Docker Machine vs Kubernetes vs Rancher

Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

Docker Machine

434
518
+ 1
12
Kubernetes

59.6K
51.5K
+ 1
681
Rancher

954
1.5K
+ 1
644

Docker Machine vs Kubernetes vs Rancher: What are the differences?

Introduction

When it comes to containerization and orchestration, Docker Machine, Kubernetes, and Rancher are among the popular tools used in the industry. Each serves a unique purpose and offers its own set of features. Let's explore the key differences between Docker Machine, Kubernetes, and Rancher.

  1. Deployment Management: Docker Machine is used for creating Docker hosts on local machines or cloud providers simplifying the process of deploying Docker containers. Kubernetes, on the other hand, is a container orchestration platform that automates the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. Rancher is a complete container management platform that offers features for managing multiple Kubernetes clusters, Docker, and managing containerized applications.

  2. Scalability: Docker Machine is more suitable for small-scale deployments where managing a few containers is sufficient. Kubernetes, however, is designed for large-scale deployments, allowing for automatic scaling of applications based on resource usage. Rancher provides scalability by allowing you to manage multiple clusters and nodes across your infrastructure seamlessly.

  3. Networking and Service Discovery: Kubernetes has a robust networking model that includes DNS-based service discovery, load balancing, and network policies that provide secure communication between services. Rancher also offers networking features like DNS, service discovery, and load balancing. Docker Machine, while simpler in setup, relies more on manual configurations for networking and service discovery.

  4. Monitoring and Logging: Kubernetes provides built-in monitoring and logging capabilities through integrations with monitoring tools like Prometheus and logging solutions like Elasticsearch. Rancher also offers monitoring and logging through built-in tools and integrations. Docker Machine, being more focused on deployment, lacks advanced monitoring and logging features compared to Kubernetes and Rancher.

  5. Resource Management: Kubernetes excels in resource allocation and management by allowing users to define resource constraints, quotas, and priorities for their applications. Rancher provides similar resource management features with a user-friendly interface for monitoring resource usage across clusters. Docker Machine, while efficient for deploying containers, has limited capabilities for advanced resource management.

  6. Community Support and Ecosystem: Kubernetes has a large and active community that continuously contributes to its development, resulting in a vast ecosystem of tools and plugins for extending its functionalities. Rancher also benefits from an engaged community and offers additional features through its marketplace. Docker Machine, while widely used, may have fewer community extensions and plugins compared to Kubernetes and Rancher.

In Summary, Docker Machine simplifies container deployment, Kubernetes excels in large-scale orchestration and management, while Rancher offers a comprehensive container management solution with networking, monitoring, and scalable features.

Advice on Docker Machine, Kubernetes, and Rancher

Hello, we have a bunch of local hosts (Linux and Windows) where Docker containers are running with bamboo agents on them. Currently, each container is installed as a system service. Each host is set up manually. I want to improve the system by adding some sort of orchestration software that should install, update and check for consistency in my docker containers. I don't need any clouds, all hosts are local. I'd prefer simple solutions. What orchestration system should I choose?

See more
Replies (1)
Mortie Torabi
Recommends
on
Docker SwarmDocker Swarm

If you just want the basic orchestration between a set of defined hosts, go with Docker Swarm. If you want more advanced orchestration + flexibility in terms of resource management and load balancing go with Kubernetes. In both cases, you can make it even more complex while making the whole architecture more understandable and replicable by using Terraform.

See more
Decisions about Docker Machine, Kubernetes, and Rancher
Michael Roberts

We develop rapidly with docker-compose orchestrated services, however, for production - we utilise the very best ideas that Kubernetes has to offer: SCALE! We can scale when needed, setting a maximum and minimum level of nodes for each application layer - scaling only when the load balancer needs it. This allowed us to reduce our devops costs by 40% whilst also maintaining an SLA of 99.87%.

