Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Docker Enterprise Edition available for IBM Z

It has been signaled earlier this year, now it has been announced: Docker Enterprise Edition is available for Z. Version 17.06.1 has now been made available, and not only is it a new version for x86, but it also supports Z as "managed-to" platform. A lot of work went into this, and this is what the journey starts with:
  • the engine of Docker Enterprise Edition will run on Linux on z Systems
  • Docker Trusted Registry (DTR) can handle s390x images (while DTR runs on x86)
  • Docker Universal Control Plane (UCP) can manage s390x nodes (while the UCP UI runs on x86)
So what exactly do these components provide? Here are more details (and some screenshots that may show the function set much better):
The engine of Docker Enterprise Edition is a commercially supported by Docker, Inc for the enterprise distros of the Linux distribution partners we closely work with. A previous blog post has discussed support timelines of CE and EE. This adds Docker, Inc. as another support provider when for running a container environment on IBM Z.
After installation ("install as you would on x86"), it's a plain Docker engine that runs on Z.

Docker Trusted Registry provides a commercially supported registry environment. It offers features like a web user interface to inspect and manage repositories in a registry server. Access can be controlled and organized in teams. Note that security scanning does not know about s390x vulnerabilities at this time. Here are a few screenshots showing functionality:

Installation is not special -- simply push s390x images to use this with Z.

Docker Universal Control Plane is a management tool for working in a Docker swarm cluster. It handles s390x nodes in a swarm, and operates the swarm: it allows to manage the life cycle of containers and services in the cluster and can deal with associated resources such as networks, volumes and secrets. Here are a few screenshots showing the look and feel:



To use with s390x nodes, simply add these nodes in the "Nodes" mask -- it is a simple docker swarm join command on z nodes, run against the swarm manager running on x86.

Disclaimer: beta versions have been used for the screen shots, this could slightly differ from the GA versions.

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