Installing docker is a prerequisite. The instructions differ depending on the environment. Docker is comprised of two parts: the daemon server which runs on Linux and accepts commands, and the client which is a Go program capable of running on MacOS, all Unix variants and Windows.
Follow the Docker install instructions.
There are development and deploy images available.
The development image is a bulky image containing a complete build toolchain.
It is well suited to hacking around and running the tests (including the
acceptance tests). To fetch this image, run ./builder.sh pull. The image can
be run conveniently via ./builder.sh.
The deploy image is a downsized image containing a minimal environment for
running CockroachDB. It is based on Debian Jessie and contains only the main
CockroachDB binary. To fetch this image, run docker pull cockroachdb/cockroach in the usual fashion.
To build the image yourself, use ./build-docker-deploy.sh. The script will
build and run a development container. The CockroachDB binary will be built
inside of that container. That binary is built into our minimal container. The
resulting image cockroachdb/cockroach can be run via docker run in the
usual fashion.