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A comment on How is Docker.io different from a normal virtual machine?. Parent comment

Re:How is Docker.io different from a normal virtual machine? by seldo on Friday September 13, 2013 @01:18AM (#6378803)
Indeed. One way you can use Docker in production[1] is one container per machine: even when you're not using the containers to split resources, the ability to snapshot and move an application and all of its dependencies in a single, lightweight, easily deployed package is very exciting. And because there's no translation etc. happening, running a single container is pretty much identical, performance-wise, to running it directly on the machine[2].

[1] dotCloud don't actually yet recommend running Docker in production, but if you did...

[2] This was part of what Mailgun (part of Rackspace) said in their presentation at the Docker workshop in SF today.

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Re:How is Docker.io different from a normal virtual machine? by jaytaylor on Friday September 13, 2013 @01:28AM (#6378827)
You can actually do the same thing with LXC containers; it is trivial to rsync a snapshot or compressed archive of a snapshot to another host machine and run it there.
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Re:How is Docker.io different from a normal virtual machine? by pestaa on Friday September 13, 2013 @01:55AM (#6378893)
Why the downvote? Simple tools always work well. If you want process isolation on Linux, LXC + rsync might as well be the simplest route.
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Re:How is Docker.io different from a normal virtual machine? by mritun on Friday September 13, 2013 @02:14AM (#6378950)
Docker is based on LXC containers. It bundles it's own management layer that replaces the "rsync" solution you propose.
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Re:How is Docker.io different from a normal virtual machine? by pekk on Friday September 13, 2013 @12:01PM (#6381309)
The point of Docker is the standardized container/management interface. Of course you can write your own, but then it's not too standardized is it?
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Re:How is Docker.io different from a normal virtual machine? by jaytaylor on Friday September 13, 2013 @05:52PM (#6383418)
What you describe is standardizing complexity where a simple solution is available. Naturally, when feasible, I prefer keeping things simple and straightforward enough that standardization is unnecessary.

Standardization for the sake of standardization is not defensible.

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Re:How is Docker.io different from a normal virtual machine? by jaytaylor on Friday September 13, 2013 @01:58AM (#6378904)
Anything not pro-docker usually gets downvoted by shykes and his ring of cronies.
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Re:How is Docker.io different from a normal virtual machine? by aegiso on Friday September 13, 2013 @02:22AM (#6378979)
There's definitely hype behind Docker, but this is a ridiculous accusation.
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Re:How is Docker.io different from a normal virtual machine? by jaytaylor on Friday September 13, 2013 @02:55AM (#6379057)
People do crazy things for money.
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Re:How is Docker.io different from a normal virtual machine? by pekk on Friday September 13, 2013 @12:06PM (#6381331)
You have rationalized away the people who disagree with you by making them into a conspiracy. I don't know about said ring of cronies, but I guarantee that many downvoters are not associated.
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Re:How is Docker.io different from a normal virtual machine? by jaytaylor on Friday September 13, 2013 @05:41PM (#6383364)
My claim seems validated. Just look at both of my comments in this thread; they've both been downvoted deep into the negatives.
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Re:How is Docker.io different from a normal virtual machine? by kbutler on Friday September 13, 2013 @06:36PM (#6383620)
My downvotes because the comments were disparaging and lacked proof. My only Docker affiliation is reading a bit about it lately. I had to search the page to see who shykes is.
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Re:How is Docker.io different from a normal virtual machine? by darklajid on Friday September 13, 2013 @05:23AM (#6379383)
Regarding your first footnote:

Is there an explanation why 'in production' is actively discouraged? Is that a limitation of the underlying lxc stuff?

I ask, because the interesting parts of docker _for me_ seem to be focused on the setup, deployment - and not the runtime. So if I create a working image and want to use that in production, wouldn't docker become passive as soon as I run that thing?

What's the danger here?

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Re:How is Docker.io different from a normal virtual machine? by pekk on Friday September 13, 2013 @12:08PM (#6381348)
I expect the danger is that someone will lose money and blame the developers for as-yet unforeseen issues which can only be smoked out after a few years of heavy use. But a specific danger would be interesting to hear.
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Re:How is Docker.io different from a normal virtual machine? by shykes on Friday September 13, 2013 @02:12PM (#6382085)
Docker maintainer here. That's basically it. There's no specific danger that we're worried about - just engineering best practices.

As long as we're not comfortable operating Docker at large scale ourselves (we run quite a lot of containers in production at dotCloud), we won't recommend that others do it.

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