In a fairly short time Docker has become one of the most talked‑about projects in the technology community. It’s not only startups that are embracing Docker, but also large, established enterprises, contradicting the stereotype that enterprises are slow to move. This is because Docker has something for everyone. For the developer, Docker makes it easier to develop and distribute applications. For operations teams, the Docker container is much lighter weight than a virtual machine, leading to much more efficient resource utilization. For IT management and application owners, this all means features are delivered to customers quicker and cheaper.
However you’re using Docker in your organization – or even if you’re just thinking about it – the O’Reilly ebook Docker Networking and Service Discovery is a must‑read, and is yours free from NGINX. Using Docker containers in production brings up challenges that might not come up when developing a new application within Docker; such as load balancing, health monitoring, visibility, and routing. In this ebook from O’Reilly, author Michael Hausenblas, Developer Advocate at Mesosphere, addresses these challenges and others. He provides a practical guide on the young and evolving field of networking and service discovery within a Docker‑based environment.
As you’ll see throughout this ebook, NGINX and NGINX Plus are key components in successful microservices deployments with Docker. Containers are ephemeral by design, so both NGINX and NGINX Plus act as a stable entry point to your Docker application, a persistent and reliable place for clients to connect. On the backend, both NGINX and NGINX Plus route and load balance requests, and provide security controls for your services.
NGINX Plus offers even more, with tighter integration to the service discovery platforms discussed in this ebook. You can set up automatic reconfiguration of the pool of load‑balanced servers when the set of container instances changes, without having to reload the configuration file or restart any processes, enabling even greater scale and freedom to deploy changes. Please check out our demo using Consul for service discovery.
Additionally, NGINX Plus ensures the reliability and uptime of your Docker containers by monitoring their health, and generates valuable stats that give you visibility into your Docker deployment with your choice of monitoring tool. To try these advanced features in your own environment, download a free trial of NGINX Plus.
