Transferring docker image to another machine via network without a registry

We can use "docker save" and "docker load" commands to achieve this, combined with ssh.

These are the steps:

Save your image to a file

$ docker save -o filename imagename:tag

To get a smaller filesize, we can use xz, bzip2 or gz compression

$ docker save imagename:tag | xz > filename.xz

$ docker save imagename:tag | bzip2 > filename.bz2

$ docker save imagename:tag | gzip > filename.gz 

Then, transfer the file over ssh to another machine

$ scp filename.xz user@anothermachine

Load back the image in the other machine. "Docker load" will automatically decompress the file if it is compressed with xz, bzip2 or gz.

$ docker load -i filename.xz

We can also use redirection, instead of the -i option

$ docker load < filename.xz

All that can also be done in one liner

$ docker save imagename:tag | xz | ssh user@anothermachine docker load