Start a Docker container on a target

POST api/v2/jobs/rvc '{"method":"docker.start","params":{"name":"<container_name>"},"hostnames":["<node_hostname>"]}'

Starts a SC//Reliant™ Virtual Controller (RVC) job to start a container on a target. Currently, only cluster-managed containers can be started using the API. The available targets are a node, node group, or saved filter. The response will indicate that the RVC job is created and is scheduled to run. You can use the job ID from the response to retrieve the job status.

In order to perform this action, the following conditions must be met:

Must have the Remote Job Execution feature turned on at the site level.
The user must have the following capabilities:
- Create and Update a RVC job
- Call Docker state altering methods

Request syntax

post api/v2/jobs/rvc '{"method":"docker.start","params":{"name":"<container_name>"},"hostnames":["<node_hostname>"]}'

Request parameters

The request accepts the following data in JSON format.

Parameter	Type	Description	Required
`method`	String	The RVC action to start. This value is specified as a combination of the RVC module and method. For example, to start a Docker container you would specify the `docker` module and the `start` method combined as `docker.start`.	Yes
`params`	String	The parameters that scope which Docker container to start on the host node. The only supported parameter is `name` which is the name of the Docker container.	Yes
`hostnames`	String array	The list of node hostnames on which to run the RVC job.	Dependent. Only if no node group or saved filter is provided.
`node_group_name`	String	The name of the node group on which to run the RVC job. The RVC job will run on all nodes that are members of the node group.	Dependent. Only if no hostnames or saved filter is provided.
`node_group_id`	Integer	The ID of the node group on which to run the RVC job. The RVC job will run on all nodes that are members of the node group.	Dependent. Only if no hostnames or saved filter is provided.
`saved_filter_name`	String	The name of the saved filter on which to run the RVC job. The RVC job will run on all nodes that match the saved filter.	Dependent. Only if no hostnames or node group is provided.
`saved_filter_id`	Integer	The ID of the saved filter on which to run the RVC job. The RVC job will run on all nodes that match the saved filter.	Dependent. Only if no hostnames or node group is provided.

Response syntax

When the hostnames request parameter is used, the following response syntax is received.

{
    "id": integer,
    "type": "RVC3",
    "status": "string",
    "message": "string",
    "trigged_by": "string",
    "parameters": {
        "method": "docker.start",
        "params": {
          "name": "string"
        },
        "hostnames": [
            "string",
            "string"
        ]
    },
    "time_started": "timestamp"
}

When the node group or saved filter request parameters are used, the following response syntax is received.

{
    "id": integer,
    "type": "RVC3",
    "status": "string",
    "message": "string",
    "trigged_by": "string",
    "parameters": {
        "method": "docker.start",
        "params": {
          "name": "string"
        },
        "node_group_name": "string",
        "node_group_id": integer,
        "saved_filter_name": "string",
        "saved_filter_id": integer
    },
    "time_started": "timestamp"
}

Response parameters

If the action is successful, an HTTP 200 response is returned. The following data is returned in JSON format.

Field	Type	Description
`id`	Integer	The ID of the RVC job.
`type`	String	The type of RVC job. For RVC jobs, it is `RVC3`.
`status`	String	The status of the job.
`message`	String	This field is reserved for internal use.
`trigged_by`	String	The username of the person who initiated the job.
`parameters`	String	The request parameters indicating the hostnames, Node Groups, or saved filters the RVC job ran on.
`time_started`	Timestamp	The timestamp indicating when the job started. The timestamp is given in ISO 8601 UTC datetime format.

Errors

For a list of potential errors, refer to the common errors, as this action does not have any unique error responses. For more information, see Common errors.

Examples

Example 1: Start a Docker container on a node

This example starts a RVC job requesting to start Docker container nginx on a node with hostname sit0001red0.

ruby api.rb <customer_code> POST api/v2/jobs/rvc '{"method":"docker.start","params":{"name":"nginx"},"hostnames":["sit0001red0"]}'

Response

{
  "id": 1620034,
  "type": "RVC3",
  "status": "pending",
  "message": null,
  "trigged_by": "test.user",
  "parameters": {
    "method": "docker.start",
    "params": {
      "name": "nginx"
    },
    "update_rpm": true,
    "hostnames": [
      "sit0001red0"
    ]
  },
  "time_started": "2025-07-16T23:27:14Z"
}

Example 2: Start a Docker container on nodes in a specified node group.

This example starts a RVC job requesting to start Docker container nginx on the nodes in node group Test Node Group.

ruby api.rb <customer_code> POST api/v2/jobs/rvc '{"method":"docker.start","params":{"name":"nginx"},"node_group_name":"Test Node Group"}'

Response

{
  "id": 1620035,
  "type": "RVC3",
  "status": "pending",
  "message": null,
  "trigged_by": "test.user",
  "parameters": {
    "method": "docker.start",
    "params": {
      "name": "nginx"
    },
    "update_rpm": true,
    "node_group_name": "Test Node Group"
  },
  "time_started": "2025-07-16T23:32:23Z"
}

Example 3: Retrieving the payload from the RVC job.

This example retrieves the result of a RVC job ID which displays the payload of the docker.start method.

ruby api.rb <customer_code> GET api/jobs/1620034\?include_payload=true

Response

{
  "id": 1620034,
  "type": "RVC3",
  "status": "finished",
  "message": null,
  "payload": {
    "sit0001red0": [
      {
        "result": "Docker container nginx start requested.",
        "timestamp": 1752708440
      }
    ]
  },
  "trigged_by": "test.user",
  "success_nodes_count": 1,
  "failed_nodes_count": 0,
  "total_nodes_count": 1,
  "parameters": {
    "method": "docker.start",
    "params": {
      "name": "nginx"
    },
    "hostnames": [
      "sit0001red0"
    ],
    "update_rpm": true
  },
  "time_started": "2025-07-16T23:27:14Z",
  "time_finished": "2025-07-16T23:27:19Z"
}