Docker was all the rave as it hit the industry last year. Being an open-source platform that can easily create portable and independent containers from almost any application certainly merits the spotlight as it reduces server energy as well as simplify software development. According to the official Docker Hub registry site, Docker is an open platform made specifically for developers and sysadmins for applications, with a Docker Engine, and a Docker Hub for which is adept at automating workflows. It enables apps to be assembled twice as fast as it improves development and production environments.

Now, Oracle Linux has made its distribution available in a Docker container, a bold move by one of the leading database and application companies. Offered as a containerized operating system that is ready for download, InformationWeek’s Charles Babcock said that its goal is to be more appealing to developers interested in apps across different environments.

Docker and Linux

Building primarily on Linux containers (LXC), Docker is poised to become one of the most popular container technology applications. Oracle Linux has an array of modifications, which makes it more ready for enterprises compared to rival Linux platforms. For example, Oracle’s Ksplice technology is known to get customers to apply any update to the kernel on the fly, therefore eliminating the need for a scheduled downtime period. Other than that, there are several other Linux vendors, which include the likes of Red Hat and Ubuntu, who are all building Docker versions of their Linux. Studies from the Data Center Knowledge had shown that more than 33 percent of websites operating worldwide are on servers that are being run off by Linux. It is safe to conclude therefore that websites running on Oracle Linux may eventually develop faster. As a result, web developers could add other features and back-end functions.

The Docker Hub registry

There are many unofficial versions, unfortunately, of Oracle Linux on Docker Hub. Because of this, it is early to maintain an officially sanctioned application from Oracle, especially one that is free to use. The Docker Hub registry was created to allow collaboration with an unlimited number of people.

Wim Coekaerts is Oracle’s senior vice president specializing on Linux and virtualization engineering and one of the supporters of the registry. He maintained that this would, enable developers to take the open source nature of Oracle Linux, as well as MySQL, to build products.

Coekaerts noted that the registry is in essence a marketplace where almost anyone can publish as many images as they want. In reality, the registry is a repository of all Docker apps that can be deployed on a Docker engine host. Coekaerts further said: “We just want to have an official Oracle account on GitHub and Docker so that Docker users know that these are the official images coming from Oracle. Our official Docker image goes through Oracle QA first, and Docker build validation as well”.

Contact Four Cornerstone now for all issues related to containerized operating system and Oracle Linux. We offer Oracle consulting in Dallas, which can help your business maintain its technological advantage.