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dockerlinux-containers

Is it possible to share memory between docker containers?

I work on an application with different processes and I'm asked to contain those processes for achieving more isolation.

The problem is that the processes share memory with a single "hypervisor" process in order to exchange data (they use classic shared buffers). This solution was implemented for performance requirement and because it is running in user-space, so there aren't content switching between user-space and kernel-space.

If I'm not wrong is not possible to run more than one docker container inside a single IPC namespace, but I don't know if it is possible that a single docker container belongs to different IPC namespaces, this could solve my problem.

Other solutions are welcome, just keep in mind that performance is a requirement, thanks in advance.

Solution

  • The --ipc=host and --ipc=container:id options have since been added to the Docker create and run commands to share IPC resources.

    --ipc=""  : Set the IPC mode for the container,
             'container:<name|id>': reuses another container's IPC namespace
             'host': use the host's IPC namespace inside the container

    IPC with the host

    docker run --ipc=host <image>

    IPC with another container

    docker run --ipc=container:<id> <image>

    IPC with another container may need the shareable option set on the initial container (if dockerd defaults IPC to private)

    docker run --ipc=shareable <image>