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Introduction Containersareapowerfultechnology,primarilyusedtoruncloudnativeservicesbutcanalsobeusedtorunhighlyscalable,on-premisesapplications.Containerssupportmodernapplicationdevelopmentandoperationsmodelsthatenablerapidimplementation,automateddeploymentandeasyscalability.

VMwarevSphere®cannowruncontainersunderanyofthefollowing:• StandaloneDockerContainerEngine–containerdevelopersessentiallydoitallusingcommandlinesandAPIs;• vSphereIntegratedContainers–containerdevelopershaveaself-serviceGUI,integratedwithaprivate,securerepositoryandvCenteroperationsmanagement,visibilityandcontrolovercontainerexecution;• PivotalContainerService(PKS)–developersandoperationsstaffcanmakeuseofacombinationofcommandlineandvCenterservicestomanageandscalecontainerapplications;and• PivotalCloudFoundryApplicationService-developersandoperationsstaffcantakeadvantageofsophisticationandautomationtostepawayfromthetechnicaldetailsandletthesystemruntheapplicationbyitself.VMwarevSpherepresentlyoffersthelargestselectionofmethodstoruncontainersintheenterprise.DellEMC’sextensiveengineeringtointegrateandvalidatevSphereonDellhardwaretogetherwiththeirsinglesupportmodelmakeDellEMC®VxRail™andVxRack™SystemSDDC(software-defineddatacenter)hyper-convergedengineeredsystemsthefastest

andsimplestinfrastructuretorunvSpheretoday.IfyourITteamisinterestedinusingcontainersintheirdatacenter,oneofthebestwaystodosoisonVxRailandVxRackSDDC.

Containers Althoughcontainerapplicationshavebeenaroundsincetheearly2000s,theyreallygainedpopularitywhentheopensourceDocker™Projectcameoutwithitscontainerimageformatandruntime.Dockerimagesareastandardized,lightweight,



standalone,executablepackagecontainingeverythingneededtorunafunctionsuchascompiledcode,runtimelibraries,environmentvariables,andconfigurationfiles.Containersaremainlyusedtoimplementcloudnativewebservicesandotherhighlyscalableapplicationsthatdistributefunctionalityacrossmanyindividuallyexecutableunits.Typically,dozensifnothundredsofcontainersareusedbyanapplication,eachofwhichimplementsasmallamountoffunctionality,calledamicroservice.Toscaleapplicationperformance,multiplecontainerscanexecutethesamemicroservice.Containerscanalsobeusedtoimplementnon-microserviceapplications,butthey’retypicallyusedforhighlyscalable,microserviceapplications.AcontainerexecutesfunctionalityusingkernelresourceisolationfeaturestoallowmultipleindependentcontainerstoexecuteunderasingleOSinstance.Usingtheseservices,containerscanavoidtheoverheadofrunningafull-blownvirtualmachine(VM)underahypervisorandstillprovidealightweightvirtualizedenvironment.Containersaredesignedtoruncompletelyisolatedfromthehost,onlyaccessingfilesandportsifconfiguredtodoso.Containersalsoexecuteinastatelessfashion.Thatis,anycontainerstateinformationislostwhenaninstanceisterminated.However,containerscanmakeuseofexternalservicessuchasbackingstoresordatabasestosaveapplicationstateifneededandrecentresearchismovingtoofferoptionsformorestatefulcontainerswithoutneedforexternalservices.Nowadays,containermanagementsystems(CMS)existalmosteverywhere.AmazonWebServices™(AWS™),MicrosoftAzure™,GoogleCloudPlatform™(GCP),IBM®SoftLayer,Pivotal®WebServices(PWS),Virtustream®andmanyothersoffercontainersupport.Developmentteamsareusingcontainersforanumberofreasons,suchas:

• Fasterdevelopment–containerapplicationscaneasilybebuiltfromexistingornewmicroservicesbutcanalsobeusedtore-package/implementexistingmonolithicapplications,

• Highresilience–containerapplicationstypicallyrunmultiplecontainers,anyofwhichcanfailandberestartedveryquickly,

• Portability–containerapplicationscanrunjustaboutanywhere(e.g.,onlocalworkstations,invirtualizedinfrastructureandinprivateorpubliccloudenvironments).

