My Three Favorite New Features in Docker Enterprise Edition
I’ve been at Docker for just over two years now, and I’ve worked with every version of Docker Enterprise Edition (née Docker Datacenter) since before there even was a Docker Enterprise Edition (EE). I’m more excited about this new release than any previous release.
There are several new features that are going to ease the management of your applications (both traditional and cloud-native) wherever you need them to run: the cloud or the data center, virtual or physical, Linux or Windows – and now even IBM Z mainframes.
It would take too long to discuss all of the new features, so with that in mind, I’m going to talk about my three favorite features in Docker EE 17.06.
Hybrid-OS Clusters
Docker and Microsoft introduced support for Windows Server containers last fall. This was a major milestone that helped Docker move towards the goal of embracing apps across the entirety of the data center. With this latest release Docker extends hybrid OS operations even further: IT admins can now build and manage clusters comprised of Linux, Windows Server 2016, and IBM Z mainframes – all from the same management plane. This means you can manage applications comprised of both Windows Continue reading
Docker is Headed to Gartner Catalyst 2017
The Docker team will be in sunny San Diego, CA, August 21-23 for Gartner Catalyst. Come by and visit us in Booth #508 to meet with our Docker Enterprise Edition (EE) experts, see a demo of Docker EE, and ask us any questions you may have before and after any of the Gartner sessions on Docker and containers. Better yet, schedule a meeting with us and we’ll not only answer all your questions, you will also get a special gift.
This year’s Catalyst event includes an entire topic dedicated to Docker and containers, which you can find by looking for the topic “Docker & Containers” in the schedule builder. If you are still trying to separate all the fact from fiction about Docker and want a specific recommendation, there is a great Tech Demo session by Gartner analyst Richard Watson we think you might like titled Seven Docker & Container Myths We Need To Bust.
We hope you will join us at Gartner Catalyst to get the latest research on the next big trends for IT, but if you are not in San Diego, we hope to see you at one of these other upcoming events:
- VMworld, Continue reading
Announcing the New Release of Docker Enterprise Edition
We are excited to share the new release of Docker Enterprise Edition. By supporting IBM Z and Windows Server 2016, this release puts us further in the lead with the first Containers-as-a-Service (CaaS) solution in the market for the modernization of all applications without disruption to you and your IT environment.
Docker Enterprise Edition (EE) 17.06 embraces Windows, Linux and Linux-based mainframe applications, bringing the key benefits of CaaS to the enterprise application portfolio. Most enterprises manage a diverse set of applications that includes both traditional applications and microservices, built on Linux and Windows, and intended for x86 servers, mainframes, and public clouds. Docker EE unites all of these applications into single platform, complete with customizable and flexible access control, support for a broad range of applications and infrastructure, and a highly automated software supply chain. These capabilities allow organizations to easily layer Docker EE onto existing processes and workflows, aligning to existing organizational structures while delivering improved resource utilization and reduced maintenance time.
This release includes UCP 2.2 and DTR 2.3 and establishes Docker EE as a key IT platform for both new application development as well as application modernization across both on-premises and Continue reading
Quick Reference to Common AWS CLI Commands
This post provides an extremely basic “quick reference” to some commonly-used AWS CLI commands. It’s not intended to be a deep dive, nor is it intended to serve as any sort of comprehensive reference (the AWS CLI docs nicely fill that need).
This post does make a couple of important assumptions:
This post assumes you already have a basic understanding of the key AWS concepts and terminology, and therefore doesn’t provide any definitions or explanations of these concepts.
This post assumes the AWS CLI is configured to output in JSON. (If you’re not familiar with JSON, see this introductory article.) If you’ve configured your AWS CLI installation to output in plain text, then you’ll need to adjust these commands accordingly.
I’ll update this post over time to add more “commonly-used” commands, since each reader’s definition of “commonly used” may be different based on the AWS services consumed.
