This document discusses VMware's approach to containers using open source software. It begins with an introduction to containers and VMware's products in this space. The main part analyzes VMware's "Photon Platform", which includes the Photon OS, Photon Controller, Lightwave, and Harbor open source projects. It describes the software architecture and licensing models. In conclusion, the author notes the promising early steps but also missing vision, focus on individual projects rather than a cohesive platform, and lack of enterprise readiness compared to competitors like Docker and Kubernetes.

1. VMware’s (Open Source)
Way of Container
Dr. Udo Seidel

2. OSDC 2017
Agenda
● Introduction
● The Big Picture
● Open Source Dimensions
● Summary

3. OSDC 2017
Sneak Preview
● Lots of text/data
● No demo
● No I am not working for
● Vmware
● VMware competitor
● No we are not using what is presented

4. OSDC 2017
Me :-)
● Teacher of mathematics and physics
● PhD in experimental physics
● Started with Linux/Open Source in 1996
● With Amadeus since 2006
● Before:
● Linux/UNIX trainer
● Solution Engineer in HPC and CAx environment
● Now: Architecture & Technical Governance

5. OSDC 2017
Introduction

6. OSDC 2017
Container – Working Definition
● Strong focus on Linux
● Separation
● Via Kernel features
● Of workloads/resources
● Operations originated view

7. OSDC 2017
A Bit about VMware
● Really?!?
● Part of EMC which is part of DELL EMC
● Open Source initiatives
● {code} by DELL EMC
– Rex-Ray
– libstorage
● CoprHD (initally by EMC)
● Openstack contributions
● ...

8. OSDC 2017
Why looking at VMware’s
Containers
● Why not?
● Openstack
● (initial) Photon OS release

9. OSDC 2017
The Big Picture

10. OSDC 2017
Legacy
● No Containers
● Virtualization of
● Compute → Yes
● Storage → Maybe
● Network → Maybe
● No real space for Open Source

11. OSDC 2017
Traditional
● Container for ESXi Fans
● vSphere Integrated Containers (VIC)
● Virtualization of
● Compute → Yes
● Storage → Yes
● Network → Yes
● Indirectly enforced usage of Open Source

12. OSDC 2017
VIC Details
● Virtual Container Host (VCH)
● Exposes Docker API
● Holds cache of container images
● Uses vSphere infrastructure
● Containers in VMs
● Interaction
● vSphere Web Client (via plugin)
● Native Docker tools

13. OSDC 2017
VIC Details
Source: VMware

14. OSDC 2017
New Kid – Photon Platform
● Cloud-Native
● Container-based
● Open Source First approach
… with caveats

15. OSDC 2017
Photon Platform
Source: VMware

16. OSDC 2017
Photon Platform – High level
● Mixture of
● required compute infrastructure
● different components/projects
– Mandatory ↔ Optional
– External ↔ Internal
● Source code on github
● Licensing → see later

17. OSDC 2017
Open Source Dimensions

18. OSDC 2017
Sub-Agenda
● Software
● Licensing
● What else?

19. OSDC 2017
Open Source -
The Software

20. OSDC 2017
Container Environment
● Container Engine
● Container Host
● Container Registry
...
● Container Management
...
● Authentication/Authorization
● Container Security

21. OSDC 2017
Getting started
● Photon OS
● Photon Controller
● Harbor
…
● Lightwave
And: ESXi!!

22. OSDC 2017
1st
Piece: Photon OS
● Minimal Linux
● Optimized for vSphere
● Works also on
– KVM
– Valgrant
– AWS, GCP, ...
● Docker, Rocket, …
● First release in spring 2015
● https://vmware.github.io/photon/
● https://github.com/vmware/photon/

23. OSDC 2017
Remember: Photon Platform
Source: VMware

24. OSDC 2017
Photon OS - Details
● OS-Tree available
● Versioned filesystem
● → Red Hat Atomic
● RPM/YUM based
● Container orchestration
● Several ..
● Fleet is still there too :-)
● See Control plane

25. OSDC 2017
2nd
Piece: Photon Controller
● Control plane
● Container hosts
● Load balancer instances
● Controller instances
● CLI and Web-based UI
● First release in autumn 2015
● http://vmware.github.io/photon-controller/
● http://github.com/vmware/photon-controller

26. OSDC 2017
Remember: Photon Platform
Source: VMware

27. OSDC 2017
Photon Controller - Details
● 3 mandatory components
● Load balancer
● Controller
● Lightwave
● Dedicated VM
● Installation
● Meta-management
● Agent on hypervisor hosts

28. OSDC 2017
Photon Controller – More Details
● Supports different container orchestration
● Kubernetes → looks preferred
● Docker Swarm
● Apache Mesos
● See also Photon OS
● CLI binaries for
● Linux
● Windows
● MacOS

29. OSDC 2017
3rd
Piece: Lightwave
● Directory service
● Authentication
● Hostname resolution
● Certificate authority and store
● http://vmware.github.io/lightwave/
● http://github.com/vmware/lightwave

30. OSDC 2017
Again: Photon Platform
Source: VMware

31. OSDC 2017
Lightwave - Details
● Background
● LDAP
● Heimdal Kerberos
● DCE/RPC
● ….
● Installation
● RPMs available via repo
● OVA
● Standalone mode possible

32. OSDC 2017
4th
Piece: Harbor
● Container Registry
● RBAC via projects
● Web-based interface
● Replication
● Integration with Notary
● https://vmware.github.io/harbor/
● http://github.com/vmware/harbor

33. OSDC 2017
Last Time: Photon Platform
Source: VMware

34. OSDC 2017
Harbor - Details
● Authentication
● LDAP
● MySQL DB
● Photon OS based
● NGINX
● Containerized
● Stand-alone mode possible

35. OSDC 2017
Open Source -
The Software .. Summary

36. OSDC 2017
Really Last Time: Photon Platform
Source: VMware

37. OSDC 2017
Software Management
● Missing
● Full package approach
● Information on
– Roll-back
– Upgrade
● Mixing closed and Open Source components
● Reality check
● Pre-built works best … sometimes
● Self-installed works best … sometimes

38. OSDC 2017
Not covered
● Container orchestration
● VMware’s way of Kubernetes
● Something else??

39. OSDC 2017
Open Source -
The Licensing

40. OSDC 2017
General
● Different licenses involved
● VMware
● Usual OpenSource suspects
● Unclear overall governance

41. OSDC 2017
Details
● One license set per project
● Contains several licenses
● Depending on used technology
● Self-check needed
● Take a read of license of
● VMware Technology Preview
● Photon Controller Open Source
● Pay attention to EULA’s too

42. OSDC 2017
Open Source -
What else?

43. OSDC 2017
Less Technical Observations
● Missing (visibility of)
● project progress
● Marketing
● Tail chasing if at all
● Docker and Co
● Kubernetes
● Openstack

44. OSDC 2017
Summary

45. OSDC 2017
Take Aways
● Promising start in 2015
● Missing (visibility of) vision/focus
● Quite some piecemeal
● Enterprise grade approach missing
● Long way to be an commercial alternative

46. OSDC 2017
References
● See previous slides
● http://github.com/docker/notary
● LMGTFY :-/

47. OSDC 2017
Thank you!

48. OSDC 2017
VMware’s (Open Source)
Way of Container
Dr. Udo Seidel