{"id":2008,"date":"2019-03-05T08:04:25","date_gmt":"2019-03-05T13:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/soul-repairs.com\/?p=2008"},"modified":"2019-02-14T21:16:14","modified_gmt":"2019-02-15T02:16:14","slug":"why-containers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/soul-repairs.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/05\/why-containers\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Containers"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this blog post, we’re going to talk about distributed architectures, and the progression they’ve made over time. We’re going to do this because a long time ago, when we were watching the Getting Started with Docker<\/em><\/a> training on PluralSite, Josh started ranting about this very topic and Laine told him it should to be a blog post because the information that just falls out of his head<\/em> sometimes is really cool.\u00a0You’re welcome, internet!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Progression<\/span><\/h2>\n

One Server, Two Server, Red Server, 5000 Servers ahh panic!<\/em><\/span>\u00a0(1990s-2000s)<\/span><\/h3>\n

You need to run server applications, e.g. a mail server, so you spin one up. You pay the hardware and licensing costs, install and configure some software, and keep up to date with updates, patches, and user requests. By hand.<\/span><\/p>\n

One server, not so bad.\u00a0<\/span>We definitely got this, you guys<\/span>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

…but eventually you need to run <\/span>more server applications<\/span><\/em>, because “hey, these things are cool!”\u00a0This leads to\u00a0<\/span>more servers<\/em>.<\/span>\u00a0Which of course leads to more patching, installs, configuring, space, networking, costs – and ultimately, more<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>time<\/span><\/strong>.\u00a0We maybe do not got this…<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…VMWare! (Late 2000s)<\/span><\/h3>\n

Hypervisor<\/span><\/a> technology (VMWare, KVM, Microsoft Hyper-V) lets server admins <\/span>virtualize servers<\/span><\/strong>. This means that they could:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Create<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0massive pools of <\/span>compute<\/span>, networking, and storage resources from relatively inexpensive commodity blade servers<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Manage<\/span><\/strong> all of those from a central location (e.g. VMWare)<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Allocate<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>those pools to specific virtual servers (aka virtual machines aka VMs)<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Configure<\/span><\/strong> and <\/span>patch<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0the virtual servers automatically using profiles<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Monitor<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0the virtual servers<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    This was a <\/span>revolution<\/span><\/em>\u00a0in server management. Rather than spending days buying\/setting up\/configuring physical machines, server admins could buy hardware once, and then allocate it as needed without ever moving hardware around.<\/span><\/p>\n

    However, there are still some annoyances:<\/span><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Each server had to have its own <\/span>operating system\u00a0and application install <\/span><\/strong>configured<\/span><\/li>\n
    2. That configuration then<\/span>\u00a0had to be done multiple times<\/span><\/strong> for testing environments, high availability\/failover, etc.<\/span><\/li>\n
    3. Even though the <\/span>compute<\/span>, networking, and storage was paid for once,<\/span> the operating system, utilities, and applications had to be paid for per server<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Containers! (Mid 2010s)<\/span><\/h3>\n

      Containers (e.g. Docker<\/a>) changed the game again, by changing how applications are installed and deployed, and how they integrate with their operating systems.<\/span><\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Containers run\u00a0<\/span>in\u00a0<\/span>an operating system on their host machine, but they pretend to run each application in its<\/span>\u00a0own <\/span><\/em>operating system. <\/span>Tl<\/span>;dr<\/span>: they have\u00a0<\/span>one actual\u00a0<\/em>operating system <\/span><\/strong> shared by many, many containers<\/strong>.<\/span> One install, one license, and one setup (to run the containers).<\/span><\/li>\n
      2. Containers define their<\/em> setup and configuration in the container.<\/em>\u00a0This setup and configuration can then be reused anywhere the container (which\u00a0<\/span>contains<\/span> the application) is deployed. <\/span>No need for application install on each server.<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        So now, with virtualized <\/span>compute<\/span> hardware (hypervisor technology) and virtualized operating systems (Docker), plus standardized configuration spec (<\/span>dockerfiles<\/span>), the annoyances we talked about for maintaining all those virtualized servers have pretty cool solutions<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

        Solving all of these problems means it’s\u00a0<\/span>very <\/span>very<\/span><\/em> fast and easy to spin up a lot of containers<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>– and then you get into the problem of\u00a0<\/span>ohhh<\/span> <\/span>sooo<\/span> <\/span>mannyyy<\/span> <\/span>connntaiinnerrssss<\/span><\/em>, which is where you need a container management and orchestration tool like <\/span>DCOS <\/span><\/a>or our\u00a0definite nerdy favorite<\/em>,\u00a0<\/span>Openshift<\/span><\/a>\u00a0(<\/span>related blog posts<\/span><\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n

        Note<\/strong>:\u00a0<\/span>at no point did we say\u00a0<\/span>anything <\/span>here\u00a0about “written Java\/etc applications.” Actually, this was more about <\/span>setting up and maintaining external<\/em> applications that run on servers<\/span>\u00a0than about applications built internally. One of the places that Docker shines is in setting up these types of server applications – but it’s genuinely pretty great at running applications written in-house too.<\/span><\/p>\n

        Bring it on home…<\/span><\/h2>\n

        Distributed architecture is great for a lot of reasons, but handling the servers has always been a pain point for infrastructure\/operations people – which means it’s a pain point for developers, and for end users too. Making server setup, configuration, and care easier, faster, and cheaper has been a goal since, uh<\/em>…since servers existed. Container technology like Docker is another leap forward in the evolution of how the industry tries to meet that goal.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        In this blog post, we’re going to talk about distributed architectures, and the progression they’ve made over time. We’re going to do this because a long time ago, when we were watching the Getting Started with Docker training on PluralSite, Josh started ranting about this very topic and Laine told him it should to be … <\/p>\n

        Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[82,44],"wf_post_folders":[],"coauthors":[26,11],"class_list":["post-2008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-docker","tag-openshift"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/soul-repairs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/soul-repairs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/soul-repairs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soul-repairs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soul-repairs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2008"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/soul-repairs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2458,"href":"https:\/\/soul-repairs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2008\/revisions\/2458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/soul-repairs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soul-repairs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soul-repairs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2008"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soul-repairs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=2008"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soul-repairs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}