The last years have shown a lot of interest in Linux container technology. Technically this approach is not that new. Linux operating systems such as Solaris supported containers a long time ago. However, Docker made a the breakthrough in this technology by providing features to build, manage and ship containers in a uniform way.
What is the difference between containers and virtual machines (VMs) and what makes containers that interesting?
Virtual machines act like a computer in a computer. They allow the runtime to be easily managed from the outside such as creating, starting, stopping, and distributing machines in a fast and ideally automated way. If new servers need to be setup, a blueprint, an image, of the required type can be deployed without installing software from scratch every time. Snapshots of running environments can be taken to easily backup the current state.
In many ways containers behave like virtual machines. They are separated from the host as well as other containers...