[BBLISA] Experience with docker?

[couch at cs.tufts.edu]

I might add that what makes Docker useful for us is that we can deal with rather complex configuration management requirements -- including several version-locked interlocking subsystems -- without changing the host OS. 


But I might add that this is “survival of that which fits.” 


The main reason we use Docker is that it is literally too difficult for our developers to build the run/test configuration unassisted. This means that any work we can do for them -- through docker -- is definitely worth it, even though that work can be involved, especially in interfacing host/guest OS resources. 






Alva L. Couch
Assoc. Prof. of Computer Science
Tufts University
Medford, MA 02155





From: Mark Lamourine
Sent: ‎Wednesday‎, ‎May‎ ‎6‎, ‎2015 ‎8‎:‎09‎ ‎AM
To: Alva Couch
Cc: Dean Anderson, bblisa at bblisa.org, Dewey Sasser





I've been working with Docker and with the Red Hat docker team for over a year.  Mostly I'm doing a kind of research, trying out how to get things to work end-to-end, finding the warts and all.



I'm wondering where your interest comes from.  If it's just "Docker, shiny!" (which is perfectly valid, I do that all the time) then I'd say spend some time, play with it and see where it might fit into  your work.




If you have specific uses in mind, then more specific questions might lead to some answers or at least suggestions.




If you're starting from scratch, I'd also strongly recommend looking at CoreOS Rocket.  It doesn't have some of the nice plastic dashboard features but it's much simpler in operation.  Docker works hard to hide the workings behind a veneer, which is great for getting started without being confused by minutia.  It quickly becomes bubblewrap.  Rocket leaves most of the sharp edges exposed, but still gives you a way to create and run containers which allows you to get in and see what's happening more easily.  It also promotes lean images.  Docker == bloat.




See Alva's comments on getting the container images right.  Docker isn't going to make your life easier right out of the gate but it brings some things in reach which aren't without it.




- Mark



On Tue, May 5, 2015 at 3:29 PM, <couch at cs.tufts.edu> wrote:




We are heavily using Docker as a development platform for an extremely complex project (180,000 lines of python, 10 developers, complex system requirements). For that, it is ideal, 

but 

a) avoid boot2docker for Windows…. just run it in Linux… we learned to do that eventually. 

b) it takes significant time to make a container work perfectly… and it’s worth it. 

We are not using Docker in production; we use it to make exact clones of development 

environments. This is not a trivial task; we have one person who spends a considerable amount of time rolling out changes and keeping the development containers running. 






Alva L. Couch
Assoc. Prof. of Computer Science
Tufts University
Medford, MA 02155




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Mark Lamourine <markllama at gmail.com>
Dad, Hubbie, Software Developer, System Administrator, Road Cyclist
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