Hello,

I am fairly new to Unraid, though very familiar with Linux and Docker. I have developed a home automation container that I would like to run on my Unraid (Version 6.10.3) server. I have already looked online, at tutorials on youtube and at the UnRaid manual about docker, and I am easily able to run other community containers (e.g. PostgreSQL 12) on my server, though I am not able to figure out how to transfer my privately developed container to run in UnRaid along with the community containers. 

I am aware that I may just spin up a Linux VM and run the container inside the VM, but I find this to defeat the purpose of running a container. I understand that it is possible to download containers using a link to a container repo, but I do not wish to make my container image publicly available. I am also aware that Docker Hub allows for one free private container repo, but given time I will have multiple containers that I want to update regularly and not make available online. 

So to sum up my question - is it possible to transfer a docker image to Unraid via e.g. rsync or shared folder and then spin it up and manage it using the dashboard, as can be done with the community containers?

Thank you in advance!

Kind regards, 

Brian

Docker has the commands "docker image save" and "docker image load" that would allow you to export and import an image to/from a tar file. 

Thank you for your suggestion! :-) I am aware of these commands, but would loading a container image this way, make the imported container show up and be manageable in Unraid as if it was a community container?

I expect that I could make a shared folder that i export the container images to, and then run the docker load command from the console of the server. 

I am not exactly sure what you mean. If you are talking about the Community applications plugin the options there are just dockerman templates created and shared by the community. You can create your own templates for any container you want in unRAIDs docker tab. Templates essentially are a way of specifying all the components of the run command. You can run any image you want, local or from docker hub, just the way you would on the command line.

Thanks again for your time, I'll try to clarify what I mean. 
Is it really just that straightforward - that if I load a docker image that I created myself, it will show up and be manageable via the gui?

I wouldn't have guessed, but I will try right away! I'll update you on how it goes 🙂

Okay as a final update - I actually got this working! Thank you for your good points primeval_god! 🙂
The solution was to docker save (https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/commandline/save/) to export my image into a file, that I then copied into a shared folder on my server. From the unraid interface, I opened a terminal to navigate to the newly copied container image and loaded this into docker on my server by running docker load (https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/commandline/load/). Afterwards, I used the terminal to access the folder that contains the xml-files that define the docker templates that Unraid shows in its interface. I copied an already existing xml-file that is used for another container and edited the copied xml-file to reference my local docker image name and show appropriate information. 
The container is now running and I am able to manage it using the Unraid interface.
If anyone are interested in a more detailed description of what I have done, feel free to contact me, I'll be happy to share what I have learned 🙂