Docker Deep Dive: Zero to Docker in a single book

by Nigel Poulton

these implementation differences do not affect the way we interact with Docker, they can have a significant impact on performance and stability

a single Docker host can only run a single storage driver — you cannot select the storage driver per-container.

Changing the storage driver obviously changes where Docker looks for images and containers. Reverting the storage driver to the previous configuration will make the older images and containers available again.

If you need to change your storage driver, and you need your images and containers to be available after the change, you need to save them with docker save, push the saved images to a repo, change the storage driver, restart Docker, pull the images locally, and restart your containers.

devicemapper uses loopback mounted sparse files to underpin the storage it provides to Docker. This is fine for a smooth out-of-the box experience that just works. But it’s terrible for production. In fact, it’s so bad that it’s not supported on production systems!