Getting started with container technologies

Getting started with container technologies

Containers and the tooling around it is currently grabbing the attention of many people; developers can containerize a whole application and deliver it to run without needing to install anything on the host. Ops don't have to set anything up (on the hosting server that is, so no application installs) and management will love the promises of easier deployment, faster delivery and more agile release management techniques.

Tooling  

Everyone has heard of Docker, the most well known container runtime, but there are numerous methods of managing, running and orchestrating containers. I'll be looking at them in depth and providing notes as part of blog entries as part of my learning, and hopefully they provide some use to you.

The options for running containers are
1. Docker
2. Containerd,
3. runc, and
4. rkt

Docker was easy to pick up - I've been playing with it since the last quarter 2016 - though I am sure production implementations would need more time and administrative effort around availability and discovery.  I've been wanting to spend time around rkt and will write up any useful notes as I go.

Running containers, either in docker images or App Container Images can be run and orchestrated in clustered environments using a number of technologies better suited to operation and deployment. I will try to introduce those as part of this blog series as well.

Cheers

Quintes

Connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter