Cluster managers, orchestrators and schedulers

Gabor Ratky
CTO at Secret Sauce Partners

Secret Sauce Partners

Glossary

  • Cluster manager: software that manages more than one computer [to dispatch work]
  • Orchestration: automated arrangement, coordination, and management of complex computer systems, middleware and services
  • Scheduling: determine where work should be performed according to some criteria

 

  • Automation: ensure that a task can be repeatedly performed with minimal input

Do I need one?

NO

Do I need one?

GOD NO

Do I need one?

GOD NO

Do I want my system to be more complex?

Complexity monster

Complexity monster

Problem

Complexity

Complexity monster

Problem

Solution

Complexity

Overengineering

Complexity monster

Problem

Solution

Complexity

Essential complexity

Accidental complexity

Complexity monster

Problem

Solution

Complexity

Complexity monster

Problem

Solution

Complexity

Complexity monster

Problem

Solution

Complexity

Technical debt

Complexity monster

Problem

Solution

Complexity

What problem do I have?

Deployment

What problem do I have?

High availability

Deployment

What problem do I have?

Service discovery

High availability

Deployment

What problem do I have?

Utilization

Cost

Service discovery

High availability

Deployment

$$$

SSP: 11%

Industry avg: <10%

Google: 60%

Containers

Binpacking

Docker Swarm

  • Docker 1.12: Now With Built-In Orchestration!
  • Developed by Docker Inc, the Docker company
  • Multi-host, multi-container orchestration
  • Same CLI, same API with new concepts (Node & Service)
  • Built-in Raft consensus and distributed state store
  • Built-in routing mesh and service discovery
  • Infrastructure integration in private beta
    • Docker for AWS
    • Docker for Azure
  • Web UI available through Docker Cloud

Nomad

  • Developed by Hashicorp
  • Provides cluster management and scheduling only
  • Operationally simple with single binary agent
  • Natively integrates with Consul for service discovery
  • Can run virtualized, containerized or standalone workloads
  • No built-in load balancing, but fabio is great
  • No autoscaling, no persistent volumes
  • Missing features are on the roadmap, but only when using Atlas (i.e. Web UI)

Kubernetes

  • Initially developed by Google based on Borg, donated to Cloud Native Computing Foundation
  • Feature-rich container orchestration consisting of many loosely coupled components and an active community
  • More complex than others, solves more problems
  • Stores state in etcd
  • Conceptually simple networking model
  • Supports autoscaling and persistent volumes
  • Exceptional documentation and tooling
  • Built-in Web UI

Many others

  • AWS ECS + Elastic Beanstalk
  • AWS ECS + Empire
  • AWS ECS + Convox
  • CoreOS (fleet)
  • Mesos + Marathon
  • Mesosphere DC/OS

Every solution solves a different set of problems!

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." -Albert Einstein (supposedly)

Which one to use?

Gotta watch 'em all, gotta try 'em all!

Thanks!

Questions?

 

We're looking for a Platform Engineer:

https://sspinc.workable.com/jobs/75397

@rgabo

gabor@secretsaucepartners.com

Cluster managers, orchestrators and schedulers: Do I need one?

By Secret Sauce Partners, Inc.

Cluster managers, orchestrators and schedulers: Do I need one?

Containers and containerization have given life to a new breed of technologies concerned with managing clusters of computers, orchestrating services and scheduling containers. Docker, Kubernetes, Nomad and Amazon ECS all solve slightly different set of problems and my talk will give an overview of each technology and some of the new features that were announced at DockerCon and HashiConf EU. Most important of all, I will also answer the most pressing question of all: Do I need one?

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