Learning DevOps: Continuously Deliver Better Software

Using the host only network

Docker uses a bridge to connect to the underlying virtual network and present services within a container, and by and large, this is perfectly satisfactory. However, there are some edge cases where this can cause issues; a perfect example is an application that makes use of multicast. To get around this, you can present the host networking stack to the container, allowing it to make full use of the host network. This allows items such as multicast to work at the expense of some flexibility and convenience.

Tip

Wherever possible, you should avoid using this technique. Although it can help avoid certain issues, it also breaks one of the underlying ideas of containerization by making a container rely on features of the host. ...