To list SSH keypairs in your default region:
aws ec2 describe-key-pairs
To use jq to grab the name of the first SSH keypair returned:
aws ec2 describe-key-pairs | jq -r '.KeyPairs[0].KeyName'
To store the name of the first SSH keypair returned in a variable for use in later commands:
KEY_NAME=$(aws Continue readingUsing ODrive for Cloud Storage on Linux
A few months ago, I stumbled across a service called ODrive (“Oh” Drive) that allows you to combine multiple cloud storage services together. Since that time, I’ve been experimenting with ODrive, testing it to see how well it works, if at all, with my Fedora Linux environment. In spite of very limited documentation, I think I’ve finally come to a point where I can share what I’ve learned.
Before I proceed any further, I do feel it is necessary to provide a couple of disclaimers. First, while I’m using ODrive myself, I’m not using their paid (premium) service, even though it offers quite a bit more functionality. Why? Maybe this is a “chicken-and-egg” scenario, but I have a really hard time paying for a premium service where Linux client functionality is very limited and the documentation is extraordinarily sparse. (ODrive, if you’re reading this: put some effort into your Linux support and your docs, and you’ll probably get more paying customers.) Second, I’m providing this information “as is”; use it at your own risk.
OK, with those disclaimers out of the way, let’s get into the content. For Linux users, this page is about the extent of ODrive’s documentation. Continue reading
Manually Installing Azure CLI on Fedora 25
For various reasons that we don’t need to get into just yet, I’ve started exploring Microsoft Azure. Given that I’m a command-line interface (CLI) fan, and given that I use Fedora as my primary laptop operating system, this led me to installing the Azure CLI on my Fedora 25 system—and that, in turn, led to this blog post.
Some Background
First, some background. Microsoft has instructions for installing Azure CLI on Linux, but there are two problems with these instructions:
Official packages that can be installed via a package manager are only provided for Ubuntu/Debian. Clearly, this leaves Fedora/CentOS/RHEL users out in the cold.
Users of other Linux distributions are advised to use
curlto download a script and pipe that script directly into Bash. (“Danger, Will Robinson!”) Clearly, this is not a security best practice, although I am glad that they didn’t recommend the use ofsudoin the mix.
Now, if you dig into #2 a bit, you’ll find that the InstallAzureCli script you’re advised to download via curl really does nothing more than download a Python script named install.py. The install.py Python script really just uses pip and virtualenv to install the Azure Continue reading
Five Questions: Testing Ansible Playbooks & Roles
Next up in our #AskAnsible posts is Chris Meyers, our Senior Software Engineer.
Learn his take on five key questions we often get regarding testing Ansible Playbooks and roles.
1. Why should I test my Playbooks and roles?
Chris: Ansible Playbooks and roles should be treated like production code. Production code usually has unit tests, functional tests, and integration tests.
- Unit testing Ansible is equivalent to unit testing SQL queries, you just normally don’t do it. Ansible unit testing belongs at the Python module level.
- Function testing with Ansible would require a large amount of system state setup or mocking, and it just isn't realistic.
- Integration testing is the most useful. It ensures that your intent, expressed in English, is translated correctly to Ansible’s declarative language.
- Ex: you want to set up a LAMP or MEAN stack. A simple integration test would be to issue an http request that you know exercises the database. The integration test would ensure that your setup is correct from end to end.
Chris: You can start at any time! Tests can be added for new Playbooks or to existing Playbooks. Testing Continue reading
Technology Short Take #85
Welcome to Technology Short Take #85! This is my irregularly-published collection of links and articles from around the Internet related to the major data center technologies: networking, hardware, security, cloud computing, applications/OSes, storage, and virtualization. Plus, just for fun, I usually try to include a couple career-related links as well. Enjoy!
Networking
- Want to install VMware NSX in your home lab, but concerned about resource utilization? Here’s a guide to deploying NSX in home labs with limited resources. (Although it’s not called out in the article, it’s important to note that this is not supported by VMware.)
- Jeffrey Kusters has a write-up on how to integrate AWS and vRealize Network Insight 3.4. This allows you to visualize network activity on AWS using vRNI (as on-premises traffic, assuming you’ve configured vRNI appropriately).
