Choose virtual machine or container? -Software and information services: 2014.09

Recently, some people in the industry are exploring a trend-"virtual machines: Always glorious or struggling ?" This discussion mainly stems from the discussion of docker and Linux containers. Many people wonder whether container technology will eventually replace virtual machine technology. You may have heard about the Linux container technology, but not everyone has spent time studying the ins and outs of the container technology. This is not a 140-word microblog that can be clearly stated. Therefore, first share some background knowledge.

About container Technology

Container technology provides process isolation at the operating system level, similar to hardware virtualization technology, which is why some people have suggested that container technology will replace virtual machine technology. Of course, container technology is different from today's virtual machine technology. It isolates processes within the operating system. The well-known virtual machines (hypervisor-based virtualization, which is not discussed here) are isolated based on hardware resource virtualization technology, which is located under the operating system. The actual container technology has a long history, such as freebsdjail and solariszones. Even Google has implemented some functions using container technology and contributed the code to the Linux community. As a result, the Linux kernel already has some container-related components.

However, even with the help of Google, there are also a lot of open-source efforts, and the container technology has not attracted much attention. About a year ago, docker took the Linux container technology step forward, simplifying application encapsulation and enabling applications to run across different Linux distributions, this includes providing APIs that adapt to the development process, so that the container technology can truly attract the attention of the entire industry.

Containers and virtual machines are not simple trade-offs

The first time I heard about the concept of container, it is easy to compare container technology with virtual machine technology, but the two are not a trade-off. Because the goal of it is to make the customer succeed, and to make the customer succeed means to run and manage the customer's applications well. This is not achieved by simply relying on virtual machines or containers. To run an application smoothly, an efficient, secure, and highly available architecture is required. This is the basic requirement of enterprise applications. For example, the checkpoint/reply capability ensures mobility, resource isolation (including computing, network, and storage QoS), storage snapshots, and replication to ensure storage availability. That is to say, all enterprise applications must have the infrastructure support of these capabilities, whether the application is running on a virtual machine or a container. The already tested virtualization technology has formed a complete ecosystem to ensure the elasticity, reliability, and security of the infrastructure. Of course, the same is true for application management. virtual machines already have a complete management ecosystem, ensuring that applications running on virtual machines can easily meet the needs of enterprise-level management. In terms of application operation and management and maintenance, the container technology just started out is still a younger brother and requires experience.

Virtual machines and containers:SDDCBest Partner in

In fact, virtual machines and containers can be combined to improve the service capability of SDDC instead of multiple choice questions. Of course, both virtual machines and container technologies are part of software-defined computing. They are only part of SDDC and of course a very important part.

First, container technology provides good portability for applications, allowing applications to easily migrate across different architectures. However, applications and data are often not a hindrance to load migration, but O & M requirements, including performance capacity management, security, and management tool integration, often make it difficult to deploy applications in the new environment. Therefore, only cross-platform application migration is a small problem that solves the migration challenge.

Secondly, even if we believe that container technology and virtual machine technology can achieve the same security isolation level, the Linux-based container technology is still not verified at the enterprise level. Linux containers only design the subsystem of the operating system to work across applications and try to add the isolation feature later. This is completely different from today's mature hypervisor. Based on the bare device design, hypervisor solves the problem of Virtual Machine isolation from the root. These Linux container subsystems take a long time to reach the same maturity as virtual machines. Compliance is another challenge. Any enterprise system has compliance requirements. Virtual Machine technology has spent a lot of time gaining recognition from the business community and passed a series of compliance reviews, so as to gain the current status. We do not doubt that container technology may eventually meet enterprise compliance requirements, but it will take several years.

Finally, instead of splitting the container technology and virtual machine technology, it is better to design the two as the best partner, because container technology can definitely run in virtual machines and enjoy all the advantages of virtual machines, including: it has gained industry-recognized isolation capabilities and security attributes. In addition, it can also obtain all SDDC features other than software-defined computing. Of course, it can also obtain support from a large number of virtualization ecosystems.

No matter what technology is used, the goal is to ensure the success of the customer. Combine Virtual Machine and container technology to build an EnterpriseSDDCThis is King because these two technologies are inherently interdependent: Container technology provides excellent porting capabilities for customer applications, while virtual machine technology can provide security assurance for basic computing, meet customer reliability, stability, compliance requirements, coupled with virtualization-based developmentSDDCIn order to make the customer architecture platform a comfortable harbor for applications and data, so that the customer can soar on the third platform.

Note: This article has been published in the September 2014 Journal of software and information services. If you want to know @ yunjie's latest views on cloud computing, please subscribe to the "China yunmeng" public account. You can also scan the following QR code to subscribe directly. After subscribing to "China Cloud Dream", reply directly to "10038" to read this article.

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Choose virtual machine or container? -Software and information services: 2014.09