Container Orchestration System
A Container Orchestration System is an orchestration system that automates the deployment, scaling, networking and operation of containers.
- AKA: Container Orchestration.
- Context:
- It can (typically) manage containers across multiple hosts, providing necessary infrastructure and handling the life cycle of large numbers of containers.
- It can (often) automate complex operational tasks such as load balancing, health monitoring, and configuration updates across containerized applications.
- It can facilitate DevOps practices by integrating with continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines, enhancing agility and speed in software deployments.
- It can help in resource optimization by ensuring containers are run on the most appropriate computing resources based on their requirements.
- ...
- Example(s):
- An e-commerce company uses a container orchestration system to manage its microservices architecture, ensuring smooth deployment of services across multiple containers and hosts.
- A software development firm utilizes Kubernetes to handle its CI/CD pipeline, automating the deployment and management of containerized applications.
- Kubernetes,
- Docker Swarm,
- Apache Mesos,
- ...
- Counter-Example(s):
- See: Cloud Computing, Microservices Architecture, DevOps, Cluster Management System, Containerization, Docker, CI/CD Pipeline.
References
2024a
- (ChatGPT-OpenAI, 2024) ⇒ Prompt: Summarize the concept Container Orchestration System in 1- 2 paragraphs. ChatGPT (model:gpt-4-turbo-preview). Retrieved: 2024-05-12.
- QUOTE: A Container Orchestration System is a crucial tool in the world of modern software development and deployment, designed to automate the management, scaling, and networking of containers. Containers, which package and isolate applications with their entire runtime environment, have become a popular solution for ensuring that applications run smoothly and consistently across different computing environments. However, as applications grow in complexity and scale, managing these containers manually can become a daunting task. This is where container orchestration systems step in.
The primary goal of a container orchestration system is to streamline and simplify container operations. This includes efficiently handling the lifecycle of containers, such as deployment, scaling up or down to meet demand, load balancing, and securing interactions between containers. Orchestration systems also facilitate continuous integration and delivery pipelines, auto-recovery, and provide monitoring and logging services to support diagnostics and maintenance. Prominent examples of container orchestration systems include Kubernetes, Docker Swarm, and Apache Mesos. These platforms enable developers and IT operations teams to automate and optimize container management, significantly improving the agility, efficiency, and resilience of application deployments.
- QUOTE: A Container Orchestration System is a crucial tool in the world of modern software development and deployment, designed to automate the management, scaling, and networking of containers. Containers, which package and isolate applications with their entire runtime environment, have become a popular solution for ensuring that applications run smoothly and consistently across different computing environments. However, as applications grow in complexity and scale, managing these containers manually can become a daunting task. This is where container orchestration systems step in.
2024b
- (AWS, 2024) ⇒ https://aws.amazon.com/what-is/container-orchestration/ Retrieved: 2024-05-12.
- QUOTE: Container orchestration is the process of automating the networking and management of containers so you can deploy applications at scale. Containerization bundles an application’s code with all the files and libraryies it needs to run on any infrastructure. Microservices architectures can have hundreds, or even thousands, of containers as applications grow and become more complex. Container orchestration tools aim to simplify container infrastructure management by automating their complete lifecycle—from provisioning and scheduling to deployment and deletion. Organizations can benefit from containerization at scale without incurring additional maintenance overheads.
2024c
- (Red Hat, 2024) ⇒ https://www.redhat.com/en/topics/containers/what-is-container-orchestration Retrieved: 2024-05-12.
- QUOTE: Container orchestration automates the deployment, management, scaling, and networking of containers. Enterprises that need to deploy and manage hundreds or thousands of Linux® containers and hosts can benefit from container orchestration.
Container orchestration can be used in any environment where you use containers. It can help you to deploy the same application across different environments without needing to redesign it. And microservices in containers make it easier to orchestrate services, including storage, networking, and security.
Containers give your microservice-based apps an ideal application deployment unit and self-contained execution environment. They make it possible to run multiple parts of an app independently in microservices, on the same hardware, with much greater control over individual pieces and life cycles.
Managing the lifecycle of containers with orchestration also supports DevOps teams who integrate it into CI/CD workflows. Along with application programming interfaces (APIs) and DevOps teams, containerized microservices are the foundation for cloud-native applications.
- QUOTE: Container orchestration automates the deployment, management, scaling, and networking of containers. Enterprises that need to deploy and manage hundreds or thousands of Linux® containers and hosts can benefit from container orchestration.
2024d
- (Palo Alto Networks, 2024) ⇒ https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cyberpedia/what-is-container-orchestration Retrieved: 2024-05-12.
- QUOTE: Container orchestration is a technology that automates the deployment, management, and scaling of containerized applications. It simplifies the complex tasks of managing large numbers of containers. Container orchestrators, such as Kubernetes, ensure that these containers interact efficiently across different servers and environments. Orchestrators provide a framework for managing container lifecycles, facilitating service discovery, and maintaining high availability. For microservices architectures, where cloud-native applications consist of numerous interdependent components, this framework is foundational.
By leveraging container orchestration, DevOps teams can streamline provisioning, resource allocation, and scaling, enabling them to fully harness the potential of containerization and align it with their business objectives.
- QUOTE: Container orchestration is a technology that automates the deployment, management, and scaling of containerized applications. It simplifies the complex tasks of managing large numbers of containers. Container orchestrators, such as Kubernetes, ensure that these containers interact efficiently across different servers and environments. Orchestrators provide a framework for managing container lifecycles, facilitating service discovery, and maintaining high availability. For microservices architectures, where cloud-native applications consist of numerous interdependent components, this framework is foundational.
2016
- (Revell, 2016) ⇒ Matthew Revell (2016). "Introduction to container orchestration: Kubernetes, Docker Swarm and Mesos with Marathon". In: ExoScale.
- QUOTE: For the longest time, deploying an application into production was as much ritual as it was science.
Deployment involved ugly bash scripts with as many if statements as there were corner cases, workarounds and “don’t ask why, it just has to be like that” situations. Coordinating it all was a gnarled sysadmin, and maybe a DBA, who’d jealously guard and devotedly follow the rites required to get code into production.
Then came Chef, Puppet, Ansible and continuous integration and deployment. They made it easy to standardise testing and deployment. Importantly, once in place they allow developers and devops people to forget about the detail of what needs to happen.
Similarly, containers allow us to standardise the environment and abstract away the specifics of the underlying operating system and hardware. You can think of container orchestration as doing the same job for the data center: it allows us the freedom not to think about what server will host a particular container or how that container will be started, monitored and killed.
Container orchestration is the big fight of the moment. While the container format itself is largely settled, for now, the real differentiation is in how to deploy and manage those containers.
- QUOTE: For the longest time, deploying an application into production was as much ritual as it was science.