Docker at Microsoft Ignite 2018

Docker will be at Microsoft Ignite in Orlando, FL the week of Sept 24th to showcase the latest release of Docker Enterprise. Specifically, we will be sharing insights for how to move your legacy Windows applications from Windows Server 2003/2008 to Windows Server 2016 and Azure.

Visit Docker in Booth #644 to learn more about how we’re helping IT organizations learn about Docker Enterprise tools that help you to id and containerize Windows legacy applications. We’ll have technical experts there to answer your questions.

Make sure to check out these sessions featuring Docker:

• From Ops to DevOps with Windows Containers and Windows Server 2019. Specifically we are highlighting Lindsay, a joint Docker Microsoft customer that has migrated Windows legacy apps with Docker Enterprise to Azure. You can get more details about the session here.
• Thursday 9/27 @ 2pm: HPE Theatre in the HPE booth #2125. The session will focus on how Docker Enterprise is  helping customers migrate their legacy apps and run them in a hybrid environment.
• Get a Hands on Tutorial at the Docker User Group

Docker is also partnering with Docker Captains in Orlando to deliver a hands-on lab focused on migrating a legacy Continue reading

Windows Server 2008 Cutoff: How Docker Enterprise Cures Migration Headaches

The coming end-of-support for Windows Server 2008 is the perfect opportunity for IT organizations to tap Docker Enterprise to modernize and secure legacy applications while saving millions in the process.

THE END IS NIGH (FOR WINDOWS SERVER 2008)

The coming end-of-support for Windows Server 2008 in January 2020 leaves IT organizations with a few viable options: migrate to a supported operating system (OS), rehost in Azure, or pay for an extended support contract (up to 75% of the license fee per year) to receive security updates beyond the cut-off date. The option of doing nothing (running applications on unsupported OS versions) is a non-starter for the vast majority of businesses, as this poses a significant security and compliance risk. We saw the impact of this last year when a massive ransomware attack that affected nearly 100 countries spread by targeting end-of-life and unpatched systems.

THE APPLICATION MIGRATION MIGRAINE

Upgrading will be no small feat as roughly 80% of all enterprise applications run on Windows Server. Of those applications, 70% still run on Windows Server 2008 or earlier versions*. Migrating all of these critical applications to a supported version of Windows Server is painful and costly, due to rigid legacy Continue reading

5 Reasons to Attend DockerCon

Are you ready to get started with Docker and containers or level up your current use?

Join the Docker team, the container ecosystem, contributors and maintainers, developers, IT professionals and executives at DockerCon Barcelona December 3-5. DockerCon is the must attend conference to learn, network and innovate with the container industry.

Besides Barcelona being a beautiful city with delicious food, here are our top 5 reasons to attend DockerCon:

1. Think big. Docker containers and our container platform are being used everywhere for everything. Your possibilities are endless, from sending rockets to space to literally save the earth from asteroids, to running intensive genomics analysis to find cures for diseases or keeping e-commerce running smoothly for black Friday shoppers. Come to DockerCon and imagine your digital future.
2. Start small. The promise of containerization is big, but the sheer volume of options can be intimidating. If you don’t know where to start, don’t worry. DockerCon has a path for you for each stage of the journey: from getting started, to launching your first project, to scaling out your environment, to building some new and innovating.
3. The. Best. Content. DockerCon is known for its amazing speakers who deliver real takeaways and lessons learned. Continue reading

Get to Know Docker Desktop

Today on the Edge release channels, we released a new beta version of Docker Desktop, the product formerly known as Docker for Windows and Docker for Mac. You can download this new Edge release for both Windows and macOS. Docker Desktop enables you to start coding and containerizing in minutes and is the easiest way to run Docker Engine, Docker Swarm and Kubernetes on Mac and Windows. In addition to simple setup, Docker Desktop also includes other great features and capabilities such as:

• Fast edit-test cycles with volume mounting for code and data, including file change notifications.
• If you want to switch from Swarm to Kubernetes for orchestration, it’s a click of a button in the Docker Desktop UI.
• On Windows desktops, you can develop both Windows and Linux containers with Docker Desktop using a toggle selection in the UI.
• Docker Desktop handles the setup and teardown of lightweight VMs on both Windows and macOS, using Hyper-V on Windows desktops and Hyperkit on macOS.
• Built-in enterprise network support allows Docker Desktop to work with choice of VPNs and proxies.

