How to use docker plugin enable command to activate a plugin

Introduction

In this lab, you will learn how to manage Docker plugins by checking their status and enabling a specific plugin. Docker plugins extend the core functionality of Docker, and understanding how to activate them is crucial for leveraging their capabilities.

You will begin by using the docker plugin ls command to view all installed plugins and their current enabled/disabled state. Following this, you will learn how to use the docker plugin enable command to activate a previously disabled plugin, making its features available for use within your Docker environment. Finally, you will verify that the plugin has been successfully enabled.

Skills Graph

%%%%{init: {'theme':'neutral'}}%%%% flowchart RL docker(("Docker")) -.-> docker/ContainerOperationsGroup(["Container Operations"]) docker(("Docker")) -.-> docker/SystemManagementGroup(["System Management"]) docker/ContainerOperationsGroup -.-> docker/ls("List Containers") docker/SystemManagementGroup -.-> docker/system("Manage Docker") subgraph Lab Skills docker/ls -.-> lab-555189{{"How to use docker plugin enable command to activate a plugin"}} docker/system -.-> lab-555189{{"How to use docker plugin enable command to activate a plugin"}} end

Check the status of installed plugins

In this step, we will learn how to check the status of installed Docker plugins. Docker plugins extend the functionality of Docker, allowing for integration with various systems and services.

To list the installed plugins and their status, you can use the docker plugin ls command. This command will show you a list of all installed plugins, whether they are enabled or disabled, and their version.

Let's execute the command to see the installed plugins in your environment.

docker plugin ls

The output will display a table with columns like ID, NAME, DESCRIPTION, ENABLED, and STATE. The ENABLED column indicates whether the plugin is currently active (true) or inactive (false). The STATE column provides more detail about the plugin's current state, such as running or disabled.

Understanding the status of your installed plugins is the first step in managing them. In the next steps, we will learn how to enable and disable these plugins.

Enable a specific plugin

In the previous step, we checked the status of installed Docker plugins. Now, let's learn how to enable a specific plugin that is currently disabled.

To enable a Docker plugin, you use the docker plugin enable command followed by the name of the plugin you want to enable.

For this step, we will assume there is a disabled plugin named my-disabled-plugin. Note: This is a placeholder name for demonstration purposes. In a real scenario, you would replace my-disabled-plugin with the actual name of a disabled plugin from the output of docker plugin ls.

Let's try to enable the placeholder plugin my-disabled-plugin.

docker plugin enable my-disabled-plugin

If the plugin exists and is successfully enabled, you will see output indicating that the plugin is starting or has started. If the plugin does not exist or there is an issue, you will receive an error message.

Enabling a plugin makes its functionality available for use by Docker. In the next step, we will verify that the plugin is indeed enabled.

Verify the plugin is enabled

In the previous step, we attempted to enable a specific Docker plugin. Now, we need to verify that the plugin's status has changed to enabled.

To do this, we will use the docker plugin ls command again, just like we did in the first step. This will show us the current status of all installed plugins, including the one we just tried to enable.

Execute the command to list the plugins:

docker plugin ls

Examine the output table. Look for the plugin name you attempted to enable in the previous step (my-disabled-plugin in our example). Check the ENABLED column for that plugin. If the enable operation was successful, the value in the ENABLED column should now be true. The STATE column should also indicate a running state, such as running.

This verification step confirms that the docker plugin enable command worked as expected and the plugin is now active and ready to be used by Docker.

Summary

In this lab, we learned how to manage Docker plugins by first checking the status of installed plugins using the docker plugin ls command. This command provides a list of plugins, their enabled status, and current state.

Following that, we practiced enabling a specific disabled plugin using the docker plugin enable command, demonstrating the process of activating plugin functionality within the Docker environment.