Category Archives: Containers

Kubernetes Everywhere…Time to Take off the Blinkers!

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This is more or less a follow up post to the one I wrote back in 2015 about the state of containers in the IT World as I saw it at the time. I started off that post talking about the freight train that was containerization along with a cheeky meme… fast forward four years and the narrative around containers has changed significantly, and now there is new cargo on that freight train… and it’s all about Kubernetes!

In my previous role working at a Cloud Provider, shortly after writing that 2015 post I started looking at ways to offer containers as a service. At the time there wasn’t much, but I dabbled a bit in Docker and if you remember at the time, VMware’s AppCatalyst… which I used to deploy basic Docker images on my MBP (think it’s still installed actually) with the biggest highlight for me at the time being able to play Docker Doom!

I also was involved in some of the very early alphas for what was at the time vSphere Integrated Containers (Docker containers as VMs on vCenter) which didn’t catch on compared to what is currently out there for the mass deployment and management of containers. VMware did evolve it’s container strategy with Pivotal Container Services, however those outside the VMware world where already looking elsewhere as the reality of containerised development along with serverless and cloud has taken hold and become accepted as a mainstream IT practice.

Even four or five years ago I was hearing the word Kubernetes often. I remember sitting in my last VMware vChampion session with where Kit Colbert was talking about Kuuuuuuuurbenites (the American pronunciation stuck in my mind) and how we all should be ready to understand how it works as it was about to take over the tech world. I didn’t listen… and now, I have a realisation that I should have started looking into Kubernetes and container management in general more seriously sooner.

Not because it’s fundamental to my career path…not because I feel like I was lagging technically and not because there have been those saying for years that Kubernetes will win the race. There is an opportunity to take off the blinkers and learn something that is being adopted by understanding the fundamentals about what makes it tick. In terms of discovery and learning, I see this much like what I have done over the past eighteen months with automation and orchestration.

From a backup and recovery point of view, we have been seeing an increase in the field of customers and partners asking how they backup containers and Kubernetes. For a long time the standard response was “why”. But it’s becoming more obvious that the initial stateless nature of containers is making way for more stateful persistent workloads. So now, it’s not only about backing up the management plane.. but also understanding that we need to protect the data that sits within the persistent volumes.

What I’ll Be Doing:

I’ve been interested for a long time superficially about Kubernetes, reading blogs here and there and trying to absorb information where possible. But as with most things in life, you best learn by doing! My intention is to create a series of blog posts that describe my experiences with different Kubernetes platforms to ultimately deploy a simple web application with persistent storage.

These posts will not be how-tos on setting up a Kubernetes cluster etc. Rather, I’ll look at general config, application deployment, usability, cost and whatever else becomes relevant as I go through the process of getting the web application online.

Off the top of my head, i’ll look to work with these platforms:

  • Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)
  • Amazon Elastic Container Service for Kubernetes (EKS)
  • Azure Container Service (AKS)
  • Docker
  • Pivotal Container Service (PKS)
  • vCloud Director CSE
  • Platform9

The usual suspects are there in terms of the major public cloud providers. From a Cloud and Service Provider point of view, the ability to offer Kubernetes via vCloud Director is very exciting and if I was still in my previous role I would be looking to productize that ASAP. For a different approach, I have always likes what Platform 9 has done and I was also an early tester of their initial managed vSphere support, which has now evolved into managed OpenStack and Kubernetes. They also recently announced Managed Applications through the platform which i’ve been playing with today.

Wrapping Up:

This follow up post isn’t really about the state of containers today, or what I think about how and where they are being used in IT today. The reality is that we live in a hybrid world and workloads are created as-is for specific platforms on a need by need basis. At the moment there is nothing to say that virtualization in the form of Virtual Machines running on hypervisors on-premises are being replaced by containers. The reality is that between on-premises, public clouds and in between…workloads are being deployed in a variety of fashions… Kubernetes seems to have come to the fore and has reached some level of maturity that makes it a viable option… that could no be said four years ago!

It’s time for me (maybe you) to dig underneath the surface!

