Docker for People

A brief and fairly painless introduction to Docker

Friday, November 17th 11:00 - 11:45

Greg Gómez
Sung-Hee Lee
The University of New Mexico
IT
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Docker for People
Agenda:
Greg: Theory
Sung-Hee: Practice (Demo)

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Note
We’re (mainly) php developers, so we’ll be using LAMP (Linux, Apache,
MySQL, php) for many all of our examples.
Not all version numbers in this presentation are real; some are entirely
fictional.

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What Is Docker?
Docker is the world’s leading software container platform. Developers
use Docker to eliminate “works on my machine” problems when
collaborating on code with co-workers. Operators use Docker to run
and manage apps side-by-side in isolated containers to get better
compute density. Enterprises use Docker to build agile software
delivery pipelines to ship new features faster, more securely and with
confidence for both Linux and Windows Server apps.

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What Is Docker?
Docker is the world’s leading software container platform. Developers
use Docker to eliminate “works on my machine” problems when
collaborating on code with co-workers. Operators use Docker to run
and manage apps side-by-side in isolated containers to get better
compute density. Enterprises use Docker to build agile software
delivery pipelines to ship new features faster, more securely and with
confidence for both Linux and Windows Server apps.

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What Is Docker?
Docker is the world’s leading software container platform. Developers
use Docker to eliminate “works on my machine” problems when
collaborating on code with co-workers. Operators use Docker to run
and manage apps side-by-side in isolated containers to get better
compute density. Enterprises use Docker to build agile software
delivery pipelines to ship new features faster, more securely and with
confidence for both Linux and Windows Server apps.

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What Is Docker?
Docker is the world’s leading software container platform. Developers
use Docker to eliminate “works on my machine” problems when
collaborating on code with co-workers. Operators use Docker to run
and manage apps side-by-side in isolated containers to get better
compute density. Enterprises use Docker to build agile software
delivery pipelines to ship new features faster, more securely and with
confidence for both Linux and Windows Server apps.

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What Is Docker?
Docker is the world’s leading software container platform. Developers
use Docker to eliminate “works on my machine” problems when
collaborating on code with co-workers. Operators use Docker to run
and manage apps side-by-side in isolated containers to get better
compute density. Enterprises use Docker to build agile software
delivery pipelines to ship new features faster, more securely and with
confidence for both Linux and Windows Server apps.

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What Is Docker?
Docker is the world’s leading software container platform. Developers
use Docker to eliminate “works on my machine” problems when
collaborating on code with co-workers. Operators use Docker to run
and manage apps side-by-side in isolated containers to get better
compute density. Enterprises use Docker to build agile software
delivery pipelines to ship new features faster, more securely and with
confidence for both Linux and Windows Server apps.

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Why the confusion?
• Docker has been moving fast, and there have been many updates.
• The result is that there are some discrepancies even in relatively new
documents.
• There’s also confusion about what Docker is.
• It’s not a VM (although it can run (and did) run in one).

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Containerization’s Not New
Like many other ‘new’ technologies, Docker is a next step in the
evolution of a number of existing technologies.
Arising from the need to prevent applications (and users) from
interfering with one another on a single system.
Initially in the late 1970s, there’s been steady improvements since the
turn of the century. Especially with the Linux kernal.

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It’s not a VM!
Docker is not a virtual machine.

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A simplified view of the innards of a standard
computer.

Application Application
Application
Operating System

Kernel

Hardware

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Important: what’s a kernel?

Application Application
Application
Operating System

Kernel

Hardware

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Important: what’s a kernel?
• The kernel is the core of the Operating System. It controls
the entire system.
• It also acts as a proxy between hardware and peripherals
such as keyboards, monitors, network cards, etc.
• The kernel controls things like access to hardware, certain
operations, and other features.

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Important: what’s a kernel?

Application Application
Application
Operating System

Kernel

CPU Memory Devices

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What’s a Virtual Machine (VM)?

• It’s a simulation of a computer, running on simulated hardware.

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Simplified Application Application
Application
(Guest) Operating System
Virtual Machine
Kernel
(VM)

Application Application
VM (Hypervisor)
Operating System

Kernel

Hardware
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Simplified Application
Application
Application
Application
Application

Virtual Application Operating System Application

Application
Operating System Application
(Guest) Operating SystemKernel
Machine(s) Kernel
Kernel
(VMs)

Application
Application VM (Hypervisor)
Operating System

Kernel

Hardware
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It’s a Container Container Engine
Container Engine

Manager! Application
Container Application
Container Engine
Application
Application
ContainerApplication
Application Application
Application

Application Application
Docker
Operating System

Kernel

Hardware
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 Container Engine
Runtime Isolation Container Engine
Container EngineApplication
Application
Container Engine
Application
Application
Application
Container
Application Application
Application

