Kubernetes vs containerd

Overview

Kubernetes

Stacks61.2K

Followers52.8K

Votes685

containerd

Stacks81

Followers140

Votes5

Kubernetes vs containerd: What are the differences?

Introduction:

In this task, we will analyze and compare the key differences between Kubernetes and containerd. Both Kubernetes and containerd play important roles in container management and orchestration. However, they have distinct features and functionalities that differentiate them from each other.

Scalability and Orchestration: Kubernetes is a powerful container orchestration platform that allows managing and scaling containerized applications across multiple hosts. It provides advanced features like auto-scaling, load balancing, and service discovery. On the other hand, containerd is a lightweight yet powerful container runtime that focuses mainly on executing containers and managing their lifecycle. It provides a simple and stable runtime environment without the extensive features of Kubernetes.
Advanced Networking and Load Balancing: Kubernetes offers built-in networking capabilities with its service objects and networking plugins. It enables containerized applications to communicate with each other across nodes and provides load balancing for distributing traffic. In contrast, containerd is primarily a runtime and does not include native networking or load balancing functionalities. It relies on external tools or plugins for complex networking setups.
Cluster Management and High Availability: Kubernetes excels in cluster management and high availability by leveraging its control plane components, like the etcd distributed key-value store, and various mechanisms for failure recovery and node replacement. It allows deploying multi-node clusters with automatic failover. On the other hand, containerd does not handle cluster management or high availability directly. It is typically used as a runtime within a Kubernetes cluster, managed by Kubernetes control plane components.
Rich Ecosystem and Tooling: Kubernetes has a vast and thriving ecosystem with a wide range of tools, plugins, and frameworks for managing and deploying containerized applications. It supports integration with various cloud providers and third-party tools. On the contrary, containerd, being a runtime, has a narrower focus and a simpler architecture. It is often used in conjunction with higher-level orchestration platforms like Kubernetes, which provide comprehensive management capabilities.
API and Resource Management: Kubernetes provides a sophisticated API and resource management system through its control plane components. It allows defining and managing resources like pods, services, deployments, and namespaces. Kubernetes offers extensive support for declarative resource configurations and provides powerful tools for monitoring and managing resources. In contrast, containerd does not have a native API or resource management system like Kubernetes. It relies on lower-level container runtime interfaces and can be controlled through higher-level orchestration platforms like Kubernetes.
Community and Support: Kubernetes has a large and active community of developers, contributors, and users. It benefits from continuous development, regular updates, and extensive community support. Additionally, it has a vast online documentation and a strong ecosystem of resources, including tutorials, forums, and meetups. Containerd also has an active community but may have a smaller user base compared to Kubernetes. However, containerd is an integral part of the Kubernetes ecosystem and benefits from the strong community support around Kubernetes itself.

In summary, Kubernetes is a comprehensive container orchestration platform designed for deploying, managing, and scaling containerized applications, while containerd is a lightweight container runtime focused on executing containers efficiently. Kubernetes provides advanced features like scalability, networking, cluster management, and a rich ecosystem, whereas containerd has a simplified architecture and is commonly used within Kubernetes clusters as the runtime component.

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Advice on Kubernetes, containerd

Simon

Senior Fullstack Developer at QUANTUSflow Software GmbH

Apr 27, 2020

Decidedon

GitHub

GitHub Pages

Markdown

Our whole DevOps stack consists of the following tools:

