Containerization with LXC

Key Features

• Get the most practical and up-to-date resource on LXC and take full advantage of what Linux containers can offer in the day-to-day operations of large-scale applications
• Learn how to deploy and administer various workloads such as web applications inside LXC
• Save your organization time and money by building robust and secure containers and by speeding the deployment process of your software

Book Description

In recent years, containers have gained wide adoption by businesses running a variety of application loads. This became possible largely due to the advent of kernel namespaces and better resource management with control groups (cgroups). Linux containers (LXC) are a direct implementation of those kernel features that provide operating system level virtualization without the overhead of a hypervisor layer.

This book starts by introducing the foundational concepts behind the implementation of LXC, then moves into the practical aspects of installing and configuring LXC containers. Moving on, you will explore container networking, security, and backups. You will also learn how to deploy LXC with technologies like Open Stack and Vagrant. By the end of the book, you will have a solid grasp of how LXC is implemented and how to run production applications in a highly available and scalable way.

What you will learn

• Deep dive into the foundations of Linux containers with kernel namespaces and cgroups
• Install, configure, and administer Linux containers with LXC and libvirt
• Begin writing applications using Python libvirt bindings
• Take an in-depth look at container networking
• Set up monitoring and security with LXC
• Build and deploy a highly available application with LXC in the cloud

About the Author

Konstantin Ivanov is a Linux systems engineer, an open source developer, and a technology blogger who has been designing, configuring, deploying, and administering large-scale, highly available Linux environments for more than 15 years.

His interests include large distributed systems and task automation, along with solving technical challenges involving multiple technology stacks.

Konstantin received two MS in Computer Science from universities in Bulgaria and the United States, specializing in system and network security and software engineering.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction to Linux Containers
2. Installing and Running LXC on Linux Systems
3. Command-Line Operations Using Native and Libvirt Tools
4. LXC Code Integration with Python
5. Networking in LXC with the Linux Bridge and Open vSwitch
6. Clustering and Horizontal Scaling with LXC
7. Monitoring and Backups in a Containerized World
8. Using LXC with OpenStack
9. LXC Alternatives to Docker and OpenVZ