Monthly Archives: November 2015

Deploying Containers with Docker Swarm and Docker Networking

The purpose of this article is to explore new Docker networking features introduced in version 1.9. We’ll apply them to a Docker Swarm cluster. For practice purposes we’ll be deploying containers to a Swarm cluster created locally with Vagrant and running Consul as a service registry and Registrator as a tool that will monitor Docker daemons and register/de-register containers we run/stop. When combined, Consul and Registrator will act as service discovery within our cluster. I won’t go into details how Docker Swarm or service discovery works. You can find more information about those subject in the following articles.

We’ll skip straight into Docker networking features used within a Swarm cluster.
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Running Linux VMs on Windows

If you are using Windows, please make sure that Git is configured to use “Checkout as-is”. This can be accomplished during the setup by selecting the second or third option from the screen depicted below. Also, if you do not have SSH installed, please make sure that [PATH_TO_GIT]\bin is added to your PATH.
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Microservices: The Essential Practices

Before we jump and try to explore the practices we must master in order to successfully implement microservices architecture, let us briefly refresh our understanding of monolithic applications.
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Docker Clustering Tools Compared: Kubernetes vs Docker Swarm

Kubernetes and Docker Swarm are probably two most commonly used tools to deploy containers inside a cluster. Both are created as helper tools that can be used to manage a cluster of containers and treat all servers as a single unit. However, they differ greatly in their approach.
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Microservices: When the Stars Aligned

In The History of Failed Initiatives I mentioned that microservices as a concept existed for a long time. And yet, most of those who tried organizing their architecture around microservices failed or, to use different words, realized that benefits are shadowed by the increase in complexity (especially in operations). The spark that was born long ago became a star only recently. In order to understand why microservices became a hot topic not long ago, we need to understand better why they failed in the past. The explanation is simple. We neither had the tools nor understood the logic we had to apply. Do we have the tools today? Are we capable of putting in place the right procedures and have the mindset microservices require. I’d say yes, we have and we do. When I say we I mean people with the will and resources to make this happen. As in most other cases, once something new is proven and adopted by some, years need to pass until that something is applied by many. The good news is that I think that we are getting there and, slowly, the more conservative part of the industry (in other words, most of it) is starting to at least consider microservices as an option. Even Gartner had positive words for it. And when Gartner says jump, enterprise jumps.
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