• Scalability–containersrequirelessOSfunctionalitytorun,sotheycanstartuporshutdownrapidlytoimproveapplicationperformance.

ITorganizationsbenefitbymovingapplicationengineeringtoamoremoderndevelopmentparadigmthatisdesignedtorunbothon-premisesandinthecloud.Moreover,whennewfunctionalityorchangesareimplementedusingcontainers,



applicationstypicallyevolveinsmallincrementsratherthanthroughmajorreleases,whichallowsforquickerrolloutofnewfeaturesandcloudnativelike,developmentlifecyclesthroughtheuseofDevOps.Containersexistasimagesthatresideinregistries.DockersupportsitsownpubliclyhostedregistryservicecalledtheDockerHub™,1whichholds100,000+containerapplications.Forexample,Redis™,MongoDB™andMySQL™appinstancesareallfreelyavailableunderDockerHub.Containerapplicationsexecuteunderacontainerhostorengine,whichsuppliesamini-virtualizationenvironmentforcontainers.Containerhostsalsosupplylocalservicerouting,container(work)scheduling,containerspinupandspindownservicesandlocal(withinhost)dependencymappingservices.ContainerenginesaretypicallymanagedbyaCMS,suchasDockerSwarm™,GoogleKubernetes®(oftencalledK8S),Mesosphere®DC/OS,andCloudFoundry™ContainerService.ACMSdeploysandmanagesthelifecycleofcontainersandcontainerengines.

How to run containers on vSphere OptionsforrunningcontainerappsusingvSphereincludestandaloneDockerContainerEngine,vSphereIntegratedContainersEngine,standaloneKubernetes,andusingPivotalCloudFoundrywithitsPivotalContainerService(PKS)andPivotalApplicationService.Wereviewsomeofthemorepopularonesbelow.

Standalone Docker Container Engine ADockerContainerEngine(DCE)orhostcanberununderaLinuxOSVMtoexecutecontainersundervSphererunningonVxRailorVxRackSDDC.Thatway,LinuxOS,theDCEanditscontainersrunwithinasingleVM.Thisrequiresthemostdevelopmentexpertiseandresponsibilitybecauseit’sessentiallyonlyacontainerruntimewithoutaCMS.SuchaDCEVMcanmakeuseofpublicorprivatecontainerregistries.VMwareadminscanprovisiontheVMwithanyresourcesitneeds,anddeveloperscanusetheDockerapplicationprogramminginterface/commandlineinterface(API/CLI)todeployandruncontainerswithinthatDCEVM.NotethatusingastandaloneDCEdoesn’tprovideclustermanagementorhighavailabilityappexecution,it’ssimplyastandardizedcontainerruntime.However,organizationscouldrunoneoftheDockerCMSsdiscussedabove.Suchanapproachwouldn’tbeabletotakeadvantageofmanyvSphereservicesortouseknowledgeofthevSphereclusterenvironmentandtheywouldbeunderdeveloperresponsibilitytocontrol.



Fordevelopers,useofastandaloneDCEwillrequireahighlevelofskillinDockerAPI/CLI.Further,operatorswillonlyhavethesingle(DCE)VMtomanageandwilllackanyvisibilityintocontainersrunninginthatVM.

vSphere Integrated Containers vSphereIntegratedContainers(VIC)isanothermethodforexecutingcontainerappsunderVxRailorVxRackSDDC.ContainersunderVICcanruninoneoftwomodes:

• UsingaVirtualContainerHost(VCH)resourcepool–theVCHandallitscontainersexecuteasseparate,lightweightVMsinvSphere.

• UsingaDockerContainerHost(DCH)VM–similartothestandaloneDCEabove,LinuxOS,DockerEngineandallitscontainersexecutewithinasingleVM.

