Containers provide a packaging technology that allows for nimbler, more predictable deployments through packaging applications and their dependencies. This allows for transparent scalability, fewer constraints, and better collaboration between development and operations teams. Containers can be used for both new and legacy applications through containerization tools like Docker and orchestration tools like Kubernetes, which manage container deployments across infrastructure.

1. Containers jumpstart from a
DevOps perspective
Matteo Emili
Microsoft MVP – Visual Studio and Development Technologies
matteo.emili@live.com || mattvsts.blogspot.com || @MattVSTS

3. First it was SOA, then Scrum, Big Data,
microservices, now Containerisation…

4. Containers is new trendy word – what does it
actually mean?

5. Containerisation is not black magic

6. Containerisation is not (just) virtualisation

7. Containerisation is not (just) Docker

8. Containerisation is not microservices

9. Containerisation is not DevOps

10. What is it then?!

11. Containerisation is like a cake

12. It can be layered or whole

13. It can be distributed as a whole or sliced

14. So, from the DevOps perspective…

15. …Containerisation is a packaging technology.

16. Are you sure? What can you do with
Containers? Aren’t they like VMs, but better?

17. A Container packages the application binaries and
all their dependencies in a deployable artefact

18. lication
The difference between VMs and Containers
Hardware
OS
Hypervisor
Guest OS
Application
VM
lication
Guest OS
Application
VM
lication
Guest OS
Application
VM
lication
Hardware
OS
Containerisation Engine
Application
Container
lication
Application
lication
Application
Container Container

19. Although it’s not always black or white…more
on this later.

20. Deployment of consistent, software-defined
architectures, abstracted from the underlying
hardware, in a repeatable and idempotent
way.
In other words: package deployment.If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail

21. Glossary
Image
• It is the starting state of your runtime environment for a single
machine/service.
Dockerfile
• Declarative description of all the steps needed to make up the desired image
state
• You can declare the commands to run after loading a base image (RUN, ADD,
WORKDIR, EXPOSE)
Registry
• Central store for your images

22. Anatomy of a slice of cake – a random
Dockerfile for a random image

23. But this works just for the cool,
Angular/Node.js/wHat3v&r.js-based greenfield
apps, right?

24. No – this is for a legacy ASP.NET 3.5 application
running on a full Windows Server installation

25. What is the DevOps connection?

26. Nimbler installations

27. Idempotent and predictable deployments

28. Transparent scalability

29. Less constraints

30. Better collaboration

31. How to get started?

32. Ingredients for Container adoption in a
DevOps-based process
Essentials:
• Your favourite containerisation technology
• Some hardware to run your containers on
Optional:
• A shared registry
• Composition technology
• Orchestrator

33. DEMO – Plug containers in your existing
pipeline for a legacy product

34. Real world applications run with load balanced
configurations, with different machines, …

35. This is where you use a composition
technology – docker-compose

36. docker-compose only packs together multiple
Dockerfiles

37. Containers are then generated with a dependency
tree – effectively creating infrastructures

38. This means you can deploy different
infrastructures with your software packages

39. …which is basically Infrastructure as Code to
the extreme.

40. An example of a semi-complex
infrastructure
• A frontend, of which three nodes are deployed
• A backend I previously built and stored in my
registry
• A load balancer from a 3rd party vendor

41. DEMO – a look at docker-compose

42. How about the famous Kubernetes?

43. Kubernetes is built by Google

44. It is an orchestrator

45. It is not the *only* container orchestrator

46. Swarm, Mesos, DC/OS, Nomad, ECS, AKS…

47. Do you need an orchestrator?

48. An orchestrator makes deployments (in any
direction) easy

49. This comes at a cost: complexity

50. An example: Kubernetes

51. Kubernetes can be tricky to setup

52. Kubernetes has its own YAML format

53. Kubernetes has its own cli

54. You need minikube to test stuff on it

55. What are you talking about?!

56. DEMO – minikube, a smaller scale k8s

57. All in all, Containers are a perfect match for
DevOps