Docker Announces Enhancements to the Docker Platform to Simplify and Advance the Management of Kubernetes for Enterprise IT

When Docker is running you will see a Docker icon in the taskbar. Add Kubernetes can be via the settings page of Docker. To open the settings right click the icon and choose settings. In the settings there is a sub menu called “Kubernetes” on this page enable Kubernetes. If you want you can make the system containers visible. Applying these settings will add Kubernetes within Docker. Kubernetes Dashboard. App Center Azure DevOps Visual Studio Visual Studio Code Visual Studio for Mac. Can run a local version of Kubernetes on Docker Desktop for Windows, however. Once your local Kubernetes cluster is up and running, it's time to configure. Spec: containers: - name: kubernetes-dashboard image:.

Seamless integration offers orchestration choice with the added value of the Docker platform including security, Linux and Windows production support and hybrid cloud manageability

Copenhagen, Denmark –October 17, 2017 –Docker today announced that it is seamlessly integrating Kubernetes into the Docker platform, offering users the choice to use Kubernetes and/or Docker Swarm for orchestration while maintaining the consistent developer to operator workflow users have come to expect from Docker. For users, this means they get an unmodified version of Kubernetes with the added value of the Docker platform including security, management, a familiar developer workflow and tooling, broad ecosystem compatibility and an adherence to industry standards.

For IT organizations, Docker Enterprise Edition (EE) simplifies the configuration and management of Kubernetes by integrating all of the components within the platform and streamlining operational workflows for Kubernetes as well as Swarm. Docker EE provides the ability to deploy Swarm and Kubernetes-based applications across a secure and automated software supply chain operating in hybrid cloud environments. In turn, Docker for Mac and Docker for Windows provides developers with the freedom to build Swarm or Kubernetes-based applications on a local machine using the same Docker tooling. This new capability extends the Docker platform to support an even more diverse array of tools and plugins across the container ecosystem.

“At Docker, user feedback is our primary source of information to decide when to add new capabilities to the platform,” said Solomon Hykes, Founder and Chief Product Officer for Docker. “The addition of Kubernetes as an option alongside Swarm gives our users and customers the ability to make an orchestration choice with the added security, management and end-to-end Docker experience that they’ve come to expect from Docker since the very beginning. We look forward to working with the Kubernetes community to help users, partners and customers achieve the full benefits of the containerization revolution.”

Docker EE manages Swarm and Kubernetes-based apps across the secure supply chain

Docker EE is the only enterprise-grade container platform for managing and securing Windows, Linux and mainframe applications across any infrastructure, both on premises and in the cloud. Docker EE abstracts the complexity of orchestration management from enterprise IT with a powerful dashboard that automates workflows in the same way for Kubernetes as it does for Swarm. Advanced security features such as security scanning and content trust in combination with a private image registry enable dev and ops teams to unify and secure the software supply chain to release applications into production more rapidly and frequently. Kubernetes integrates with these capabilities as well as secure cluster management and secure multi-tenancy to add end-to-end security to Kubernetes.

Full Compatibility for Kubernetes Across all Linux and Windows Environments

Through its integration with Docker EE, Kubernetes will be available across certified infrastructure platforms including multiple Linux distributions (SLES, CentOS, RHEL, Ubuntu, Oracle Linux) and Windows as well as all cloud platforms including AWS and Azure. This means organizations are not locked into an underlying platform and get the greatest flexibility in hybrid cloud deployments.

“Docker with its Enterprise Edition has built traction with enterprise customers by offering them a comprehensive set of management and security capabilities that can enable container-based applications in production and across hybrid environments,” said Jay Lyman, Principal Analyst for 451 Research. 'Support for Kubernetes in addition to the Docker Enterprise Edition capabilities including security, flexibility and enterprise-grade capabilities across a variety of clouds, Linux distributions and Windows, should appeal to enterprises seeking to centrally manage container applications and speed ROI.”

A Simple Yet Powerful Experience for Dev and Ops

Docker has always been focused on building software that is open and simple to use. Because Docker EE was designed with an open framework that provides orchestration choice, integrating Kubernetes into the Docker platform requires no changes for developers or IT operations. For developers, there are no new commands to learn and nothing to install on their desktop. For IT, Docker EE automatically installs and configures all required components of Kubernetes as part of the system installation and manages the entire cluster from a unified dashboard.

Docker Community Edition Increases the Flexibility of Developer Tooling on the Desktop

Docker for Mac and Docker for Windows deliver a powerful developer toolset that provides a uniform development environment and workflow for any language and any app. The integration of a complete Kubernetes stack ensures that developers can seamlessly leverage features like multi-stage builds, application composition (Docker Compose) and in container development and have them run consistently from development all the way to production. Developers have the flexibility to write their application in Docker and then can choose their orchestrator without requiring any additional modification. Similarly developers can maintain their Docker native workflows, while experimenting with Kubernetes native tools and commands.

