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Docker ensures that your applications are fast and system-agnostic, while Kubernetes ensures they have the maximum uptime, proper load balancing, and ability to scale the cluster at will. It’s apparent by now that Docker and Kubernetes have different use cases. You use Docker for packaging and shipping applications and working with a single node. Meanwhile, Kubernetes deploys and scales applications across a cluster of nodes. Furthermore, Kubernetes only manages containers, requiring separate software to build them. While multiple containerization technologies exist, Docker remains the most popular and widely known.

The containerized services need to find and talk to each other in a secure manner, which isn’t a trivial task given the dynamic nature of containers. In addition, some services, like the front-end, need to be exposed to end-users, and a load balancer is required to distribute traffic across multiple nodes. Docker and Kubernetes are mostly complementary technologies—Kubernetes and Docker. However, Docker also provides a system for operating containerized applications at scale, called Docker Swarm—Kubernetes vs Docker Swarm.

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This container is then run on top of the host operating system but is isolated from other containers and the host system itself. Kubernetes is based on a master-slave architecture, where the master node controls and communicates with the worker nodes, which are responsible for running the containers. By default, OpenShift provides superior security features, hybrid/multi-cloud capabilities, dedicated customer support, and an easy-to-use web console for login. Since Kubernetes is open source, it’s also compatible with most platforms and tools.

The true power of Kubernetes comes with its almost limitless scalability, configurability, and rich technology ecosystem including many open-source frameworks for monitoring, management, and security. Docker Hub is a registry service provided by Docker for finding and sharing container images with your team or the public. Docker is a suite of tools for developers to build, share, run and orchestrate containerized apps. Think of containers as standardized packaging for microservices with all the needed application code and dependencies inside.

Cons of Kubernetes

A container can run anywhere, on a laptop, in the cloud, on local servers, and even on edge devices. Josh Campbell is a product manager for Atlassian and has worn many hats in his career. He enjoys working on things that make the job of an engineer easier and has deep customer empathy, especially when it comes to working with bad technology tools. In his spare time, Josh likes biking with his daughters, eating and drinking things that are bad for him, and playing with new technologies.

However, while Docker runs on a single node, Kubernetes runs across a cluster. Thus, Kubernetes nodes can more easily communicate with each other than Docker nodes. It may be because it provides many tools, including Docker Engine, Hub, Compose, and Docker for Windows and Mac. Docker Swarm does not provide automated scaling based on resource utilization, unlike Kubernetes.

Docker Disadvantages

In some ways comparing the two platforms is like comparing apples to oranges. The Kubernetes vs Docker debate will rage on but really both of them excel in different ways and your choice will often depend on which platform is more suited to your business. Persistent data storage with Docker is complicated and ultimately inefficient. You can use Docker Data Volumes to save data in Docker, however the process is not seamless and there are easier ways to store data.

Docker is making things easier for software industries giving them the capabilities to automate the infrastructure, isolate the application, maintain consistency, and improve resource utilization. A swarm is made up of one or more nodes, which are physical or virtual machines running in Docker Engine. With Kubernetes being so dynamic in nature, as a result, Kubernetes monitoring is a highly complicated task. Knowing metrics to identify faults, monitoring cluster health status, and finding solutions for resolving bugs are some of the common challenges that enterprises often face while deploying Kubernetes. Kubernetes and Docker are both tools that deal with containerization, but they work at different levels of the stack. Developers looking for a middle ground between Docker Swarm’s lightweight simplicity and Kubernetes’ heavy complexity, might want to consider a new platform, K3s.

Docker commands

It’s a way of managing and running containerized workloads, born from the Borg project at Google. You describe the application and its dependencies in a Dockerfile and then create an image out of it. This image runs almost everywhere without change, thus decreasing the effort of running it in heterogeneous environments.

• Despite this, Kubernetes is not a stand-alone container management solution since it requires different plugins and services to function.
• This is done by using a built-in load balancer that automatically directs traffic to the appropriate Pods.
• Containers can be replicated or deleted on the fly to meet varying end-user traffic.
• Furthermore, scaling is seamless, as you can create Docker containers quickly, and Kubernetes can scale clusters with minimal manual intervention.

By combining Docker for containerization and Kubernetes for orchestration, developers achieve a robust framework for deploying, maintaining, and scaling containerized applications. This synergy allows for the creation of highly scalable, resilient, and resource-efficient applications. Docker provides basic networking capabilities, allowing containers to communicate with each other and the host system. However, Kubernetes offers a more advanced networking model, providing service discovery, load balancing, and network policies out of the box. Kubernetes introduces the concept of Services, which act as stable network endpoints for accessing applications running within containers.

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Docker Swarm, Docker’s native orchestration solution, provides limited high availability options compared to Kubernetes. Kubernetes will serve as a container orchestration tool when used with Docker, and Docker will assist us in creating the images needed to execute containers in Kubernetes. All container deployments, scaling, and docker what is it scheduling to the correct node in the cluster may be handled by Kubernetes. The initial setup of Kubernetes is more difficult, but it has a lot of functionality. The majority of cloud platforms offer Kubernetes as services like EKS, AKS, and GKS, allowing Kubernetes to benefit from functions like autoscaling, load balancing, etc.

Docker Swarm works with the Docker CLI, so there is no need to run or install an entirely new CLI. It does not require configuration changes if your system is already running inside Docker. Plus, it works seamlessly with existing Docker tools such as Docker Compose. OpenShift v3.X uses openshift-ansible or manually following references and uses master nodes to keep the configuration. Support plans available for proprietary features and community support for open-source tools. Both support various third-party tools, such as CircleCI and Jenkins, to create robust CI/CD pipelines in Kubernetes or Docker.

High degree of complexity

However, Nginx Ingress can serve as the load balancer for each service within the cluster. Despite OpenShift’s Kubernetes-based architecture, you can seamlessly work with Docker images. Also note while Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform is based on Kubernetes, it is compatible with Docker tools, like Registry, Builder, and Docker Hub. Note that OpenShift Container Platform is Kubernetes-based, thus compatible with not only K8s but also most third-party tools that work with Kubernetes and other certified Kubernetes distributions. Both Docker Swarm and Kubernetes support Role-Based Access Control (RBAC).