GSP153

Overview

Container virtualization is a fast evolving technology, which aims to simplify the deployment and management of distributed applications. When people discuss containers, they usually mean Linux-based containers. This makes sense, because native Linux kernel features like cgroups introduced the idea of resource isolation, eventually leading to containers as we know them today. Until recently, only Linux processes could be containerized, but Microsoft introduced support for Windows-based containers in Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10.

You can take an existing Windows application, containerize it using Docker, and run it as an isolated container on Windows. There are two flavors of Windows containers: Windows Server and Hyper-V. You can build Windows containers on either the microsoft/windowsservercore and microsoft/nanoserver base images. You can read more about Windows containers in the Microsoft Windows containersdocumentation.

Google Cloud provides container-optimized VM images on which to run containers on Compute Engine. There is also a Windows VM image for containers. It comes with Docker, microsoft/windowsservercore, and microsoft/nanoserver base images installed.

In this lab you will create a container app and deploy the container app to Compute Engine.

What you'll learn

• Create a Windows Server VM for containers on Compute Engine.
• Create a HelloWorld Windows container app.
• Containerize the app using Docker.
• Run the Windows container app on Compute Engine.

Setup and requirements

Before you click the Start Lab button

Read these instructions. Labs are timed and you cannot pause them. The timer, which starts when you click Start Lab, shows how long Google Cloud resources are made available to you.

This hands-on lab lets you do the lab activities in a real cloud environment, not in a simulation or demo environment. It does so by giving you new, temporary credentials you use to sign in and access Google Cloud for the duration of the lab.

To complete this lab, you need:

• Access to a standard internet browser (Chrome browser recommended).

Note: Use an Incognito (recommended) or private browser window to run this lab. This prevents conflicts between your personal account and the student account, which may cause extra charges incurred to your personal account.

• Time to complete the lab—remember, once you start, you cannot pause a lab.

Note: Use only the student account for this lab. If you use a different Google Cloud account, you may incur charges to that account.

How to start your lab and sign in to the Google Cloud console

1. Click the Start Lab button. If you need to pay for the lab, a dialog opens for you to select your payment method. On the left is the Lab Details pane with the following:

   • The Open Google Cloud console button
   • Time remaining
   • The temporary credentials that you must use for this lab
   • Other information, if needed, to step through this lab

2. Click Open Google Cloud console (or right-click and select Open Link in Incognito Window if you are running the Chrome browser).

   The lab spins up resources, and then opens another tab that shows the Sign in page.

   Tip: Arrange the tabs in separate windows, side-by-side.

   Note: If you see the Choose an account dialog, click Use Another Account.

3. If necessary, copy the Username below and paste it into the Sign in dialog.

   {{{user_0.username | "Username"}}}

   You can also find the Username in the Lab Details pane.

4. Click Next.

5. Copy the Password below and paste it into the Welcome dialog.

   {{{user_0.password | "Password"}}}

   You can also find the Password in the Lab Details pane.

6. Click Next.

   Important: You must use the credentials the lab provides you. Do not use your Google Cloud account credentials. Note: Using your own Google Cloud account for this lab may incur extra charges.

7. Click through the subsequent pages:

   • Accept the terms and conditions.
   • Do not add recovery options or two-factor authentication (because this is a temporary account).
   • Do not sign up for free trials.

After a few moments, the Google Cloud console opens in this tab.

Note: To access Google Cloud products and services, click the Navigation menu or type the service or product name in the Search field.

Task 1. RDP into the Windows VM

1. From the Navigation menu click on Compute Engine. Here you'll see a Windows VM provisioned for you.

2. Click the RDP button next to the windows-instance instance or you can use any Remote Desktop client Tools (or use your own RDP client if you like).

Note: If you're using a Chromebook, you will need to use a third-party RDP tool rather than the RDP button.

3. Use the following credentials to complete the RDP login:

User name	demouser
Password	P@ssw0rd

Note: If you have any issues logging in, wait a minute and retry.

4. Enter Command Prompt in the Type here to search box, right-click on Command Prompt, and then select Run as administrator.

