Kernel Tuning with Privileged Docker Container

I'm building a container to tune kernel settings for a load balancer. I'd prefer to deploy those changes to the host in an image using a single privileged container. For example:

docker run --rm --privileged ubuntu:latest sysctl -w net.core.somaxconn=65535

In testing the changes take effect but only for that container. I was under the impression that with a fully privileged container changes to /proc would actually change the underlying OS.

$docker run --rm --privileged ubuntu:latest \
    sysctl -w net.core.somaxconn=65535
net.core.somaxconn = 65535

$ docker run --rm --privileged ubuntu:latest \
    /bin/bash -c "sysctl -a | grep somaxconn"
net.core.somaxconn = 128

Is this how privileged containers are supposed to work?

Am I just doing something silly?

What is the best way to make lasting changes?

Version Info:

Client version: 1.4.1
Client API version: 1.16
Go version (client): go1.3.3
Git commit (client): 5bc2ff8
OS/Arch (client): linux/amd64
Server version: 1.4.1
Server API version: 1.16
Go version (server): go1.3.3
Git commit (server): 5bc2ff8

Example command with mounted /proc:

$ docker run -v /proc:/proc ubuntu:latest \
    /bin/bash -c "sysctl -a | grep local_port"
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 32768    61000

$ docker run -v /proc:/proc --privileged ubuntu:latest \
    /bin/bash -c "sysctl -p /updates/sysctl.conf"
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 2000 65000

$ docker run -v /proc:/proc ubuntu:latest \
    /bin/bash -c "sysctl -a | grep local_port"
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 32768    61000

$ docker run -v /proc:/proc --privileged ubuntu:latest \
    /bin/bash -c "sysctl -a | grep local_port"
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 32768    61000

Solution 1:

This particular setting falls under the influence of the network namespace that docker runs in.

As a general rule /proc does alter settings that are relevent systemwide, technically speaking however you are altering settings in /proc/net which returns results on a per network namespace basis.

Note that /proc/net is actually a symlink to /proc/self/net as it really does reflect the settings of the namespace that you are doing the work in.

Solution 2:

Docker 1.12+ has native support for tweaking sysctl values inside the containers. Here is an excerpt from the documentation:

Configure namespaced kernel parameters (sysctls) at runtime

The --sysctl sets namespaced kernel parameters (sysctls) in the container. For example, to turn on IP forwarding in the containers network namespace, run this command:

docker run --sysctl net.ipv4.ip_forward=1 someimage

Using your example, the correct way to raise net.core.somaxconn would be:

docker run ... --sysctl net.core.somaxconn=65535 ...