Handcrafting a Container Image

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Handcrafting a Container Image

If you run your website from a pre-built base image, it will require a manual process to set up the container each time it runs. For repeatability and scalability, the container, and your website code should be made into an image. In this lab, you will start with a base webserver image, modify settings in the container for your website, and then create images from the container. You'll demonstrate the importance of small changes to your container, and how they affect your image. Lastly, you will use your new images to create containers to see your hard work in action.

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Lab Info

Level

Beginner

Last updated

Sep 20, 2025

Duration

45m

Challenge

Get and Run the Base Image
1. Retrieve the httpd 2.4 image from Docker hub.
2. Start a container from the httpd image.
Challenge

Install Tools and Code in the Container
1. Log in to the container.
2. Update the base image and install git.
3. Get website code from GitHub.
4. Remove the default index page and copy the website files to httpd's web serving directory.
5. Log out of the container.
Challenge

Create an Image from the Container
1. Find the template container's ID.
2. Create an image named widgetfactory with version v1 from the container. 1. View the image information.
Note: You can use the container's name in place of its ID for docker commit. However, we will practice using the container ID in this lab.
Challenge

Clean up the Template for a Second Version
1. Log in to the container.
2. Remove temporary files and installed utilities.
3. Log out of the container.
4. Find the template container's ID.
5. Create a new image named widgetfactory with version v2 from the container
6. View the image information.
7. Delete the v1 image since it is obsolete.
Challenge

Run Multiple Containers from the Image
1. Start three containers from the widgetfactory:v2 image with different published web ports. The exposed ports should be in the 8000 to 8999 range.
2. View the running containers in Docker.
3. View the website from each container in a browser, using the three exposed web ports.

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