5. In the Windows command prompt run the following to see the images that are installed by default:

docker images

Output:

REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID mcr.microsoft.com/windows/servercore ltsc2019 29a2c2cb7e4d

Copy and paste with the RDP client

Once you are securely logged into your instance, you may find yourself copying and pasting commands from the lab manual.

To paste, hold the CTRL-V keys (if you are a Mac user, using CMND-V will not work.) If you are in a Powershell window, be sure that you have clicked into the window or else the paste shortcut won't work.

If you are pasting into putty, right click.

Task 2. Create a Windows container app

For the app inside the Windows container, use an IIS Web Server. IIS has an image for Windows Server 2019. You can use the image as is and it will serve the default IIS page, but fot this lab, do something more interesting and have IIS serve a page you define.

Your folder and file structure should look like:

C:\my-windows-app>dir /s /b C:\my-windows-app\content C:\my-windows-app\Dockerfile C:\my-windows-app\content\index.html

1. In the Windows Command Prompt, change to the root folder and create a folder called my-windows-app and enter into the directory:

cd \ mkdir my-windows-app cd my-windows-app

2. Create folder named content, a file named index.html within it:

mkdir content call > content\index.html

3. Edit the landing page:

notepad content\index.html

4. In Notepad, add the following content in index.html:

<html> <head> <title>Windows containers</title> </head> <body> <p>Windows containers are cool!</p> </body> </html>

5. Save the index.html

This is the page IIS will serve.

Task 3. Build Docker image

1. Back in the Windows Command Prompt, create a Dockerfile for the Docker image:

call > Dockerfile

2. Edit the dockerfile:

notepad Dockerfile

You're using the IIS Container image version compatible with Windows Server 2019.

3. Add the following contents in the Dockerfile:

FROM mcr.microsoft.com/windows/servercore/iis:windowsservercore-ltsc2019 RUN powershell -NoProfile -Command Remove-Item -Recurse C:\inetpub\wwwroot\* WORKDIR /inetpub/wwwroot COPY content/ .

4. Save the Dockerfile.

5. Build the Docker image and tag it with Google Container Registry (GCR) and your project id. This will be useful when we push the image to GCR later:

docker build -t gcr.io/{{{ project_0.project_id | PROJECT}}}/iis-site-windows .

Once the Docker image is built, you can see it along with its IIS dependency:

docker images

Sample output:

REPOSITORY TAG gcr.io/{{{ project_0.project_id | PROJECT}}}/iis-site-windows latest mcr.microsoft.com/windows/servercore/iis windowsservercore-ltsc2019 mcr.microsoft.com/windows/servercore ltsc2019

Click Check my progress to verify the objective.

Build Docker image

Task 4. Run the Windows container

You're now ready to run the Windows container.

1. Inside Command Prompt, run the container and expose it on port 80:

docker run -d -p 80:80 gcr.io/{{{ project_0.project_id | PROJECT }}}/iis-site-windows

2. You can check that the container is running:

docker ps

Sample output:

CONTAINER ID IMAGE 3d7c71a258ce gcr.io/{{{ project_0.project_id | PROJECT }}}/iis-site-windows

To see the web page, grab the External IP from of Compute Engine instance in Cloud Console, and simply open it with HTTP (not https) in the browser (click Continue if prompted by the browser):

Note: This setup is not ideal for production. It does not survive server restarts or crashes. In a production system, you want to get a static IP for your VM and have a startup script to start the container. This will take care of server restarts but doesn't help so much for server crashes.

Task 5. Cleanup

1. Type exit to leave the VM.

2. Close the RDP window by clicking the X in the top right corner and confirm that you want to be disconnected.

When you are done with experimenting with Windows containers, it is a good idea to either stop or delete the VM you created.

3. To delete the VM, go back to the Console and click the three dots in the right-hand menu and select Delete.

Congratulations!

In this lab, you learned how to create a Windows Server VM for containers on Compute Engine, create a HelloWorld Windows container app, containerize the app using Docker, and run the Windows container app on Compute Engine.

Next steps / Learn more

• An example of Windows Container on Windows 10.
• Learn more about Windows containers on Google Cloud.
• Learn more about Windows on Google Cloud.
• Learn more about .NET on Google Cloud.

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Manual last updated July 1, 2025

Lab last tested July 1, 2025

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