Capistrano vs Docker

Overview

Docker

Stacks194.2K

Followers143.8K

Votes3.9K

Capistrano

Stacks1.5K

Followers647

Votes232

GitHub Stars12.9K

Forks1.8K

Capistrano vs Docker: What are the differences?

Introduction

Capistrano and Docker are both widely used tools in the world of software development and deployment. While both tools can be used to deploy applications, they have significant differences in their approach and functionality. In this article, we will explore the key differences between Capistrano and Docker.

Deployment Process: Capistrano is a remote server automation tool, specifically designed to automate the deployment of web applications to servers. It follows a sequential deployment process, where the tasks are executed one after another. On the other hand, Docker is a containerization platform that allows applications to be packaged in lightweight, isolated containers. Docker follows an image-based deployment process, where each application is packaged as a container image and can be deployed as multiple instances across different environments.
Isolation and Portability: Capistrano relies on the underlying server architecture to deploy applications, resulting in dependencies on specific operating systems and server configurations. Docker, on the other hand, provides a consistent and portable environment by encapsulating the application and its dependencies within a container. This ensures that the application runs identically across different environments, making it easier to deploy and manage.
Scalability and Resource Management: Capistrano does not offer built-in support for scaling applications horizontally. It relies on the server's infrastructure for scaling. Docker, on the other hand, provides native support for container orchestration through tools like Kubernetes and Docker Swarm. These tools allow for easy scaling of containers across multiple hosts, providing better resource management and load balancing.
Dependency Management: Capistrano primarily focuses on deploying applications and may require manual management of dependencies and configurations on the server. Docker, on the other hand, allows for easy management of dependencies by encapsulating them within the container image. This ensures that the application has all the necessary dependencies, configurations, and libraries required to run smoothly.
Rollbacks and Versioning: Capistrano provides built-in support for rolling back deployments to previous versions if issues are detected. It also allows for version management, enabling easy switching between different versions of an application. Docker, however, provides more flexibility in terms of rollbacks and versioning. Each container image can be tagged with a unique version, allowing for easy rollbacks and managing multiple versions simultaneously.
Development Environment: Capistrano is primarily used for deployment and automation in production environments. It may not be as suitable for development environments, as it focuses on server automation rather than containerization. Docker, on the other hand, is widely used for creating development environments that closely resemble production environments. It allows developers to create containers with all the necessary dependencies for the development process, providing consistency and reproducibility.

In summary, Capistrano is a remote server automation tool for sequential deployment, while Docker is a containerization platform that provides isolation, portability, scalability, dependency management, and version control. Docker is more suitable for creating consistent development environments and enables easy scaling and management of applications across different environments.

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Advice on Docker, Capistrano

Florian

IT DevOp at Agitos GmbH

Oct 22, 2019

Decided

lxd/lxc and Docker aren't congruent so this comparison needs a more detailed look; but in short I can say: the lxd-integrated administration of storage including zfs with its snapshot capabilities as well as the system container (multi-process) approach of lxc vs. the limited single-process container approach of Docker is the main reason I chose lxd over Docker.

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Detailed Comparison

Docker	Capistrano
The Docker Platform is the industry-leading container platform for continuous, high-velocity innovation, enabling organizations to seamlessly build and share any application — from legacy to what comes next — and securely run them anywhere	Capistrano is a remote server automation tool. It supports the scripting and execution of arbitrary tasks, and includes a set of sane-default deployment workflows.
Integrated developer tools; open, portable images; shareable, reusable apps; framework-aware builds; standardized templates; multi-environment support; remote registry management; simple setup for Docker and Kubernetes; certified Kubernetes; application templates; enterprise controls; secure software supply chain; industry-leading container runtime; image scanning; access controls; image signing; caching and mirroring; image lifecycle; policy-based image promotion	Reliably deploy web application to any number of machines simultaneously, in sequence or as a rolling set;Automate audits of any number of machines (checking login logs, enumerating uptimes, and/or applying security patches);Script arbitrary workflows over SSH;Automate common tasks in software teams;Drive infrastructure provisioning tools such as chef-solo, Ansible or similar
Statistics
GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars 12.9K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 1.8K
Stacks 194.2K	Stacks 1.5K
Followers 143.8K	Followers 647
Votes 3.9K	Votes 232
Pros & Cons
Pros 823 Rapid integration and build up 692 Isolation 521 Open source 505 Testability and reproducibility 460 Lightweight Cons 8 New versions == broken features 6 Documentation not always in sync 6 Unreliable networking 4 Moves quickly 3 Not Secure	Pros 121 Automated deployment with several custom recipes 63 Simple 23 Ruby 11 Release-folders with symlinks 9 Multistage deployment
Integrations
Java Docker Compose VirtualBox Linux Amazon EC2 Container Service Docker Swarm boot2docker Kubernetes Docker Machine Vagrant	No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Docker, Capistrano?

