# BalenaOS as docker or VM **URL:** \ **Category:** balenaOS\ **Created:** [May 14, 2020, 7:20am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/balenaos-as-docker-or-vm/113572 "2020-05-14T07:20:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![thais](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e5b9ba/32.png) [@thais](https://forums.balena.io/u/thais)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 7:20am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/balenaos-as-docker-or-vm/113572/1 "2020-05-14T07:20:38Z")
For demo and testing purposes I want to have a BalenaOS and the apps on top public available. Is BalenaOS as docker version available or is there a chance to host BalenaOS and the apps as VM in Azure? ---
**Author:** ![sradevski](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/sradevski/32/1609_2.png) [@sradevski](https://forums.balena.io/u/sradevski)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 7:37am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/balenaos-as-docker-or-vm/113572/2 "2020-05-14T07:37:18Z")
Hi there, welcome to balena šŸ™‚ Both are definitely possible, hereā€™s a tool to run balenaOS in a container: [https://github.com/balena-os/balenaos-in-container](https://github.com/balena-os/balenaos-in-container), and here is a blogpost (although quite dated) for running it in VirtualBox: [https://www.balena.io/blog/no-hardware-use-virtualbox/](https://www.balena.io/blog/no-hardware-use-virtualbox/). Let us know how it goes or if you get stuck at some point and we can help out. Have a nice day! ---
**Author:** ![thais](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e5b9ba/32.png) [@thais](https://forums.balena.io/u/thais)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 9:51am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/balenaos-as-docker-or-vm/113572/4 "2020-05-14T09:51:36Z")
Thanks for you answer! I tried docker on windows and received the following error: INFO: Creating balena-boot-balenadocker docker volumeā€¦ INFO: Creating balena-state-balenadocker docker volumeā€¦ INFO: Creating balena-data-balenadocker docker volumeā€¦ INFO: Running balenaOS as container balena-container-balenadocker ā€¦ Failed to find module ā€˜autofs4ā€™ Configuration file /etc/systemd/system.conf.d/watchdog.conf is marked executable. Please remove executable permission bits. Proceeding anyway. Failed to create symlink /sys/fs/cgroup/net\_prio: File exists Failed to create symlink /sys/fs/cgroup/net\_cls: File exists Failed to create symlink /sys/fs/cgroup/cpu: File exists Failed to create symlink /sys/fs/cgroup/cpuacct: File exists ``` Welcome to balenaOS 2.46.0+rev1! ``` Maybe someone else has the same problem? ---
**Author:** ![phil-d-wilson](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/phil-d-wilson/32/3730_2.png) [@phil-d-wilson](https://forums.balena.io/u/phil-d-wilson)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 10:46am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/balenaos-as-docker-or-vm/113572/5 "2020-05-14T10:46:05Z")
Hi Matt I just tried this myself on Windows, and it worked OK. This is the command I ran: ```auto .\balenaos-in-container.ps1 -image balenalib/intel-nuc-alpine -id test -c config.json -detach ``` It seems that the image you are trying to run needs `aufs` installed on your system, as per step 3 in the instructions here: > **[balena-os/balenaos-in-container](https://github.com/balena-os/balenaos-in-container)** > > Run balenaOS as a docker container. Contribute to balena-os/balenaos-in-container development by creating an account on GitHub. Can you let me know the command you ran, with all the arguments, on your system? Phil ---
**Author:** ![thais](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e5b9ba/32.png) [@thais](https://forums.balena.io/u/thais)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 2:10pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/balenaos-as-docker-or-vm/113572/7 "2020-05-14T14:10:02Z")
That was my command: .\balenaos-in-container.ps1 -image resin/resinos:2.46.0\_rev1.dev-intel-nuc -id balenadocker -c ā€œ$PWD\config.jsonā€ ---
**Author:** ![ab77](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/ab77/32/2870_2.png) [@ab77](https://forums.balena.io/u/ab77)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 4:13pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/balenaos-as-docker-or-vm/113572/8 "2020-05-14T16:13:29Z")
Hi there, can you please check what version of Docker you have installed and if you have an older version, upgrade as per [https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-windows/install/](https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-windows/install/) ---
**Author:** ![thais](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e5b9ba/32.png) [@thais](https://forums.balena.io/u/thais)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 9:04am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/balenaos-as-docker-or-vm/113572/10 "2020-05-15T09:04:14Z")
Updating did not help. On my mac it was successful. Guess ok for the moment ---
**Author:** ![odyslam](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/odyslam/32/1684_2.png) [@odyslam](https://forums.balena.io/u/odyslam)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 9:22am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/balenaos-as-docker-or-vm/113572/13 "2020-05-15T09:22:30Z")
Hi Thais, Could you please provide us with a version for you Windows OS and docker that you use? Since High verified that it works as expected on Windows, we should investigate why the `aufs` storage driver is not supported on your system. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![thais](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e5b9ba/32.png) [@thais](https://forums.balena.io/u/thais)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 2:45pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/balenaos-as-docker-or-vm/113572/15 "2020-05-15T14:45:56Z")
Latest Win 10 and docker version 19.03.8 Here an abstract from docker info: ā€¦ Storage Driver: overlay2 Backing Filesystem: Supports d\_type: true Native Overlay Diff: true Nevertheless, my idea was to run balenaOS as docker with my application services on top. As I found out I cannot reach the frontend service in that docker network. ---
