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Amazon EKS Windows Container Support Now Generally Available

70 points by el_duderino 7y ago

deiwin 7y ago
How does licensing work for this?
- leddt 7y ago
  Windows Server (Standard and Datacenter editions) licenses include permissions to run unlimited windows containers on top of them. So you would only need to pay for the licenses of your hosts. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/product-licensing/windows-server https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/product-licensing/...
  - rtempaccount1 7y ago
    AFAIK there's a significant caveat to that, which is that you only get unlimited windows containers, if you're using process isolation. If you're using VM isolation, you need licenses for the containerized applications.
    - Spivak 7y ago
      I wouldn't call that a caveat so much as SOP for Microsoft licensing. A Windows license does not entitle you to run unlimited Windows VMs on top unless you pay for the more expensive edition. The "hack" of buying a small number of super beefy servers to save on licensing costs was plugged looooong ago.
- anaisbetts 7y ago
  Amazon (as well as other cloud vendors) generally handle the licensing for you and factor it into the price of the host OS
SteveNuts 7y ago
Last time I looked at Windows containers the layers were multi-gigabyte downloads, is this still the case?
- mollyporph 7y ago
  The windows server nano images are 96mb and the windows server insider nano images are around 63 i think
- wmf 7y ago
  Yeah, although something called Nano Server is pretty small. https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Containers/A-smaller-Windows-Server-Core-Container-with-better-Application/ba-p/382412 https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Containers/A-smaller-...
  - techntoke 7y ago
    Still significantly larger compared to most Linux container images, and even more so than something like Alpine.
    - midnitewarrior 7y ago
      Yes, agreed, it's amazing how many more feature Windows ships than Linux, and that's only the "nano" version!
      - techntoke 7y ago
        Like what? I find that especially when comparing Nano Server and Linux, that Linux is much easier to manage and has nearly unlimited features that can be used or installed via a lightweight package manager when building your images.
    - dillonmckay 7y ago
      Is Alpine 8MB containerized?
samsungha 7y ago
Does it support Windows/AD Service accounts? I'm thinking not.
snagglegaggle 7y ago
I know there a business use cases usually targeting legacy software. Are there any open source projects that run mainly on Windows? I am wondering how the code bases may differ, etc.
robbyt 7y ago
...and the crowd goes mild! Does anyone actually use Windows containers? How is it? I'm not the most connected person, but I really want to know who's actually using this?
- snagglegaggle 7y ago
  I am not sure if it is kosher to say this, but my main use for Windows Server is as a desktop OS for when I need Windows. You can set up py-kms (https://github.com/SystemRage/py-kms https://github.com/SystemRage/py-kms) to activate it. The Server OS is extremely clean and devoid of all of the bloatware in normal Windows. I think the telemetry is still enabled and hard to disable, but it is slightly easier to do. In my case this is probably above board, I inherited some servers with valid Windows Server licenses.
- rtempaccount1 7y ago
  I do some work in the k8s arena. Seen a couple of large corps using Windows containers, either for containerizing legacy applications, or for moving an existing Windows platform into containers to help reduce cloud bills.
- ticmasta 7y ago
  The only legit use-case I've ever seen is "lift-and-shift" out of a self-hosted IIS environment to a container that can be hosted publicly. Now your business has a "SasS Offering"! We had MS in our office a few weeks ago and even they were steering people away from windows containers unless you really had no other choice...
- carlsborg 7y ago
  Test automation. Edge/IE.
- cpitman 7y ago
  I do consulting around Kubernetes, and many large enterprise clients are interested in Windows Containers. The usual culprit are .Net Framework applications that the customer has no interest in porting to .Net Core. I haven't actually seen a customer use Windows Containers in production yet, but with them becoming more stable I suspect we'll see more of it in the next year.

70 points by el_duderino 7y ago

deiwin 7y ago

How does licensing work for this?

leddt 7y ago
Windows Server (Standard and Datacenter editions) licenses include permissions to run unlimited windows containers on top of them. So you would only need to pay for the licenses of your hosts. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/product-licensing/windows-server https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/product-licensing/...
- rtempaccount1 7y ago
  AFAIK there's a significant caveat to that, which is that you only get unlimited windows containers, if you're using process isolation. If you're using VM isolation, you need licenses for the containerized applications.
  - Spivak 7y ago
    I wouldn't call that a caveat so much as SOP for Microsoft licensing. A Windows license does not entitle you to run unlimited Windows VMs on top unless you pay for the more expensive edition. The "hack" of buying a small number of super beefy servers to save on licensing costs was plugged looooong ago.
anaisbetts 7y ago
Amazon (as well as other cloud vendors) generally handle the licensing for you and factor it into the price of the host OS

SteveNuts 7y ago

Last time I looked at Windows containers the layers were multi-gigabyte downloads, is this still the case?

mollyporph 7y ago
The windows server nano images are 96mb and the windows server insider nano images are around 63 i think
wmf 7y ago
Yeah, although something called Nano Server is pretty small. https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Containers/A-smaller-Windows-Server-Core-Container-with-better-Application/ba-p/382412 https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Containers/A-smaller-...
- techntoke 7y ago
  Still significantly larger compared to most Linux container images, and even more so than something like Alpine.
  - midnitewarrior 7y ago
    Yes, agreed, it's amazing how many more feature Windows ships than Linux, and that's only the "nano" version!
    - techntoke 7y ago
      Like what? I find that especially when comparing Nano Server and Linux, that Linux is much easier to manage and has nearly unlimited features that can be used or installed via a lightweight package manager when building your images.
  - dillonmckay 7y ago
    Is Alpine 8MB containerized?

samsungha 7y ago

Does it support Windows/AD Service accounts? I'm thinking not.

snagglegaggle 7y ago

I know there a business use cases usually targeting legacy software. Are there any open source projects that run mainly on Windows? I am wondering how the code bases may differ, etc.

robbyt 7y ago

...and the crowd goes mild! Does anyone actually use Windows containers? How is it? I'm not the most connected person, but I really want to know who's actually using this?

snagglegaggle 7y ago
I am not sure if it is kosher to say this, but my main use for Windows Server is as a desktop OS for when I need Windows. You can set up py-kms (https://github.com/SystemRage/py-kms https://github.com/SystemRage/py-kms) to activate it. The Server OS is extremely clean and devoid of all of the bloatware in normal Windows. I think the telemetry is still enabled and hard to disable, but it is slightly easier to do. In my case this is probably above board, I inherited some servers with valid Windows Server licenses.
rtempaccount1 7y ago
I do some work in the k8s arena. Seen a couple of large corps using Windows containers, either for containerizing legacy applications, or for moving an existing Windows platform into containers to help reduce cloud bills.
ticmasta 7y ago
The only legit use-case I've ever seen is "lift-and-shift" out of a self-hosted IIS environment to a container that can be hosted publicly. Now your business has a "SasS Offering"! We had MS in our office a few weeks ago and even they were steering people away from windows containers unless you really had no other choice...
carlsborg 7y ago
Test automation. Edge/IE.
cpitman 7y ago
I do consulting around Kubernetes, and many large enterprise clients are interested in Windows Containers. The usual culprit are .Net Framework applications that the customer has no interest in porting to .Net Core. I haven't actually seen a customer use Windows Containers in production yet, but with them becoming more stable I suspect we'll see more of it in the next year.