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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The post Announcing the first DockerCon Europe 2017 Speakers appeared first on Docker Blog.
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
Docker Spearheads OCI Release of v1.0 Runtime and Image Format Specifications
Today marks an important milestone for the Open Container Initiative (OCI) with the release of the OCI v1.0 runtime and image specifications – a journey that Docker has been central in driving and navigating over the last two years. It has been our goal to provide low-level standards as building blocks for the community, customers and the broader industry. To understand the significance of this milestone, let’s take a look at the history of Docker’s growth and progress in developing industry-standard container technologies.
The History of Docker Runtime and Image Donations to the OCI
Docker’s image format and container runtime quickly emerged as the de facto standard following its release as an open source project in 2013. We recognized the importance of turning it over to a neutral governance body to fuel innovation and prevent fragmentation in the industry. Working together with a broad group of container technologists and industry leaders, the Open Container Project was formed to create a set of container standards and was launched under the auspices of the Linux Foundation in June 2015 at DockerCon. It became the Open Container Initiative (OCI) as the project evolved that Summer.
Docker contributed runc, a reference implementation for the Continue reading
Demystifying the Open Container Initiative (OCI) Specifications
The Open Container Initiative (OCI) announced the completion of the first versions of the container runtime and image specifications this week. The OCI is an effort under the auspices of the Linux Foundation to develop specifications and standards to support container solutions. A lot of effort has gone into the building of these specifications over the past two years. With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the myths that have arisen over the past two years.
Myth #1: The OCI is a replacement for Docker
Standards are important, but they are far from a complete production platform. Take for example, the World Wide Web. It has evolved over the last 25 years and was built on core dependable standards like TCP/IP, HTTP and HTML. Using TCP/IP as an example, when enterprises coalesced around TCP/IP as a common protocol, it fueled the growth of routers and in particular – Cisco. However, Cisco became a leader in its market by focusing on differentiated features on its routing platform. We believe the parallel exists with the OCI specifications and Docker.
Docker is a complete production platform for developing, distributing, securing and orchestrating container-based solutions. The OCI specification is used Continue reading
Docker on Windows Webinar Q&A
Recently I presented Docker on Windows: from 101 to Modernizing .NET Apps, a live webinar on using Docker with Windows, and running .NET Framework apps in containers. The session was recorded and you can watch it on the Docker YouTube channel:
I start with the basics of Windows Docker containers, showing how to you can run containers from public images, and write Dockerfiles to package your own apps to run in containers.
Then I move onto Dockerizing a traditional ASP.NET WebForms app, showing you how to take existing apps and run them in Docker with no code changes, and then use the Docker platform to modernize the app – breaking features out of the monolithic codebase, running them in separate containers and using Docker to connect them.
I maxed out the session time (just like Mike with his Docker for the Sysadmin webinar), so here are the answers to questions raised in the session.
Q: We have several servers hosting our frontend, some as middle tier hosting the services and we have some for the database. Shall we have a container for each service?
A: Docker doesn’t mandate any particular design, you can architect your move to Continue reading
The best way to learn Docker for Free: Play-With-Docker (PWD)
Last year at the Distributed System Summit in Berlin, Docker captains Marcos Nils and Jonathan Leibiusky started hacking on an in-browser solution to help people learn Docker. A few days later, Play-with-docker (PWD) was born.
PWD is a Docker playground which allows users to run Docker commands in a matter of seconds. It gives the experience of having a free Alpine Linux Virtual Machine in browser, where you can build and run Docker containers and even create clusters in Docker Swarm Mode. Under the hood Docker-in-Docker (DinD) is used to give the effect of multiple VMs/PCs. In addition to the playground, PWD also includes a training site composed of a large set of Docker labs and quizzes from beginner to advanced level available at training.play-with-docker.com.
In case you missed it, Marcos and Jonathan presented PWD during the last DockerCon Moby Cool Hack session. Watch the video below for a deep dive into the infrastructure and roadmaps.
Over the past few months, the Docker team has been working closely with Marcos, Jonathan and other active members of the Docker community to add new features to the project and Docker labs to the training section.
PWD: the Playground
Here Continue reading
Ten Years of Spousetivities
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (OK, so it was 2008 and it was here in this galaxy—on this very planet, in fact), I posted an article about bringing your spouse to VMworld. That one post sparked a fire that, kindled by my wife’s passion and creativity, culminates this year in ten years of Spousetivities! Yes, Spousetivities is back at VMworld (both US and Europe) this year, and Crystal has some pretty nice events planned for this year’s participants.
Registration is here, and here’s a quick look at some of the activities planned for VMworld US in Las Vegas:
- On Monday, August 28, Spousetivities will kick the week off with a “Welcome Breakfast”, including—as usual!—the opportunity to win some great prizes. iPads, Apple Watches, VR headsets, GoPro cameras, and more have all been prizes in previous years. (What? You expected me to spill the beans on what’s being given away this year?)
- The breakfast is followed by a scavenger hunt, including a visit to an ice bar and the chance for more prizes. Veeam is sponsoring the scavenger hunt.
- On Tuesday, August 29, there is an option for a very cool helicopter tour Continue reading
Ten Years of Spousetivities
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (OK, so it was 2008 and it was here in this galaxy—on this very planet, in fact), I posted an article about bringing your spouse to VMworld. That one post sparked a fire that, kindled by my wife’s passion and creativity, culminates this year in ten years of Spousetivities! Yes, Spousetivities is back at VMworld (both US and Europe) this year, and Crystal has some pretty nice events planned for this year’s participants.
Registration is here, and here’s a quick look at some of the activities planned for VMworld US in Las Vegas:
- On Monday, August 28, Spousetivities will kick the week off with a “Welcome Breakfast”, including—as usual!—the opportunity to win some great prizes. iPads, Apple Watches, VR headsets, GoPro cameras, and more have all been prizes in previous years. (What? You expected me to spill the beans on what’s being given away this year?)
- The breakfast is followed by a scavenger hunt, including a visit to an ice bar and the chance for more prizes. Veeam is sponsoring the scavenger hunt.
- On Tuesday, August 29, there is an option for a very cool helicopter tour Continue reading
Ten Years of Spousetivities
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (OK, so it was 2008 and it was here in this galaxy—on this very planet, in fact), I posted an article about bringing your spouse to VMworld. That one post sparked a fire that, kindled by my wife’s passion and creativity, culminates this year in ten years of Spousetivities! Yes, Spousetivities is back at VMworld (both US and Europe) this year, and Crystal has some pretty nice events planned for this year’s participants.
Registration is here, and here’s a quick look at some of the activities planned for VMworld US in Las Vegas:
- On Monday, August 28, Spousetivities will kick the week off with a “Welcome Breakfast”, including—as usual!—the opportunity to win some great prizes. iPads, Apple Watches, VR headsets, GoPro cameras, and more have all been prizes in previous years. (What? You expected me to spill the beans on what’s being given away this year?)
- The breakfast is followed by a scavenger hunt, including a visit to an ice bar and the chance for more prizes. Veeam is sponsoring the scavenger hunt.
- On Tuesday, August 29, there is an option for a very cool helicopter tour Continue reading