DevOps in the Real World is far from perfect, and we're all somewhere on the path to one day writing that "Amazing-Hacker-News-Post about your chat-bot fully-automated micro-service infrastructure." But until then, how can you *really* start using containers today, in meaningful ways that impact yours and your customers productivity? This session is designed for practitioners who are looking for ways to get started now with Docker and Swarm in production. No Docker 101 here, this is for helping you be successful on your way to Dockerizing your production systems. Attendees will get tactics, example configs, real working infrastructure designs, and see the (sometimes messy) internals of Docker in production today.

1. Journey to Docker
Production
Bret Fisher
Independent DevOps Sysadmin
Docker Captain

2. • Docker Dev+Ops user since 2014
• Used for my co-founded startup
• Now, fill time container ops indi
consultant
• Helped over dozen orgs go prod
Who Am I?

3. • You want Docker in production
• Containerizing existing infrastructure/apps
• Need to break down barriers of getting into Docker production
• Often these are "decision barriers", lets make some good defaults
• Sometimes it's made-up requirements that aren't required day one
• Hopefully I will help you today with all of these!
Why Are We Here?

4. • Containerize As-Is
• What To Focus On First
• Building Prod Layer by Layer
• Agile Infrastructure Planning
• Other Ways To Make An Impact
Agenda

5. Production Docker: A New Hope
"Containerize as-is!"

6. New to containers? Limit other changes
Sounds obvious, but many container projects start out too big in scope
Problems you likely don't need to solve before container day one
• Fully automatic CI/CD
• Dynamic performance scaling
• Containerizing all of an existing solution at once
• Service discovery (dynamic updates to LB's, DNS, etc.)
• Starting with persistent data
Limit Your Simultaneous Innovation

7. • Microservice conversion isn't required
• 12 Factor is a horizon we're always chasing
• Don't let these ideals delay containerization
• Maybe we need a 12 Factor 12-step program
Legacy Apps Work In Containers Too
At its core, a container is just a process

8. You need a good foundation
What To Focus
On First

9. is the path to the dark side
A Bad Dockerfile...

10. Good Dockerfiles are more important than fancy orchestration
• It's your new build and environment documentation
• At first, focus on "it works" rather then fancy or lean (or multi-stage)
• Use FROM Official distros that are most familiar
What To Focus On First: Dockerfiles

11. Dockerfile Production Anti-patterns
New teams often have anti-patterns or wrong defaults
Lets look at some of these shall we:

12. • Anti: Not storing unique data in volumes
Dockerfile Anti-pattern: Trapping Data
👍😺
• Not to be confused with Bind Mounts for sharing data with host

13. • Anti: Letting image builds pull FROM latest
Dockerfile Anti-pattern: No Version Pinning
👍😻
• Anti: Letting image builds install latest packages
• You don't do this with your code, why do it with dependencies?

14. • Anti: Not changing defaults in container like you would on a VM
• e.g. php.ini, mysql.conf.d, java memory
Dockerfile Anti-pattern: Leaving Default Config
👍😽
• NOTE: Don't just copy over config files from VM's into image

15. • Anti: Copying in environment config at image build
Dockerfile Anti-pattern: Environment Specific
👎🙀
• Goal: Single Dockerfile with default ENV's, and overwrite per-
environment at run time

16. Building Prod Layer by Layer

17. • Stick with what you know at first
• Do some basic performance testing of your existing and
planned setup. Even if just defaults with sample data. You will
learn lots!
• Recent Docker Inc. and HPE whitepaper on MySQL benchmark
• (authored by yours truly, and others)
• bretfisher.com/dockercon17
Containers-on-VM or Container-on-Bare-Metal
Do either, or both. Lots of pros/cons to either

18. • Docker is kernel and storage driver dependent
• Innovations/fixes are still happening here
• "Minimum" version != "best" version
• No pre-existing opinion? Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS (latest LTS)
• Popular, well-tested with Docker
• One of latest LTS kernels out there
• Wide storage driver support
• Get correct Docker for your distro from store.docker.com
Linux Distribution/Release Matters

19. • Don't make a decision based on image size (remember it's SIS)
• At first: match your existing deployment process
• Consider changing to Alpine later, maybe much later
Container Base Distribution: Which One?

