Anyone playing with containers for isolation of applications?

Use docker. I once deployed an odoo instance using docker containers. They are also useful for isolating development environments without bloating your system. Sadly, there isn't much advantage in using docker if you're on Windows. You'd be better off with Vagrant in that case. Docker containers are light because they reuse the kernel of the host OS and since you can't reuse the Windows kernel for a Linux container you'd have to use virtualization (virtualbox, VMware etc). Containers are very similar to creating a chroot jail.

foldl:
Use docker. I once deployed an odoo instance using docker containers. They are also useful for isolating development environments without bloating your system. Sadly, there isn't much advantage in using docker if you're on Windows. You'd be better off with Vagrant in that case. Docker containers are light because they reuse the kernel of the host OS and since you can't reuse the Windows kernel for a Linux container you'd have to use virtualization (virtualbox, VMware etc). Containers are very similar to creating a chroot jail.

Nah, containers are not like chroot jail. I've used chroot in the 90's on BSDs. Do you get your own networking? or full OS? chroot isolates the rootspace of your program, so you can run your program in /tmp/foobar/ and it will only have access to /tmp/foobar and nothing outside of that.

Anyways, I don't use Windows. I understand that some developers might although I find it very difficult to grasp why. Unless you are developing windows applications, you should be running Linux. Even if you are running Windows, you should dual boot both.

foldl. Outside of development, haven you given thought to using it for production? A sizable amount of company are doing so now.

DonSegmond:


Nah, containers are not like chroot jail...

@DonSegmond I didn't say a chroot jail is the same as a container. The word I used was 'similar'. This is in the sense that both essentially create an isolated environment. With respect to networking I daresay a chroot can provide networking separate from the host OS. Basically, a chroot is how Linux OSes are installed. If you have installed Arch Linux for example, you'll see that after booting from the installation media and setting up your disk partitions you mount your partitions and create a chroot in the mount point of the root partition using the arch-root command. While in the chroot you can install and configure your system as you like. Rebooting without the installation media boots you into the newly installed system. I am not in anyway claiming to be an expert on this subject but what I've written above is how I understood the process after several runs with Arch installation.

PS:
- The odoo instance I mentioned was for production though it was internal.
- Give me a shinny new PC with any OS and if it ain't already on Linux it'll be in less than an hour! I've been using Linux for a decade, I can't bear to use anything else.

Yes, I love to build and deploy Docker containers for my applications because of their amazing benefits. Likewise, containers are lightweight because they are based on an underlined operating system that also keeps its file size minimum. Similarly, containers are high products and you will have to consume less overhead on them.

Although you can explore more about containers from here https://blog.back4app.com/how-to-deploy-docker-container/#How_do_Containers_Work about their operations and benefits but I think containers give the best performance when you use them with Docker. Indeed, Docker containers provide numerous benefits and their deployment is super easy after the arrival of cloud computing services. They are portable and highly secure with rapid deployment approaches.

This image can also assist you in understanding how a containerized application works and how it is different from virtual machines.