Download Docker images without the pull command when you are behind proxy

One way is to download images on your Linux laptop or VM connected to internet without proxy and then save them

docker save example > example.tar

optionally, you can compress the resulting tarball with xz to save of transmission time

xz example.tar

Then, you need to upload the compressed tar to your firewalled server from you r corporate laptop or any other way :-)

docker load < example.tar.xz

Slightly more complex way to do it is to create tar file without docker using script  download-frozen-image-v2.sh

So it turns out that the Moby Project has a shell script on the Moby GitHub account which can download images from Docker Hub in a format that can be imported into Docker:

• download-frozen-image-v2.sh

The usage syntax for the script is given by the following:

download-frozen-image-v2.sh target_dir image[:tag][@digest] ...

The image can then be imported with tar and docker load :

tar -cC 'target_dir' . | docker load

To verify that the script works as expected, I downloaded an Ubuntu image from Docker Hub and loaded it into Docker:

user@host:~$ bash download-frozen-image-v2.sh ubuntu ubuntu:latest
user@host:~$ tar -cC 'ubuntu' . | docker load
user@host:~$ docker run --rm -ti ubuntu bash
root@1dd5e62113b9:/#

In practice I would have to first copy the data from the Internet client (which does not have Docker installed) to the target/destination machine (which does have Docker installed):

user@nodocker:~$ bash download-frozen-image-v2.sh ubuntu ubuntu:latest
user@nodocker:~$ tar -C 'ubuntu' -cf 'ubuntu.tar' .
user@nodocker:~$ scp ubuntu.tar user@hasdocker:~

and then load and use the image on the target host:

user@hasdocker:~ docker load ubuntu.tar
user@hasdocker:~ docker run --rm -ti ubuntu bash
root@1dd5e62113b9:/#

Looks like this script can run in Cygwin environment on a corporate laptop too.

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• 20190126* How do I download Docker images without using the pull command when you are behind firewall ( Jan 26, 2019 , stackoverflow.com ) [Recommended]

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[Jan 26, 2019] How do I download Docker images without using the pull command when you are behind firewall

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Jan 26, 2019 | stackoverflow.com

Ephreal , Jun 19, 2016 at 9:29

Is there a way I can download a Docker image/container using, for example, Firefox and not using the built-in docker-pull .

I am blocked by the company firewall and proxy, and I can't get a hole through it.

My problem is that I cannot use Docker to get images, that is, Docker save/pull and other Docker supplied functions since it is blocked by a firewall.

i cannot get access to the docker hub. I get a x509: Certificate signed by unknown authority. My company are using zScaler as man-in-the-middle firewall – Ephreal Jun 19 '16 at 10:38

erikbwork , Apr 25, 2017 at 13:54

Possible duplicate of How to copy docker images from one host to another without via repository? – erikbwork Apr 25 '17 at 13:54

vikas027 , Dec 12, 2016 at 11:30

Just an alternative - This is what I did in my organization for couchbase image where I was blocked by a proxy. On my personal laptop (OS X)

~$ $ docker save couchbase > couchbase.tar
~$ ls -lh couchbase.docker
-rw-------  1 vikas  devops   556M 12 Dec 21:15 couchbase.tar
~$ xz -9 couchbase.tar
~$ ls -lh couchbase.tar.xz
-rw-r--r--  1 vikas  staff   123M 12 Dec 22:17 couchbase.tar.xz

Then, I uploaded the compressed tar ball to Dropbox and downloaded on my work machine. For some reason Dropbox was open :)

On my work laptop (CentOS 7)

$ docker load < couchbase.tar.xz

---

References

• https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/commandline/save/
• https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/commandline/load/

Ephreal , Dec 15, 2016 at 15:43

Thank you; didn't know you could save an image into a tar ball. I will try this. – Ephreal Dec 15 '16 at 15:43

I just had to deal with this issue myself - downloading an image from a restricted machine with Internet access, but no Docker client for use on a another restricted machine with the Docker client, but no Internet access. I posted my question to the DevOps Stack Exchange site :

• Downloading Docker Images from Docker Hub without using Docker

With help from the Docker Community I was able to find a resolution to my problem. What follows is my solution.

---

So it turns out that the Moby Project has a shell script on the Moby GitHub account which can download images from Docker Hub in a format that can be imported into Docker:

• download-frozen-image-v2.sh

The usage syntax for the script is given by the following:

download-frozen-image-v2.sh target_dir image[:tag][@digest] ...

The image can then be imported with tar and docker load :

tar -cC 'target_dir' . | docker load

To verify that the script works as expected, I downloaded an Ubuntu image from Docker Hub and loaded it into Docker:

user@host:~$ bash download-frozen-image-v2.sh ubuntu ubuntu:latest
user@host:~$ tar -cC 'ubuntu' . | docker load
user@host:~$ docker run --rm -ti ubuntu bash
root@1dd5e62113b9:/#

In practice I would have to first copy the data from the Internet client (which does not have Docker installed) to the target/destination machine (which does have Docker installed):

user@nodocker:~$ bash download-frozen-image-v2.sh ubuntu ubuntu:latest
user@nodocker:~$ tar -C 'ubuntu' -cf 'ubuntu.tar' .
user@nodocker:~$ scp ubuntu.tar user@hasdocker:~

and then load and use the image on the target host:

user@hasdocker:~ docker load ubuntu.tar
user@hasdocker:~ docker run --rm -ti ubuntu bash
root@1dd5e62113b9:/#

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