VMware is introducing new platforms to better support cloud-native applications, including containers. The Photon Platform is a lightweight, API-driven control plane optimized for massive scale container deployments. It includes Photon OS, a lightweight Linux distribution for containers. vSphere Integrated Containers allows running containers alongside VMs on vSphere infrastructure for a unified hybrid approach. Both aim to provide the portability and agility of containers while leveraging VMware's management capabilities.
2. Disclaimer
• This presentation may contain product features that are currently under development.
• This overview of new technology represents no commitment from VMware to deliver these
features in any generally available product.
• Features are subject to change, and must not be included in contracts, purchase orders, or
sales agreements of any kind.
• Technical feasibility and market demand will affect final delivery.
• Pricing and packaging for any new technologies or features discussed or presented have not
been determined.
3. Agenda
1 Overview of Cloud-Native Applications
2 Running Containers on VMware Infrastructure
3 Introducing the VMware Photon Platform
4. Application Design is Changing
Properties of a Microservice
• Small code base
• Easy to scale, deploy and throw away
• Autonomous
• Resilient
Benefits of a Microservices Architecture
• A highly resilient, scalable and resource efficient
application
• Enables smaller development teams
• Teams free to use the right languages and
tools for the job
• Rapid application development
Monolithic/Layered Micro Services
5. What are Cloud-Native Applications?
Developer access via APIs
Microservices, not
monolithic stacks
Continuous integration
and deployment
App-defined Availability
Built for scale
Decoupled from
infrastructure
Application
6. Motivation Behind Cloud-Native Applications
Software-Defined Everything
Regardless of industry, businesses
increasingly rely on technology to differentiate
IT shifting from cost center to enabler
of growth
Rich Customer Experience
Customers demanding enhanced engagement
Third Platform: mobile, social, analytics, cloud
Speed and Agility
Improving time-to-value with DevOps, Agile
New architectures to streamline workflows
New Capabilities and Priorities
Infrastructure must be dynamic, API-driven,
highly scalable
Small teams able to manage large fleets
7. Cloud-Native Architectures Less Reliant on Rich Infrastructure
Traditional App Cloud-Native App
Architecture Monolithic Microservices
Configuration Procedural Declarative
Availability Handled by infrastructure Integrated with app
Storage Centralized, redundant Scale-out object
storage and NoSQL /
key-value stores
Response Shifting demand handled
by DRS, scale-up
Scale-out,
load balanced traffic
Interface GUI, robust orchestration API/CLI preferred,
integration with
DevOps toolchain
8. Containers Are Aligned with Cloud-Native Architectures
• Application portability supports wide range of environments
• Automation and integration with CI/CD and DevOps workflows
• Quick to instantiate and iterate, shortening feedback loops
• Stateless nature aligns with scale-out designs
But containers are not just next-generation VMs
9. Hardware
OS Kernel
OS File system
Userspace
Container
Appprocess
Appprocess
Appprocess
Appprocess
Appprocess
Container
Appprocess
Appprocess
Linux Containers
OS-level Isolation
• Isolation at individual kernel subsystem
level (e.g. filesystem, process table, etc)
• User-level process (LXC, libcontainer)
orchestrates these subsystems to create
a container
Existed for Many Years
Solaris Zones, FreeBSD Jails, OpenVZ
Why?
• Process isolation
• Reproducible environment
• Enables management at scale
10. is a “Shipping Container” for Code
Developers because …
• Frictionless deployment and maximum portability
On developer laptop:
Then on server:
That’s it!!
• A natural fit for 3rd Platform, 12 factor,
microservices
• It makes DevOps much, much easier
~# docker build my_app
~# docker push my_app
~#
~# docker pull my_app
~# docker run my_app
~#
12. VMware AppCatalyst
Download Technology Preview Now!
http://getappcatalyst.com
Built for Developers
AppCatalyst is REST API- and CLI-driven
for seamless integration with container-
and microservices-based workflows.
Free to Use
AppCatalyst is available at no cost to the
user, and ready for download today.
Ready for Cloud Native
AppCatalyst ships with Photon OS and
Vagrant, and supports Docker containers
out of the box.
13. VMware AppCatalyst
Developer Desktop
VMware AppCatalyst
CLIRESTAPI
Network and Storage Abstractions
(coming soon)
Docker
Machine
Container Container Container
Container Container Container
Vagrant
or
Bring Your Own Linux
PHOTON OS
14. VMware vSphere Provides Perfect Infrastructure for Containers
• Run containers alongside your existing workloads on vSphere
– Leverage proven infrastructure, skill sets, and operational processes
• Allocate resources effectively to meet SLAs
– Network services, data persistency options
• Maximize uptime with vSphere services
– HA, DRS, vMotion, SRM
• Consistent management tools
– vCenter and vRealize integration for management, monitoring, compliance
• Performance on par with bare metal – possibly better
– NUMA scheduling, hardware interrupts
You came for the virtual infrastructure…
Now stay for the containers!