VCHoperatesasabridgebetweenvSphereandtheapplication’scontainers,whichusesPhotonOSalightweightLinuxkernelthatinterfaceswellwithvSphereandisquicktoboot,deployandrun.InadditiontotheDockerHubregistrydiscussedabove,VICcontainerappscanuseHarbor™,2VMware’sopensourceproject,whichimplementsasecure,enterprise-classcontainerregistrythatcanbehostedon-premises.UnderHarbor,containerapplicationrepositoriesareimplementedasprojects,anduserscanhavedifferentprivilegesondifferentprojects.Harboralsohasbuilt-invulnerabilityscanningtoinsureimagesaresecure.Furthermore,underVICcontainers,developerscanuseaself-servicewebportalcalledAdmiral™,3VMware’sopensourceprojectforcontainerlifecyclemanagement.AdmiralmakesuseoftheDockerAPItomanagecontainersandcontainerhosts.AdmiralprovidesdevelopersaGUIcontainermanagementconsoleandautomatedpolicymanagementfordeployingandrunningcontainersinVIC.However,developerscanstilluseaCLItointeractwiththeenvironment.Operatorsalsobenefitfromitsincreasedsecurityandgovernancecontrol.ForVICVCHcontainerVMs,vSpherevCenterservicescanalsobeusedbyoperationstomanagecontainerVMsina1to1model(containertolightweightVM)vs.VICDCHthatrunsmultiplecontainersinasingleVMinamanyto1model.TheseincludevSpherevMotion™,DistributedResourceScheduler™andHighAvailability™services.



Also,byintroducingstandardvSphereservicestothecontainerexecutionenvironment,withVICdeveloperscantakeadvantageofVMwarestoragetomaintainstateacrosscontainerexecutionsandothervSphereservicessuchasHA,DRSandothers.Thismeansthattraditional,monolithicenterpriseapplicationscanberepackagedtotakeadvantageofcontainerdeploymentandoperationsmodels.Monolithiccontainerappswouldn’tbestandardmicroservicescontainers,butthey

couldstillberunascontainerizedapplicationsunderVICandutilizeAdmiralandHarbor.ForVIC,developersnewtocontainerscangetbywithlessknowledgeofDockerAPI/CLIastheycanusetheAdmiralself-servicecontainermanagementconsole.OperatorscanalsotakeadvantageofAdmiralandforVICVCH,theycanalsomakeuseofvCentertomanagethesinglecontainerVMsandtheVCHVM.

Pivotal Cloud Foundry PivotalCloudFoundry(PCF)isacloudnativeplatformfordeployingandoperatingmodernapplications.Thismodernplatformallowsformultiplelayersofabstraction.TwoofinteresttousarethePivotalContainerService™,aContainers-as-a-Service(CaaS)offeringandPivotalApplicationService™,aPlatform-as-a-Service(PaaS)offering,botharediscussedbelow.PCFalsosupportsthePivotalFunctionService™(PFS™),whichprovidesserver-lessfunctionality.PFSisafuturedeliverableandwillnotbediscussedanyfurtherinthisdocument.

Pivotal Container Service PivotalContainerService(PKS™)runsunderPivotalCloudFoundryasitsCaaSservicethatcombinesCloudFoundryBOSH™infrastructuremanagementwithproductiongradeGoogleKubernetesCMSandengineasanotherwaytoruncontainersunderVxRail.BOSH4andKubernetes5arebothopensourceprojects,andcombinedarecalledthePivotalContainerService.GoogleoriginallydevelopedKubernetestomanageitsproductionworkloadsacrossitsdatacenters,andKubernetescurrentlyrunsbillionsofcontainersaweek.KubernetesexecutesunderGCP,AmazonEKS(ElasticContainerService),MicrosoftAKS(AzureContainerService),IBMCloudContainerServiceorstandaloneonvSphere,aswellasinabaremetalenvironmentsuchasWindowsandLinux.Forthissectionhowever,wereviewitincontextwithPKS.BOSHisusedforreleaseengineering,deploymentlifecyclemanagementanddistributedsystemsmonitoring/restart.BOSHisusedinternallyinGCP,AWSEC2



