Close
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Cloud
    • Cloud
    • Storage
    • Virtualization

    ClusterHQ Brings Docker Virtualization to Data Storage

    By
    Sean Michael Kerner
    -
    August 14, 2014
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin
      ClusterHQ Flocker

      There has been a lot of momentum surrounding the growth of the open-source Docker container virtualization technology, but few vendors have directly addressed the issue of data storage. ClusterHQ is now building a technology called Flocker to solve the Docker data challenge.

      Flocker is the result of more than five years of research, development and operational experience combining resilient, distributed, commodity storage with containers, Luke Marsden, CEO and co-founder of ClusterHQ, said.

      “Two years ago, we launched a product called HybridCluster, an advanced container management platform based on FreeBSD Jails,” Marsden told eWEEK. “Production customer deployments of HybridCluster have proven the resilience and scalability of our technology, and this experience has enabled our company, which we’ve rebranded as ClusterHQ, to move extremely quickly to solve the data problem for Docker and Linux.”

      Docker emerged just over a year ago as a Linux-based solution for containers, expanding on underlying technologies like LXC (Linux Containers). The open-source FreeBSD operating system has long had its own container construct known as Jails.

      Flocker is a lightweight volume and container manager that developers can use to define their application as a set of connected Docker containers, Marsden said. Those applications can then be deployed and easily migrated with their data between hosts, even when in different data centers.

      While Flocker is a data technology, Marsden emphasized that Flocker is categorically not a storage-area network (SAN) or network-attached storage (NAS) technology.

      “There has been very little prior to Flocker that addresses the problem of data for containers,” Marsden said. “In fact, lack of support for data-backed services is one of the major things that is holding up container adoption.”

      Flocker uses distributed, local storage to provide storage for applications while delivering storage portability, Marasden said. A key part of Flocker is its use of Zettabyte File System (ZFS) replication technology. ZFS is a file system originally developed by Sun Microsystems for use in the Solaris Unix operating system. OpenZFS, which is what Flocker leverages, is the open-source successor of the ZFS project.

      “Flocker uses ZFS on Linux, which is part of the OpenZFS project, which we are actively involved in and contribute to,” Marsden said. “Previously with HybridCluster, we have been building on top of ZFS on FreeBSD, which is natively supported and integrated there.”

      Flocker uses a combination OpenZFS, along with proprietary technology that ClusterHQ has been developing over the last five years to manage ZFS file systems in a distributed cluster.

      “Flocker 0.1 only just scrapes the surface of what’s possible with our distributed file system technology,” Marsden said.

      The portability of data volumes is just the first step for Flocker. Beyond that, Marsden expects that it will be possible to do continuous replication , live migration of containers, and VMware DRS (Distributed Resource Scheduler)-like features, such as automatically balancing the load in a cluster by automatically moving containers around.

      As the Docker ecosystem matures, multiple efforts have emerged to build orchestration capabilities, including Google Kubernetes, Apache Mesos and CoreOS Fleet. Marsden said that Flocker can be used to complement orchestration tools.

      “We created Flocker because none of the orchestration systems provide operational support [e.g., data migrations, failover] for stateful containers, and yet data is at the heart of every application,” Marsden said. “We hope to be able to extend these orchestration services to provide support for databases, queues, key-value stores and other data-backed services.”

      Flocker is now just at its 0.1 release, and there is a lot more development work to get done. Marsden said that he’s very interested in getting feedback from the community on what features they’d like to see in a general availability release to make sure that all of those features are solid and production-ready at scale.

      In terms of making a business out of Flocker, that’s still on the future road map.

      “While we are not announcing commercial offerings today, you can expect ClusterHQ to adopt a business model similar to other successful open-source companies,” Marsden said.

      Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at eWEEK and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.

      Sean Michael Kerner
      Sean Michael Kerner is an Internet consultant, strategist, and contributor to several leading IT business web sites.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Cybersecurity

      Visa’s Michael Jabbara on Cybersecurity and Digital...

      James Maguire - May 17, 2022 0
      I spoke with Michael Jabbara, VP and Global Head of Fraud Services at Visa, about the cybersecurity technology used to ensure the safe transfer...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Yotascale CEO Asim Razzaq on Controlling Multicloud...

      James Maguire - May 5, 2022 0
      Asim Razzaq, CEO of Yotascale, provides guidance on understanding—and containing—the complex cost structure of multicloud computing. Among the topics we covered:  As you survey the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      GoodData CEO Roman Stanek on Business Intelligence...

      James Maguire - May 4, 2022 0
      I spoke with Roman Stanek, CEO of GoodData, about business intelligence, data as a service, and the frustration that many executives have with data...
      Read more
      Android

      Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro: Durability for Tough...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 5, 2020 0
      Have you ever dropped your phone, winced and felt the pain as it hit the sidewalk? Either the screen splintered like a windshield being...
      Read more
      IT Management

      Intuit’s Nhung Ho on AI for the...

      James Maguire - May 13, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nhung Ho, Vice President of AI at Intuit, about adoption of AI in the small and medium-sized business market, and how...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2021 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×