20. Swarm Architectures

21. • General advice on how to start small and grow big
• Based off learnings from
• Docker internal testing
• Docker reference architectures
• Real world deployments
• Swarm3k lessons learned
Good Defaults: Swarm Architectures

22. • "docker swarm init" done!
• This happens every day with VM's, why
not with containers
• Why bother with swarm? Keeping
same workflow across environments,
secrets, etc.
1-Node Swarm
Baby Swarm

23. • All Managers and Workers
• One node can fail
• Great when on a very small budget
• pet projects
• test/CI setups
3-Node Swarm
Minimum for HA

24. • All Managers and Workers
• Two nodes can fail
• My minimum for production that
affects business $$
5-Node Swarm
Better High-Availability

25. • 5 dedicated managers
• Maybe some workers in DMZ
• Anything beyond 5 nodes, stick
with 5 Managers and rest workers
• Control container placement with
labels + constraints
10-Node Swarm
Separating Out Managers

26. > docker node update --label-add data-drive=ssd worker1
> docker node update --label-add net-segment=dmz1 worker2
Constraints with Swarm Services
> docker service create
--constraint node.labels.data-drive==ssd mysql

27. • 5 dedicated managers
• Resize managers as you grow
• Multiple worker subnets on
Private/DMZ
• Control container placement with
labels + constraints
100-Node Swarm
Aww she's all grown up!

28. • Different hardware configurations
• Different subnets or security groups
• Solution: Use node labels with container constraints
Not-So-Good Reasons for Multiple Swarms

29. • Geographical boundaries between nodes (e.g. different regions)
• Security boundaries for compliance (PCI, etc.)
• Personnel boundaries for Swarm management using Docker API
• (could mitigate Docker EE UCP, auth plugin)
Good Reasons for Multiple Swarms

30. Do You Have An Externally
Driven Deadline?

31. • Beware the "Not Implemented Here" Syndrome
• Similar to "not invented here"
• Opportunities for Outsourcing
• Where it can still be a challenge to implement and maintain
• And, where the SaaS/On-prem market is mature
• For Your Consideration
• Image registry
• Log aggregation, storage, search, and alerting
• 17.05 gets service logs, good for getting started
• Monitoring and alerting
Outsource Well-Defined Plumbing

32. Other Docker Products that Compliment
Docker CE
• Swarm/Stacks/Secrets/Routing Mesh
• CLI Management
Docker for
AWS/Azure
• Cloud Resource Template
• Moby Instance OS
Docker EE
• DTR/UCP
• GUI Mgmt/RBAC/Layer 7 Proxy/Image Cache
More Effort
More Decisions
Less Effort
Less Decisions

33. Remember To Be Agile,
You'll Build The Next One Better

34. • Already have good infrastructure automation (one click VM)?
• Maybe you have great VM autoscale with single-service VM's?
• Like the security boundary of the VM OS?
You Want Even Less Ops Change?
Lets accelerate this even more

35. • Least amount of infrastructure change while letting you:
• Run on Dockerfiles recipes rather then Puppet etc.
• Improve your Docker management skills
• Simplify your VM OS build
• Moby Project & LinuxKit will likely make this more popular
• Windows is doing similar with Hyper-V Containers
• Linux is doing similar with Intel Clear Containers
One Container Per VM
Why don't we talk about this more?

36. Other Ways To Make An Impact

37. • Use containers for tech support mock environments
• Temp test environments, customer demos
• Any process where you "wait for human to deploy/configure VM"
Other Ways To Make An Impact
Docker can be used internally and still add value

38. Thank You!
My New Docker Udemy Course
90% off for DockerCon:
dockermastery.com
slides:
bretfisher.com/dockercon17