What Is Container Orchestration?

What is a container?

A container, often called an application container, is a portable unit of software that typically provides a microservice and operates in an environment with other containers. It may use resources from a host, but it usually operates independent of the host operating system and can be used on any platform.

An application container is not the same as an operating system container, which is a virtual environment that shares the host OS kernel but provides user space isolation and can deliver higher server density, better application performance, and faster server provisioning compared with a hypervisor-based virtual machine.

What problems do containers solve?

An application is usually built to function in a single kind of computing environment, which makes it difficult to move or deploy it to another environment. This is a limitation for developer and IT operations teams alike.

Containers remove these dependencies so developers can build applications that function reliably when IT operations teams move them from one computing environment to another. They further solve this problem through the microservices approach to application development.

What are microservices?

Microservices are small pieces of software with simple functionalities for directing narrowly defined tasks, such as opening or updating a file. Applications built with microservices as their building blocks are better able to scale, and are more adaptable and easier to manage.

How does container orchestration work?

Container orchestration uses configuration files, usually in YAML or JSON format, for each container to instruct the orchestration tool on finding resources, establishing a network, and storing logs.

When deploying a new container, the orchestration tool automatically schedules the deployment to a cluster and finds the right host, taking into account any defined requirements or restrictions.

The orchestration tool then manages the container's lifecycle based on specifications in the configuration file. The orchestration tool will also use system parameters like CPU and memory capacity, and file parameters like proximity and file metadata, to help inform its decisions.

To support scaling and help maintain productivity, orchestration tools automate many of these tasks. Repeatable patterns in Kubernetes are used as building blocks by developers to create complete systems.

How do enterprises manage container orchestration?

Container orchestration is mainly performed with tools based on open-source platforms such as Kubernetes and Apache Mesos. Docker is one of the most well-known tools, available as a free version or as part of a paid enterprise solution.

Container orchestration as a service using Kubernetes is also available from many ISPs and cloud platforms, such as Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft Azure.

Business benefits of container orchestration

Resource and cost savings

Container orchestration allows systems to expand and contract as needed, maintaining efficiency and maximizing processing and memory resources. The modular nature and interoperability of container-based systems requires less time and manpower to build, maintain, and manage complex systems.

Agility

Enterprises can respond more quickly to changing needs or conditions when systems are managed and deployed quickly and easily.

IT benefits of container orchestration

Automation

Container orchestration saves time and resources by automating such tasks as provisioning, deployment, adding or deleting containers, load balancing and routing, configurations, scheduling, and hardware and network optimization.

Easier deployments

Container-based systems are designed for rapid deployment because of their modular design and easily repeatable building blocks. Container orchestration gives large complex organizations a method and framework for deployments.

Interoperability

Containerized applications can be moved to different settings or platforms, such as a physical machine in a data center to a virtual machine in a private or public cloud, without being rewritten.

Scalability

Container orchestration gives applications more efficient mobility and usability across different computing environments to expand their reach to users.

Manageability 

Container orchestration gives teams transparency into the scope and structure of container-based systems, while modularity offers the ability to make alterations and additions to the system.

CI/CD support

Container orchestration may be a requirement for organizations adhering to continuous integration/continuous development (CI/CD) processes.

System optimization

Container orchestration uses CPU loads and file path analysis to help balance loads and route requests and commands, optimizing functions of hardware and networks.

Microservices support 

Container orchestration provides a method and framework for bringing order to large systems made up of many microservices.

Immutability

Container orchestration can be programmed to build distributed systems that adhere to the rules of immutable infrastructure, creating a system that can't be altered by further user modifications.

Reliability

Container orchestration gives DevOps teams a continuous view of the health and security of systems. This results in better visibility and more trouble-free operation.

Improved security

Containerized software runs independently from the host's other architecture; thus, it presents fewer security risks to the host. In addition, containers allow applications to be run in an isolated fashion, making web-based applications less vulnerable to infiltration and hacking.

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Container orchestration tools

Kubernetes

Originally developed by Google and donated to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) in 2015, Kubernetes has become accepted as a standard for open-source container orchestration.

Kubernetes allows users to construct application services spanning multiple containers, schedule them around a cluster, and monitor their health over time.

Kubernetes combines and eliminates many of the manual processes for deploying, scaling, and managing containerized applications. It can cluster physical or virtual hosts, such as running Linux containers, for example, and then provide a framework for managing those clusters.

Since the hosts can span public, private, or hybrid clouds, Kubernetes is an ideal platform for creating dynamic systems that may require rapid scaling. It also helps manage workload and load balancing through applications that are portable without reconfiguration. This helps maintain flexibility and reduce vendor dependence.

Kubernetes is integrated into container orchestration offerings from Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, or it can be run as an on-premises installation.

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Apache Mesos

Apache Mesos, another open-source platform for container orchestration, was originally developed at the University of California, Berkeley, and is now widely used at large organizations.

Apache Mesos' lightweight architecture allows scaling for many thousands of nodes, and its API is compatible with numerous programming languages, including Java, C++, and Python. Apache Mesos by itself is only a cluster manager, so various frameworks have been built on top of it to provide more complete container orchestration, the most popular of these being Marathon.

Docker Swarm

As a full-featured container orchestration tool, Docker Swarm is well suited for situations where faster initial deployment is needed and where large-scale growth or adaptability is not anticipated.

Docker bundles Swarm and Kubernetes in an enterprise edition to encourage their use as complementary tools.

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Choosing container orchestration tools

Container orchestration tools are rapidly evolving and multiplying. Users should evaluate them in the context of their specific needs, such as deployment, scalability, learning curve, existing systems, and type of environment.

Docker Swarm has a comparatively simple architecture and may be better for smaller, less-complex deployments that need to be performed quickly. Kubernetes and Mesos, on the other hand, are much more extensible and better suited to large deployments with thousands of nodes.

For organizations without DevOps expertise, pre-packaged services from Google, Amazon, or Microsoft offer a low-overhead, user-friendly option. There are also numerous other third-party tools based on Kubernetes and Mesos, such as Helm for Kubernetes and Mesosphere for Apache Mesos.

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