.23.0 on Darwin 11.5.2
✨  Automatically selected the hyperkit driver. Other choices: virtualbox, ssh
💾  Downloading driver docker-machine-driver-hyperkit:
    > docker-machine-driver-hyper...: 65 B / 65 B [----------] 100.00% ? p/s 0s
    > docker-machine-driver-hyper...: 10.52 MiB / 10.52 MiB  100.00% ? p/s 100m
🔑  The 'hyperkit' driver requires elevated permissions. The following commands will be executed:

    $ sudo chown root:wheel /Users/russ.mckendrick/.minikube/bin/docker-machine-driver-hyperkit
    $ sudo chmod u+s /Users/russ.mckendrick/.minikube/bin/docker-machine-driver-hyperkit

💿  Downloading VM boot image ...
    > minikube-v1.23.0.iso.sha256: 65 B / 65 B [-------------] 100.00% ? p/s 0s
    > minikube-v1.23.0.iso: 229.15 MiB / 229.15 MiB  100.00% 68.60 MiB p/s 3.5s
👍  Starting control plane node minikube in cluster minikube
💾  Downloading Kubernetes v1.22.1 preload ...
    > preloaded-images-k8s-v12-v1...: 515.04 MiB / 515.04 MiB  100.00% 61.30 Mi
🔥  Creating hyperkit VM (CPUs=2, Memory=4000MB, Disk=20000MB) ...
🐳  Preparing Kubernetes v1.22.1 on Docker 20.10.8 ...
    ▪ Generating certificates and keys ...
    ▪ Booting up control plane ...
    ▪ Configuring RBAC rules ...
🔎  Verifying Kubernetes components...
    ▪ Using image gcr.io/k8s-minikube/storage-provisioner:v5
🌟  Enabled addons: storage-provisioner, default-storageclass
🏄  Done! kubectl is now configured to use "minikube" cluster and "default" namespace by default

### Using Minikube

Once Minikube is up and running you should be able to interact with it using `kubectl` and `helm` for example running:

```bash frame="terminal" title="List the nodes"
``` awk
kubectl get nodes

Gives the following:

```bash frame="terminal" title="Output"
``` plaintext
NAME       STATUS   ROLES                  AGE   VERSION
minikube   Ready    control-plane,master   17m   v1.22.1

You can also install a Helm chart using:

```bash frame="terminal" title="Install a helm chart"
``` awk
helm repo add opsmx https://helmcharts.opsmx.com/
helm install my-hello-kubernetes opsmx/hello-kubernetes --version 1.0.3  --set service.type=ClusterIP

Once you have the application up and running you can run the following command to open a tunnel to your cluster:

```bash frame="terminal" title="Open a tunnel to the cluster"
``` awk
minikube tunnel

The `minikube tunnel` command needs to run in the foreground so open a new terminal window and run the following command:

```bash frame="terminal"
``` awk
kubectl get service hello-kubernetes-my-hello-kubernetes

For me this returned the following:

```bash frame="terminal" title="Output"
``` plaintext
NAME                                   TYPE        CLUSTER-IP      EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)   AGE
hello-kubernetes-my-hello-kubernetes   ClusterIP   10.105.108.88   <none>        80/TCP    15m

Make a copy of the `CLUSTER-IP` and enter into your browser, e.g. `http://10.105.108.88` and you should be presented with the following:

<Img src="/assets/2021-09-05-docker-desktop-alternatives-for-macos/images/07.png" alt="K8s Hello World" />

### Tidying up

Like Lima, Minikube will continue to run in the background until it is stopped, which you can do by running:

```bash frame="terminal" title="Stopping"
minikube stop
✋  Stopping node "minikube"  ...
🛑  1 nodes stopped.