You may have already noticed the new Docker Desktop name on www.docker.com, and over the next few months we Continue reading

Join the Beta for Docker Engine 18.09

A few weeks back, we announced changes to extend the maintenance lifecycle for Docker Engine – Community (CE). As part of these changes, we’re having a beta testing period to deliver a higher-quality engine to the market.

We’d like to invite our community members to now participate in this beta testing by installing the beta package, kicking the tires, and submitting issues.

Docker Engine – Community version 18.09 adds these new features:

• Built on containerd – Docker Engine’s new architecture is based on containerd 1.2 and fully supported through the Kubernetes containerd integration.
• BuildKit is now generally available – Access improved build performance (see slides 22-26) and scalability with the optional BuildKit integration. BuildKit remains opt-in with an environment variable, e.g.

        $ DOCKER_BUILDKIT=1 docker build .

You can also set the feature option in /etc/docker/daemon.json to enable BuildKit by default:

 {"features":{"buildkit": true}}

• Support for SSH connections to the docker host – The client can now connect to a remote docker daemon via SSH, e.g.

        $ docker -H ssh://[email protected]

Install Instructions:

Only install the beta package on a new system without previous versions of docker-ce installed.

$ curl -fsSL test.docker.com  Continue reading

Top Questions from VMworld 2018

Last week, the Docker team had a chance to interact with the attendees of VMworld to talk about containers and container platforms. We spoke to companies in all stages of their containerization journey – some were just getting started and figuring out where containers may be used, others had started early containerization projects, some had mature container environments. Here are some of the most common questions we were asked.

Q: We have developers that are using Docker containers now, but what is the relevancy of containers to me (as an IT or virtualization admin)?

A: While developers were the first to adopt containers, there are many benefits of containers for IT:

• Server consolidation: While virtualization did increase the number of virtual machines per server, studies show that servers are still greatly underutilized. On average, Docker Enterprise customers see 50% greater server consolidation with containerization. That means being able to pack more workloads onto existing infrastructure or even reducing the number of servers and therefore saving on licensing and hardware costs.
• Easier patching and maintenance: Containerized applications can be updated easily through changes to the source image file. This also means it’s possible to update and rollback patches on the Continue reading

Imagine Yourself on the DockerCon Stage

We want to hear from you

Share your story of how Docker and containers work for you at DockerCon EU in Barcelona Dec 3-5, 2018. DockerCon is the industry-leading container conference where thought leaders and the community of developers, IT professionals, architects and business leaders come together to learn, discover and engage with each other. Part of the learning experience is hearing about the possibilities of containerization from other teams using containers.

Don’t be shy about proposing your idea – no topic is too small or too big. For every presentation given, there are hundreds of people who learn and relate to the experience and insights that you share.  Some of the best talks have come from people just like you — and for some, DockerCon is their very first time public speaking. Our team is standing by to help with any first timers’ jitters too!

The deadline to submit a topic is just around the corner: Sept. 8, 2018

SUBMIT YOUR TALK HERE

What do people want to hear about?

DockerCon provides a variety of breakouts to address the needs of both developers and IT teams whether they are new to containers or about to scale a global deployment.

• Continue reading

Are Containers Replacing Virtual Machines?

With 20,000 partners and attendees converging at VMworld in Las Vegas this week, we often get asked if containers are replacing virtual machines (VMs). Many of our Docker Enterprise customers do run their containers on virtualized infrastructure while others run it on bare metal. Docker provides IT and operators choice on where to run their applications – in a virtual machine, on bare metal, or in the cloud. In this blog we’ll provide a few thoughts on the relationship between VMs and containers.

Containers versus Virtual Machines

Point #1: Containers Are More Agile than VMs

At this stage of container maturity, there is very little doubt that containers give both developers and operators more agility. Containers deploy quickly, deliver immutable infrastructure and solve the age-old “works on my machine” problem. They also replace the traditional patching process, allowing organizations to respond to issues faster and making applications easier to maintain.