@{GitHub}|tool:27| (incl. @{GitHub Pages}|tool:683|/@{Markdown}|tool:1147| for Documentation, GettingStarted and HowTo's) for collaborative review and code management tool
Respectively @{Git}|tool:1046| as revision control system
@{SourceTree}|tool:1599| as @{Git}|tool:1046| GUI
@{Visual Studio Code}|tool:4202| as IDE
@{CircleCI}|tool:190| for continuous integration (automatize development process)
@{Prettier}|tool:7035| / @{TSLint}|tool:5561| / @{ESLint}|tool:3337| as code linter
@{SonarQube}|tool:2638| as quality gate
@{Docker}|tool:586| as container management (incl. @{Docker Compose}|tool:3136| for multi-container application management)
@{VirtualBox}|tool:774| for operating system simulation tests
@{Kubernetes}|tool:1885| as cluster management for docker containers
@{Heroku}|tool:133| for deploying in test environments
@{nginx}|tool:1052| as web server (preferably used as facade server in production environment)
@{SSLMate}|tool:2752| (using @{OpenSSL}|tool:3091|) for certificate management
@{Amazon EC2}|tool:18| (incl. @{Amazon S3}|tool:25|) for deploying in stage (production-like) and production environments
@{PostgreSQL}|tool:1028| as preferred database system
@{Redis}|tool:1031| as preferred in-memory database/store (great for caching)

The main reason we have chosen Kubernetes over Docker Swarm is related to the following artifacts:

Key features: Easy and flexible installation, Clear dashboard, Great scaling operations, Monitoring is an integral part, Great load balancing concepts, Monitors the condition and ensures compensation in the event of failure.
Applications: An application can be deployed using a combination of pods, deployments, and services (or micro-services).
Functionality: Kubernetes as a complex installation and setup process, but it not as limited as Docker Swarm.
Monitoring: It supports multiple versions of logging and monitoring when the services are deployed within the cluster (Elasticsearch/Kibana (ELK), Heapster/Grafana, Sysdig cloud integration).
Scalability: All-in-one framework for distributed systems.
Other Benefits: Kubernetes is backed by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), huge community among container orchestration tools, it is an open source and modular tool that works with any OS.

12.8M views12.8M

Comments

Detailed Comparison

Kubernetes	containerd
Kubernetes is an open source orchestration system for Docker containers. It handles scheduling onto nodes in a compute cluster and actively manages workloads to ensure that their state matches the users declared intentions.	An industry-standard container runtime with an emphasis on simplicity, robustness, and portability
Lightweight, simple and accessible;Built for a multi-cloud world, public, private or hybrid;Highly modular, designed so that all of its components are easily swappable	OCI Image Spec support; OCI Runtime Spec support (aka runC); Image push and pull support; Container runtime and lifecycle support; Network primitives for creation, modification, and deletion of interfaces; Multi-tenant supported with CAS storage for global images; Management of network namespaces containers to join existing namespaces
Statistics
Stacks 61.2K	Stacks 81
Followers 52.8K	Followers 140
Votes 685	Votes 5
Pros & Cons
Pros 166 Leading docker container management solution 130 Simple and powerful 108 Open source 76 Backed by google 58 The right abstractions Cons 16 Steep learning curve 15 Poor workflow for development 8 Orchestrates only infrastructure 4 High resource requirements for on-prem clusters 2 Too heavy for simple systems	Pros 3 No Need for docker shim 2 Supports Kubernetes version greater than 1.21 0 Needs docker shim to work on kubernetes 0 No kubernetes support after 1.22
Integrations
Vagrant Docker Rackspace Cloud Servers Microsoft Azure Google Compute Engine Ansible Google Kubernetes Engine	No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Kubernetes, containerd?

Rancher

Rancher is an open source container management platform that includes full distributions of Kubernetes, Apache Mesos and Docker Swarm, and makes it simple to operate container clusters on any cloud or infrastructure platform.

Docker Compose

With Compose, you define a multi-container application in a single file, then spin your application up in a single command which does everything that needs to be done to get it running.

Docker Swarm

Swarm serves the standard Docker API, so any tool which already communicates with a Docker daemon can use Swarm to transparently scale to multiple hosts: Dokku, Compose, Krane, Deis, DockerUI, Shipyard, Drone, Jenkins... and, of course, the Docker client itself.

