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Docker - the Linux container runtime

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Re: Docker - the Linux container runtime

#41
post #28
post #25

How is this different from what you can already do with lxc on, for example, Ubuntu Server?

It's not that it's any different, it's that it's standardized . The idea is that a Docker container would be portable between different PaaS hosts (and from your own staging environment to those hosts!) without rebuilding, because they'd all be using the "Docker standard for deployment." A PaaS host saying they supported Docker would imply that they'd be using, for example, SquashFS for container format, AuFS instead…

Doesn't a standard involve, you know, standards? AFAIK a product name is not a standard.

What if the namespace changes? What if AuFS changes? What if LXC changes? Independently or all together? ABI changes? Version changes? Feature changes? Are all the licenses compatible? Will it ever support platforms other than just certain versions of Linux? Or languages other than Go?

I don't see a standard. I see marketing for a product and a mailing list to collect potential customers. But maybe i'm missing something.

Re: Docker - the Linux container runtime

#42
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Linux namespace stuff is evolving pretty fast, and I personally wouldn't trust it as the main line of defense for anything important. If I recall, Heroku uses cgroups (EDIT: and namespaces) exclusively for multitenant isolation (and by the looks of this, dotCloud does too), so that's two big votes in the "if it's good enough for them" category.

Sure, but cgroups and namespaces are kind-of-orthogonal features that both happen to be useful for making container-like things. cgroups are for limiting resource usage; namespaces are for providing the illusion of root access while actually being in a sandboxed environment. And as far as I'm aware (speaking as an interested non-expert, so please correct me if I'm wrong) cgroups have no effect on permissions, whereas…

That's correct: cgroups have no effect on permissions. They only enforce resource usage limits.

Shameless plug: I work at dotCloud, and I wrote 4 blog posts explaining namespaces, cgroups, AUFS, GRSEC, and how they are relevant to "lightweight virtualization" and the particular case of PAAS. The articles have been grouped in a PDF that you can get here if you want a good technical read for your next plane/train/whatever travel ;-) http://blog.dotcloud.com/paas-under-the-hood-ebook

Re: Docker - the Linux container runtime

#44
post #30

Wow! Did not expect this to show up on HN before actual release! (I work at dotCloud). We're still polishing a few rough edges. If you want early access add your github ID to this thread and we'll add you right away!

There was a lightning talk about Docker at Pycon; I'd assume that's where OP got the info from :)

Re: Docker - the Linux container runtime

#45
post #11

This sounds like a reimplementation of virtual machines at the os layer instead of hardware layer.

lxc leverages hvm I think... someone correct me?

edit: it's too early, sorry this has nothing to do with your post... but I hope someone does correct me about hvm.

Re: Docker - the Linux container runtime

#46
post #30

Wow! Did not expect this to show up on HN before actual release! (I work at dotCloud). We're still polishing a few rough edges. If you want early access add your github ID to this thread and we'll add you right away!

Yes please and thank you! Github: schell
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