Docker
Original author(s)Solomon Hykes
Developer(s)Docker, Inc.
Initial release13 March 2013 (2013-03-13)
Stable release
1.8.1[1] / 12 August 2015; 9 years ago (2015-08-12)
Written inGo
Operating systemLinux
Platformx86-64 with modern Linux kernel
TypeOperating system-level virtualization
LicenseApache License 2.0
Websitewww.docker.com

Docker is an open-source project that automates the deployment of applications inside software containers, by providing an additional layer of abstraction and automation of operating-system-level virtualization on Linux, Mac OS and Windows.[2] Docker is not itself a container technology; it is a container description format and orchestration API.[3]

According to industry analyst firm 451 Research, "Docker is a tool that can package an application and its dependencies in a virtual container that can run on any Linux server. This helps enable flexibility and portability on where the application can run, whether on premises, public cloud, private cloud, bare metal, etc."[4]

Overview

edit
 
Docker can use different interfaces to access virtualization features of the Linux kernel.[5]

Docker implements a high-level API to provide lightweight containers that run processes in isolation.[6]

It uses resource isolation features of the Linux kernel such as cgroups and kernel namespace to allow independent "containers" to run within a single Linux instance, avoiding the overhead of starting and maintaining virtual machines.[7]

Building on top of facilities provided by the Linux kernel (primarily cgroups and namespace), a Docker container, unlike a virtual machine, does not require or include a separate operating system.[4] Instead, it relies on the kernel's functionality and uses resource isolation (CPU, memory, block I/O, network, etc.) and separate namespaces to isolate the application's view of the operating system. Docker accesses the Linux kernel's virtualization features either directly using the libcontainer library, which is the default execution environment for Docker and is available since Docker 0.9, or indirectly via libvirt, LXC (Linux Containers) or systemd-nspawn.[5][8]

By using containers, resources can be isolated, services restricted, and processes provisioned to have an almost completely private view of the operating system with their own process ID space, file system structure, and network interfaces. Multiple containers share the same kernel, but each container can be constrained to only use a defined amount of resources such as CPU, memory and I/O.

Using Docker to create and manage containers may simplify the creation of highly distributed systems, by allowing multiple applications, worker tasks and other processes to run autonomously on a single physical machine or across multiple virtual machines. This allows the deployment of nodes to be performed as the resources become available or when more nodes are needed, allowing a platform as a service (PaaS)-style of deployment and scaling for systems like Apache Cassandra, MongoDB or Riak. Docker also simplifies the creation and operation of task or workload queues and other distributed systems.[9][10]

History

edit

Solomon Hykes started Docker as a Python based internal project within the platform as a service company, dotCloud.[11] Other initial contributors included fellow dotCloud engineers including Andrea Luzzardi and Francois-Xavier Bourlet, with Jeff Lindsay also serving as an independent collaborator. Docker represents an evolution of dotCloud's proprietary container orchestration technology, which itself was built upon earlier open-source projects such as Cloudlets.

Docker was released as open source in March 2013.[6] On March 13, 2014, with the release of version 0.9, Docker dropped LXC as the default execution environment and replaced it with its own libcontainer library written in the Go programming language.[12][8] Since it’s release, Docker has grown to be a major contender in the market for container orchestration APIs.  As of April 13, 2015, the Docker project had accumulated over 20,700 GitHub stars (making it the 20th most starred GitHub project), over 4,700 forks, and nearly 900 contributors.[13]

A May 2015 analysis showed the following organizations as main contributors to Docker: the Docker team, Red Hat, IBM, Google, Cisco Systems and Amadeus IT Group.[14]

Collaboration

edit
  • On July 23, 2013, dotCloud, Inc., the commercial entity behind Docker, announced that former Gluster and Plaxo CEO Ben Golub had joined the company, citing Docker as the primary focus of the company going forward.[15]
  • On September 19, 2013, Red Hat and Docker announced a significant collaboration around Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and OpenShift.[16]
  • On January 22, 2014, Docker announced that it had completed a $15 million Series B venture capital round, led by Greylock Partners.[17]
  • On July 23, 2014, Docker acquired Orchard, makers of Fig.[18]
  • On September 16, 2014, Docker announced that it had completed a $40 M Series C round, led by Sequoia Capital.[19]
  • On October 15, 2014, Microsoft announced integration of the Docker engine into the next (2016) Windows Server release, and native support for the Docker client role in Windows.[20][21]
  • On December 4, 2014, IBM announced a strategic partnership with Docker that enables enterprises to more efficiently, quickly and cost-effectively build and run the next generation of applications on the IBM Cloud.[22]
  • On June 22, 2015, it was announced that Docker and numerous other companies are working on a new vendor- and operating-system-independent standard for software containers.[23][24]

