The document provides a comprehensive Docker production readiness checklist for enterprise IT, focusing on critical aspects like infrastructure, orchestration management, security, and disaster recovery. It outlines specific requirements for clusters, image storage, network design, and logging, emphasizing the importance of monitoring and integration. Additionally, the document highlights the necessity of regular backups and testing to ensure efficient operations and disaster recovery in a Docker environment.

1. THE
ENTERPRISE IT
CHECKLIST
FOR DOCKER
OPERATIONS
Nicola Kabar
Solutions Architect
Docker
@nicolakabar

2. 1. The Enterprise IT Goal:
Deliver Value to Customers,
Fast!

3. 2. Docker is at the center of it all

4. 3. Biggest
challenge is
moving to
production in
time to prove
value

5. Docker
Production
Readiness
Checklist for
Enterprise IT

6. The Checklist
 Infrastructure
 Orchestration
Management
 Image Distribution
 Security
 Network
 Storage
 Logging and
Monitoring
 Integration
 Disaster Recovery
 Testing

7. You can also follow along !

8. Infrastructure
 Cluster Sizing and Zoning
 Supported and Compatible ( OS, Docker Engine, UCP, DTR)
 Host Sizing ( Manager vs Worker Nodes)
• Manager(minimum): 16G mem, 4 vCPU, 1+ Gbps, 32+ GB disk
• Worker(minimum): 4G mem, 2 vCPU, 100+ Mbps, 8 GB disk

9. Orchestration Management
 Redundant/Highly Available UCP managers
 Deployed in odd numbers (3,5,7) to maintain quorum
 Distributed across DCs or Availability Zones (1-1-1, 2-2-1..etc)
 Fine-tuned orchestration settings (e.g Task History Limit, Raft Settings,
Node Certificate Rotation)

10. Orchestration Management
 Upstream TCP load balancing
 No application workloads on managers
 Automated join and leave process
 Labeled resources (networks, volumes, containers, services,
secrets, nodes)

11. Image Distribution
 Redundant (3,5,7) DTR Replicas
 Replicated and secured image backend storage (NFS, S3, Azure
Storage…etc)
 Garbage collection enabled
 Security scanning enabled

12. Security
 Utilize Docker EE RBAC Model ( Subjects, Grants, Roles, Collection,
Resource)
 AD/LDAP groups mapped to teams and organizations
 Docker Content Trust Signing and Enforcement
 Regular Run of Docker Security Bench

13. Security
 Restricted direct access (SSH/RDP)
 Utilize built-in Secrets functionality (encrypted, controlled)
 Rotate orchestration join keys
 Use built-in or your own CA
 Valid SSL/TLS certificates for UCP and DTR

14. Network
 Pick right networking driver for your application (overlay ,
bridge+host port mapping)
 Select proper publishing mode for external traffic ( Ingress vs.
Host Mode)
 Pick suitable load-balancing mode ( client side = dnsrr, server-
side = vip)
 Network latency < 100ms

15. Network
 Segment app at L3 with overlays (1 App  1 Overlay Network)
 Utilize built-in encrypted overlay feature ( app <--> app encrypted)
 Pick the application subnet size carefully
 Designated non-overlapping subnets to be used by Docker for overlay
networks

16. OVERLAY A: 10.10.10.0/24 10.10.10.0/24
CONTAINER A: 10.10.10.10/24 SERVER A:10.10.10.100
Docker
Underlay Network
Customer Story

17. OVERLAY A: 10.10.200.0/24
10.10.10.0/24
CONTAINER A:
10.10.200.10/24
SERVER A:10.10.10.100
Docker
Underlay Network
Recommendation

18. Customer Story
X Improper network subnet design
X Overlapping subnet with underlay range
X Black holing traffic intended for services outside
the cluster
X Recommendation: dedicate subnets from the
underlay to be used by Docker

19. Storage
 Production-ready configured engine storage backend ( esp.
devicemapper for centos/RHEL)
 Replicated and secure DTR storage backend
 Certified and tested application data storage plugin for replicating
application data

20. Logging and Monitoring
 External centralized logging for engine and application containers logs
 Local logging for active trouble-shooting (JSON or JournalD)
 Host-level and container-level resource monitoring
 DTR image backend storage monitoring
 Docker engine storage monitoring
 Use built-in application health checking functionality

21. Customer Story
DTRCI
push store
NFS

22. Customer Story
X DTR storage backend was not monitored
X GC was not enabled
X CI led to excessive image pushes
X Storage filled up -> can’t push to DTR
 Recommendation: Monitor storage backend,
enable GC

23. Integration
 UCP and DTR are well integrated ( SSO, DCT..etc)
 CI/CD tooling ( Jenkins, Bamboo, CircleCI, TravisCI..etc)
 Development tooling (dev machines, IDEs)
 Configuration automation tools (Puppet, Chef, Ansible, Salt)
 Resource provisioning systems ( Terraform..etc)

24. Integration
 Change management systems
 Internal/external DNS or other service discovery and
registration systems
 Load balancing for both the management plane and each of
the applications ( L4/L7)
 Incident/ticketing management systems (ServiceNow, etc)

25. Disaster Recovery
 Regular (rec. weekly) backups (UCP, DTR, and Swarm)
 Well-tested, automated, and documented
• platform restoration
• upgrade + downgrade
• application recovery procedure

26. Customer Story
Backup
UCP
Backup
DTR
Backup
Swarm
Backup
DTR
Storage

27. Customer Story
X No backups since installation
X Lost quorum led to cluster failure
X No way to recover UCP and DTR configurations
X Manual re-install + re-config of settings, teams, groups
 Recommendation: Frequent backup, tested restore procedures

28. Testing
 Multi-platform image pull and push to DTR
 Confirm users have the right set of access to their respective resources
 Confirm application resource limitation works as expected
 End-to-end stack deployment from CLI and UI
 Updating applications with new configuration, images, networks using
rolling upgrade

29. Docker Success Center
success.docker.com

30. Things you can find in Success Center
● Complete Docker EE Cluster Upgrade Guide
● End-to-End Security Best Practices
● Logging Design and Best Practices
● Support & Compatibility Matrix
● Troubleshooting Guides
● + 100s of Technical Assets

31. Key Takeaways
 Define a readiness checklist for an
accelerated, smooth and successful path to
production
 Design the Docker Enterprise platform
based on recommended architectures
 Deliver to Differentiate

32. Sign Up for Docker
EE Hosted Demo
and Kubernetes
Beta !
docker.com/trial
docker.com/kubernetes

33. Thanks!
Questions?
@nicolakabar