This chapter focused on the operations side of running Dockerized solutions. I showed you how to use existing Windows management tools with Docker containers and how that can be useful for investigation and debugging. The main focus was on a new way of administering and monitoring applications, using UCP in Docker Enterprise to manage all kinds of workloads in the same way.

You learned how to use existing Windows management tools, such as IIS Manager and the server manager, to administer Docker containers, and you also learned about the limitations of this approach. Sticking with the tools you know can be useful when you start with Docker, but dedicated container management tools are a better option.

I covered two open source options to manage containers: the simple visualizer and the more advanced Portainer. Both run as containers and connect to the Docker API, and they are cross-platform apps packaged in Linux and Windows Docker images.

Lastly I walked you through the main features in Docker Enterprise used to manage production workloads. I demonstrated UCP as a single pane of glass to administer a diverse range of containerized applications, running in multiple technology stacks on Linux and Windows containers in the same cluster, and showed how RBAC lets you secure access to all of your Docker resources.

The next chapter is focused on security. Applications running in containers potentially offer a new avenue of attack. You need to be aware of the risks, but security is at the center of the Docker platform. Docker lets you easily set up an end-to-end security story, where policies are enforced by the platform at runtime—something which is very hard to do without Docker.