- Gareth Lewis walks through a vCNS 5.5.4 to VMware NSX 6.2.5 upgrade.
- It’s a bit Ansible-skewed (as expected given it’s posted on the Ansible site), but networking pros looking for some perspectives on using Ansible for network automation might find this post useful.
- PowerNSX in a container? Sure!
- I know that I saw this article from Matt Oswalt before, but for some reason Continue reading
DockerCon Europe Diversity Scholarship!
Each year, DockerCon brings the community together to learn, belong and contribute. With the support of Docker and our DockerCon Europe Scholarship sponsor, the Open Container Initiative (OCI) our team has created the DockerCon Europe Scholarship Program to provide members of the Docker community, who are traditionally underrepresented, mentorship and a financial scholarship to attend DockerCon in Copenhagen this year. This scholarship program aims to foster inclusivity by supporting members of our community through access to resources, tools and mentorship needed to facilitate career and educational development.
If you are interested in applying for the DockerCon Scholarship, follow the steps below:
Application Process:
The application process includes completing one of the five self-paced trainings along with the scholarship application form.
Step 1
Complete at least one of the free self-paced courses available in the Docker Playground. These courses are intended for both Dev and Ops beginner and intermediate level Docker users. Select which course you feel best fits you.
Step 2
After you’ve finished one of the courses, complete the application here. In the application, you will need to provide the name(s) of the lab(s) you completed along with the answers to the quiz at the end of Continue reading
Information on the Recent Site Migration
Earlier this week, I completed the migration of this site to an entirely new platform, marking the third or fourth platform migration for this site in its 12-year history. Prior to the migration, the site was generated using Jekyll and GitHub Pages following a previous migration in late 2014. Prior to that, I ran WordPress for about 9 years. So what is it running now?
The site is now generated using Hugo, an extraordinarily fast static site generator. I switched to Hugo because it offers a couple of key benefits over Jekyll:
- Site build times are 10x faster (less than 30 seconds with Hugo compared to over 5 minutes with Jekll)—this directly translates into me being able to test changes to the site much more quickly
- Hugo is a single binary that’s easily installed on Linux or macOS (and Windows too, though I don’t have any Windows systems)
Hugo also gives me more flexibility that I had with Jekyll, such as generating lists of articles by tag or lists of articles by category. Along with those additions—the ability to browse by tag or category—I’ve also removed the pagination (I mean, who’s really going to page through 188 pages of Continue reading
Be a Budget Hero with Docker Enterprise Edition
We recently started a multi-part learning series for SysAdmins and IT professionals called IT Starts With Docker. We started with the basics, covering container technology and Docker solutions for the enterprise. Now, we shift to the important question: Is it worth your time and your company’s investment to further explore Docker Enterprise Edition (EE)?
The resounding answer to that question is YES. IT teams who have adopted Docker EE are finding it faster and easier to deploy and maintain their applications, plus drive better infrastructure utilization, all without touching the underlying code. Developer teams are realizing productivity gains of their own by being able to onboard new developers faster, shortening the cycles from development to production, and elimination of the burdensome “it worked on my machine” problems.
Try the simple ROI calculator for yourself. It takes just a couple of minutes and allows you to estimate your own savings with Docker EE and how you can become the budget hero of your department. Then, register for our live webinar on Tuesday, August 15th, The Business Value of Docker, where we will outline how organizations like your own are saving 50% on their total costs with Docker EE. Continue reading
What is containerd ?
We have done a few talks in the past on different features of containerd, how it was designed, and some of the problems that we have fixed along the way. Containerd is used by Docker, Kubernetes CRI, and a few other projects but this is a post for people who may not know what containerd actually does within these platforms. I would like to do more posts on the featureset and design of containerd in the future but for now, we will start with the basics.
I think the container ecosystem can be confusing at times. Especially with the terminology that we use. Whats this? A runtime. And this? A runtime… containerd as the name implies, not contain nerd as some would like to troll me with, is a container daemon. It was originally built as an integration point for OCI runtimes like runc but over the past six months it has added a lot of functionality to bring it up to par with the needs of modern container platforms like Docker and Kubernetes.
