XenServer, Xen Orchestra and Docker

2015 December Update: check our complete guide to use Docker with XenServer: Docker support in XenServer, the ultimate guide

Yes, XO 4.0 is not far. But in parallel, we made a nice step further for Docker integration in Xen Orchestra.

Thanks to the plugin developed recently as a "preview" by Citrix in XenServer, we started to work something to expose those data in Xen Orchestra.

First thing first, we now detect which VMs are "Docker ready", meaning connected to XenServer and its plugin to send more info.

This is visible in the home page of XO, VM with a small ship blue logo:

By clicking on this VM, you'll have some new stuff visible, first the Docker version:

But here is the interesting stuff: a new panel display now all the containers on the VM:

And yes, you can Stop, Start, Pause, Resume or Restart a Docker container from here!

Here is a short video demo:

Why?

Coupled with our extended ACLs coming for the 4.0, you can now imagine this:

• delegate the permission to your dev team to interact only with their VMs (without other basic rights on this VM)
• and to quickly act with their own containers
• with the live VM metrics just above, they can understand more what's happening in real time
• all the containers are in VMs, so you can predict the maximum resources usage, even with a TON of containers
• you can adjust the VM settings in live (CPU, RAM) if you dev team (or client) need it.

What's next?

Our goal is to provide an easy solution for deploying VMs "containers ready". We'll have to expose a simple way to create VMs with the SSH key you need, etc.

Also note that XenServer Dundee will probably have a deeper Docker integration, which will open nice opportunities for us to deliver better solutions.

Well, as you can see, XO 4.0 will be the biggest release ever for Xen Orchestra (don't forget we also have in bonus the patch detection system). And all of this, soon!