Link:

https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/overview/what-is-kubernetes/

Kubernetes is mentioned 18 times in this and on this page

VMworld 2016: Top Session Picks

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vmworld_2016
VMworld 2016 is just around the corner (10 days and counting) and the theme this year is be_Tomorrow …which looks to build on the Ready for Any and Brave IT messages from the last couple of VMworld events. It’s a continuation of VMware’s call to arms to get themselves and their partners and customers prepared for the shift in the IT of tomorrow. This will be my fourth VMworld and I am looking forward to spending time networking with industry peers, walking around the Solutions Exchange on the look out out for the next Rubrik or Platform9 and attending Technical Sessions.

http://www.vmworld.com/uscatalog.jspa

The Content Catalog went live a few weeks ago and the Session Builder has also been live allowing attendees to lock in sessions. There are a total of 817 sessions this year, up from the 752 sessions last year. I’ve listed the main tracks with the numbers fairly similar to last year.

Cloud Native Applications (17)
End-User Computing (97)
Hybrid Cloud (63)
Partner Exchange @ VMworld (74)
Software-Defined Data Center (504)
Technology Deep Dives & Futures (22)

VMware’s core technology focus around VSAN and NSX again has the lions share of sessions this time year, with EUC still a very popular subject. It’s pleasing to see a lot of vCloud Air Network related sessions in the list (for a detailed look at the vCAN Sessions read my previous post) and there is a solid amount of Cloud Native Application content. Below are my top picks for this year:

  • Virtual SAN – Day 2 Operations [STO7534]
  • Advanced Network Services with NSX [NET7907]
  • A Day in the Life of a VSAN I/O [STO7875]
  • vSphere 6.x Host Resource Deep Dive [INF8430]
  • The Architectural Future of Network Virtualization [NET8193R]
  • Conducting a Successful Virtual SAN 6.2 Proof of Concept [STO7535]
  • How to design and implement VMware’s vCloud in production [SDDC9612-SPO]
  • PowerNSX and PyNSXv: Using PowerShell and Python for Automation and Management of VMware NSX for vSphere [NET7514]
  • Evolving the vSphere API for the Modern Era [INF8255]
  • Multisite Networking and Security with Cross-vCenter NSX: Part 2 [NET7861R]

My focus seems to have shifted back towards more vCloud Director and Network/Hybrid Cloud automation of late and it’s reflected in the choices above. Along side that I am also very interested to see how VMware position vCloud Air after the shambles of the past 12 months and I always I look forward to hearing from respected industry technical leads Frank Denneman, Chris Wahl and Duncan Epping as they give their perspective on storage and software defined datacenters and automation. This year I’m also looking at what the SABU Tech Marketing Team are up to around VSAN and VSAN futures.

As has also become tradition, there are a bunch of bloggers who put out their Top picks for VMworld…check out the links below for more insight into what’s going to be hot in Las Vegas this VMworld. Hope to catch up with as many community folk as possible while over so if you are interested in a chat, hit me up!

My top 15 VMworld sessions for 2016

http://blogs.vmware.com/management/2016/08/top-5-log-insight-vmworld-sessions.html

https://blogs.vmware.com/virtualblocks/2016/08/16/be_tomorrow-vmworld-2016-key-storage-availability-activities/

 

My Top Session picks for VMworld 2016

http://www.mindthevirt.com/top-vmworld-sessions-category-1247

vCloud Air and Virtustream – Just kill vCloud Air Already?!?

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vcloudair
I’ve been wanting to write some commentary around the vCloud Air and Virtustream merger since rumours of it took place just before VMworld in Auguest and I’ve certainly been more interested in the whole state of play since news of the EMC/VMware Cloud Services spin off was announced in late October…the basis of this new entity is to try and get a strangle hold in the Hybrid Cloud market which is widely known to make up the biggest chunk of the Cloud market for the foreseeable future topping $90 billion by 2020.

virtualstream
Below are some of the key points lifted from the Press Release:

  • EMC and VMware  plan to form new cloud services business creating the industry’s most comprehensive hybrid cloud portfolio
  • Will incorporate and align cloud capabilities of EMC Information Infrastructure, Virtustream and VMware to provide the complete spectrum of on- and off-premises cloud offerings
  • The new cloud services business will be jointly owned 50:50 by VMware and EMC and will operate under the Virtustream brand led by CEO Rodney Rogers
  • Virtustream’s financial results to be consolidated into VMware financial statements beginning in Q1 2016
  • Virtustream is expected to generate multiple hundreds of millions of dollars in recurring revenue in 2016, focused on enterprise-centric cloud services, with an outlook to grow to a multi-billion business over the next several years
  • VMware will establish a Cloud Provider Software business unit incorporating existing VMware cloud management offerings and Virtustream’s software assets — including the xStream cloud management platform and others.

