In the previous post, I wrote the function to scale a K8s deployment with a REST API call. In this post, I’ll write the other function required to codify the scaling of a K8s cluster across physical resources.
The function here will power on a K8s node VM that resides on an ESXi host and make itself available to the K8s cluster for additional compute. I will use the vSphere REST API and then combine it with the previous function to complete the scale out operation. Continue reading
To be pragmatic with this exercise, I’ll begin with a focus on the plumbing required to scale both components in parallel.. I’ll follow up in another post with predictive automation based on some primitive analytics.
As discussed in the first post of this series, I intend to rely on APIs exposed by VMware and the Kubernetes/Docker distributions to enable predictive orchestration of scaling. For my proof of concept, I will focus on scale-out and scale-in use cases. Scale-up and down will be excluded. Continue reading
This post is the second, in a series that will consider the topic of predictive auto-scaling of vSphere VMs and containerized services. The purpose of this post is to describe how to build the first components with the installation and configuration of Docker and Kubernetes on VMs. I will be using Docker 1.13, Kubernetes 1.10, and CentOS 7 x64 for the implementation.
You will need either a vSphere environment or VMware Workstation/Fusion, CentOS install media, and an internet connection. There are a handful of ways to implement a test-bed Kubernetes cluster. Running on a cloud provider CaaS platform, orchestrating as a Docker-in-Docker deployment, building manually from scratch, or building with a helper tool from scratch. Continue reading
Reactive and predictive auto-scaling have existed for some time already. Predictive auto-scaling has been custom developed and leveraged by large service providers for almost a decade.
To define a few terms: Scaling is the process of adjusting resources to satisfactorily serve demand. Auto-scaling is replacing manual process with automated IT processes that react to current-state metrics. Predictive auto-scaling relies on observed metrics, over time, to predict an upcoming change in demand and auto-scale ahead of actual demand. This is advantageous because the resources required to scale will not contend with the services demanding more. Continue reading
This has been in my drafts folder for three months now. I figure it’s time to get back to it.
Previous posts have delved into the benefits of leveraging virtualization to provide automation, elasticity, governance, and ‘day 2’ management to a container-centric DevOps architecture. For VMware, VIC has become the platform for repackaged applications. There isn’t much focus on orchestration with VIC. There is some, but it’s proprietary to vSphere. That’s not to say it’s inferior to a more widely adopted K8s model, it’s just purpose oriented. Continue reading
In this post I’ll attempt to cover vSphere Integrated Containers (aka VIC). I’ve mulled over how much to cover vs. how much I should link to. There are many great posts on this topic. I will attempt to frame out VIC and then provide links to posts that fill in some of the details. Continue reading
My plan was to follow the previous post on Harbor with a rundown of vSphere Integrated Containers. But as I began to write, I realized just the topic of the relationship between containers and VMs was fairly lengthy. I’ve decided to cover just that in this post. In the next post, I will cover VIC. Continue reading
Harbor – The Enterprise-Grade Open Source Container RegistryOk, we have a basic understanding of containers and a few of the architectural and operational challenges they come with. And of the DevOps practice that aims to improve software release and life-cycle management outcomes. Continue reading
In the first post of this series, I covered the basics of containers. In this post, I’ll cover why containers are attractive in DevOps initiatives and some of the challenges organizations face when trying to leverage them for such. This will lay the foundation for the next post, where I will cover VMware’s vision and initiatives to address these challenges. Continue reading
Why Containers?In the coming series of posts, I will share some thoughts around Docker containers and how VMware has embraced and enhanced the benefits of container based application delivery. This is a big topic, with many alleys and winding roads. I will try to focus on some of the basics. Continue reading