LXD – The Docker alternative
Rough Edges
The Linux Magazine lab clearly revealed that LXD is not currently suitable for production use, but Canonical expressly stresses this, too. All told, given the many warnings, LXD did quite well in the test. Starting and stopping containers worked quite well, for example.
Since February, the LXD developers have been working on nova-compute-lxd
[4], which will integrate LXD with OpenStack Kilo or its successor, at the latest. Currently, this functionality is still missing.
Much Done, Much To Do
The first views of LXD whet your appetite for more. OpenStack integration takes top priority. If Canonical really does manage to combine LXD so well with OpenStack, as is its intention, LXD will take the OpenStack world by storm because a passable OpenStack connectivity solution does not currently exist for practically any other container solution except Docker.
Mark Shuttleworth invested in OpenStack, and Ubuntu was the first distribution to use OpenStack heavily. And although Red Hat and SUSE are now contributing on a similar scale to the development of OpenStack, Ubuntu seems to be unopposed on the OpenStack front. LXD can thus be considered Canonical's push toward maintaining this lead.
From a technology point of view, LXD is already ahead of Docker in some ways even at this early stage. Thanks to the manually installed nova-compute-lxd
, LXD can handle the same basic tasks in OpenStack as a combination of Nova, Docker, and nova-docker
.
OpenStack played a major role in the development of LXD from the outset, so in many ways, LXD is designed to be expressly oriented on OpenStack. LXD can handle OpenStack's image and network services, Glance and Neutron, right from the outset. When this article was written, the developers were working on adding support for Cinder volumes to LXD/OpenStack integration in the form of nova-compute-lxd
.
One thing is certain: The container virtualization market will remain exciting. For Docker, LXD is a powerful competitor which, although not suitable as a tool for distributing applications because it lacks Git-style image management, is likely to be the first choice when it comes to connecting containers with OpenStack for reasons of density and performance.
Infos
- "LXC: Linux Containers" by Florian Effenberger, Linux Pro Magazine, issue 139, June 2011, p. 54, http://www.linuxpromagazine.com/Issues/2012/139/LXC-Linux-Containers
- OpenVZ: https://openvz.org/Main_Page
- LXD: https://github.com/lxc/lxd
- nova-compute-lxd: https://github.com/zulcss/nova-compute-lxd
« Previous 1 2
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Canonical Bumps LTS Support to 12 years
If you're worried that your Ubuntu LTS release won't be supported long enough to last, Canonical has a surprise for you in the form of 12 years of security coverage.
-
Fedora 40 Beta Released Soon
With the official release of Fedora 40 coming in April, it's almost time to download the beta and see what's new.
-
New Pentesting Distribution to Compete with Kali Linux
SnoopGod is now available for your testing needs
-
Juno Computers Launches Another Linux Laptop
If you're looking for a powerhouse laptop that runs Ubuntu, the Juno Computers Neptune 17 v6 should be on your radar.
-
ZorinOS 17.1 Released, Includes Improved Windows App Support
If you need or desire to run Windows applications on Linux, there's one distribution intent on making that easier for you and its new release further improves that feature.
-
Linux Market Share Surpasses 4% for the First Time
Look out Windows and macOS, Linux is on the rise and has even topped ChromeOS to become the fourth most widely used OS around the globe.
-
KDE’s Plasma 6 Officially Available
KDE’s Plasma 6.0 "Megarelease" has happened, and it's brimming with new features, polish, and performance.
-
Latest Version of Tails Unleashed
Tails 6.0 is based on Debian 12 and includes GNOME 43.
-
KDE Announces New Slimbook V with Plenty of Power and KDE’s Plasma 6
If you're a fan of KDE Plasma, you'll be thrilled to hear they've announced a new Slimbook with an AMD CPU and the latest version of KDE Plasma desktop.
-
Monthly Sponsorship Includes Early Access to elementary OS 8
If you want to get a glimpse of what's in the pipeline for elementary OS 8, just set up a monthly sponsorship to help fund its continued existence.