Tutum

Tutum lets developers easily manage and run lightweight, portable, self-sufficient containers from any application. AWS-like control, Heroku-like ease. The same container that a developer builds and tests on a laptop can run at scale in Tutum.

Portainer

It is a universal container management tool. It works with Kubernetes, Docker, Docker Swarm and Azure ACI. It allows you to manage containers without needing to know platform-specific code.

Codefresh

Automate and parallelize testing. Codefresh allows teams to spin up on-demand compositions to run unit and integration tests as part of the continuous integration process. Jenkins integration allows more complex pipelines.

CAST.AI

It is an AI-driven cloud optimization platform for Kubernetes. Instantly cut your cloud bill, prevent downtime, and 10X the power of DevOps.

k3s

Certified Kubernetes distribution designed for production workloads in unattended, resource-constrained, remote locations or inside IoT appliances. Supports something as small as a Raspberry Pi or as large as an AWS a1.4xlarge 32GiB server.

Flocker

Flocker is a data volume manager and multi-host Docker cluster management tool. With it you can control your data using the same tools you use for your stateless applications. This means that you can run your databases, queues and key-value stores in Docker and move them around as easily as the rest of your app.

Kitematic

Simple Docker App management for Mac OS X

Related Comparisons

Stacks61.2K

Followers52.8K

Votes685

containerd

Stacks81

Followers140

Votes5

Kubernetes vs containerd: What are the differences?

Introduction:

Scalability and Orchestration: Kubernetes is a powerful container orchestration platform that allows managing and scaling containerized applications across multiple hosts. It provides advanced features like auto-scaling, load balancing, and service discovery. On the other hand, containerd is a lightweight yet powerful container runtime that focuses mainly on executing containers and managing their lifecycle. It provides a simple and stable runtime environment without the extensive features of Kubernetes.
Advanced Networking and Load Balancing: Kubernetes offers built-in networking capabilities with its service objects and networking plugins. It enables containerized applications to communicate with each other across nodes and provides load balancing for distributing traffic. In contrast, containerd is primarily a runtime and does not include native networking or load balancing functionalities. It relies on external tools or plugins for complex networking setups.
Cluster Management and High Availability: Kubernetes excels in cluster management and high availability by leveraging its control plane components, like the etcd distributed key-value store, and various mechanisms for failure recovery and node replacement. It allows deploying multi-node clusters with automatic failover. On the other hand, containerd does not handle cluster management or high availability directly. It is typically used as a runtime within a Kubernetes cluster, managed by Kubernetes control plane components.
Rich Ecosystem and Tooling: Kubernetes has a vast and thriving ecosystem with a wide range of tools, plugins, and frameworks for managing and deploying containerized applications. It supports integration with various cloud providers and third-party tools. On the contrary, containerd, being a runtime, has a narrower focus and a simpler architecture. It is often used in conjunction with higher-level orchestration platforms like Kubernetes, which provide comprehensive management capabilities.
API and Resource Management: Kubernetes provides a sophisticated API and resource management system through its control plane components. It allows defining and managing resources like pods, services, deployments, and namespaces. Kubernetes offers extensive support for declarative resource configurations and provides powerful tools for monitoring and managing resources. In contrast, containerd does not have a native API or resource management system like Kubernetes. It relies on lower-level container runtime interfaces and can be controlled through higher-level orchestration platforms like Kubernetes.
Community and Support: Kubernetes has a large and active community of developers, contributors, and users. It benefits from continuous development, regular updates, and extensive community support. Additionally, it has a vast online documentation and a strong ecosystem of resources, including tutorials, forums, and meetups. Containerd also has an active community but may have a smaller user base compared to Kubernetes. However, containerd is an integral part of the Kubernetes ecosystem and benefits from the strong community support around Kubernetes itself.

