Extending Docker

by Russ McKendrick

With Docker, it is possible to get a lot of apps running on the same old servers, making it very easy to package and ship programs. The ability to extend Docker using plugins and load third-party plugins is incredible, and organizations can massively benefit from it. In this book, you will read about what first and third party tools are available to extend the functionality of your existing Docker installation and how to approach your next Docker infrastructure deployment. We will show you how to work with Docker plugins, install it, and cover its lifecycle. We also cover network and volume plugins, and you will find out how to build your own plugin. You'll discover how to integrate it with Puppet, Ansible, Jenkins, Flocker, Rancher, Packer, and more with third-party plugins. Then, you'll see how to use Schedulers such as Kubernetes and Amazon ECS. Finally, we'll delve into security, troubleshooting, and best practices when extending Docker. By the end of this book, you will learn how to extend Docker and customize it based on your business requirements with the help of various tools and plugins. Russ McKendrick is an experienced solution architect who has been working in IT and related industries for the better part of 23 years. During his career, he has had varied responsibilities in a number of industries, ranging from looking after an entire IT infrastructure to providing first-line, second-line, and senior support in client-facing and internal teams for corporate organizations. Russ works almost exclusively with Linux, using open source systems and tools across dedicated hardware, virtual machines to public and private clouds at Node4 Limited, where he heads up the Open Source solutions team.

334 pages, Paperback

Published June 16, 2016

Reviews

[Voldemar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a solid overview of third party tools build around Docker for these who are already familiar with the basics of containers. Author covers following topics :
- These days official Docker tools Registry, Compose, Machine and Swarm
- Volume plugins to manage persistent data in distributed environment (Convoy, REX-Ray, Flock)
- Network plugins to make containers to communicate in isolated and secure environment (Weave)
- Docker plugin architecture basics
- Deployment tools and orchestrators to automate deployment of containers (Puppet, Ansible, Vagrant, Packer, Jenkins)
- Schedulers and orchestrators to coordinate deployment and scaling of containers and hosting machines (Kubernetis, Amazon EC2 Container Service, Rancher)
- Security challenges while using Docker images

Author takes simple examples to illustrate purpose and modus operandi of every tool using local or cloud horsepower. In most examples author provide copy-and-paste ready commands or github project. Some topics are illustrated by a click-through guide for GUI tools.

Book is easy to read and well organized.

Book should be useful if you've just started playing with Docker and you are looking to understand its full potential. Overall image of Docker universe presented in the book is valuable even a year after publication. There are little chances to discover something new for these who are already using Docker in production.

[Xiaket · Rating 5 out of 5]

Minus the installation guides on various tools which should not present in this book, this is a great book on the docker ecosystem