Integration

edit

Docker can be integrated into various infrastructure tools, including Amazon Web Services,[25] Ansible,[26] CFEngine,[27] Chef,[28] Google Cloud Platform,[29] IBM Bluemix,[30] Jelastic,[31] Jenkins,[32] Microsoft Azure,[33] OpenStack Nova,[34] OpenSVC,[35] Puppet,[36] Salt,[37] and Vagrant.[38]

The Cloud Foundry Diego project integrates Docker into the Cloud Foundry PaaS.[39]

The GearD project aims to integrate Docker into the Red Hat's OpenShift Origin PaaS.[40]

Usage and Implementation

edit

There are two options for creating Docker images, Docker’s command line interface or GUI interfaces such as Kitematic.

When using the Docker command line interface, images can be created via entering individual commands on the command line or by utilizing dockerfiles.  Dockerfiles are similar to shell scripts, in that they contain the individual lines of commands that are to be executed to generate the final image[41]. As is also the case with entering the individual docker commands via the command line, each line in a dockerfile results in a newly committed image. The result of iterating over all the lines in the file is the incorporation of deltas into the final image.  This is similar to how version control systems such as Git function.  Each command is an individual commit, with the final image being the sum total of all the proceeding commits.

Basic Docker CLI commands[42]

edit
  • ENTRYPOINT
    • Specifies which command will be triggered on the start of a container.
  • ADD
    • Copies files from a source to another destination and commits the results.
  • RUN
    • Executes a given command on the image and commits the results.
  • FROM
    • Specifies the base image to be used.
  • MAINTAINER
    • Specifies the name and email of the author of the given dockerfile.
  • USER
    • Specifies which user to use when running the image.
  • ENV
    • Used for setting environmental variables.
  • VOLUME
    • Creates a mountpoint for holding externally mounted containers.
  • EXPOSE
    • Specifies which ports will be exposed


Supporting Technologies

edit

Scheduling

edit

The concept of scheduling comes into the picture when there are multiple applications to be run across multiple hosts. A scheduler frees the user from the burden of figuring out on which host their application will run. The way scheduling works is that schedulers coordinate with the init system of the host to manage services and applications according to the available capacity and the availability of the various hosts which are a part of one cluster. Some of the popular schedulers available today include:

  • Swarm: Docker Swarm[43] is a native clustering tool for Docker which simplifies the deployment of multi container applications in a distributed environment. A cluster of Docker hosts is converted into a single virtual host. If a node in a cluster fails, all the containers running on the node will be scheduled on a different node belonging to the same cluster. There are three scheduling algorithms which help in deciding which containers will be run on which nodes; Random, Spread and BinPack.[44]
  • Kubernetes: Kubernetes[45] is a platform started by Google to manage container applications running on various nodes belonging to one cluster. It works in conjunction with Docker and takes charge of handling the orchestration of containers. It goes beyond the lifecycle management of containers and takes it to the next level of monitoring and managing the containers. Kubernetes is supported on Google Compute Engine, Rackspace, Microsoft Azure and vSphere environments.
  • Docker Compose: Docker compose is Docker’s offering for running applications in a distributed environment spanning more than one container. Compose provides the user with commands to start or stop a service, view the status of a service and view the log output of running services. It is possible to accomplish all these tasks in the scope of a single host which makes Compose similar to Kubernetes. As Compose is produced by Docker itself, the commands are very similar to Docker's CLI commands with the difference that these commands apply to a cluster of containers rather than an individual container.[46]

Cluster Management

edit

Cluster management, as the names suggests, is the process of monitoring how a collection of hosts behave when functioning in conjunction with one another. One of the most basic tasks carried out is the addition and removal of hosts from a cluster. Cluster management also involves starting and stopping of processes and gathering information about the current states of cluster containers and hosts. Some of the popular cluster management platforms include:

  • Mesos: Apache Mesos is a cluster management platform which was developed by University of California, Berkley. Mesos is a distributed systems kernel that binds numerous different machines into one logical machine. It is possible to create one static computer cluster from a host of available physical resources. Mesos proves beneficial in the scenario when there are existing specialized workloads (Hadoop, Apache Kafka) because it provides an efficient framework to interleave these workloads. It provides scalability of a cluster to tens of thousands of nodes as well as providing support for Docker containers. [47]
  • Bosh: Cloud Foundry Bosh is an open source packaging, lifecycle management and deployment tool. It supports quick cluster deployment mechanism with zero to minimal downtime. It is possible to install rolling updates on the nodes belonging to a cluster without affecting the data on each of those nodes.[48]

