Containerization Overview
Container technologies have revolutionized software development, deployment, and operations by providing consistent, isolated environments across different platforms. This section covers various container technologies and related tools.
What Are Containers?
Containers are lightweight, standalone executable packages that include everything needed to run an application:
Code
Runtime
System tools
System libraries
Settings
Containers isolate software from its surroundings and help ensure consistent operation regardless of differences in development and staging environments.
Container Technologies
The most widely adopted container platform that standardized the container ecosystem.
An open-source container orchestration platform for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.
A daemonless container engine for developing, managing, and running OCI containers. Podman can run containers as root or in rootless mode.
Lightweight containers that leverage the Nix package manager to provide declarative, reproducible system configurations.
Red Hat's Kubernetes distribution with added features for enterprise use.
Container Orchestration
Container orchestration tools help manage containerized applications at scale:
Kubernetes: The de facto standard for container orchestration
Docker Swarm: Docker's native clustering and scheduling tool
Nomad: HashiCorp's flexible workload orchestrator for containers and non-containerized applications
OpenShift: Kubernetes with enterprise features and developer-friendly tools
Container Best Practices
Use minimal base images
Follow the principle of least privilege
Scan images for vulnerabilities
Use multi-stage builds to reduce image size
Implement proper health checks
Leverage container registries with security features
Avoid running containers as root when possible
For more detailed best practices, see the Container Best Practices section.
Last updated