15. Unified Hybrid Platform
vSphere Integrated Containers
• Give developers the flexibility, portability and speed
containers deliver
• Containers are first-class citizens direct on top of the
hypervisor
• Fast container deployment (on top of VM) through VMfork
• Leverage existing investments in VMware infrastructure,
people, processes and management tools
• DRS, vMotion, HA/DR
• Storage and Network Integration (VSAN
and NSX)
• Virtualization brings many benefits: Security, Isolation and
multiple-OS support
• Apply same isolation, data persistence, networking,
management and robust service levels you have today
• No rebuilding or re-architecture required
• Full compatibility with broad ecosystem of existing tools
• No need for a separately managed Linux container host,
ESXi is the container host
NSX
VSAN
vRealize
vSphere
vSphere Integrated Containers
(Instant Clone, Project Bonneville, Photon OS)
16. vSphere Integrated Containers Friendly to Container Ecosystem
• A virtual Docker API endpoint backed by a pool of trusted vSphere resources
– Compatible with clients or container orchestrators like Kubernetes
– Containers run as lightweight VMs – no shared Linux kernel
• Fast, Light, and Secure
– Instant Clone
– Project Photon OS
– Lightwave enterprise-grade trust
• Currently in “Tech Preview”
Forked Child
Container
Forked Child
Container
Forked Child
Container
Photon Parent
VMware vSphere Infrastructure
Virtual Docker API Shared Images
17. vSphere Integrated Containers Before & After
17
Docker API
VMware ESX
PhotonOS
VMware ESX
PhotonOS
Shared Datastores
C1
Layer1
Layer2
Layer3
Image1
VM create, start,
stop, delete
docker run
docker stop
docker rm
VMware ESXVMware ESX
Shared Datastores
docker-machine1
VM created
w/ Docker Engine2
Docker
API
docker run3
DE
C1 C2
DE’
VI admin creates
Virtual Container
Host
1
C2
3
2
Virtual
Container
Host
(Resoure
Pool) and
Docker
Engine uVM
created
uVM
uVM
uVM
vCenter
Docker containers
are created inside
the VM
4 Instant
Clone!
4
Docker containers
created in uVMs via
Instant Clone
VMware ESX
PhotonOS
vCenter
CONFIDENTIAL
22. Cloud-Native Platform
VMware Photon Platform
Photon Controller
Photon Machine
Photon Platform
Host controller & scheduler:
High scale distributed control plane,
includes Lightwave
Compute host:
Lightweight hypervisor, based on ESX
Includes Photon OS
Deep integration with modern, open
source frameworks & app platforms
23. Photon Platform Architecture
23
Photon Machine
PhotonOS
Photon Machine
PhotonOS
Photon Machine
PhotonOS
Photon API
Photon Controller
Clustered design
delivers massive
scale and high-
availability.
Combination of
local and/or shared
Photon Machine
datastores.
Photon Controller #2
Photon Controller #3
Photon Machine
Combination of
core ESX with
PhotonOS
Cloud Foundry API Kubernetes API
Create CF cluster
Create Kubernetes clustercf push
cf scale
kubectl create
kubectl get pods
Photon Controller #1
Cloud Foundry
Cluster
Kubernetes Cluster
24. A Clean-Slate Approach: Optimized for Cloud Scale
Focused Feature-Set
Purpose-built for cloud native, it provides just
the features needed to provide a secure and
SLA-capable infrastructure for next-gen apps.
API-first Model
Built on clean, development-friendly APIs,
enabling consumption and operations to
automate heavily to handle massive scale.
Scale-Out Control Plane
A scale-out control plane optimizes for the
creation of 1000s of simultaneous new
workloads while also delivering active-active
availability of system APIs.
New Economics
Enables new “pay for what you need, when
you need it” consumption model that is
suited for large-scale deployments with
elastic and variable workload requirements.
25. What is Photon Controller NOT? A vCenter Replacement
• They are alternatives, targeting different sets of workloads.
• vCenter will continue to be the right platform for non-cloud
native apps, even once Photon Controller is released.
• Not feature compatible.
– Photon Controller will do far fewer things, at far greater scale.
– No VM Backup, HA, FT, SRM
– No explicit placement, movement of VMs or storage
(*-vMotion, *-DRS).
– Limited VM hardware settings to configure.
• Not Tool or API compatibility: New model for both workload
consumption, and operations (some operational tools will
apply across both, e.g. auto-deploy, OVFtool, etc.)
• No “upgrade path” from vCS.
26. Photon Controller High-Level Architecture (Long-Term)
ESXi ESXi Storage / Virtual SAN NSX
Best-of-breed virtualization
infrastructure, capable of using
off-the-shelf hardware.
Multi-tenant API-driven fabric optimized
for scale, churn and high-availability
(not vCenter).
Photon Controller Control Plane
vROPSPhoton Controller
Mgmt Tools
Simple and automated operations
and management optimized for
datacenter scale.
Log Insight
3rd-party /
Custom Mgmt
and Ops
Diverse developer-centric
“cells” from VMware,
3rd-parties, customers.
OpenStack Cloud
Foundry
Photon + Container
Clusters, (e.g.
Kubernetes)
Hadoop /
Spark
Custom
CI / CD
VMware-built Partner-built Customer-built
Dev
Teams
Infra
Ops Team
27. Linux OS Optimized for Containers
A lightweight Linux operating system
optimized for cloud-native applications
• Optimized for SDDC
• Addresses guest OS bloat
• Distributed with VMware products
• Standard OS for virtual appliances
28. Security That Meets the Need of Containers
Identity and access management for cloud-
native applications
• Optimized for services
• Built-in security, identity, authentication
• Open container identity ecosystem