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Flynn - Open Source PaaS powered by Docker

flynn.io

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Re: Flynn - Open Source PaaS powered by Docker

#31
post #8

Very cool! Been looking for something like this since Docker was announced. Basically Cloud Foundry is far too complex for what I/we need but this would fit the bill nicely. One question though, what is going to be 'the cluster' (The site says it distributes work across 'the cluster')? Basically, will it be capable of interfacing with cloud API's or will it just be you manually setting up a group of instances to host…

The 'cluster' is a group of nodes running the Docker + Flynn software. It can be anything from a single server to a fleet of EC2 instances to a rack of servers. It would be easy to make a tool that spawns instances running Flynn on your choice of public/private cloud.

So integrating with VPS providers such as Linode and Digital Ocean will be possible? If so, would this be easy to do for end-users?

Never got in to Cloud Foundry because it's overly complex and very limiting. Always went with Heroku, but wished I could have a Heroku-style infrastructure on the above mentioned VPS providers for the benefits of running better hardware, being more affordable, being multi-region, etc, etc.

Re: Flynn - Open Source PaaS powered by Docker

#32

This looks amazing! I wish I could contribute $20 or so, but looks like $1500 is the minimum?

Thanks! We're experimenting with a new funding model for open source: publish a spec for a project that's useful to (and can save lots of money for) companies and see who will chip in. We don't think there are enough personal donors for a project like this to raise significant cash (and the sponsorship levels are affordable for most companies) so we want to try sponsorship first. Once that market is saturated, we'll experiment with individual donation options, maybe after the MVP ships

Re: Flynn - Open Source PaaS powered by Docker

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 'cluster' is a group of nodes running the Docker + Flynn software. It can be anything from a single server to a fleet of EC2 instances to a rack of servers. It would be easy to make a tool that spawns instances running Flynn on your choice of public/private cloud.

So integrating with VPS providers such as Linode and Digital Ocean will be possible? If so, would this be easy to do for end-users? Never got in to Cloud Foundry because it's overly complex and very limiting. Always went with Heroku, but wished I could have a Heroku-style infrastructure on the above mentioned VPS providers for the benefits of running better hardware, being more affordable, being multi-region, etc, et…

Yes, there's no reason this can't run on VPS providers. Some have APIs for provisioning, so hooking them up for automated deployment is not complex either.

Re: Flynn - Open Source PaaS powered by Docker

#35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Docker is in very active development and issues like this get resolved every week. That said, it's not a problem because of the service discovery and routing that would be involved in the Flynn system.

Yes, Docker is moving quickly but one barrier to resolving this is philosophical: static IPs and private networks are un-Dockerish. Right now it's not obvious what a clean solution would look like. I'd be keen to see how Flynn's discovery and routing develops, it sounds very promising.

Sounds like a job for some dynamic DNS. That's exactly the sort of thing it's supposed to solve for.

Re: Flynn - Open Source PaaS powered by Docker

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Docker is in very active development and issues like this get resolved every week. That said, it's not a problem because of the service discovery and routing that would be involved in the Flynn system.

Yes, Docker is moving quickly but one barrier to resolving this is philosophical: static IPs and private networks are un-Dockerish. Right now it's not obvious what a clean solution would look like. I'd be keen to see how Flynn's discovery and routing develops, it sounds very promising.

Static IPs and private networks are not particularly un-Dockerish. They are just not the default implemented by Docker :)

Docker 1.0 will include an API which will make it much easier to customize how you want networking to happen. That includes static IPs and private networks.

Note that the 1.0 API will also include hooks for service discovery - specifically to facilitate the development of projects like Flynn.

Re: Flynn - Open Source PaaS powered by Docker

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 'cluster' is a group of nodes running the Docker + Flynn software. It can be anything from a single server to a fleet of EC2 instances to a rack of servers. It would be easy to make a tool that spawns instances running Flynn on your choice of public/private cloud.

So integrating with VPS providers such as Linode and Digital Ocean will be possible? If so, would this be easy to do for end-users? Never got in to Cloud Foundry because it's overly complex and very limiting. Always went with Heroku, but wished I could have a Heroku-style infrastructure on the above mentioned VPS providers for the benefits of running better hardware, being more affordable, being multi-region, etc, et…

Docker runs on linode and digital ocean (https://github.com/dotcloud/docker/issues/469, https://github.com/dotcloud/docker/issues/424) by loading a custom kernel. Assuming the requirements for Flynn aren't much more than Docker, the whole stack should run there as well. Easy for end-users is probably a matter of opinion, especially until Flynn releases some code.

Re: Flynn - Open Source PaaS powered by Docker

#39

My main problem with Docker is that container IP addresses and MACs are changed after every container reboot. This means I can't have a database in one container and a web app in another because I have no way for the web app to discover the address of the database server. Seems like this would be an issue for the host-only (private) network?

Without knowing too much about docker, service discovery over dns-sd and potentially mdns (aka bonjour/zeroconf) generally works quite well in a contained private network. And I would love to see a platform that supports it.
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