Running Dell applications in Docker containers

Docker Austin Meetup Sep 3, 2015

Jose De la Rosa

Dell Linux Engineering

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OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA)

In-house application used to manage and monitor the health of Dell PowerEdge servers.

1. RPM-based (for RHEL, CentOS and SLES).• Problem: No debs for Ubuntu or Debian.

2. Installation is straight-forward.• Problem: Installs 55-60 RPMs.• Problem: Removal is not straight-forward.• Problem: Upgrading can be quite a hassle.

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Can we Dockerize OMSA?

Not an ideal application to run in a container:

• Many services (not just one)

• Needs access to host’s hardware (requires privileged mode)

• Has dependencies on kernel modules (big no no)

• Too big (about 500 MB)

But nevertheless…

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Implementation

Ubuntu / Debian

Docker Engine

CentOS 7

OMSA

PowerEdge Server

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Results

It worked! About 95% functionality with a couple known issues (we’re working on them)

1. Customers can now use it on Ubuntu & Debian (though not recommended for Production yet)

2. Installation / Upgrade / Removal now as easy as “docker pull, docker run, docker stop and docker rm”. (Not just on Ubuntu & Debian, but RHEL, CentOS and SLES)

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Moral of the story

• We proved that a legacy (and somewhat bloated) application can be “containerized” with minimum effort and without modifying a single line of code.

• If we can containerize OMSA, then we can containerize anything!

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Are you a Dell customer and use OMSA?

http://linux.dell.com/docker

We’re looking for feedback