UPDATED 00:40 EDT / SEPTEMBER 28 2016

NEWS

Kubernetes 1.4 promises to make container orchestration easier, more powerful

Google’s Kubernetes project is well on the way towards becoming the de facto standard for running containers at scale, and the release of Kubernetes 1.4 promises to cement its status as the top choice for most organizations.

Kubernetes has already established a reputation for being more powerful than its closest rival, Docker Swarm, even though its considered to be more difficult to manage. But with version 1.4, the platform should be much easier to set up and work with, while adding lots of new functionality into the mix.

On the ease-of-use front, the latest version of Kubernetes comes with a new Dashboard UI that offers 90 percent of command line interface functionality paired with at-a-glance management, which is intended to make it much easier to get the platform up and running.

Kubernetes 1.4 also makes it easier to create clusters with the addition of kubeadm, a feature that reduces bootstrapping to just two commands, without any complex scripts. Once installed, kubeadm init kick starts the master, while kubeadm connects the nodes to the cluster.

Installation is further streamline because the new version packages Kubernetes with its dependencies for major Linux distributions like Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and Ubuntu 16.04. What this means is it’s possible to install Kubernetes with familiar tools like apt-get and yum.

The new version also comes with expanded stateful application support, making it easier to run existing applications (non cloud-native apps) in containers. Currently, many stateful applications need extra features before they can be containerized, so Kubernetes 1.4 is including the following features to make it easier to get them up and running:

  • ScheduledJob is introduced as Alpha so users can run batch jobs at regular intervals.
  • Init-containers, a beta feature, runs one or more containers before starting the main application. This can be used, for example, to sequence dependencies when starting a database or multi-tier app.
  • Dynamic PVC Provisioning is moved to beta. This feature now enables cluster administrators to expose multiple storage provisioners and allows users to select them using a new Storage Class API object.
  • Curated and pre-tested Helm charts for common stateful applications such as MariaDB, MySQL, and Jenkins will be available for one-command launches. This uses the Helm Package Manager, version 2.

Kubernetes also comes with new cluster federated API additions that let users build applications with clusters that span regions and clouds, using the following beta functions:

  • Federated Replica Sets – Replicas can now span some or all clusters enabling cross region or cross cloud replication. The total federated replica count and relative cluster weights/replica counts are continually reconciled by a federated replica-set controller to ensure you have the pods you need in each region/cloud
  • Federated Ingress – Finally starting with Google Cloud Platform (GCP), users can create a single Layer 7 globally load-balanced virtual IP address (VIP). This enables users to span services deployed across a GCP federation of clusters. With Federated Ingress in GCP, external clients point to a single IP address and are sent to the closest cluster with usable capacity in any region or zone of the federation in GCP.

The new release also offers new security functionality, such as the ability to add varying sets of permissions among tenants, infrastructure components, and system end-users. Those features include:

  • Pod Security Policy is a new object that enables cluster administrators to control the creation and validation of security contexts for pods/containers. Admins can associate service accounts, groups, and users with a set of constraints to define a security context.
  • AppArmor support, which enables admins to run a more secure deployment, and provide better auditing and monitoring of their systems. Users can configure a container to run in an AppArmor profile by setting a single field.

The full list of new features can be found here, but the overriding message seems to be that Kubernetes is rapidly evolving into the fully functional, easy-to-use container management system that organizations have been crying out for.

Kubernetes 1.4 can be downloaded over at get.k8s.io and also via GitHub.

Photo Credit: Dieter Gora via Compfight cc

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