(ElasticComputeCloud),PivotalCloudFoundryandOpenStack®.BOSHalsosupportsavailabilityzones(AZs)asitsunitofhighavailabilityorfailuredomain.PKScontainerappscanstilltakeadvantageofVMware’sHarborcontainerregistrybutdonotoperateunderVIC’sAdmiralcontainermanagementtool.Kubernetescanrunalmostanywhere–onbaremetalservers,onvirtualizedinfrastructureandintheprivateorpubliccloud.Asaresult,applicationengineerscandevelopandtestcontainerfunctionalityusingabaremetalKubernetesclusterand,whenready,promotethemtovSpherePKSorscalethemuptothecloud.WithPKS,developersbenefitfrommulti-containerschedulinganddeploymentandneedonlysupplytheDockercontainerimagewithinstructionsonhowtorunitandtheplatformtakescareoftherest.Operationsgetaproductiongradedistributionwithaconsistentdeploymentandrobustenterprisegrade,platformexperience.

Pivotal Application Service PivotalApplicationService(PAS™)runsaspartofthePivotalCloudFoundryasacompletePaaSsolution.TheApplicationservicesuppliestheApplicationRuntimewithcontainerexecutionengines,theOpsManager,acontainerappGUIdeploymentandmanagementtool,allwhileusingBOSHforreleaseengineering,deploymentandhighavailability.PCFPAScanoperatebaremetal,undervSphereaswellasinsideAWS,MicrosoftAzureandGCP.ContainerappsunderPASaredeployedinoneoftwoformats:

• DropletcontainerimagescreatedandpackagedusingPCFbuildpacks;or• DockercontainerimagescreatedandpackagedusingDockerfiles.

PASrunsbothDropletandDockerimagesascontainerapps.DockercontainersarejustaspecialformofPCFDroplets.However,PCFDropletcontainerscaninherentlymakeuseofpersistentstorageandremovemuchofthedeveloperburdenforcontainercreation,packaging,andmanagement.DockercontainerimagesprovideflexibilityinPASforthoseorganizationsthatmayhavealreadystandardizedontheuseofDockerimages.PCFDropletappsaregenerallycloudnativeappsthatusea12-factorappdevelopmentapproach,6whichspecifiesamethodologyforbuildinginherentlycloudnativeapplications.PAScontainerappscanmakeuseofHarborregistriesorotherprivateandpublicregistriestoholdcontainerimages.However,PASOpsManageristhemanagementconsoleforPCFPAScontainerapps.



DeveloperscanusePAStocreatecontainersfortheminacompletelyautomatedfashionandallowsthemtojustfocusonwritingcoderatherthanhowapplicationsaredeployed.Moreover,operatorscanalsomakeuseofPAStoautomaticallymanagecontainerappexecutionandtakeadvantageofanenterprisegradeplatformoperationsexperience.

