DOCKER(1) Docker User Manuals DOCKER(1)
NAME
docker-network-create - Create a network
SYNOPSIS
docker network create [OPTIONS] NETWORK
DESCRIPTION
Creates a new network. The DRIVER accepts bridge or overlay which are the
built-in network drivers. If you have installed a third party or your own
custom network driver you can specify that DRIVER here also. If you don't
specify the --driver option, the command automatically creates a bridge
network for you. When you install Docker Engine it creates a bridge net-
work automatically. This network corresponds to the docker0 bridge that En-
gine has traditionally relied on. When you launch a new container with
docker run it automatically connects to this bridge network. You cannot re-
move this default bridge network, but you can create new ones using the
network create command.
$ docker network create -d bridge my-bridge-network
Bridge networks are isolated networks on a single Engine installation. If
you want to create a network that spans multiple Docker hosts each running
an Engine, you must enable Swarm mode, and create an overlay network. To
read more about overlay networks with Swarm mode, see "
.
Once you have enabled swarm mode, you can create a swarm-scoped overlay
network:
$ docker network create --scope=swarm --attachable -d overlay my-multihost-network
By default, swarm-scoped networks do not allow manually started containers
to be attached. This restriction is added to prevent someone that has ac-
cess to a non-manager node in the swarm cluster from running a container
that is able to access the network stack of a swarm service.
The --attachable option used in the example above disables this restric-
tion, and allows for both swarm services and manually started containers to
attach to the overlay network.
Network names must be unique. The Docker daemon attempts to identify naming
conflicts but this is not guaranteed. It is the user's responsibility to
avoid name conflicts.
Overlay network limitations
You should create overlay networks with /24 blocks (the default), which
limits you to 256 IP addresses, when you create networks using the default
VIP-based endpoint-mode. This recommendation addresses limitations with
swarm mode . If you need more
than 256 IP addresses, do not increase the IP block size. You can either
use dnsrr endpoint mode with an external load balancer, or use multiple
smaller overlay networks. See Configure service discovery
for more information about different endpoint modes.
Connect containers
When you start a container, use the --network flag to connect it to a net-
work. This example adds the busybox container to the mynet network:
$ docker run -itd --network=mynet busybox
If you want to add a container to a network after the container is already
running, use the docker network connect subcommand.
You can connect multiple containers to the same network. Once connected,
the containers can communicate using only another container's IP address or
name. For overlay networks or custom plugins that support multi-host con-
nectivity, containers connected to the same multi-host network but launched
from different Engines can also communicate in this way.
You can disconnect a container from a network using the docker network dis-
connect command.
Specify advanced options
When you create a network, Engine creates a non-overlapping subnetwork for
the network by default. This subnetwork is not a subdivision of an existing
network. It is purely for ip-addressing purposes. You can override this
default and specify subnetwork values directly using the --subnet option.
On a bridge network you can only create a single subnet:
$ docker network create --driver=bridge --subnet=192.168.0.0/16 br0
Additionally, you also specify the --gateway --ip-range and --aux-address
options.
$ docker network create \
--driver=bridge \
--subnet=172.28.0.0/16 \
--ip-range=172.28.5.0/24 \
--gateway=172.28.5.254 \
br0
If you omit the --gateway flag the Engine selects one for you from inside a
preferred pool. For overlay networks and for network driver plugins that
support it you can create multiple subnetworks. This example uses two /25
subnet mask to adhere to the current guidance of not having more than 256
IPs in a single overlay network. Each of the subnetworks has 126 usable ad-
dresses.
$ docker network create -d overlay \
--subnet=192.168.10.0/25 \
--subnet=192.168.20.0/25 \
--gateway=192.168.10.100 \
--gateway=192.168.20.100 \
--aux-address="my-router=192.168.10.5" --aux-address="my-switch=192.168.10.6" \
--aux-address="my-printer=192.168.20.5" --aux-address="my-nas=192.168.20.6" \
my-multihost-network
Be sure that your subnetworks do not overlap. If they do, the network cre-
ate fails and Engine returns an error.
