rancherOS/docs/os/configuration/prepacking-docker-images/index.md

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title: Pre-packing Docker Images

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Pre-packing Docker Images

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On boot, RancherOS scans /var/lib/rancher/preload/docker and /var/lib/rancher/preload/system-docker directories and tries to load container image archives it finds there, with docker load and system-docker load.

The archives are .tar files, optionally compressed with xz or gzip. These can be produced by docker save command, e.g.:

$ docker save my-image1 my-image2 some-other/image3 | xz > my-images.tar.xz

The resulting files should be placed into /var/lib/rancher/preload/docker or /var/lib/rancher/preload/system-docker (depending on whether you want it preloaded into Docker or System Docker).

Pre-loading process only reads each new archive once, so it won't take time on subsequent boots (<archive>.done files are created to mark the read archives). If you update the archive (place a newer archive with the same name) it'll get read on the next boot as well.

Pre-packing docker images is handy when you're customizing your RancherOS distribution (perhaps, building cloud VM images for your infrastructure).