When to use standalone DCE, VIC DCH, VIC VCH, PKS or PAS Standalone

DCE VICDCH VICVCH PKS PAS

Initialcontaineruse Yes Yes Yes No No

Containersinproduction No No Yes Yes Yes

ContainersasVMs No No Yes No No

Harborsupport No Yes Yes Yes Yes

Admiralsupport No Yes Yes No No

Multi-AZsupport7 No No No Yes Yes

CMScloudcompatible Yes Yes No Yes Yes

Developereffortneeded High High High Med. Low

Operationscontrol Low Med. High High HighStandaloneDCEisbestforcustomerswhoaregettingstartedwithcontainersforthefirsttime.ThisisreallyjustastandardizedDockercontainerruntimefordevelopers.EngineerscoulddevelopcontainerappsonbaremetalandthenreadilymigratethoseappstoastandaloneDCEVM.However,standaloneDCEappswon’trunasfastasVICapps.Multicontainerdeploymentsanddeploymentmanagementaretheresponsibilityofthedevelopertomaintain.Thisrequiresahighlevelofskillonthedeveloper’sparttocreateandmaintain.OperationshaslimitedcontrolandvisibilitybeyondmanagingthesingleDCEVM.VICDCHisasteppingstonetoproductionuseofcontainersonvSphere.TheadvantageofusingVICDCHisthatengineerswholacktheauthoritytospinupVMscandevelop,deployandruncontainerappsusingvSphereHarborregistriesandtheAdmiralmanagementconsole.DevelopersmaystillusetheDockerAPI/CLIbutcanalsouseAdmiraltocreatecontainers.OperationscanuseHarbortoprovideasecureandcontrolledregistryandAdmiraltomanagecontainerexecutionbuthavelimitedcontrolbeyondmanagingthesingleDCHVM.VICVCHisaproductionenvironmentforcontainerappsundervSphere.DeveloperswilluseAdmiralortheDockerCLI/APItocreatecontainers.Operatorscanalsouse



AdmiralandhavecompletevCentervisibilityandcontroltomanagetheVCHandcontainerVMs.PKSisidealforrunningstatefulapplicationsandapplicationsthatarealreadycontainerized.PKSisalsofordevelopersandoperationsstaffwhoneedmorecontrolovercontainersetupanddeploymentoptionsbyusingKuberneteswithBOSH.DevelopmentwillusetheKubernetesAPI/CLItocreatecontainers.OperationswilluseboththeKubernetesandBOSHAPIs/CLIstomanagecontainerappexecution.PASisfordevelopmentandoperationsteamsthatwanttheeasiestwaytoruncontainerand12factorappsusingafullimplementationofPaaS.DeveloperswillusePAStoautomatethecreationofcontainersand12factorappsforthem.OperationswillusePAStoautomatethemanagementofcontainerappsexecutionthroughoutthePAScluster.

VxRail and VxRack SDDC container considerations VxRackSDDCcanruneveryoneoftheaboveoptionsbutPKSandVxRailcanrunallofthem.Moreover,VxRailalsooffersthePivotalReadyArchitecturesolutionwhichisacertified,validated,pre-engineeredandsupportedofferingfromDellEMC,specificallydesignedforenterprisecustomerswantingtousePCFPKSandPCFPAS.

Summary UsingvSphereonVxRailandVxRackSDDCsolutionsoffermanyalternativesforcontainerdevelopment,deploymentandexecution.ContainerappscanexecuteinassimpleanenvironmentasastandaloneDCEVMorascomplexanenvironmentasafull-blownPaaSusingPCFPAS.UsingVICwithbothDCHandVCHoffersamorenativeVMwareenvironmentexperienceforbothdevelopmentandoperationstohelpmanageandruncontainerappsacrossvirtualizedinfrastructure.Inaddition,PCFPKStogetherwithVxRailcangiveorganizationsafullyfunctionalclusterorchestration,alongwitharich,scalableandhighlyavailablecontainerexecutionenvironment,withouthavingtomakeuseofafull-blownPaaS.Insummary,ITstaffwhoareinterestedinusingcontainerstodevelopnext-generationcloudnativeapplicationscan’tgowrongwithVxRailorVxRackSDDC,astheybothcoverjustaboutanycontainerappusagescenarioandcanbeusedbyinexperiencedandexperiencedoperationsteamsalike.

1Pleaseseehttps://hub.docker.com/explore/?page=1asof06Dec2017.



2Pleaseseehttps://github.com/vmware/harborasof06Dec2017.3Pleaseseehttps://vmware.github.io/admiral/asof01Jan2017.4Pleaseseehttps://github.com/cloudfoundry/boshasof07Dec2017.5Pleaseseehttps://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetesasof07Dec2017.6Pleaseseehttps://12factor.netasof11Dec2017.7Multi-AZsupportusingmultiplevSphereclustersisnotsupportedonVxRackSDDCbutisavailableonVxRail.