6 ms·

Containerd – An open and reliable container runtime, by Docker

190 points by e-sushi 10y ago

nunez 10y ago
If I'm reading this right, this seems like a really interesting and possibly lighter-weight alternative to Packer + Kubernetes. I like this and will give it a whirl.
- chrissnell 10y ago
  No, you're not reading this correctly. This is not a Packer or Kubernetes alternative. It's merely a container runtime, potentially suitable for integration into a larger system like Kubernetes.
- charlieegan3 10y ago
  This is a different thing really. It's a container runtime used under the hood by Docker; rather than a container orchestrator. I know this is for rkt but it gives a good comparison of container runtimes. https://coreos.com/rkt/docs/latest/rkt-vs-other-projects.html#rkt-vs-containerd https://coreos.com/rkt/docs/latest/rkt-vs-other-projects.htm...
- devoply 10y ago
  If you read their roadmap, they have a reason for spliting up the engine into a few components, this being one of those.
ainiriand 10y ago
I love how amazingly this name ends in nerd. Ok, I'll show my way out...
- gketuma 10y ago
  lol
- Royalaid 10y ago
  This was all I could see too
andrewguenther 10y ago
Docker has been running on top of containerd since 1.11. This isn't really news. Previous discussions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11492736 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11492736 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10754316 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10754316 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13176895 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13176895
- charlieegan3 10y ago
  I think this is the actual news: https://www.docker.com/docker-news-and-press/docker-extracts-and-donates-containerd-its-core-container-runtime-accelerate https://www.docker.com/docker-news-and-press/docker-extracts... > Docker today announced that it is spinning out containerd, a core component of Docker Engine, its industry-leading container platform, and donating it to a new community project. Press release linked to from: https://blog.docker.com/2016/12/containerd-core-runtime-component/ https://blog.docker.com/2016/12/containerd-core-runtime-comp...
  - justincormack 10y ago
    Also containerd is going to have more stuff added - image management from the OCI image spec for example. Not a lot of stuff, but all the key runtime parts, see the Scope section for what is in and out.
    - thockingoog 10y ago
      yeah, this is key. It looks like JUST enough to be useful without the rest of the Docker engine.
- chanezon 10y ago
  containerd 0.2.4 which is used in Docker 1.12 covers only container execution. This announcement about containerd 1.0 roadmap extends the scope of containerd to make it a full container runtime designed to be embedded in higher level systems. * scope table: https://github.com/docker/containerd#scope https://github.com/docker/containerd#scope * roadmap: https://github.com/docker/containerd/blob/master/ROADMAP.md https://github.com/docker/containerd/blob/master/ROADMAP.md * new API: https://github.com/docker/containerd/tree/master/api https://github.com/docker/containerd/tree/master/api
thockingoog 10y ago
To my eyes, this signals that Docker hears the complaints from systems like Kubernetes that want to build on top of docker, but don't want all the Docker platform stuff. Layering matters, and Docker seems to be offering a solution that is Docker compatible but more usable by layered systems. Devil's in the details, of course, but this seems like what our customers want - docker but not Docker. Disclosure: Kubernetes dev
- chrissnell 10y ago
  As a Kubernetes user who's been running 500+ containers in production for a little over a year now, my chief complaint is not the Docker platform stuff, it's the reliability of Docker itself. We've suffered through a number of bugs that cause node instability and lock-ups and some of the underlying issues have been open for close to a year. I don't think that this is the exact bug for our issue but it's closely related: https://github.com/docker/docker/issues/10355 https://github.com/docker/docker/issues/10355 I really want to give rkt a shot but our tooling investment in Docker is huge. I want to wait and see what the runtime ecosystem looks like in another 6 months before considering a switch.
  - hatred 10y ago
    There are already ongoing efforts that are trying to get rid of that dependency too: - https://github.com/kelseyhightower/cri-o-tutorial https://github.com/kelseyhightower/cri-o-tutorial - Mesos already has something called UCR that allows one to run docker images minus the dependency on the docker runtime. (http://mesos.apache.org/documentation/latest/mesos-containerizer/ http://mesos.apache.org/documentation/latest/mesos-container...) Disclaimer: I work at Mesosphere on Mesos.
    - yarou 10y ago
      Thanks for the link, that's a pretty neat project. I'm not a huge fan of Docker's runtime because it tends to be rather sluggish. I haven't used it in quite a while, though.
  - 10y ago
asb 10y ago
Can anyone contrast this new (rebooted?) containerd to rkt?
binocarlos 10y ago
I think this is a smart move by Docker. The experience of docker-compose for local development is sublime. The option to deploy that local stack to any number of schedulers but with the same core container runtime feels like the right kind of prod-dev parity. Choice being the main point I'm making.
jwildeboer 10y ago
A "new" sytemd for containers? #sarcasm Disclosure: Red Hat Evangelist.
- mohanmcgeek 10y ago
  Tbh, this is what would let you better use systemd to manage your containers. It's a container runtime. Not an init system
jwildeboer 10y ago
Totally unrelated. Totally. Pure coincidence. Really. ;-) https://github.com/kubernetes-incubator/cri-o https://github.com/kubernetes-incubator/cri-o

