Containerization Concepts
Key concepts and terminology in containerization and container orchestration.
The concepts behind containers: images, runtimes, registries, orchestration and service meshes, with the Linux kernel features and open standards underneath them, namely namespaces, cgroups, layered file systems and the OCI specifications, and the tool commonly associated with each.
Use it when
- You are explaining how containers differ from virtual machines.
- You need to name the kernel feature or tool responsible for isolation, resource limits or packaging.
Watch out for
- Containers share the host kernel. Namespaces and cgroups isolate and limit, but a kernel flaw affects every container on the host.
- 'Docker' is both a company, a tool and a format; the OCI standards let other runtimes use the same images.
The data
14 rows
| Concept | Description | Tool |
|---|---|---|
| Container Image | Immutable, layered filesystem containing application code, runtime, and dependencies. | Dockerfile, BuildKit |
| Container Runtime | Software that runs and manages containers. | containerd, runc, CRI-O |
| Container Registry | Storage and distribution system for container images. | Docker Hub, GHCR, ECR, ACR |
| Orchestration | Automated management of container lifecycles across clusters. | Kubernetes, Docker Swarm, Nomad |
| Service Mesh | Infrastructure layer handling service-to-service communication. | Istio, Linkerd, Envoy |
| Container Network Interface (CNI) | Plugin interface for configuring network connectivity. | Calico, Flannel, Cilium |
| Persistent Storage | Storage that persists beyond the container lifecycle. | PersistentVolume, CSI drivers |
| Dockerfile | A text recipe describing how to build an image, one instruction per layer. | Docker, Podman, BuildKit |
| Layered Filesystem | Images are stacks of read-only layers with a writable layer on top, so common layers are shared and cached. | OverlayFS |
| Namespaces | Linux kernel feature that gives a process its own view of processes, network, mounts and users. | Linux kernel |
| Control Groups | Linux kernel feature that limits and accounts for CPU, memory and I/O used by a group of processes. | Linux kernel (cgroups) |
| Open Container Initiative | Open standards for image format and runtime so images run across compatible tools. | OCI image and runtime specs |
| Rootless Containers | Running containers without root privileges on the host to reduce the impact of a breakout. | Podman, rootless Docker |
| Multi-Stage Build | Using several build stages and copying only the results into the final image to keep it small. | Docker, BuildKit |
Fields
The shape of this dataset, read from the data itself: every column, its type and a real value. Agents can use this to plan a query without fetching the whole document.
| Section | Field | Type | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| data | concept | string | Container Image |
| data | description | string | Immutable, layered filesystem containing applic… |
| data | tool | string | Dockerfile, BuildKit |
Fetch the same bytes
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