Point #2: Containers Enable Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Adoption

Once containerized, applications can be deployed on any infrastructure – on virtual machines, on bare metal, and on various public clouds running different hypervisors. Many organizations start with running containers on their virtualized infrastructure and find it easier to then migrate to Continue reading

The “Depend on Docker” Philosophy at Baker Hughes, a GE Company

BHGE is the world’s leading full stream Oil & Gas company on a mission to find better ways to deliver energy to the world. BHGE Digital develops enterprise grade cloud-first SaaS solutions to improve efficiency and reduce non-productive time for the Oil & Gas industry.

In our group, we have developed an analytics-driven product portfolio to enable company-wide digital transformation for our customers. Challenges ranging from predicting the failures of mission-critical industrial assets such as gas turbines to optimizing the conditions of an Electric Submersible Pump (ESP) to increase production, which require building and maintaining sophisticated analytics at scale.

The past few years have taught us this: where there is a whale, there is a way!

We were happy to share our story at DockerCon recently, and wanted to share it here on the Docker blog as well. You can watch the session here:

We face two major challenges in delivering advanced analytics:

1. Data silos
   We must handle a multitude of data sources that range from disconnected historical datasets to high speed sensor streams. Industrial data volumes and velocities dwarf even the largest ERP implementations as shown below.

Learn More About Docker at VMworld 2018

The Docker team will be at VMworld in Las Vegas next week (Aug. 26-30) to interact with IT leaders and virtualization administrators and share the latest on Docker Enterprise – the leading enterprise-ready container platform that supports your choice of technology stacks, application types, operating systems and infrastructure. Register today to get a guided tour of Docker Enterprise.

Secure Your Legacy, Protect Your Future – See How Docker Works for Windows Server Migrations

Come by Booth #2513 near the Mobility Zone to learn more about container platforms and how Docker Enterprise is the only solution that can help IT migrate applications from Windows Server 2008 to Windows Server 2016 – without recoding!

Windows Server 2008 is approaching End of Support which means security and maintenance patches will be discontinued. Don’t risk your business critical apps with an unpatched and unsupported operating system. Discover the simplest way to move off of Windows Server 2008 (and even Windows Server 2003) with a proven methodology using Docker Enterprise and  purpose-built containerization. With Docker, you can:

• Eliminate legacy app security risks and improve reliability
• Make your apps portable and cloud-ready
• Cut costs by 50% from increased server consolidation and operational efficiencies
  

Stop by, talk to our Continue reading

An Update on the Docker FIPS 140-2 Compliance Initiative

Recently Docker Engine – Enterprise version 18.03 was released, our first to include the FIPS 140-2 compliant modules currently undergoing validation by the NIST CMVP. These modules cover the cryptography elements in Docker Engine – Enterprise and are used when Engines are deployed standalone or with Docker Swarm enabled.

Compliance from Docker Engine to Container Platform

Additionally we are working to bring the FIPS 140-2 compliant modules into the remainder of the Docker Enterprise container platform and make this available to our customers. This will include FIPS 140-2 compliance for the private registry and management Continue reading

Proactive Ops for Container Orchestration Environments: Monitoring and Logging Strategies with Docker Enterprise

Over the last decade, the popularity of microservices and highly-scalable systems has increased, leading to an overall increase in the complexity of applications that are now distributed heavily across the network with many moving pieces and potential failure modes.

This architectural evolution has changed the monitoring requirements and led to a need for scalable and insightful tooling and practices to enable us to better identify, debug and resolve issues in our systems before they impact the business and our end users (internal and/or external).

I recently gave a talk at DockerCon SF 18 discussing functionality in Docker Enterprise that enables operators to more easily monitor their container platform environment, along with some key metrics and best practices to triage and remediate issues before they cause downtime.

You can watch the full talk here:

Monitoring Methodologies

One of the most well-known early monitoring techniques was the USE method from Brendan Gregg at Netflix. USE specified that for every resource we should be monitoring utilization (time spent servicing work), saturation (the degree to which a resource had work it couldn’t service) and errors (number of error events). This model worked well for more hardware / node centric metrics but network-based Continue reading

Docker SF Chapter Meetup: BuildKit and Container Orchestration

Last week, we had a great turnout for the Docker San Francisco chapter event at HQ! The meetup was focused on two of the most popular talks from DockerCon on BuildKit and container orchestration with Kubernetes and Docker Swarm. The purpose was to give people who couldn’t attend these talks a chance to hear to hear them live,  provide the opportunity to ask the speakers questions and network with other members of the container ecosystem.

