Running Docker inside Docker container: Cannot connect to the Docker daemon

Question

I created a Dockerfile to run Docker inside Docker:

    FROM ubuntu:16.04
RUN apt-get update && \\
    apt-get install -y \\
    apt-transport-https \\
          


        

Answer 1

If you really want to run a Docker container inside an other Docker container, you should use already existing images provided by Docker (https://hub.docker.com/_/docker) instead of creating your own base image : choose images tagged as dind (docker in docker) or -dind (like 18.09.0-dind). If you want to run your own image (not recommended though), don't forget to run it with --privileged option (that's why you get the error).

Example with docker official images :

# run Docker container running Docker daemon
docker run --privileged --name some-docker -d docker:18.09.0-dind

# run hello-world Docker image inside the Docker container previously started
docker exec -i -t some-docker docker run hello-world

Nevertheless, I agree with @DavidMaze comment and the reference blog post he referred to (Do not use Docker-in-Docker for CI) : Docker-in-Docker should be avoided as much as possible.