**Author:** ![alexgg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ab992/32.png) [@alexgg](https://forums.balena.io/u/alexgg)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 3:53pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/balenaos-as-docker-or-vm/113572/16 "2020-05-15T15:53:38Z")
Hi, thanks for that information. We will compare with our working version and come back to you. In the meantime, could you try configuring docker with aufs storage support? According to [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/windowscontainers/manage-docker/configure-docker-daemon#configure-docker-with-a-configuration-file](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/windowscontainers/manage-docker/configure-docker-daemon#configure-docker-with-a-configuration-file), you can do this on `C:\ProgramData\Docker\config\daemon.json` with `"storage-driver": "aufs"` ---
**Author:** ![Faltus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c89c15/32.png) [@Faltus](https://forums.balena.io/u/Faltus)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 4:09pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/balenaos-as-docker-or-vm/113572/18 "2020-05-15T16:09:24Z")
> Nevertheless, my idea was to run balenaOS as docker with my application services on top. As I found out I cannot reach the frontend service in that docker network. Good point is that possible, struggling with the same problem. I also want to call a frontend service running on BalenaOS docker version ---
**Author:** ![alexgg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ab992/32.png) [@alexgg](https://forums.balena.io/u/alexgg)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 5:46pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/balenaos-as-docker-or-vm/113572/19 "2020-05-15T17:46:44Z")
Hi, our working setup is also on Windows 10 and the same version of docker, running on WSL2. Could you please paste the whole output of `docker info`? ---
**Author:** ![thais](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e5b9ba/32.png) [@thais](https://forums.balena.io/u/thais)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 6:10pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/balenaos-as-docker-or-vm/113572/21 "2020-05-15T18:10:45Z")
docker info: Client: Debug Mode: false Server: Containers: 29 Running: 0 Paused: 0 Stopped: 29 Images: 522 Server Version: 19.03.8 Storage Driver: overlay2 Backing Filesystem: Supports d\_type: true Native Overlay Diff: true Logging Driver: json-file Cgroup Driver: cgroupfs Plugins: Volume: local Network: bridge host ipvlan macvlan null overlay Log: awslogs fluentd gcplogs gelf journald json-file local logentries splunk syslog Swarm: inactive Runtimes: runc Default Runtime: runc Init Binary: docker-init containerd version: 7ad184331fa3e55e52b890ea95e65ba581ae3429 runc version: dc9208a3303feef5b3839f4323d9beb36df0a9dd init version: fec3683 Security Options: seccomp Profile: default Kernel Version: 4.19.76-linuxkit Operating System: Docker Desktop OSType: linux Architecture: x86\_64 CPUs: 4 Total Memory: 7.992GiB Name: docker-desktop ID: UJKO:B7V6:DXDZ:UAJG:QLVK:EUV7:ZPYU:SAYI:AS3F:GPBO:PLGL:W6N4 Docker Root Dir: /var/lib/docker Debug Mode: true File Descriptors: 40 Goroutines: 54 System Time: 2020-05-15T14:42:30.747915731Z EventsListeners: 4 Registry: [https://index.docker.io/v1/](https://index.docker.io/v1/) Labels: Experimental: false Insecure Registries: 127.0.0.0/8 Live Restore Enabled: false Product License: Community Engine * * * Same result after I added the daemon.json Do I need to run this scipt balenaos-in-container.ps1 with admin privileges? ---
**Author:** ![phil-d-wilson](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/phil-d-wilson/32/3730_2.png) [@phil-d-wilson](https://forums.balena.io/u/phil-d-wilson)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 7:25pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/balenaos-as-docker-or-vm/113572/22 "2020-05-15T19:25:03Z")
Hey, Iā€™ve run the same image as you, and itā€™s working fine on Windows 10, with the same version of docker. Iā€™ve gone through our docker info outputs, and the only difference is this: Mine: `Kernel Version: 4.19.84-microsoft-standard` Yours: `Kernel Version: 4.19.76-linuxkit` Iā€™m running docker with WSL2 integration, the instructions to turn that on are here: > **[Docker Desktop WSL 2 backend](https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-windows/wsl/)** > > Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) 2 introduces a significant architectural change as it is a full Linux kernel built by Microsoft, allowing Linux containers to run natively without emulation. With... And no, I didnā€™t run the command in an Administrator prompt. I think itā€™s worth you trying to install the WSL2 integration and having another go. Let me know how you get on. Phil ---
**Author:** ![jgentes](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/jgentes/32/1595_2.png) [@jgentes](https://forums.balena.io/u/jgentes)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2020, 1:37pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/balenaos-as-docker-or-vm/113572/24 "2020-05-18T13:37:02Z")
For VM support, I recently posted an updated article that includes VMware and some Windows specific instructions here: [How to create VMware or VirtualBox virtual machine from Balena app image](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-to-create-vmware-or-virtualbox-virtual-machine-from-balena-app-image/95385) ---
**Author:** ![thais](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e5b9ba/32.png) [@thais](https://forums.balena.io/u/thais)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2020, 5:01pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/balenaos-as-docker-or-vm/113572/25 "2020-05-18T17:01:40Z")
Thank you all for the great support! Wsl2 was disabled. Now it is working! ---
**Author:** ![jviotti](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/jviotti/32/220_2.png) [@jviotti](https://forums.balena.io/u/jviotti)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2020, 5:15pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/balenaos-as-docker-or-vm/113572/26 "2020-05-18T17:15:55Z")
Thanks for taking the time to write that excellent post, and glad to hear its working fine!