Kubernetes and Docker are used to manage container technologies, but they are complementary to one another and can be powerful when combined. A container is a unit of software that benefits from portability across different IT environments because it relies on an abstracted, portable environment. A container is similar to a virtual machine in that it both relies on the same technology, but a VM virtualizes physical hardware. Containers can also be customized to quickly adjust to different use cases without any perceptible lag in performance.
A virtual machine will have a full copy of the OS and all its dependencies, whereas a container contains only an application as well as any necessary libraries to run. As such, it is much smaller and more efficient with speed. With containers, you also don’t need to configure things like DNS settings because they are automatically applied from the host. Containers are great because they’re lightweight, easy to use and perfect for DevOps workflows. You can use containers in a microservices architecture.
Kubernetes Vs Docker
Docker is an open-source platform that facilitates the deployment, management and ease of access to containers. It’s currently one of the most popular tools for creating containers, no matter what operating system you’re using. Docker was created on the concept of Linux Containers (LXC). Docker containers are able to run anywhere, across any environment, giving them a level of portability. An application is able to continue working while an update or repair is in progress.
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Dockerfile is a list of commands and allows the user to specify everything that needs to be done in order to create an image. The specification includes things such as operating system, networking, and files. Docker Compose is a tool created for running multi-container applications. It provides a template that defines which container should be included in the application and all information necessary to deploy it.
Although Docker is no longer supported by the Kubernetes runtime, it still offers plenty of functionality in the current ecosystem.
Docker containerization improves development efficiency by providing a “containers-as-code” experience and distributing workloads across the entire CPU, GPU, or memory. Containerization enables accelerated development cycles, such as CI/CD, and agile processes can be adopted. Containerized apps can be deployed through testing environments in response to changing business needs.
Docker does well with smaller applications, such as web development. However, it can be confusing for large enterprise applications since there are often many containers involved. To increase efficiency, we should use container orchestration tools, such as Docker Swarm or Kubernetes.
Kubernetes can complete any task from scheduling and automating the deployment of server, to managing the scaling of workloads. Kubernetes is open-source container orchestration platform for designing and orchestrating containers for work functions, varying from deployment to management scaling.
Group your containers together to make a cluster, which will make it easier for Kubernetes to manage the lifecycle of each container. Kubernetes makes deploying containers an easy task, where you can allocate parcels of your infrastructure to process and deploy containers without hassle.
Kubernetes is able to heal and run the container if the app has a crash. It will restart the application that didn’t work and make it error-free. Automated rollouts and rollbacks ensures safe releases for any application changes.
With storage orchestration you are able to mount either a local or cloud-based storage system to reduce latency and improve user experience.
For those with expanding infrastructure, it might make sense to adopt Kubernetes early on. However, if using Docker, then Kubernetes requires little effort because it uses presently deployed containers and workloads.
