Persistent Storage Services for Docker by Rancher Labs

Rancher Labs announced that Rancher, the company’s product for building a private container service, has introduced support for orchestrating Persistent Storage Services for Docker, making it possible for developers to deploy storage reliably in conjunction with containerized applications.

This feature builds on Docker 1.9 volume plug-in capabilities, and makes it easier for developers to run applications that require stateful databases and persistent storage.

“Deploying Dockerized applications that store persistent data required users to create a custom solution that integrated with storage platforms running outside of a Docker environment,” said John Katsaros, principal analyst, FocusOnDocker. “Rancher is continuing to push the industry forward with this latest offering. Developers will now be able to outline the exact storage capabilities needed for each application, drastically simplifying the process.“

Rancher OS

When used in conjunction with Docker 1.9 volume plug-in, Rancher users are able to:

Orchestrate the deployment and configuration of storage services directly on container hosts, utilizing any software defined storage platforms shipped as containers, including, for example, Gluster, Ceph and NexentaEdge.
Launch applications using Docker Compose that can leverage these storage services to automatically create and mount persistent Docker volumes to support stateful application services such as traditional databases.
Utilize any vendor-specific advanced storage features offered by storage services such as snapshot, backup, remote replication and data analytics.
Deploy an application with all of its necessary storage services on any VM or bare metal server, running in any public cloud or private data center.

“As developers begin to deploy more stateful applications using Docker, it is critical that storage services become as easy to deploy and migrate as regular Docker containers,” said Sheng Liang, co-founder and CEO, Rancher Labs. “We’re thrilled to announce this latest update to Rancher, as we believe persistent storage services will unleash a new wave of innovation for the Docker ecosystem, community and users.“

Making storage as simple to orchestrate as Docker
With the introduction of Persistent Storage Services in Rancher, developers can define the exact storage capabilities necessary for their applications. For example, a user deploying a web application running on Tomcat and MySQL can also use Rancher to deploy a Persistent Storage Service based on Gluster. The Gluster storage service can then be distributed across multiple disks running on different hosts within the Rancher cluster. When the MySQL service is launched, Rancher can orchestrate the deployment of a block storage volume from the Gluster service, which is then connected to the MySQL container as a Docker Volume. Users can leverage GlusterFS geo-replication to backup the application to a remote site.

Once the application is deployed, Rancher continues to manage both the application and storage services, monitoring hosts and disks for failures and responding whenever necessary to ensure the availability of the application. Persistent Storage Services are defined using Docker Compose templates and can be launched from the Rancher UI or API. Rancher provides health monitoring and automated failure recovery of storage services.

“As containers become the new platform standard for next gen applications, enterprises demand persistent and stateful storage that integrates with their environment,” said Oscar Wahlberg, head, product management, Nexenta Systems, Inc . “NexentaEdge’s market leading container-based architecture enables persistent storage to run alongside application containers by running on the same servers with no limitations to container mobility. Developers using Rancher and NexentaEdge can now make storage as simple to orchestrate as Docker and define exact storage capabilities for their applications.“

Public Beta