On a Mac system, you can run Docker on Linux VM. Tools such as Vagrant and Docker Toolbox are quite handy to emulate Linux on Mac and in turn run Docker on it. Docker recently released Docker on Mac as a Beta, using the xhyve hypervisor to provide the Linux emulation. The xhyve hypervisor virtualizes the Docker Engine environment and Linux kernel-specific features for the Docker daemon.
It is always recommended that you use Docker for Mac for supported OS X versions 10.10.3, Yosemite or newer.
The following steps describe the installation of Docker for Mac:
- Download Docker for Mac from the link https://download.docker.com/mac/beta/Docker.dmg.
- Double-click to download Docker.dmg and move it, as shown here:
- Now, double-click on Docker.app in Applications and it will install all Docker components. During installation, it will ask for the machine's administrative password to install the software.
- Upon successful installation, the whale icon will appear in the top status bar:
- Finally, verify the Docker versions:
$ docker --version
Docker version 17.03.0-ce, build 60ccb22
$ docker-compose --version
docker-compose version 1.11.2, build dfed245
$ docker-machine --version
docker-machine version 0.10.0, build 76ed2a6