Advice on Kubernetes, containerd

Simon

Senior Fullstack Developer at QUANTUSflow Software GmbH

Apr 27, 2020

Decidedon

GitHub

GitHub Pages

Markdown

Our whole DevOps stack consists of the following tools:

@{GitHub}|tool:27| (incl. @{GitHub Pages}|tool:683|/@{Markdown}|tool:1147| for Documentation, GettingStarted and HowTo's) for collaborative review and code management tool
Respectively @{Git}|tool:1046| as revision control system
@{SourceTree}|tool:1599| as @{Git}|tool:1046| GUI
@{Visual Studio Code}|tool:4202| as IDE
@{CircleCI}|tool:190| for continuous integration (automatize development process)
@{Prettier}|tool:7035| / @{TSLint}|tool:5561| / @{ESLint}|tool:3337| as code linter
@{SonarQube}|tool:2638| as quality gate
@{Docker}|tool:586| as container management (incl. @{Docker Compose}|tool:3136| for multi-container application management)
@{VirtualBox}|tool:774| for operating system simulation tests
@{Kubernetes}|tool:1885| as cluster management for docker containers
@{Heroku}|tool:133| for deploying in test environments
@{nginx}|tool:1052| as web server (preferably used as facade server in production environment)
@{SSLMate}|tool:2752| (using @{OpenSSL}|tool:3091|) for certificate management
@{Amazon EC2}|tool:18| (incl. @{Amazon S3}|tool:25|) for deploying in stage (production-like) and production environments
@{PostgreSQL}|tool:1028| as preferred database system
@{Redis}|tool:1031| as preferred in-memory database/store (great for caching)

The main reason we have chosen Kubernetes over Docker Swarm is related to the following artifacts:

Key features: Easy and flexible installation, Clear dashboard, Great scaling operations, Monitoring is an integral part, Great load balancing concepts, Monitors the condition and ensures compensation in the event of failure.
Applications: An application can be deployed using a combination of pods, deployments, and services (or micro-services).
Functionality: Kubernetes as a complex installation and setup process, but it not as limited as Docker Swarm.
Monitoring: It supports multiple versions of logging and monitoring when the services are deployed within the cluster (Elasticsearch/Kibana (ELK), Heapster/Grafana, Sysdig cloud integration).
Scalability: All-in-one framework for distributed systems.
Other Benefits: Kubernetes is backed by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), huge community among container orchestration tools, it is an open source and modular tool that works with any OS.

12.8M views12.8M

Comments

Detailed Comparison

Kubernetes	containerd
Kubernetes is an open source orchestration system for Docker containers. It handles scheduling onto nodes in a compute cluster and actively manages workloads to ensure that their state matches the users declared intentions.	An industry-standard container runtime with an emphasis on simplicity, robustness, and portability
Lightweight, simple and accessible;Built for a multi-cloud world, public, private or hybrid;Highly modular, designed so that all of its components are easily swappable	OCI Image Spec support; OCI Runtime Spec support (aka runC); Image push and pull support; Container runtime and lifecycle support; Network primitives for creation, modification, and deletion of interfaces; Multi-tenant supported with CAS storage for global images; Management of network namespaces containers to join existing namespaces
Statistics
Stacks 61.2K	Stacks 81
Followers 52.8K	Followers 140
Votes 685	Votes 5
Pros & Cons
Pros 166 Leading docker container management solution 130 Simple and powerful 108 Open source 76 Backed by google 58 The right abstractions Cons 16 Steep learning curve 15 Poor workflow for development 8 Orchestrates only infrastructure 4 High resource requirements for on-prem clusters 2 Too heavy for simple systems	Pros 3 No Need for docker shim 2 Supports Kubernetes version greater than 1.21 0 Needs docker shim to work on kubernetes 0 No kubernetes support after 1.22
Integrations
Vagrant Docker Rackspace Cloud Servers Microsoft Azure Google Compute Engine Ansible Google Kubernetes Engine	No integrations available

Kubernetes vs containerd

Overview

Kubernetes vs containerd: What are the differences?