FAQ
Questions before you touch your Docker daemon
Honest answers about cost, safety, ports and how the track is shaped.
- What does the lab cost?
- The lab is free and open source under the MIT licence. There is no lab fee. Running it uses your local Docker resources, or GitHub Codespaces free-tier allowance if you launch in the browser. Stop Codespaces when you pause so core-hours and storage do not keep accumulating.
- What do I need to run it locally?
- Git, Docker Engine or Docker Desktop, Docker Compose 2.20 or later (including the current 5.x series), and a few gigabytes of free disk for base images. macOS, Linux and Git Bash use ./lab. Windows PowerShell uses .\lab.ps1. A GitHub account is enough for the Codespaces route.
- Will reset delete my other Docker work?
- No. Lab containers, networks, volumes and images carry the label cloudsprocket.lab=docker. Lifecycle commands select by that label only. Reset removes labelled lab resources and recreates dpl-net. It leaves unlabelled resources alone, and it keeps shared official base images that cannot carry the lab label.
- Which ports does it use?
- Published lab ports stay in 8200-8299 and bind to 127.0.0.1 only. The local registry for exercise 04 uses 127.0.0.1:8200. Drills use a few ports in that band for their broken services.
- How do exercises and drills differ?
- Exercises 01-10 are guided briefs with ./lab check NN self-marking. Drills are operational tickets: ./lab break NAME applies a failure, you repair it, and ./lab verify NAME checks the outcome without giving the answer. Only one drill may be active at a time.
- Does it work offline?
- Yes, after the shared base images have been pulled once via ./lab up. Exercises and drills then use your local daemon. A few steps that pull extra images need network on first use.
- Is this a hosted Play with Docker replacement?
- It is a different shape. Play with Docker was a temporary remote session. This lab is a repository you clone and keep, with labelled cleanup on your own daemon (or a Codespace DinD daemon). See /play-with-docker-alternative/ for the comparison.
- Is this an official Docker, Inc. lab?
- No. Docker is a trademark of Docker, Inc. This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by Docker, Inc. It is an independent MIT-licensed practice lab from CloudSprocket Labs.