Docker Platform Availability
To try the latest version of Docker Enterprise Edition, Docker for Mac and Windows with built-in Kubernetes, sign up for the upcoming Beta.

Learn more about Docker Enterprise Edition and the Modernize Traditional Applications (MTA) program. The MTA program helps enterprises transform expensive and difficult to maintain applications into efficient, secure, and portable modern applications ready for hybrid cloud environments. Designed for IT operations teams, Docker EE modernizes existing legacy applications without modifying source code or re-architecting the application. For more information visit: https://www.docker.com/solutions/mta

Additional Resources
Read the blog on Docker Enterprise Edition with Kubernetes
Register for upcoming webinars about Kubernetes on the Docker Platform
Try Docker EE for free and view subscription plans
Learn more about Modernizing Traditional Apps on Docker

I'm excited to say that Docker for Mac is now shipping with support for both Docker Swarm and Kubernetes built-in. Let's take a look at what this means, a brief history of developer tooling and then cover my first impressions as I kick the tyres.

Why does this matter to developers?

Docker CE (nee. Docker) is a piece of software which has brought the benefits of containers to the people (democratisation) and made them extremely easy to use and valuable (commoditisation). This has been a journey and we didn't start day one with Kubernetes support in Docker for Mac, so let's look at the context:

Containers (which normally means Linux containers) were not available on Windows or Mac when Docker began its story as a spin-out from DotCloud.

Docker tooling - a brief history

Here's a a brief history of developer tools and how they brought Linux containers to Mac and Windows users:

Virtual machines - version 1

Before any of this tooling someone on a Mac or Linux computer who wanted to access Linux container would have needed to have installed a Virtual Machine host such as VirtualBox or VMWare Workstation/Player. They would need to install a Linux host manually and then set up shared folders. Sometimes people also use vagrant from Hashicorp to provide a consistent CLI between VM host software.

Use when: none of the following options work for you. This option is not recommended.

Docker Machine

Docker Machine was the next step in the tooling evolution. Docker Machine automated the setup of a virtual machine on a local or remote environment and made use of standard ISO images (boot2docker) plus a writeable disk area. This also meant upgrading from one version to another was easy.

Once the VM was running SSL certificates were generated and then the Docker client accessed the remote or local VM over TCP/IP. It could support multiple-concurrent Docker versions or hosts at the same time for clustering.

Pros:

• multiple Docker back-ends even on the same computer
• works on Linux
• uses simple distribution boot2docker
• pluggable architecture - with plugins for major cloud providers / distros

Cons:

• CLI-driven
• Less 'native' integration on Windows / Mac

Use when: you're on Windows 7 or Windows 10 Home or need a cluster of machines on your local computer. Or you're creating/managing a remote cloud cluster.

Docker for Mac/Windows

The problem with Docker Machine was that it involved too many manual steps (docker-machine env etc) and configuration sometimes needed to be regenerated for TLS. Docker for Mac/Windows or DfM was pitched as a 'native' integration which meant it came with a UI and a menu-bar that was hugely popular. The initial release of DfM was through a limited beta and there was a big demand on Twitter for it.

Pros:

• 1-click install
• Command-line is automatically configured
• Configuration through UI for proxies / registries etc
• Can be started/stopped with a single click

Cons:

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• DfM has had performance issues with shared volumes
• High CPU usage is reported by hyperkit resulting in low battery life
• Only available on Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise

Use when: it's available to you and you need Docker Swarm or Kubernetes support for local development.

Minikube

Minikube has a very similar user-experience to docker-machine and also relies on boot2docker. Its primary purpose is to create a single-node Kubernetes cluster which also includes a Docker host that can be used for development.

Example output of starting up minikube on my Mac:

Pros:

• Easy access to Kubernetes for local development
• It works

Cons:

• Kubernetes uses a significant amount of battery at idle
• Docker integration feels similar to docker-machine
• Docker version lags behind significantly (i.e. no multi-stage builds until recently)
• Some features hard to access or not officially supported such as RBAC (role-based authentication control)
• Should use minikube start/stop

Use when: you need a local Kubernetes environment but don't mind if the Docker version is older.

To summarise the tooling there are pros and cons to each option. Let's move onto my first impressions of Kubernetes on Docker for Mac.

First impressions

Here are my first impressions through getting hold of the update, kicking the tyres with an application and seeing what the Docker 'stack' integration is like.

