Get Started with Azul Platform Prime using Docker

Prerequisites

Install Docker by following the Docker documentation.

Using Docker Azul Zing Builds of OpenJDK

Docker images of Azul Zing Builds of OpenJDK (Zing) are provided through Docker Hub.

CentOS, Debian, and Ubuntu based official Docker images of Zing are available in the following repositories:

 
docker pull azul/prime-debian:21

Run Java apps

You can test the Docker image by running the following command in a terminal:

 
docker run -it --rm azul/prime:21 java -version

The command allocates a terminal and runs java. It prints a message similar to this:

 
openjdk version "21.0.6" 2025-04-14 LTS
OpenJDK Runtime Environment Zing25.03.0.0+3 (build 21.0.6+7-LTS)
Zing 64-Bit Tiered VM Zing25.03.0.0+3 (build 21.0.6-zing_25.03.0.0-b3-release-linux-X86_64, mixed mode)

If you see this message in your terminal, you’ve successfully executed java inside a container.

The command above simply executes java. To run a Java application, you must provide your application classes and resources to the java command. You do this by mounting a local directory from the container.

As an example, let’s assume that your application files are located in a single directory. You would normally run the app by executing java MyApp in that directory. Use the -v option of docker run to make the directory available inside the container. The command might look like this:

 
docker run -it --rm \
    -v ${PWD}:/usr/src/project  \
    -e CLASSPATH=/usr/src/project \
    azul/prime:11 java MyApp