Google Cloud - Deploy as Container from GCR - Ports not exposed in docker container

Question

I have created a GCP VM instance, with option Deploy as Container pointing to an image in my private GCR(nginx customized).

Also while creating the instance, I had given allow 'https' and 'http' traffic.

Though the application is working fine, on connecting the instance via ssh and inspecting docker containers (docker ps) I see the container ports are not exposed. Wondering how the http/https request are handled by the container here via the instance??

Answer 1

When you use the deploying containers option in GCE it runs docker with access to the host network.

From the relevant gcp docs :

Containerized VMs launch containers with the network set to host mode. A container shares the host network stack, and all interfaces from the host are available to the container.

More detailed info on the different network modes here.