How to save all Docker images and copy to another machine

Question

I have the below list of images present on my system and want to copy all these images to a remote machine.

REPOSITORY          TAG                 IMAGE ID            CREATED             VIRTUAL SIZE u14_py269           latest              6a1ec0b508b3        4 days ago          885.9 MB u12_py273           latest              c2a804894851        4 days ago          686 MB u12_core            latest              0d61eba80df2        4 days ago          629.1 MB c6_py266            latest              cb1a94742d59        4 days ago          1.32 GB c6_core             latest              77c2ed19d87f        4 days ago          1.278 GB c7_py275            latest              bb1d3de68452        4 days ago          1.117 GB c7_core             latest              ca14a76e9cca        4 days ago          1.081 GB u14_py35            latest              d110c7e4a1f5        5 days ago          914.5 MB u14_py34            latest              085a37cb8614        5 days ago          830.7 MB u14_py276           latest              8927c6167930        5 days ago          834.1 MB u14_core            latest              93ead5abc25b        5 days ago          776.9 MB centos              centos6             36877b5acebb        5 days ago          228.9 MB ubuntu              latest              36248ae4a9ac        5 days ago          188 MB ubuntu              12.04               94a7cb19a65b        5 days ago          137.8 MB edgester/gerrit     latest              ce4e3238052a        6 days ago          735.2 MB u14_as374_py276     latest              fa5fb7189d70        11 days ago         1.497 GB c721_as373_py275    latest              03ccf6961d0c        11 days ago         844.3 MB c721_as373_py35     latest              b5fece3dd45b        11 days ago         1.127 GB c171_con_core       latest              8af0d24a38a0        2 weeks ago         377.2 MB u14_as374_php55     latest              29df638e363a        3 weeks ago         1.073 GB j_u14_as374_php55   latest              29df638e363a        3 weeks ago         1.073 GB centos              centos7             c8a648134623        8 weeks ago         196.6 MB centos              latest              c8a648134623        8 weeks ago         196.6 MB j_u14_as374_py276   latest              28f379d60882        10 weeks ago        871.5 MB ubuntu              14.04               89d5d8e8bafb        10 weeks ago        187.9 MB 

Currently I am using method suggested in save and load Docker images, but I believe there must be a better way to deal with all images.

Answer 1

If you want to export all images at once, create one big tar file:

docker save $(docker images -q) -o /path/to/save/mydockersimages.tar 

If you want to save multiples images in one .tar file:

IDS=$(docker images | awk '{if ($1 ~ /^(debian|centos)/) print $3}') docker save $IDS -o /path/to/save/somedockersimages.tar 

Finally, if you want to export multiple many images, with one .tar file per images (not disk efficient: common layer are saved in each .tar file):

docker images | awk '{if ($1 ~ /^(openshift|centos)/) print $1 " " $2 " " $3 }' | tr -c "a-z A-Z0-9_.\n-" "%" | while read REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE_ID do   echo "== Saving $REPOSITORY $TAG $IMAGE_ID =="   docker  save   -o /path/to/save/$REPOSITORY-$TAG-$IMAGE_ID.tar $IMAGE_ID done 

You may also want to save the list of images so that the restored images can be tagged:

docker images | sed '1d' | awk '{print $1 " " $2 " " $3}' > mydockersimages.list 

On the remote machine, you can load (import) the images:

docker load -i /path/to/save/mydockersimages.tar 

and tag the imported images:

while read REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE_ID do         echo "== Tagging $REPOSITORY $TAG $IMAGE_ID =="         docker tag "$IMAGE_ID" "$REPOSITORY:$TAG" done < mydockersimages.list 

For more information about save/load, read: How to copy Docker images from one host to another without using a repository