I’ve got a vested interest in the success or otherwise of vCloud Air as it directly impacts Zettagrid and the rest of the vCloud Air Network as well as my current professional area of focus however I feel I am still able to provide leveled feedback when it comes to vCloud Air and the time was finally right to comment after yesterday evening comming across the following LinkedIn Post from Nitin Bahdur

It grabbed my attention not only because of my participation in the vCloud Air Network but also because the knives have been out for vCloud Air almost before the service was launched as vCloud Hybrid Services. The post its self from Nitin though brief, was suggesting that VMware should further embrace it’s partnership with Google Cloud and just look to direct VMware Cloud customers onto the Google Cloud. The suggestion was based on letting VMware Orchestrate workloads on Google while letting Google do what it’s best at…which was surprisingly Infrastructure.

With that in mind I want to point out that vCloud Air is nowhere near the equal of AWS, Azure or Google in terms of total service offerings but in my opinion it’s never been about trying to match those public cloud players platform services end to end. Where VMware (and by extension it’s Service Provider Partners) does have an advantage is in the fact that in reality, VMware does do Infrastructure brilliantly and has the undisputed market share among other hypervisor platforms therefore giving it a clear advantage when talking about the total addressable market for Hybrid Cloud services.

As businesses look to go through their natural hardware refresh cycles the current options are:

  • Acquire new compute and storage hardware for existing workloads (Private – CapEx)
  • Migrate VM workloads to a cloud based service (IaaS – OpEx)
  • Move some application workloads into modern Cloud Services (SaaS)
  • Move all workloads to cloud and have third parties provide all core business services (SaaS, PaaS)

Without going into too much detail around each option…at a higher level where vCloud Air and the vCloud Air Network has the advantage in that most businesses I come across are not ready to move into the cloud holistically and for the next three to five years existing VM workloads will need a home as businesses work out a way to come to terms with an eventual move towards the next phase of cloud adoption which is all about platform and software delivered in a cloud native way.

Another reason why vCloud Air and the Air Network is attractive is because migration and conversion of VMs is still problematic and a massive pain (in the you know what) for most businesses to contemplate undertaking…let alone spend the additional capital on. A platform that offers the same underlying infrastructure as what’s out there as what vCloud Air, the vCloud Air Network partners and what Virtustream offers should continue to do well and there is enough ESXi based VMs out there to keep VMware based cloud providers busy for a while yet.

vCloud Air isn’t even close to being perfect and has a long way to go to even begin to catch up with the bigger players and VMware/EMC/DELL might well choose to wrap it up but my feel is that that would be a mistake…certainly it needs to evolve but the platform has a great advantage and it, along with the vCloud Air Network should be able to cash in.

In the next part I will look at what Virtustream brings to the table and how VMware can combine the best of both entities into a service that can and should do well over the next 3-5 years as the Cloud Market starts to mature and move into different territory leading into the next shift in cloud delivery.

References:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/should-vmware-kill-vcloud-air-instead-use-google-cloud-nitin-bahadur

http://www.crn.com/news/cloud/300077924/sources-vmware-cutting-back-on-vcloud-air-development-may-stop-work-on-new-features.htm

http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/vmw-newsfeed/EMC-and-VMware-Reveal-New-Cloud-Services-Business/2975020-manual?x-src=paidsearch_vcloudair_general_google_search_anz&kw=nsx%20+vcloud%20air&mt=b&gclid=Cj0KEQiAj8uyBRDawI3XhYqOy4gBEiQAl8BJbWUytu-I8GaYbrRGIiTuUQe9j6VTPMAmKJoqtUyCScAaAuGv8P8HAQ

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/hybrid-cloud.asp

Containers Everywhere…Are we really ready?