‘Introduction to BuildKit: the Next Generation Builder Component’

Watch Tibor Vass’ Presentation

First, we had Tibor Vass, a software engineer on the Engine Team at Docker and maintainer of the Docker project since 2014, take the podium with his talk ‘Introduction to BuildKit: the Next Generation Builder Component’. In this talk, Tibor went into detail about the latest developments around the builder component of the Docker Platform including BuildKit, a toolkit that builds on containerd to provide next-generation capabilities for building software with the help of containers. Watch his talk to learn about the architecture and design choices of BuildKit’s frontend model, how to use BuildKit directly, and how to leverage its features in Docker. There were a number of great questions from particularly engaged community members!

Continue reading

How BCG Gamma is Transforming Analytics with Docker

Changing the culture and service offerings of a big consulting firm isn’t easy, but BCG has been on that path for the past five years. BCG has evolved from traditional consulting services into a digital transformation powerhouse with six divisions that deliver strategic and technical services to clients.

One of those divisions, BCG Gamma, is a global team of world-class data scientists who build data analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence solutions for the firm’s clients. But building and shipping analytics, ML and AI applications to clients is challenging. Andrea Gallego, CTO of the division, is charged with creating an infrastructure that can support delivering high-quality ML and AI models at scale.

The Challenge: Shipping ML and AI Software to Clients at Scale

The big question on her mind was how BCG Gamma could not only build models, but deliver them to clients at the edge with real-time orchestration, monitoring and updates. GDPR and other regulations also meant she had to do this while ensuring integrity, consistency and lineage across data models.

Andrea and her team launched the BCG GammaX initiative, a core team of 30 engineers specializing in analytics software engineering, data engineering, UX design, distributed systems, and Continue reading

Kubernetes is Now Available In Docker Desktop Stable Channel

Back in January we made Kubernetes available in our Edge release channels for Docker Desktop on macOS and on Windows. Today we’re excited to announce that Kubernetes orchestration has graduated to the Stable release channels for Docker Desktop!

Docker Desktop is the fastest and simplest way to get a Kubernetes cluster running on your desktop machine, while still giving you the freedom to choose Docker Swarm if you prefer. Docker Developer Advocate Elton Stoneman recently created a short video demonstrating Docker Desktop on both Windows and Mac. In the video, Elton demonstrates:

• Enabling Kubernetes and alternating between Kubernetes and Swarm
• Integrating Docker Desktop and containers in to your environment and workflow
• Deploying .NET, NodeJS, and Java apps with Docker Desktop, including deploying to Kubernetes with a Compose file

Click image below to watch video:

Docker Desktop is simple to install on macOS and Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise, and is available at the links below. If you’re already using Docker Desktop and you’re in the Stable channel (which is default) then you should see an auto-update notification soon.

What You Can Do with Kubernetes on your desktop?

Docker Desktop is the most popular way to configure a Docker dev Continue reading

How to Get Your Apps off Windows 2003 and Into the Cloud with Docker Enterprise

Docker Windows Containers with Docker Enterprise

A huge number of companies are still running apps on Windows Server 2003 and 2008 in the data center. They want to move to a modern, secure, supported platform which gives them the flexibility to run in the data center today – and in any cloud tomorrow. Docker gives them that flexibility, and you can move your apps to Docker without changing any code.

That was the focus of our recent webinar, where we showed several apps currently running on Windows Server 2003, and packaged them to run as Docker Windows containers. We showed all the steps to migrate the apps with no code changes, and then we ran them in Docker Enterprise on a Windows Server 2016 VM running in Azure.

