Update Docker On Windows Server 2016 (Jan 2019)

It has been a long time since I blogged about Windows Containers but today I wanted to write a new article on how to update the Docker Engine on Windows Server 2016 and 2019.

Since my last article on the topic of updating Windows Containers a few things have changed the process has become better.

Update (Jan 2019)

I updated the document to include the command for the DockerMSFTProvider because the document was written for the DockerProvider which is the old version of the PowerShell package.

If you are getting an error message about “unable to find a provider”, Change the provider name to DockerMSFTProvider.

Windows Server 2019

The steps on this blog post will also work on Windows Server 2019.

Get Started

To get started, I will first check the current Docker engine version that is installed on my Windows Server by running the cmdlet below:

get-Package -Name Docker -ProviderName DockerProvider 

If you are getting an error message “Unable to find package providers change the Provider name to DockerMSFTProvider like the line below.

 get-Package -Name Docker -ProviderName DockerMSFTProvider  

As you can see I am running an old version of Docker.

Below, I will run a cmdlet that will tell me what the current version of docker is that is available

Find-Package -Name Docker -ProviderName DockerProvider

If you have the DockerMSFTProvider installed, run the cmdlet below to check the version number.

Find-Package -Name Docker -ProviderName DockerMSFTProvider 

And below you can see both versions

Version 18.09.1

The current Docker version for Windows Server 2016 and 2019 is 18.09.1 and I recommend you update Server to it.

Update

All I need to do next is to run the cmdlet below and update Docker to the latest version

Install-Package -Name Docker -ProviderName DockerProvider -Update -Force

If you have the DockerMSFTProvider installed run the cmdlet below to check the version number.

Install-Package -Name Docker -ProviderName DockerMSFTProvider -Update -Force 

About windows Containers

Windows Server Containers first released 2 years ago and shipped with Windows Server 2016 and allowed organization to run Windows Containers inside a Windows Container host.