Running Docker Desktop on Apple M1: Installation, Configuration, and Hands‑On Redis Demo
This article walks through installing Docker Desktop on Apple M1 Macs, explains required Rosetta support, shows how to run and manage containers—including a Redis example—covers Docker Desktop preferences, resource settings, and built‑in Kubernetes, and highlights practical tips and known limitations.
Docker Desktop now officially supports Apple Silicon (M1) chips, allowing developers to run containers on macOS without the previous Intel‑only limitation.
Official announcement : Docker Desktop 3.3.1 was released on 2021‑04‑15 with native ARM support, downloadable from the Docker website.
Requirements : Rosetta 2 must be installed for compatibility with some Intel‑based binaries. Install it via the command softwareupdate --install-rosetta .
Installation : Download the Docker.dmg file, drag the Docker.app icon to the Applications folder, and launch it from there.
Running a container : After the UI starts, you can launch a test container with docker run -d -p 80:80 docker/getting-started and verify it with docker ps . The Docker client also shows the running container and its port mapping.
Docker Desktop preferences : The client offers many user‑friendly settings, such as automatic update checks, start‑on‑login, VM backup in Time Machine, gRPC FUSE file sharing, usage statistics, weekly tips, and opening the dashboard on startup.
Advanced resource configuration : You can adjust CPU allocation, memory (default 2 GB), swap size (default 1 GB), disk image size, and disk image location.
Kubernetes support : Docker Desktop includes a built‑in Kubernetes cluster; enable it by checking “Enable Kubernetes”.
Hands‑on Redis demo : Pull the Redis image with sudo docker pull redis , run it using docker run -d -p 6379:6379 redis , then connect via docker exec -it <container_id> redis-cli . Test commands like set a 100 and get a confirm the container works correctly on M1.
Observations : The Docker process shows both Apple‑ARM and Intel components (UI runs on Intel, core on Apple). Memory usage is modest (≈430 MB for 12 processes). Some images (e.g., MySQL) lack ARM builds, requiring alternatives like MariaDB.
Overall, Docker Desktop runs smoothly on M1, offering a complete development environment with container management, resource tuning, and Kubernetes integration, though some images still need ARM support.
Wukong Talks Architecture
Explaining distributed systems and architecture through stories. Author of the "JVM Performance Tuning in Practice" column, open-source author of "Spring Cloud in Practice PassJava", and independently developed a PMP practice quiz mini-program.
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