Ansible

Ansible is an IT automation tool. It can configure systems, deploy software, and orchestrate more advanced IT tasks such as continuous deployments or zero downtime rolling updates. Ansible’s goals are foremost those of simplicity and maximum ease of use.

Chef

Chef enables you to manage and scale cloud infrastructure with no downtime or interruptions. Freely move applications and configurations from one cloud to another. Chef is integrated with all major cloud providers including Amazon EC2, VMWare, IBM Smartcloud, Rackspace, OpenStack, Windows Azure, HP Cloud, Google Compute Engine, Joyent Cloud and others.

Terraform

With Terraform, you describe your complete infrastructure as code, even as it spans multiple service providers. Your servers may come from AWS, your DNS may come from CloudFlare, and your database may come from Heroku. Terraform will build all these resources across all these providers in parallel.

Puppet Labs

Puppet is an automated administrative engine for your Linux, Unix, and Windows systems and performs administrative tasks (such as adding users, installing packages, and updating server configurations) based on a centralized specification.

Salt

Salt is a new approach to infrastructure management. Easy enough to get running in minutes, scalable enough to manage tens of thousands of servers, and fast enough to communicate with them in seconds. Salt delivers a dynamic communication bus for infrastructures that can be used for orchestration, remote execution, configuration management and much more.

Fabric

Fabric is a Python (2.5-2.7) library and command-line tool for streamlining the use of SSH for application deployment or systems administration tasks. It provides a basic suite of operations for executing local or remote shell commands (normally or via sudo) and uploading/downloading files, as well as auxiliary functionality such as prompting the running user for input, or aborting execution.

LXD

LXD isn't a rewrite of LXC, in fact it's building on top of LXC to provide a new, better user experience. Under the hood, LXD uses LXC through liblxc and its Go binding to create and manage the containers. It's basically an alternative to LXC's tools and distribution template system with the added features that come from being controllable over the network.

AWS OpsWorks

Start from templates for common technologies like Ruby, Node.JS, PHP, and Java, or build your own using Chef recipes to install software packages and perform any task that you can script. AWS OpsWorks can scale your application using automatic load-based or time-based scaling and maintain the health of your application by detecting failed instances and replacing them. You have full control of deployments and automation of each component

LXC

LXC is a userspace interface for the Linux kernel containment features. Through a powerful API and simple tools, it lets Linux users easily create and manage system or application containers.

cPanel

It is an industry leading hosting platform with world-class support. It is globally empowering hosting providers through fully-automated point-and-click hosting platform by hosting-centric professionals

Related Comparisons

Capistrano vs Docker: What are the differences?

Introduction

Deployment Process: Capistrano is a remote server automation tool, specifically designed to automate the deployment of web applications to servers. It follows a sequential deployment process, where the tasks are executed one after another. On the other hand, Docker is a containerization platform that allows applications to be packaged in lightweight, isolated containers. Docker follows an image-based deployment process, where each application is packaged as a container image and can be deployed as multiple instances across different environments.
Isolation and Portability: Capistrano relies on the underlying server architecture to deploy applications, resulting in dependencies on specific operating systems and server configurations. Docker, on the other hand, provides a consistent and portable environment by encapsulating the application and its dependencies within a container. This ensures that the application runs identically across different environments, making it easier to deploy and manage.
Scalability and Resource Management: Capistrano does not offer built-in support for scaling applications horizontally. It relies on the server's infrastructure for scaling. Docker, on the other hand, provides native support for container orchestration through tools like Kubernetes and Docker Swarm. These tools allow for easy scaling of containers across multiple hosts, providing better resource management and load balancing.
Dependency Management: Capistrano primarily focuses on deploying applications and may require manual management of dependencies and configurations on the server. Docker, on the other hand, allows for easy management of dependencies by encapsulating them within the container image. This ensures that the application has all the necessary dependencies, configurations, and libraries required to run smoothly.
Rollbacks and Versioning: Capistrano provides built-in support for rolling back deployments to previous versions if issues are detected. It also allows for version management, enabling easy switching between different versions of an application. Docker, however, provides more flexibility in terms of rollbacks and versioning. Each container image can be tagged with a unique version, allowing for easy rollbacks and managing multiple versions simultaneously.
Development Environment: Capistrano is primarily used for deployment and automation in production environments. It may not be as suitable for development environments, as it focuses on server automation rather than containerization. Docker, on the other hand, is widely used for creating development environments that closely resemble production environments. It allows developers to create containers with all the necessary dependencies for the development process, providing consistency and reproducibility.

Capistrano vs Docker

Overview

Capistrano vs Docker: What are the differences?