Bridge driver options
When creating a custom network, the default network driver (i.e. bridge)
has additional options that can be passed. The following are those options
and the equivalent docker daemon flags used for docker0 bridge:
allbox; l l l l l l . Option Equivalent Description com.docker.net-
work.bridge.name - T{ Bridge name to be used when creating the Linux
bridge T} com.docker.network.bridge.enable_ip_masquerade --ip-masq En-
able IP masquerading com.docker.network.bridge.enable_icc --icc T{
Enable or Disable Inter Container Connectivity T} com.docker.net-
work.bridge.host_binding_ipv4 --ip T{ Default IP when binding container
ports T} com.docker.network.driver.mtu --mtu Set the containers network
MTU com.docker.network.container_iface_prefix - T{ Set a custom pre-
fix for container interfaces T}
The following arguments can be passed to docker network create for any net-
work driver, again with their approximate equivalents to docker daemon.
allbox; l l l l l l . Argument Equivalent Description --gate-
way - T{ IPv4 or IPv6 Gateway for the master subnet T} --ip-
range --fixed-cidr Allocate IPs from a range --internal - T{
Restrict external access to the network T} --ipv6 --ipv6 Enable IPv6
networking --subnet --bip Subnet for network
For example, let's use -o or --opt options to specify an IP address binding
when publishing ports:
$ docker network create \
-o "com.docker.network.bridge.host_binding_ipv4"="172.19.0.1" \
simple-network
Network internal mode
By default, when you connect a container to an overlay network, Docker also
connects a bridge network to it to provide external connectivity. If you
want to create an externally isolated overlay network, you can specify the
--internal option.
Network ingress mode
You can create the network which will be used to provide the routing-mesh
in the swarm cluster. You do so by specifying --ingress when creating the
network. Only one ingress network can be created at the time. The network
can be removed only if no services depend on it. Any option available when
creating an overlay network is also available when creating the ingress
network, besides the --attachable option.
$ docker network create -d overlay \
--subnet=10.11.0.0/16 \
--ingress \
--opt com.docker.network.driver.mtu=9216 \
--opt encrypted=true \
my-ingress-network
Run services on predefined networks
You can create services on the predefined docker networks bridge and host.
$ docker service create --name my-service \
--network host \
--replicas 2 \
busybox top
Swarm networks with local scope drivers
You can create a swarm network with local scope network drivers. You do so
by promoting the network scope to swarm during the creation of the network.
You will then be able to use this network when creating services.
$ docker network create -d bridge \
--scope swarm \
--attachable \
swarm-network
For network drivers which provide connectivity across hosts (ex. macvlan),
if node specific configurations are needed in order to plumb the network on
each host, you will supply that configuration via a configuration only net-
work. When you create the swarm scoped network, you will then specify the
name of the network which contains the configuration.
node1$ docker network create --config-only --subnet 192.168.100.0/24 --gateway 192.168.100.115 mv-config
node2$ docker network create --config-only --subnet 192.168.200.0/24 --gateway 192.168.200.202 mv-config
node1$ docker network create -d macvlan --scope swarm --config-from mv-config --attachable swarm-network
OPTIONS
--attachable[=false] Enable manual container attachment
--aux-address=map[] Auxiliary IPv4 or IPv6 addresses used by Network
driver
--config-from="" The network from which to copy the configuration
--config-only[=false] Create a configuration only network
-d, --driver="bridge" Driver to manage the Network
--gateway=[] IPv4 or IPv6 Gateway for the master subnet
--ingress[=false] Create swarm routing-mesh network
--internal[=false] Restrict external access to the network
--ip-range=[] Allocate container ip from a sub-range
--ipam-driver="default" IP Address Management Driver
--ipam-opt=map[] Set IPAM driver specific options
--ipv4[=true] Enable or disable IPv4 address assignment
--ipv6[=false] Enable or disable IPv6 address assignment
--label= Set metadata on a network
-o, --opt=map[] Set driver specific options
--scope="" Control the network's scope
--subnet=[] Subnet in CIDR format that represents a network segment
SEE ALSO
docker-network(1)
Docker Community Sep 2026 DOCKER(1)