The document discusses the design and benefits of modular container architectures in distributed systems, emphasizing concepts such as reusability, reliability, and separation of concerns. It highlights patterns like sidecar, ambassador, and adapter containers, illustrating their roles in enhancing applications. Key requirements for implementing these patterns include sharing namespaces, co-scheduling, and runtime parameterization to facilitate collaboration and consistency in development.

1. The Distributed System Toolkit
Composite Containers for Modular Architectures
Brendan Burns - Google Cloud Platform
@brendandburns

2. https://www.flickr.com/photos/greeblie/2224507899

3. Modular Container Design
“Good fences make good neighbors” - Robert Frost

4. A Quick Look @ Your Code

5. & Your Code Community
Contribute
Share Use Keep

6. Quick Look @ Your Cluster

7. Your Next App. Design
Don’t think of a container as the
boundary of your application
A container is more like a class in an
object oriented language.

8. Benefits...
Build applications more quickly
● Re-use existing containers in more places
● Build things that are easy to use
● Container boundaries are natural boundaries for
teams

9. Benefits...
Build applications more reliably
● Leverage expert knowledge everywhere
● Only make mistakes once
● Only update the bits that need updating

10. Modular Container Design
● Separate concerns (e.g. “webserver”, “git syncher”)
● Build consistent experiences
● Avoid NIH

11. Requirements...
Sharing between containers
● Share namespaces (esp. PID, Network and IPC)
● Share filesystems

12. Requirements...
Co-scheduling of containers
● Composition requires co-location

13. Requirements...
Parameterization of containers
● Configurable at runtime
● Documented and discoverable

14. Patterns...
● Don’t design in a vacuum!
● Don’t think that you are special!
● Do share best practices and ideas!

15. Composite Container Application
Sidecars
Application Container
node.js
Git
Synchronizer
Sidecars extend and enhance
Sidecar Container

16. Composite Container Application
Sidecar Pattern
Application Container
nginx
Git
Synchronizer
Sidecars extend and enhance
Sidecar Container

17. Composite Container Application
Ambassador Pattern
PHP app twemproxy
Ambassadors represent and present
localhost
Application Container Ambassador Container
Memcache
Shards

18. Composite Container Application
Adapter Pattern
redis redis exporter
Adapters normalize and abstract
localhost
Application Container Adapter Container
Monitoring
System
Other
adapters

19. Demo

20. From Legos to Starships

21. Replication

22. Micro-Service Load Balancer
Consistent, Discoverable Name

23. Complete Application
“Cassandra”
Cassandra Template
“Frontend”
NodeJS Template

24. Thank you
Brendan Burns
#google-containers - @brendandburns - bburns [at] google.com
github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes