Hi All,

I'm actually very shocked about this, I tried searching and went through the Unraid documentation, and the network type section for the docker part of unraid was the most bare thing I've seen with no real information about the different selections. So I'm hoping someone could explain each option to me as I only understand host and bridge somewhat but have no idea of the others. Please also correct me if I'm wrong on the explaination I give on the two mentioned:

 

Bridge: The default used, allows you to specify a port on your unraid server and BRIDGE that port to the port ON the docker container. Basically your linking a port from the server to a port on the container. For example I could make port 8001 on the Unraid server be linked to port 80 on the docker container. So for docker settings, his would be Container port = 80, Host Port = 8001.

 

Host: My understanding is that the docker container will use the ports directly. So instead of doing the bridging, it takes ownership and manages the port itself on the unraid server for that docker container to use? I'm unsure what truly distinguishes this from bridge and assume maybe this allows the container to potentially open up further ports itself or maybe close them when it wants. 

 

Container: No idea

 

None: No network access at all.

 

Custom: If my internet searches were any good, I think this is how you create a special, internal network for docker containers to use. So if you wanted different docker containers to communicate directly with each other vs the network traffic from one container having to leave the server, go to the router, and then back to the server to go to another docker container, I believe the traffic routes directly inside the Unraid server on this special custom network.

 

If anybody could let me know if I'm misunderstanding anything, explain the container option, and lastly, tell me if there is anyway for docker containers to get macvlans (Separate ip addresses). that would be great!

Container allows you to connect directly to the network stack of the container specified in the second drop down.

 

For example, I route the network traffic of my SearXNG instance through the GluetunVPN container.

 

More info here: https://docs.docker.com/engine/network/

Sorry to revive this conversation, but... reading up on

On 5/14/2025 at 2:25 AM, tictoc said:

More info here: https://docs.docker.com/engine/network/

I was curious to see that this documentation does not explain "custom" networks. I suppose custom networks are something that belong to each OS. So here's my question -- docs.docker.com explains that networks have a type, either bridge, host, none, overlay, ipvlan, macvlan. So is there a custom Unraid type of network?

As I understand it, my Unraid server's network card has an IP given from my router's DHCP server. Usually, you'd have 65000 ports, but creating a network inside Unraid basically forwards the traffic from the NIC's IP/port combination to a virtual software network created by Unraid, kinda like a VLAN. This means I'd have an extra 65025 IPs to draw from, each with 65000 ports? So I create a new container, I choose this custom network, and Unraid auto-assigns an IP within the range created, correct? And this Unraid network doesnt allow Docker containers to speak to each other outside of this network, correct?

I'm just trying to validate my understanding of all this.

On 5/6/2025 at 3:09 AM, Velazquez said:

allows the container to potentially open up further ports itself

In a nutshell yes -> on the server itself (IP address of the container is the server's IP address). Differs from bridge in that while in both cases the IP is that of the server, bridge only allows access to the ports you specify and allows them to be mapped to different ports internal to the container

ipvlan / macvlan - Basically the same as Host in that the container has access to every port except that the container is on it's own separate IP address instead of being the server's.

Is THIS how it works?

8 hours ago, Squid said:

ipvlan / macvlan - Basically the same as Host in that the container has access to every port except that the container is on it's own separate IP address instead of being the server's.

little extension

custom br0, eth0, ...

ipvlan > all dockers with individual ips on the main subnet, with the SAME mac address

macvlan > all dockers with individual ips on the main subnet, with the UNIQUE mac addresses

despite on recommended using ipvlan, depending on the network hardware in use @home, ipvlan will result in conflicts reaching services as routing can rely on mac address, if all using the same mac address ... services are not really usable.

so when using all services like here (all services with unipque ip's, listening all on their native ports) as sample

i have to use macvlan as my hardware enviroment rely on mac addressing.