Since there is no such thing as Linux containers in the kernelspace, containers are various kernel features tied together, when you are building a large Continue reading
Docker 101: Introduction to Docker webinar recap
Docker is standardizing the way to package applications, making it easier for developers to code and build apps on their laptop or workstation and for IT to manage, secure and deploy into a variety of infrastructure platforms
In last week’s webinar, Docker 101: An Introduction to Docker, we went from describing what a container is, all the way to what a production deployment of Docker looks like, including how large enterprise organizations and world-class universities are leveraging Docker Enterprise Edition (EE) to modernize their legacy applications and accelerate public cloud adoption.
If you missed the webinar, you can watch the recording here:
We ran out of time to go through everyone’s questions, so here are some of the top questions from the webinar:
Q: How does Docker get access to platform resources, such as I/O, networking, etc. Is it a type of hypervisor?
A: Docker EE is not a type of hypervisor. Hypervisors create virtual hardware: they make one server appear to be many servers but generally know little or nothing about the applications running inside them. Containers are the opposite: they make one OS or one application server appear to be many isolated instances. Containers explicitly must know the Continue reading
Getting Started: Writing Your First Playbook
Welcome to another post in our Getting Started series. Keep reading to learn how to draft a Playbook that can be run in Ansible or Ansible Tower. You can also use it along with the Module Index and the other docs to build your own Playbooks later.
What is a Playbook?
Playbooks are esentially sets of instructions (plays) that you send to run on a single target or groups of targets (hosts). Think about the instructions you get for assembling an appliance or furniture. The manufacturer includes instructions so you can put the parts together in the correct order. When followed in order, the furniture looks like what was purchased.
That's basically how a Playbook works.
The Playbook we're building will install a web server on a target RHEL/CentOS 7 host, then write an index.html file based on a template file that will reside with the final Playbook. You'll be able to take the example Playbook and additional files from this blog and test it out for yourself. While going over the example Playbook, we'll explain the modules that are used.
AuthorsThe author adds instructions for the modules to run, often with additional values (arguments, locations, etc. Continue reading
Announcing the first DockerCon Europe 2017 Speakers
Summer is flying by and DockerCon Europe 2017 (October 16-19) will be here before we know it! The DockerCon team is heads down reviewing all of the proposals submitted and we are almost ready to release a full agenda. With that, we are thrilled to share with you the DockerCon Europe 2017 Website including the first confirmed speakers and sessions.
Abby Fuller, AWS
Adrian Mouat, Container Solutions
Arun Gupta, AWS
Bret Fisher, Independent Consultant
Elton Stoneman, Docker
Nandhini Santhanam, Docker
Mike Coleman, Docker
Tycho Andersen, Docker
Learn more about DockerCon:
- Register to DockerCon Europe
- Sign up to receive DockerCon News
Announcing the first @DockerCon Europe 2017 speakers cc @arungupta @adrianmouat @abbyfuller
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IT Starts with Docker
Happy SysAdmin Day! Cheers to all of you who keep your organizations running, keep our data secure, respond at a moment’s notice and bring servers and apps back to life after a crash. Today we say, “Thank You!”
Anniversaries are a great time to reflect on accomplishments of the last year: the projects you’ve completed, the occasions you’ve saved your company money or time, the new technology you’ve learned. In a role like IT, so much can change each year as technology progresses and becomes more challenging to stay ahead of that curve. So this SysAdmin Day, we at Docker want to congratulate your past successes and prepare you for the year to come.
Containers are not just for developers anymore and Docker is the standard for packaging all kinds of applications – Windows, Linux, traditional, and microservices. Over the next few months, we’ll be covering how SysAdmins like yourself are enabling their organizations to innovate faster while saving their companies’ money by embracing containers with Docker Enterprise Edition.
Sign up here to start your journey and learn how IT Starts with Docker.
This multi-part series will include:
- How Docker Enterprise Edition is helping IT organizations free up money Continue reading
VMworld 2017 Prayer Time
At VMworld 2017 in Las Vegas, I’m organizing—as I have in previous years—a gathering of Christians for a brief time of prayer while at the conference. If you’re interested in joining us, here are the details.
