Managing docker on a WSL distro remotely with lazydocker running on windows?

[Kambaa]

Hello, by running lazydocker directly on windows powershell, is it possible to manage the docker running on wsl distro?

Since i did not want to install docker desktop on my Windows machine, i installed docker manually on a WSL distro(ubuntu for my case), and running commands inside it. After seeing this repo, i immediately installed lazydocker inside my wsl, and started using it happily. Now i'm wondering, is it possible to manage docker that is running inside a wsl distro directly on windows machine(by running lazydocker on windows powershell)? I was hoping for auto connection but got this error:

A way to configure docker on wsl to use tcp, and configure lazydocker to connect and use that maybe? Any ideas?

Thank you.

[Kambaa]

UPDATE:

After some chatting with chatgpt, i think i got this working: Here are the steps that i've taken(for my WSL ubuntu distro):

• Verify running docker service running on WSL distro by openning a WSL terminal and run this command

  sudo systemctl status docker
  

  

• Add another service configuration that adds the tcp access capability to docker:

  # Generate a directory 
  sudo mkdir -p /etc/systemd/system/docker.service.d
  # Add an override service definition
  sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/docker.service.d/override.conf
  

  add these lines to the override.conf

  [Service]
  ExecStart=
  ExecStart=/usr/bin/dockerd -H unix:///var/run/docker.sock -H tcp://0.0.0.0:2375
  

• Restart services and check the new override service is running

  sudo systemctl daemon-reexec
  sudo systemctl daemon-reload
  sudo systemctl restart docker
  sudo systemctl status docker
  

  

• Get the private ip address of this wsl instance by running this command on powershell:

  wsl hostname -I
  

• Use that WSL instance ip to add an environment variable and run the lazydocker on windows powershell like this:

  $env:DOCKER_HOST = "tcp://172.XXX.XXX.XXX:2375"
  lazydocker
  

  

Now, i don't know if configuring tcp access to docker in WSL generates any security vulnerabilities, you should be mindful of that, but for a closed-off development environment, i think this is the true lazyness :)

EXTRA: A powershell shortcut goodie:
To run lazydocker on powershell by just writing lzd

# open $PROFILE
notepad $PROFILE

# if an error is given, generate the $PROFILE file by running this command and start from before again: 
New-Item -Path $PROFILE -Type File -Force

After notepad opens, add this function to the file and save it.

function lzd {
 $env:DOCKER_HOST = "tcp://172.XXX.XXX.XXX:2375"
 lazydocker
}

Now open a new powershell window and type lzd. You should see lazydocker running on windows connecting to the docker installed on WSL linux distro. HURRAAY! No more docker desktop :D