Weave creates a virtual network that connects Docker containers deployed across multiple hosts.
Applications use the network just as if the containers were all plugged into the same network switch, with no need to configure port mappings, links, etc. Services provided by application containers on the weave network can be made accessible to the outside world, regardless of where those containers are running. Similarly, existing internal systems can be exposed to application containers irrespective of their location.
Weave can traverse firewalls and operate in partially connected networks. Traffic can be encrypted, allowing hosts to be connected across an untrusted network.
With weave you can easily construct applications consisting of multiple containers, running anywhere.
Weave works alongside Docker's existing (single host) networking capabilities, so these can continue to be used by containers.
To run weave on a host, you need to install...
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Linux and Docker. We've tested with Docker versions 0.9.1 through 1.3.1, but other versions should work too. Linux kernels after 3.5 are known to work; the newer the better.
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weave. Install this with
sudo wget -O /usr/local/bin/weave \ https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zettio/weave/master/weave sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/weave -
(recommended) ethtool. On many systems this is installed already; if not then grab it via your favourite package manager. On some systems, weave application container networking may not operate correctly unless ethtool is available.
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(optional) conntrack. Install this via your favourite package manager. Without conntrack, the weave network may not re-establish itself fully when individual weave instances are stopped (with
weave stop) and restarted quickly (typically within ~3 minutes).
Say you have docker running on two hosts, accessible to each other as
$HOST1 and $HOST2, and want to deploy an application consisting of
two containers, one on each host.
On $HOST1 run (as root)
host1# weave launch
host1# C=$(weave run 10.0.1.1/24 -t -i ubuntu)
The first line starts the weave router, in a container. This needs to be done once on each host.
The second line runs our application container. We give it an IP
address and network, in
CIDR notation.
weave run invokes docker run -d with all the parameters following
the IP address and network. So we could be launching any container
this way; here we just take a stock ubuntu container and launch a
shell in it. There's also a weave start command, which invokes
docker start for starting existing containers.
If our application consists of more than one container on this host we simply launch them with a variation on that second line.
The IP addresses and netmasks can be anything you like, but make sure they don't conflict with any IP ranges in use on the hosts or IP addresses of external services the hosts or containers need to connect to. The same IP range must be used everywhere, and the individual IP addresses must, of course, be unique.
We repeat similar steps on $HOST2...
host2# weave launch $HOST1
host2# C=$(weave run 10.0.1.2/24 -t -i ubuntu)
The only difference, apart from the choice of IP address for the
application container, is that we tell our weave that it should peer
with the weave on $HOST1 (specified as the IP address or hostname, and
optional :port, by which $HOST2 can reach it). NB: if there is a
firewall between $HOST1 and $HOST2, you must open port 6783 for TCP
and UDP.
Note that we could instead have told the weave on $HOST1 to connect to
$HOST2, or told both about each other. Order does not matter here;
weave automatically (re)connects to peers when they become
available. Also, we can tell weave to connect to multiple peers by
supplying multiple addresses, separated by spaces. And we can
add peers dynamically.
Now that we've got everything set up, let's see whether our containers can talk to each other...
On $HOST1...
host1# docker attach $C
root@28841bd02eff:/# ping -c 1 -q 10.0.1.2
PING 10.0.1.2 (10.0.1.2): 48 data bytes
--- 10.0.1.2 ping statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 1 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 1.048/1.048/1.048/0.000 ms
Similarly, on $HOST2...
host2# docker attach $C
root@f76829496120:/# ping -c 1 -q 10.0.1.1
PING 10.0.1.1 (10.0.1.1): 48 data bytes
--- 10.0.1.1 ping statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 1 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 1.034/1.034/1.034/0.000 ms
So there we have it, two containers on separate hosts happily talking to each other.
Found a bug, want to suggest a feature, or have a question?
File an issue, or email
[email protected]. When reporting a bug, please include which version of
weave you are running, as shown by weave version.
Follow weave on Twitter: @weavenetwork.
Read the Weave blog: Weaveblog.
IRC: #weavenetwork