What: A brief time of prayer
Where: Mandalay Bay Convention Center, level 1 (same level as the food court), at the bottom of the escalators heading upstairs (over near the business center)
When: Monday 8/28 through Thursday 8/31 at 7:45am (this should give everyone enough time to grab breakfast before the keynotes start at 9am)
Who: All courteous attendees are welcome, but please note that this will be a distinctly Christian-focused and Christ-centric activity (I encourage believers of other faiths/religions to organize equivalent activities)
Why: To spend a few minutes in prayer over the day, the conference, the attendees, and each other
You don’t need to RSVP or anything like that, although you’re welcome to if you’d like (just hit me up on Twitter). There’s also no need to bring anything other than an open heart, your faith, and your willingness to display that faith in front of others. This is quite casual—we’ll gather together, share a few prayer requests and needs, and Continue reading
VMworld 2017 Prayer Time
At VMworld 2017 in Las Vegas, I’m organizing—as I have in previous years—a gathering of Christians for a brief time of prayer while at the conference. If you’re interested in joining us, here are the details.
What: A brief time of prayer
Where: Mandalay Bay Convention Center, level 1 (same level as the food court), at the bottom of the escalators heading upstairs (over near the business center)
When: Monday 8/28 through Thursday 8/31 at 7:45am (this should give everyone enough time to grab breakfast before the keynotes start at 9am)
Who: All courteous attendees are welcome, but please note that this will be a distinctly Christian-focused and Christ-centric activity (I encourage believers of other faiths/religions to organize equivalent activities)
Why: To spend a few minutes in prayer over the day, the conference, the attendees, and each other
You don’t need to RSVP or anything like that, although you’re welcome to if you’d like (just hit me up on Twitter). There’s also no need to bring anything other than an open heart, your faith, and your willingness to display that faith in front of others. This is quite casual—we’ll gather together, share a few prayer requests and needs, and Continue reading
Modernize Traditional Applications by Docker Webinar Recap
IT organizations continue to spend 80% of their budget on simply maintaining their existing applications while only spending 20% on innovation. That ratio has not changed over the last 10 years, and yet, there’s no shortage of pressure to innovate. Whether it comes directly from your customers asking for new features, or it comes from your management chain, the story is the same; you have to do more with less.
Thankfully, there is Modernize Traditional Applications from Docker. Where you can take your existing legacy applications, the same ones that underline your business, and make them 70% more efficient, more secure, and best of all – portable across any infrastructure. And you can do all of that, without touching a single line of the underlying application code. Sounds too good to be true right? Well, watch the recording below and you’ll see that it’s absolutely possible.
Give your legacy application modern capabilities without touching code using Docker EE by way of…
Click To Tweet
Learn more about the Modernize Traditional Apps program:
- Visit docker.com/mta to find out more information about getting involved
- Contact Sales to see about getting your own MTA engagement
- Take a look at the Docker ROI Continue reading
Docker Community Spotlight: Adina-Valentina Radulescu
Adina-Valentina Radulescu, a DevOps/Integration Engineer for Pentalog Romania, has been organizing meetups for not one but two meetup groups.
In February of last year, Adina founded Docker Brasov and Docker Timisoara, and has since done an amazing job creating and fostering a sense of belonging in her community. This month, we’re happy to shine the community spotlight on Adina to learn more about her Docker story.
Tell us about your first experience with Docker.
The first time I heard about Docker was back in 2014. I played around with Docker and I was impressed with the simplicity of integration so I wanted to learn more. I was able to attend DockerCon EU in 2015 in Barcelona where I completed some labs and attended the talks to learn as much as I could about Docker. It was a powerful feeling.
Why did you start Docker Brasov and Docker Timisoara?
I wanted to have a Docker sharing exchange experience when I get back in Romania. I relocated from Timisoara to a beautiful mountain city, Brasov. In Timisoara, I knew people and companies. In Brasov, I knew almost no one. This is why I decided to start the two groups so I Continue reading