Competition

edit

Docker is no longer the only container virtualization solution in the market and there are a few alternatives that have launched in the domain which are as follows:

  • Rocket: Rocket[49] is a container virtualization technology developed by CoreOS. Rocket has been developed to enhance composability, security and speed in container technology.It is a container runtime tool in command line form consisting of two elements; Actool and Rkt. Actool takes care of the task of building containers while Rkt fetches and runs container images.
  • LXC: LXC(Linux Containers) is a userspace interface for supporting lightweight virtualized operating system environments. It is a system container technology which can provide its users with a working environment which is similar to a virtual machine environment. LXC provides capabilities of managing containers, advanced networking and storage support[50]
  • LXD: The LXD project was founded and currently led by Canonical Ltd and Ubuntu. LXD was announced in early November 2014 and is still under development. It offers a command line tool to manage containers through REST API. It allows the users to create new containers and move around already running containers. It is an image based technology and does not support distribution templates.[51]

Vision and Scope

edit

As the technology matures, Docker is expected to move toward having a stronger focus on orchestration, providing an integrated solution with both PaaS as well as SaaS capabilities. This growth in focus is highlighted by Docker's acquisition of four companies that offer services integral to Docker's ability to provide such a solution. In 2014, Docker purchased Orchard Laboratories[52] and Koality[53], quickly followed by the acquisition of Kitematic and SocketPlane[54] in 2015. The addition of these four companies has provided docker with the technology and infrastructure needed to position itself as a leader in the market for an integrated solution offering container orchestration as well as platform services.