190 points by e-sushi 10y ago

nunez 10y ago

If I'm reading this right, this seems like a really interesting and possibly lighter-weight alternative to Packer + Kubernetes. I like this and will give it a whirl.

chrissnell 10y ago
No, you're not reading this correctly. This is not a Packer or Kubernetes alternative. It's merely a container runtime, potentially suitable for integration into a larger system like Kubernetes.
charlieegan3 10y ago
This is a different thing really. It's a container runtime used under the hood by Docker; rather than a container orchestrator. I know this is for rkt but it gives a good comparison of container runtimes. https://coreos.com/rkt/docs/latest/rkt-vs-other-projects.html#rkt-vs-containerd https://coreos.com/rkt/docs/latest/rkt-vs-other-projects.htm...
devoply 10y ago
If you read their roadmap, they have a reason for spliting up the engine into a few components, this being one of those.

ainiriand 10y ago

I love how amazingly this name ends in nerd. Ok, I'll show my way out...

gketuma 10y ago
lol
Royalaid 10y ago
This was all I could see too

andrewguenther 10y ago

Docker has been running on top of containerd since 1.11. This isn't really news. Previous discussions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11492736 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11492736 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10754316 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10754316 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13176895 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13176895

charlieegan3 10y ago
I think this is the actual news: https://www.docker.com/docker-news-and-press/docker-extracts-and-donates-containerd-its-core-container-runtime-accelerate https://www.docker.com/docker-news-and-press/docker-extracts... > Docker today announced that it is spinning out containerd, a core component of Docker Engine, its industry-leading container platform, and donating it to a new community project. Press release linked to from: https://blog.docker.com/2016/12/containerd-core-runtime-component/ https://blog.docker.com/2016/12/containerd-core-runtime-comp...
- justincormack 10y ago
  Also containerd is going to have more stuff added - image management from the OCI image spec for example. Not a lot of stuff, but all the key runtime parts, see the Scope section for what is in and out.
  - thockingoog 10y ago
    yeah, this is key. It looks like JUST enough to be useful without the rest of the Docker engine.
chanezon 10y ago
containerd 0.2.4 which is used in Docker 1.12 covers only container execution. This announcement about containerd 1.0 roadmap extends the scope of containerd to make it a full container runtime designed to be embedded in higher level systems. * scope table: https://github.com/docker/containerd#scope https://github.com/docker/containerd#scope * roadmap: https://github.com/docker/containerd/blob/master/ROADMAP.md https://github.com/docker/containerd/blob/master/ROADMAP.md * new API: https://github.com/docker/containerd/tree/master/api https://github.com/docker/containerd/tree/master/api

thockingoog 10y ago

To my eyes, this signals that Docker hears the complaints from systems like Kubernetes that want to build on top of docker, but don't want all the Docker platform stuff. Layering matters, and Docker seems to be offering a solution that is Docker compatible but more usable by layered systems. Devil's in the details, of course, but this seems like what our customers want - docker but not Docker. Disclosure: Kubernetes dev

chrissnell 10y ago
As a Kubernetes user who's been running 500+ containers in production for a little over a year now, my chief complaint is not the Docker platform stuff, it's the reliability of Docker itself. We've suffered through a number of bugs that cause node instability and lock-ups and some of the underlying issues have been open for close to a year. I don't think that this is the exact bug for our issue but it's closely related: https://github.com/docker/docker/issues/10355 https://github.com/docker/docker/issues/10355 I really want to give rkt a shot but our tooling investment in Docker is huge. I want to wait and see what the runtime ecosystem looks like in another 6 months before considering a switch.
- hatred 10y ago
  There are already ongoing efforts that are trying to get rid of that dependency too: - https://github.com/kelseyhightower/cri-o-tutorial https://github.com/kelseyhightower/cri-o-tutorial - Mesos already has something called UCR that allows one to run docker images minus the dependency on the docker runtime. (http://mesos.apache.org/documentation/latest/mesos-containerizer/ http://mesos.apache.org/documentation/latest/mesos-container...) Disclaimer: I work at Mesosphere on Mesos.
  - yarou 10y ago
    Thanks for the link, that's a pretty neat project. I'm not a huge fan of Docker's runtime because it tends to be rather sluggish. I haven't used it in quite a while, though.
- 10y ago

asb 10y ago

Can anyone contrast this new (rebooted?) containerd to rkt?

binocarlos 10y ago

I think this is a smart move by Docker. The experience of docker-compose for local development is sublime. The option to deploy that local stack to any number of schedulers but with the same core container runtime feels like the right kind of prod-dev parity. Choice being the main point I'm making.

jwildeboer 10y ago

A "new" sytemd for containers? #sarcasm Disclosure: Red Hat Evangelist.

mohanmcgeek 10y ago
Tbh, this is what would let you better use systemd to manage your containers. It's a container runtime. Not an init system

jwildeboer 10y ago

Totally unrelated. Totally. Pure coincidence. Really. ;-) https://github.com/kubernetes-incubator/cri-o https://github.com/kubernetes-incubator/cri-o