You can watch the full video of the webinar here – it comes in at just over 60 minutes:

In the webinar, you see the portability that Docker Enterprise gives you. The applications we move are a mixture of older web technologies – static HTML, classic ASP and ASP.NET WebForms. The apps from the demo and the Dockerfiles are on GitHub here. They could be 15-year old apps and you Continue reading

Introducing Docker Application Guides

In April of 2017 we announced the Modernize Traditional Applications (MTA) program at Docker. The goal of MTA is to take the vast back catalogs of existing applications that are running in enterprise organizations today, and bring them to a modern container platform, without requiring extensive rewrites or refactoring. I’m excited to share part of our learning from the MTA program and announce the release of Docker Application Guides.

Oracle WebLogic MedRec Sample Application on Docker Enterprise Edition

Docker Application Guides demonstrate how to deploy popular enterprise applications – Oracle WebLogic and IBM MQ with WebSphere Liberty – on Docker Enterprise and Docker Desktop. Application Guides include example architectures and guidance for selecting Certified Docker container images from Docker Store and deploying a prototype application, orchestrated by Docker Swarm or Kubernetes.

It is important to note that Docker Application Guides are one piece of our prescriptive Docker customer journey to production. In addition to the knowledge transfer and process transformation that come with our full approach, Application Guides provide a reference for deploying common enterprise applications on the Docker Enterprise platform.

The first Docker Application Guides are designed to help you plan and deploy an Oracle WebLogic application Continue reading

Extending Support Cycle for Docker Community Edition

We’re excited to share the release of Docker 18.06 Community Edition (CE) and also share some changes that will be implemented in the next release. Based on feedback we’ve been hearing from the community, we are implementing some changes to deliver higher quality Community Edition (CE) releases, while also providing faster access to new features as they get added:

• Docker CE Stable is changing to twice-a-year release cadence
• Docker CE Edge is deprecated in favor of a nightly build channel

As a result of these changes, Docker 18.06 CE will be the last release with a 4-month maintenance lifecycle. The planned Docker 18.09 CE release will be supported for 7 months with Docker 19.03 CE being the next release in line. Further, the monthly Edge releases of Docker CE (Engine) are now replaced with nightly builds. Note that Docker Desktop (Docker for Mac, Docker for Windows) edge channels will still provide monthly updates.

Docker CE Stable Moving to Longer Release and Maintenance Cycles

We will be delivering a more thoroughly tested Docker CE release twice a year instead of quarterly. We will also be separating the packaging for different operating systems from the Continue reading

Making Application Collaboration Easier with Docker Application Packages

In the first blog post about the experimental Docker Application Packages, Gareth showed how our new open-source docker-app can be used to augment Compose files by adding metadata and separate settings.

Now that you know how to create an Application Package, how do you share it? Using a Docker registry solution like Docker Hub or Docker Enterprise of course! Let’s look at an example that works with the latest release of docker-app. Here’s a simple single-file format Application Package with the filename hello.dockerapp:

# This section contains your application metadata.

version: 0.1.0
name: hello
description: "A simple HTTP echo server"
maintainers:
- name: Chris Crone
  email: [email protected]
targets:
  swarm: true
  kubernetes: true

---

# This section contains the Compose file that describes your application services.

version: '3.6'
services:
  hello:
    image: hashicorp/http-echo:${version}
    command: ["-text", "${text}"]
    ports:
      - ${port}:5678

 ---

# This section contains the default values for your application settings.

port: 5678
text: hello development
version: latest

We can save this Application Package as a Docker image using the save command:

$ docker-app save
Saved application as image: hello.dockerapp:0. Continue reading

Cool Hacks Spotlight: DART

Docker container platforms  are being used to support mission-critical efforts all over the world. The Planetary Defense Coordination Office out of NASA is using Docker’s platform to support a critical mission that could potentially affect everyone on the planet! The office is responsible for tracking near-earth asteroids, characterizing them and determining how to deflect them if one were to find its way to earth. 

DART, led by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory by way of NASA, is the Double Asteroid Redirection Test. The team has chosen a potentially hazardous asteroid to hit in order to measure the impact and determine how effective this type of mission would be.

Developing the software for this mission is no easy feat, because space is hard! The team has one shot to make this mission work, there’s no rebooting in space. Space physics constraints lead to very low bandwidth, and low density memory due to the turbulent effects of radiation. So what did the software team want to solve for using Docker? Hardware scarcity. The development systems used in this project are very expensive ($300K), so not every developer is going to get their own system. This led to a time constraint, Continue reading