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Runtime Isolation

Container Engine
Container Engine
php 8.19
php 5.x

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Runtime Isolation
Container Engine
Container Engine Container Engine
mySQL 4
php 8.19 Apache 5

Container Engine

mySQL 6

Container Engine
Container Engine
Apache 3
php 5.x

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Runtime Isolation
Container Engine
Container Engine
Container Engine mySQL 4
Apache 5
php 8.19

Container Engine

mySQL 6

Container Engine
Container Engine
Apache 3
php 5.x

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Runtime Isolation
Container Container

php 5.x php 7.x

mySQL 4 mySQL 5

Apache 5 nginx

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Runtime Isolation
Container Container

php 5.x php 7.x

mySQL 4 mySQL 5

Apache 5 nginx

Host OS’ disk

php, etc. files
here!

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Runtime Isolation
Container Engine Container Engine

php 5.x php 7.x

mySQL 4 mySQL 5

Apache 5 nginx

Editor,
IDE, etc.

Host OS’ disk

php files here!

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What makes it so cool (good, easy)…

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What makes it so cool (good, easy)…
It utilizes a single kernel, so it saves lots of resources.
Well-configured Docker configuration files make it easy to create stable,
reusable development environments.
Less finicky than VMs(?).
Easier to keep up with updates to php, MySQL, etc. (Because you’re not
relying on your *AMP vendor to update).
Easier to segregate Projects.

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What makes it so difficult…
It doesn’t make managing containerized apps any easier.
IOW, to master Docker a good working knowledge of *ix systems,
networking, resources, automation, etc. is required.
Therefore, customizing Docker is more Ops than Dev.
Creating customized Images requires some knowledge of *ix (moderate
to expert)

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Docker Repository
• A centralized location with many Images.
• Some are official, many are from the community.
• There’s probably an existing Image that does what you need.
• Link!

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Main use-cases for developers
• Develop locally and deploy files
• Develop locally and deploy Containers.

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Develop locally and deploy files
• Eliminate *AMP (MAMP, XAMP, etc.)
• Easily try new versions of your stack.
• For example, want to see how your php 5 code runs on php 7?
• Close parity with your production environment.
• But not necessarily exact
• Eg: Prod = php 5.6.12; your dev = php 5.6.19

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Develop locally and deploy files - workflow
• Install Docker, etc.
• Get an image that suites you.
• Get your database, browser, etc., going.
• Code (implement new features, fix bugs, etc.)
• (Edit, save, refresh).
• Commit to your versioning tool, if you’re using one.
• Deploy your code (for testing, acceptance, production, etc.)
• Does NOT eliminate works on my machine issues.

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Develop locally and deploy Containers.
• Requires your Ops team to be ready (because they need to have Docker
running on target systems).
• Install Docker.
• Get an image that suites you.
• Code (implement new features, fix bugs, etc.)
• Deploy your Container (for testing, acceptance, production, etc.)
• Eliminates works on my machine issues.

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Pros
• Great deal of freedom for developers.
• Less Ops knowledge than VMs.
• Eliminate VMs.
• Eliminate *AMP stacks.
• In a fully realized Docker shop, less stressful deployments
• Blue Green
• Widely developed, adopted and supported by very large enterprises
like Google, Red Hat, Microsoft, etc., etc.

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Cons
• Great deal of freedom for developers.
• My project uses Lua, Caddy and CockroachDB!!
• Neat, huh!?!?
• Mastery requires non-trivial knowledge of *ix.
• More Ops than Dev.
• The new hotness
• But it’s probably here to stay.

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The Process – Innards –Essential Knowledge

Dockerfile docker
build Image docker
run Container

A Dockerfile is a text An image is a A container is a runtime

document… lightweight, stand- instance of an image…
alone, executable…

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Dockerfile
A Dockerfile is a text document
that contains all the commands a
Dockerfile docker
build user could call on the command
line to assemble an image. Using
docker build users can create
an automated build that executes
several command-line instructions
in succession1.

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Image
An image is a lightweight, stand-
alone, executable package that
Image docker
run includes everything needed to run
a piece of software, including the
code, a runtime, libraries,
environment variables, and config
files2.

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Containers

A container is a runtime instance of an

image—what the image becomes in
Container memory when actually executed.

It runs completely isolated from the host

environment by default, only accessing
host files and ports if configured to do so2.

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What about security?
• What about it?

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Demo…

Sung-Hee Lee

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References and Resources
• http://rhelblog.redhat.com/2015/08/28/the-history-of-containers/
• https://blog.aquasec.com/a-brief-history-of-containers-from-1970s-chroot-to-
docker-2016
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernel_(operating_system)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypervisor
• Redhat’s developer site - https://developers.redhat.com/.
• Docker’s site - https://www.docker.com/.
• Play with Docker - https://labs.play-with-docker.com/.

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