Manage docker with VSCODE + WSL2 with Docker

If you use docker to manage an infrastructure or create docker templates, in general you will certainly have your own infrastructure with VMs + portainer for example. Or you use Docker Desktop under Windows, the disadvantage is either to have a small server, or to emulate your machines on your computer if it is powerful enough. Docker Desktop is not really optimized for deploying your future instances. ​A little tip to let you use Visual Studio code with docker in WSL, yes Visual Studio Code is really a powerful editor.

Install WSL2 (Windows 11)

Open Start on Windows 11 and earch for terminal (or PowerShell), right-click the top result and select the Run as administrator option.
Type the following command to install the WSL on Windows 11 and press Enter :

wsl --install

Restart your computer to finish the WSL installation on Windows 11.

Install Ubuntu

Type the following command to view a list of available WSL distros you can install on Windows 11 and press Enter :

wsl --list --online

Quick note: You can install Ubuntu, Debian, Kali Linux, openSUSE, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. Type the following command to install the WSL with a specific distro on Windows 11 and press Enter :

wsl --install -d Ubuntu

Install docker in WSL2

Here’s the condensed version for Ubuntu and Debian based distros :

# Install Docker, you can ignore the warning from Docker about using WSL
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sudo sh get-docker.sh

# Add your user to the Docker group
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

# Install Docker Compose v2
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install docker-compose-plugin

# Sanity check that both tools were installed successfully
docker --version
docker compose version

# Using Ubuntu 22.04 or Debian 10 / 11? You need to do 1 extra step for iptables
# compatibility, you'll want to choose option (1) from the prompt to use iptables-legacy.
sudo update-alternatives --config iptables

We won’t need it but if you decide to enable systemd with newer versions of WSL 2 then you can skip this entire step! All you have to do is drop this into your .profile, .zprofile or equivalent file :

if grep -q "microsoft" /proc/version > /dev/null 2>&1; then
    if service docker status 2>&1 | grep -q "is not running"; then
        wsl.exe --distribution "${WSL_DISTRO_NAME}" --user root \
            --exec /usr/sbin/service docker start > /dev/null 2>&1
    fi
fi

Install and configure Visual Studio Code

Download and install from here https://code.visualstudio.com/  and in the plugins you have to search plugin:  Remote Explorer

In WSL target or CIBLES WSL select Ubuntu and you have to click on the button on the right to access ubuntu wsl :

Visual studio code will open another window and in plugins install Docker, Docker Explorer and Docker Compose and more if you need :

Upload your image docker and you can manage your containers from the list on the left :

You can now your docker instances from wls and have better compatibility to create a future production instance.