Vagrant docker provider: create and start vs run

Question

I'm new to vagrant, using 1.7.4 with VirtualBox 5.0.10 on Windows 7 and trying to figure out how to get it to setup and run docker containers the way I'd like, which is like so:

1. Start my docker host, which is already provisioned with the latest docker tools and boots with the cadvisor container started - I get this box from the publicly available williamyeh/ubuntu-trusty64-docker
2. If (for example) the mongo container I'd like to use has not been created on the docker host, just create it (don't start it)
3. Else, if the container already exists, start it (don't try to create it)

With my current setup, using the docker provider, after the first use of vagrant up, using vagrant halt followed by vagrant up will produce this error:

Bringing machine 'default' up with 'docker' provider...
==> default: Docker host is required. One will be created if necessary...
    default: Docker host VM is already ready.
==> default: Warning: When using a remote Docker host, forwarded ports will NOT be
==> default: immediately available on your machine. They will still be forwarded on
==> default: the remote machine, however, so if you have a way to access the remote
==> default: machine, then you should be able to access those ports there. This is
==> default: not an error, it is only an informational message.
==> default: Creating the container...
    default:   Name: mongo-container
    default:  Image: mongo
    default:   Port: 27017:27017
A Docker command executed by Vagrant didn't complete successfully!
The command run along with the output from the command is shown
below.

Command: "docker" "run" "--name" "mongo-container" "-d" "-p" "27017:27017" "-d" "mongo"

Stderr: Error response from daemon: Conflict. The name "mongo-container" is already in use by container 7a436a4a3422. You have to remove (or rename) that container to be able to reuse that name.

Here is the Vagrantfile I'm using for the docker host:

# -*- mode: ruby -*-
# vi: set ft=ruby :

Vagrant.require_version ">= 1.6.0"
VAGRANTFILE_API_VERSION = "2"

Vagrant.configure(VAGRANTFILE_API_VERSION) do |config|
  config.vm.hostname = "docker-host"
  config.vm.box_check_update = false
  config.ssh.insert_key = false
  config.vm.box = "williamyeh/ubuntu-trusty64-docker"
  config.vm.network "forwarded_port", guest: 27017, host: 27017
  config.vm.synced_folder ".", "/vagrant", disabled: true
end

...and here is the docker provider Vagrantfile:

# -*- mode: ruby -*-
# vi: set ft=ruby :

Vagrant.require_version ">= 1.6.0"
VAGRANTFILE_API_VERSION = "2"
ENV['VAGRANT_DEFAULT_PROVIDER'] = 'docker'

Vagrant.configure(VAGRANTFILE_API_VERSION) do |config|
  config.vm.synced_folder ".", "/vagrant", disabled: true
  config.vm.provider "docker" do |docker|
    docker.vagrant_vagrantfile = "../docker-host/Vagrantfile"
    docker.image = "mongo"
    docker.ports = ['27017:27017']
    docker.name = 'mongo-container'
  end
end

Answer 1

Well, I'm not sure what had gotten munged in my environment, but while reconfiguring my setup, I deleted and restored my base docker host image, and from that point on, vagrant up, followed by vagrant halt, followed by vagrant up on the docker provider worked exactly like I was expecting it to.

At any rate, I guess this question is already supported by vagrant.