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ "Docker Changelog". docs.docker.com. Docker, Inc. 2015-08-14. Retrieved 2015-08-18.
  2. ^ O'Gara, Maureen (26 July 2013). "Ben Golub, Who Sold Gluster to Red Hat, Now Running dotCloud". SYS-CON Media. Retrieved 2013-08-09.
  3. ^ "Orchestrating docker with machine, swarm and compose". blogs.docker.com. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
  4. ^ a b Noyes, Katherine (1 August 2013). "Docker: A 'Shipping Container' for Linux Code". Linux.com. Retrieved 2013-08-09.
  5. ^ a b "Docker 0.9: Introducing execution drivers and libcontainer". docker.com. 2014-03-10. Retrieved 2015-01-20.
  6. ^ a b Avram, Abel (2013-03-27). "Docker: Automated and Consistent Software Deployments". InfoQ. Retrieved 2013-08-09.
  7. ^ "Docker Documentation: Kernel Requirements". docker.readthedocs.org. 2014-01-04. Archived from the original on 2014-08-21. Retrieved 2014-08-20.
  8. ^ a b Swan, Chris (2014-03-13). "Docker drops LXC as default execution environment". InfoQ. Retrieved 2015-01-20.
  9. ^ Hall, Adron (31 July 2013). "OSCON : Conversations, Deployments, Architecture, Docker and the Future?". CloudAve. Retrieved 2013-08-09.
  10. ^ Reeder, Travis (22 April 2014). "How Docker Helped Us Achieve the (Near) Impossible". Iron.io. Retrieved 2014-07-25.
  11. ^ "One home for all your apps". dotCloud. Retrieved 2014-05-08.
  12. ^ Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols (2014-06-11). "Docker libcontainer unifies Linux container powers". ZDNet. Retrieved 2014-07-30.
  13. ^ "dotcloud/docker". GitHub. Retrieved 2015-04-13.
  14. ^ "Look who's helping build Docker -- besides Docker itself". InfoWorld. 2015-05-27.
  15. ^ Darrow, Barb (23 July 2013). "PaaS pioneer dotCloud gets new CEO in industry vet Ben Golub". GigaOM. Retrieved 2013-08-09.
  16. ^ "DotCloud Pivots And Wins Big With Docker, The Cloud Service Now Part Of Red Hat OpenShift". TechCrunch. 2013-09-19. Retrieved 2014-01-20.
  17. ^ Jordan Novet (January 21, 2014). "Docker's open-source bet pays off with $15M round". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2014-01-22.
  18. ^ Ben Kepes (July 23, 2014). "Docker Makes Its Move, Acquires Orchard In A Sign Of Things To Come". Forbes. Retrieved 2014-07-23.
  19. ^ Jack Clark and Peter Burrows (September 16, 2014). "Docker Said to Be Valued at $400 Million in Funding Round". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2014-09-16.
  20. ^ Mary Jo Foley (2014-10-15). "Docker container support coming to Microsoft's next Windows Server release". ZDNet. Retrieved 2014-10-16.
  21. ^ Scott Guthrie (October 15, 2014). "Docker and Microsoft: Integrating Docker with Windows Server and Microsoft Azure". Microsoft. Retrieved 2015-01-12.
  22. ^ "IBM and Docker Announce Strategic Partnership to Deliver Enterprise Applications in the Cloud and On Prem". IBM. 2014-12-04. Retrieved 2015-04-20.
  23. ^ Frederic Lardinois (2015-06-22). "Docker, CoreOS, Google, Microsoft, Amazon And Others Come Together To Develop Common Container Standard". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2015-08-08.
  24. ^ Shirley Siluk (2015-06-22). "Docker, Tech Giants Team on Open Container Project". cio-today.com. Retrieved 2015-08-08.
  25. ^ "Amazon EC2 - Docker Documentation". docs.docker.com. Retrieved 2014-10-18.
  26. ^ /. "ansible/library/cloud/docker". GitHub. Retrieved 2014-01-20. {{cite web}}: |author= has numeric name (help)
  27. ^ "CFEngine". CFEngine. Retrieved 2014-06-06.
  28. ^ "thoward/docker-cookbook". GitHub. Retrieved 2014-01-20.
  29. ^ "Containers on Google Cloud Platform". Google Inc.
  30. ^ "Bluemix Launches IBM Containers Beta Based on Docker". IBM. 2014-12-04. Retrieved 2015-04-20.
  31. ^ "Jelastic Announces Docker Integration to Provide the Most Advanced Orchestrated Application Delivery". PRWeb. Retrieved 2014-12-03.
  32. ^ "georgebashi/jenkins-docker-plugin". GitHub. Retrieved 2014-01-20.
  33. ^ "The Docker Virtual Machine Extension for Linux on Azure". Microsoft. 29 June 2015. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
  34. ^ Stefano Maffulli  June 7th, 2013 (2013-06-07). "OpenStack Community Weekly Newsletter (May 31 – June 7) » The OpenStack Blog". Openstack.org. Retrieved 2014-01-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  35. ^ "OpenSVC Docker". OpenSVC. Retrieved 2014-05-29.
  36. ^ Gareth Rushgrove. "garethr/docker". Puppet Forge. Retrieved 2014-01-20.
  37. ^ "saltstack/dockerio". Retrieved 2014-01-20.
  38. ^ "philspitler/vagrant-docker". GitHub. Retrieved 2014-01-20.
  39. ^ Whelan, Phil (2014-09-03). "Cloud Foundry: Diego Explained By Onsi Fakhouri". ActiveState. Retrieved 2015-04-20. Functionality is being added to enable end-users to push Docker images directly into a Cloud Foundry cluster running Diego.
  40. ^ Jackson, Joab (2014-04-16). "Red Hat to update Docker container tech for enterprises: Open source vendor plans to incorporate advanced Linux tools such as systemd and SELinux into Docker". Computerworld. Computerworld, Inc. Retrieved 2014-05-29. Red Hat has also started a second community project, called GearD, to integrate Docker into its PaaS (platform-as-a-service) hosting software, OpenShift Origin.
  41. ^ "Dockerfile reference". docs.docker.com. Retrieved 2015-09-15.
  42. ^ "Using the command line". docs.docker.com. Retrieved 2015-09-15.
  43. ^ "Docker Swarm". Docker Official Documentation.
  44. ^ "Scheduling Strategies". Docker Documentation. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
  45. ^ "Kubernetes". Kubernetes Official Documentation.
  46. ^ "Compose". Docker Official Documentation.
  47. ^ "Apache Mesos". Mesos.apache.org. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
  48. ^ "Cloud Foundry Bosh Documentation". Bosh Official Documentation. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
  49. ^ "Rocket". coreos.com. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
  50. ^ "Linux Containers". linuscontainers.org. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
  51. ^ "LXD". Linux Containers. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
  52. ^ "Orchard Official Website". www.orchardup.com. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
  53. ^ "Koality Official Website". koalitycode.com. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
  54. ^ "Socketplane Official Website". socketplane.io. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
edit

Category:Operating system technology Category:Operating system security Category:Free software Category:Virtualization software Category:Linux-only software Category:Virtualization software for Linux