Getting it

You currently need to be on the 'edge' track of Docker CE in 17.12 or greater to get Kubernetes support. The support is then downloaded via a UI option and this can take several minutes.

Contexts and namespaces

If you've ever installed minikube then you'll have to switch out of that context into the DfM context otherwise kubectl will hang.

If you find that too verbose to type in then the Kubernetes community has a tool called kubectx that make that shorter.

One of the other key differences between Docker Swarm and Kubernetes is the support for namespaces. By default parts of the Kubernetes ecosystem run as containers in a hidden namespace called system.

To view all containers running type in kubectl get all --all-namespaces:

You'll see that a lot of services are running by default. This is in effect the same as what is running for Docker Swarm, but it's hidden from you and baked into a few fixed binaries rather than being split out to this degree.

Let's check which version got shipped?

Looks like we get 1.8.2 which is not the latest but does include all the most important features.

Docker's integration

Docker is attempting to make Kubernetes easy to use for Docker Swarm users by creating an integration between Docker stacks (as seen in Swarm) and Kubernetes native deployments/services.

Kubernetes is by nature extensible and Docker are using Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs) which add a 'stack' concept. It means you can do this:

Let's try a Docker compose file I have and see what happens:

Here's the CRD:

And it appears to have created some Pods:

Prometheus has an issue that I can debug by typing in: kubectl logs pod/prom-76b4f584f7-qckc9.

Take away - if you're still using docker-compose for development or production - you can probably move straight to Kubernetes and enjoy the benefits of clustering.

Native workflow

So for a native workflow we'd expect a few things:

• kubectl apply with YAML works
• helm works
• RBAC is enabled

Let's try to deploy OpenFaaS - Serverless Functions Made Simple for Docker and Kubernetes.

If you run into an error about namespaces then type in kubectl apply -f ./namespaces.yml in the faas-netes folder and try again.

This is a good test because OpenFaaS will display a UI at localhost:31112 and also uses both RBAC and two namespaces (openfaas / openfaas-fn).

We see no errors:

The services are created too. See them by typing in:

Now open the UI and deploy a function using the store:

Then select Figlet - figlet is a Linux binary that can generate ASCII text-logos.

You'll see the Function/Pod created here:

Kubernetes uses more primitive objects to make up a 'service' than Docker Swarm. Find out more about Kubernetes fundamentals below.

Now invoke the function and see the result:

It works very well and was really easy to deploy. This will help the community maintain and build the Kubernetes integration for OpenFaaS.

I said we'd need helm to work too, which is a package manager for distributing software like OpenFaaS, Minio or similar. The equivalent doesn't exist for Docker Swarm.

I saw this Tweet before writing the post so it looks like helm also works out the box:

Just setup #kubernetes on the @Docker for Mac beta and did a #helm install.. this is so so great!!

— Adnan Abdulhussein (@prydonius) December 15, 2017

Wrapping up

One of the key advantages of having this new support in Docker for Mac is not the stacks integration - it's the simplicity, speed and ease of use over existing tools. I believe a portion of existing Docker Swarm users will make use of the stacks integration and it could be a useful upgrade path for them if they decide to move to Kubernetes.

Is Docker Swarm dead? I don't have any inside information as a member of the Docker Captains group, but what I've been told generally is that while there is a customer-base for Docker Swarm it will continue to be supported. For example the original Swarm that ran as individual containers is still supported by Docker's UCP product.

If you read the developer reactions on Hacker News
you'll see Swarm still has its fans and if Kubernetes wants to convert them then my impression is that installation/maintenance for on-prem installations needs to improve.

So as for my first impressions - it's great and everything I was expecting to work does. I'm really impressed with what Docker has done with Docker for Mac and the internal components that make it up like LinuxKit.

Follow and share

Follow me and share this post on Twitter to help me get to 10k followers:

First impressions: Docker for Mac with Kubernetes and a brief history of developer tooling - https://t.co/XVlTaW8tgz@docker@kubernetesiopic.twitter.com/YrftDCEwEa

— Alex Ellis (@alexellisuk) January 7, 2018

See also:

I highly recommend reading the differences between Docker Swarm and Kubernetes - even if you're a Kubernetes veteran, this blog post may be useful for your colleagues and friends:

• Blog - What you need to know: Docker Swarm and Kubernetes

• Read the docs on the Docker and Kubernetes integration

• Star: Award-winning OpenFaaS - serverless functions you can run yourself on Kubernetes or Docker Swarm

'Docker Captains are experts and leaders in their communities who demonstrate a commitment to sharing their Docker knowledge with others.'

Alex Ellis is a Docker Captain and the author of the OpenFaaS project