Create a Dockerfile for a CMS application

Containerize an Optimizely Content Management System (CMS) 13 application so it deploys consistently across Linux and Windows hosts. This article walks through the Dockerfile, the .dockerignore file, and the commands to build and run the image.

Before you begin

• Docker Desktop installed on your machine.
• A buildable CMS 13 ASP.NET Core application. The project in this example is episerversample. See Install a sample site.
• A chosen container mode (Linux or Windows) in Docker Desktop.

If you are new to ASP.NET, follow the ASP.NET Get Started tutorial to initialize a project, or clone the ASP.NET Docker Sample.

Create a Dockerfile for the application

1. Create a Dockerfile in your project folder.

2. Add the following content to your Dockerfile for Linux or Windows containers. The tags are multi-arch: they pull Windows or Linux containers depending on the mode set in Docker Desktop for Windows. See Switch between Windows and Linux containers.

   Dockerfile

   FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:10.0 AS build-env
   WORKDIR /app
   
   COPY *.csproj ./
   RUN dotnet restore
   
   COPY . ./
   RUN dotnet publish -c Release -o out
   
   FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet:10.0
   WORKDIR /app
   COPY --from=build-env /app/out .
   
   EXPOSE 80
   
   ENTRYPOINT ["dotnet", "episerversample.dll"]

3. The Dockerfile assumes the application is episerversample. Change the ENTRYPOINT line to reference the DLL of your project.

4. To minimize the build context, add a .dockerignore file to your project folder with the following contents:

   Text

   bin/
   obj/

Build and run the Docker image

1. Open a command prompt and go to your project folder.

2. Build the Docker image:

   Bash

   docker build -t episerversample .

3. Run the Docker image:

   Bash

   docker run -it -e "Urls=http://+:80" -p 8080:80 episerversample