Docker Client MX

Connections, the comic

One app, many kitchens.

The same cooks as the other comics, in more than one kitchen: the one in WSL on your laptop, Cas’s at home, Docker Desktop in its basement. The app knows them all, and walks between them without you having to.

1 Which kitchen?

The app finds the kitchen the way the docker CLI does: DOCKER_HOST first, then the current docker context, then the default of your platform.
1 DOCKER_HOST2 context3 defaultFirst this one,then the next.
Docker in WSL, a Linux box over SSH, Colima, or Docker Desktop itself: all kitchens the app can cook in.
wslserverdesktop
It opens in the kitchen you used last, or always the same one. Is that kitchen closed, Cas’s home server at night, it moves on to the next and says where you ended up and why.
CLOSEDCas’s kitchen isclosed. Next one!

2 Every kitchen on one board

One page with every kitchen: open or not, which engine, how many cooks are working, and how many stand still or need you.
wsl 8server 5desktop 2All kitchens,one board.
Click a count to see which cooks it means. In another kitchen you can read a diary, start, stop or restart right there, without walking over.
Cas, restartthe soup, please.Done!
Put two kitchens side by side: which books both have and which edition, the differences first. Copy a book across with one button; nothing is brought in line by itself.
Same book,other edition.

3 Visiting over SSH

A server is added under Settings, and the app tests the connection for you. Over SSH it runs docker system dial-stdio on the server, so nothing there has to listen on the network.
SSHThrough theservice door.
An unknown host key is never accepted by itself, and one that changed is refused: you compare the fingerprint first.
This key is notthe one I know.Then don’tlet it in.
In Docker Client MX: every kitchen you can reach on one page, and a star on the one the app opens in.
THE END

The cheat sheet

Every picture above, in Docker words.

A kitchen
A Docker engine on a machine
Where you start
DOCKER_HOST, the docker context, the default
Cas’s kitchen, closed at night
A machine that is off: the app moves on
The board with every kitchen
The Machines page
A phone call to Cas
Acting on another machine without switching
Two shelves side by side
Comparing two machines
The service door and your key
SSH, with docker system dial-stdio
A key you checked
A host key you compared and trusted
Now visit your own kitchens.
Docker in WSL, servers over SSH and every other daemon you can reach, all on one page, with host keys you checked yourself.
What the app does with connections →Swarm, the comic →Download for Windows