If you want to avoid doing a bunch of research on your own I've put together an up to date self paced video course at https://diveintodocker.com/.

It covers everything from "What is Docker?" to learning how to apply it to your own projects. There's a tiny bit of theory, followed by lots of guided labs and examples.

In case you're curious, I've been using Docker in development and production since 2014 and am also a Docker Captain (TL;DR is Docker reached out to me to join their team as a trusted content provider).

We have Docker 101 [0] and Kubernetes 101 [1] tutorials on our github repo which may be helpful, assuming you have an understanding of Linux. Or checkout the resources on Docker's website [2].

[0] https://github.com/gravitational/workshop/blob/master/docker...

[1] https://github.com/gravitational/workshop/blob/master/k8s101...

[2] https://www.docker.com/what-docker

DISCLAIMER: I'm a Consulting Architect at Red Hat in our Container and PaaS Practice Group. An expert, knowledge building, & community building/supporting group. A Community of Practice, we call it.

We (Red Hat) make the following references (beyond what our training & docs provide) available to our consultants, customers, and world at-large. BTW, if something isn't clear, is wrong, or you want to discuss a point, reach out to us on GitHub. Just about all of our products, software, and documentation are up on GitHub.

I'd also recommend playing with Minishift or Minikube. Great way to put a quick sandbox on your laptop.

The source GitHub Repo: https://github.com/redhat-cop/openshift-playbooks

Building Blocks of OpenShift (& Kubernetes): http://v1.uncontained.io/playbooks/fundamentals/building_blo...

Docker Fundamentals Reference: http://v1.uncontained.io/playbooks/fundamentals/docker_refer...

Minishift: https://docs.openshift.org/latest/minishift/getting-started/...

The defining characteristic of containers are constrained processes (constrained by one or more of memory, cpu, access controls..); isolated namespaces (your own tmp, root, users, process list) plus some (possibly limited) additional isolation from the rest of the hosts files and hardware.

Docker adds to this 1. a packaging that lets you define what goes into a container (Dockerfile) and format (docker image) - which can be downloaded, extracted, manipulated and uploaded. 2. a way to stop (freeze) and start (thaw) a container 3. tools for controlling network capabilities within a container and between the host and container or other containers on other hosts.

Those are the essentials.

Kubernetes (and other tools) expand on this in terms of orchestration -- especially the internetworking aspect but also failover and load balancing.

Docker has a good overview in my opinion:

https://www.docker.com/what-container

At the fundamental layer, start with cgroups and namespaces. If you're looking for practical knowledge, start with making and running a Docker image - usually a basic "hello world" web server (nginx) is a good one to start on :)

Here's a Docker tutorial I wrote targeted at beginners: https://docker-curriculum.com/

Once you understand the basics of Docker, which is containers, then look at Kubernetes. One place you might start is with spinning up a single VM with RancherOS.