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Depending on what you read, certain areas of the IT Industry are telling us that there is a freight train coming our way…and that train is bringing with it containers.

containerseverywhere
With the recent release of container platforms from Microsoft and VMware it seems as though those that control the vast majority of the x86 platforms around the world are taking notice of the containers movement. Docker is the poster child of the push towards 3rd Platform Applications with many others looking to cash in.While there is no doubt there is a lot of benefit in the basic premise of what containerized applications offer the biggest question for me is how seriously we take the push in the real world of IT.

What do I mean by the real world of IT?

Well this is a word where orginizations are only just now starting to accept Cloud based platforms to deliver Platform and Software as a Service. It takes time for trends to reach the top of enterprise, and this is what we are certainly seeing now when it comes to the uptake of those Cloud services.

In the real world of IT, organizations are still running legacy applications on what some people call legacy platforms. Depending on who you talk to that definition of legacy platforms differs…some even say that virtuatization is legacy even now. Being realistic about what is legacy or not…the way in which IT is consumed today is not going to suddenly switch on mass to a containerized model any time soon. IT is only just now working out ways of better consuming Cloud based services by way of maximizing APIs interfaces and using the middleware that harneses their power.

In reality the real shift to a wider adoption of 3rd Platforms is happening in a place that you may not think about too often…University Campuses and the students of today who will become the IT professionals of tomorrow.

My peripeteia moment in coming to the conclusion that it is important to start to learn and understand about containers and 3rd platform applications came when I asked a couple of local software developers (who are quiet accomplished) about Docker and if they had done any container development…to my surprise the response I got was…”What are Containers and what is Docker?

Now, before the conclusion is drawn that the devs in question where out of touch…consider this. When this particular generation of developers went through university they may have started coding in Pascal (as I did), but more likely started in Java or C++…they also didn’t have virutalization in their lives until the mid to late 2000’s…When they where writing code for projects it wasn’t being uploaded and run off AWS based instances or anything to do with Cloud.

We live in a “legacy” world today because the generation of coders that create and produce the applications we consume today know about how best to exploit the tools they learnt with…There will be a shift…and I believe a dramatic one to 3rd platform apps when the current generation of university students graduate and get out in to the world and start to develop and create applications based on what they know best.

So yes, lets be aware of containers and ensure we are ready to host and consume 3rd Platform apps…but lets not go nuts and say that the current way we consume IT services and applications is dead and will be going away anytime too soon…

VMware Photon: vCloud Air Network Deployment

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This week VMware announced information around their Cloud Native Apps strategy…VMware Photon and Lightwave are aimed at the ever growing Container market with VMware open sourcing their own lightweight Linux Microservice Server released as Photon.

VMW-LOGO-PHOTON
Photon provides the following benefits:

  • Support for the most popular Linux container formats including Docker, rkt, and Garden from Pivotal
  • Minimal footprint (approximately 300MB), to provide an efficient environment for running containers
  • Seamless migration of container workloads from development to production
  • All the security, management, and orchestration benefits already provided with vSphere offering system administrators with operational simplicity

Photon is optimized for vSphere and vCloud Air …and by extension vCloud Air Network Service Provider platforms. I wanted to be able to offer Photon pretty much right away for ZettaGrid clients so I went about downloading the Tech Preview and created a shared Catalog vApp that can be deployed on any of ZettaGrid’s three Availability Zones.

In the video below I go through deployment of the vApp from the ZettaGrid Public Catalog, setup and run the nginx Docker container app example on the Photon VM and configure the networking using the MyAccount Portal in combination with the vCloud Director UI.

Requirements:

  • vCloud Air Network Account Details (ZettaGrid used in example)
  • Virtual Datacenter with at least 500MB of vRAM and 20GB of available storage
  • DHCP Configured on the Edge Device (VSE in this case)
  • A Spare IP Address to publish the nginx web server.

Video Walk through:



So there you go…Photon is good to go and hopefully we can start to see an uptake of Container Based workloads running on vCloud Air and Air Network Platforms. Looking forward to what’s to come in this space!

Further Reading:

http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/vmw-newsfeed/VMware-Introduces-New-Open-Source-Projects-to-Accelerate-Enterprise-Adoption-of-Cloud-Native-Applications/1943792

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/20/vmware_rolls_its_own_linux_for_microservices_stack/

http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2015/04/collection-of-vmware-project-photon-lightwave-resourceslinks.html