See more
Simon Reymann
Senior Fullstack Developer at QUANTUSflow Software GmbH · | 30 upvotes · 10.6M views

Our whole DevOps stack consists of the following tools:

  • GitHub (incl. GitHub Pages/Markdown for Documentation, GettingStarted and HowTo's) for collaborative review and code management tool
  • Respectively Git as revision control system
  • SourceTree as Git GUI
  • Visual Studio Code as IDE
  • CircleCI for continuous integration (automatize development process)
  • Prettier / TSLint / ESLint as code linter
  • SonarQube as quality gate
  • Docker as container management (incl. Docker Compose for multi-container application management)
  • VirtualBox for operating system simulation tests
  • Kubernetes as cluster management for docker containers
  • Heroku for deploying in test environments
  • nginx as web server (preferably used as facade server in production environment)
  • SSLMate (using OpenSSL) for certificate management
  • Amazon EC2 (incl. Amazon S3) for deploying in stage (production-like) and production environments
  • PostgreSQL as preferred database system
  • Redis 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.
See more
Manage your open source components, licenses, and vulnerabilities
Learn More
Pros of Docker Machine
Pros of Kubernetes
Pros of Rancher
  • 12
    Easy docker hosts management
  • 166
    Leading docker container management solution
  • 129
    Simple and powerful
  • 107
    Open source
  • 76
    Backed by google
  • 58
    The right abstractions
  • 25
    Scale services
  • 20
    Replication controller
  • 11
    Permission managment
  • 9
    Supports autoscaling
  • 8
    Simple
  • 8
    Cheap
  • 6
    Self-healing
  • 5
    Open, powerful, stable
  • 5
    Reliable
  • 5
    No cloud platform lock-in
  • 5
    Promotes modern/good infrascture practice
  • 4
    Scalable
  • 4
    Quick cloud setup
  • 3
    Custom and extensibility
  • 3
    Captain of Container Ship
  • 3
    Cloud Agnostic
  • 3
    Backed by Red Hat
  • 3
    Runs on azure
  • 3
    A self healing environment with rich metadata
  • 2
    Everything of CaaS
  • 2
    Gke
  • 2
    Golang
  • 2
    Easy setup
  • 2
    Expandable
  • 2
    Sfg
  • 103
    Easy to use
  • 79
    Open source and totally free
  • 63
    Multi-host docker-compose support
  • 58
    Load balancing and health check included
  • 58
    Simple
  • 44
    Rolling upgrades, green/blue upgrades feature
  • 42
    Dns and service discovery out-of-the-box
  • 37
    Only requires docker
  • 34
    Multitenant and permission management
  • 29
    Easy to use and feature rich
  • 11
    Cross cloud compatible
  • 11
    Does everything needed for a docker infrastructure
  • 8
    Simple and powerful
  • 8
    Next-gen platform
  • 7
    Very Docker-friendly
  • 6
    Support Kubernetes and Swarm
  • 6
    Application catalogs with stack templates (wizards)
  • 6
    Supports Apache Mesos, Docker Swarm, and Kubernetes
  • 6
    Rolling and blue/green upgrades deployments
  • 6
    High Availability service: keeps your app up 24/7
  • 5
    Easy to use service catalog
  • 4
    Very intuitive UI
  • 4
    IaaS-vendor independent, supports hybrid/multi-cloud
  • 4
    Awesome support
  • 3
    Scalable
  • 2
    Requires less infrastructure requirements

Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions

Cons of Docker Machine
Cons of Kubernetes
Cons of Rancher
    Be the first to leave a con
    • 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
    • 1
      Additional vendor lock-in (Docker)
    • 1
      More moving parts to secure
    • 1
      Additional Technology Overhead
    • 10
      Hosting Rancher can be complicated

    Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

    - No public GitHub repository available -
    - No public GitHub repository available -

    What is Docker Machine?

    Machine lets you create Docker hosts on your computer, on cloud providers, and inside your own data center. It creates servers, installs Docker on them, then configures the Docker client to talk to them.

    What is Kubernetes?

    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.

    What is 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.

    Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

    What companies use Docker Machine?
    What companies use Kubernetes?
    What companies use Rancher?

    Sign up to get full access to all the companiesMake informed product decisions

    What tools integrate with Docker Machine?
    What tools integrate with Kubernetes?
    What tools integrate with Rancher?

    Sign up to get full access to all the tool integrationsMake informed product decisions

    Blog Posts

    Kubernetesetcd+2
    2
    1178
    Dec 8 2020 at 5:50PM

    DigitalOcean

    GitHubMySQLPostgreSQL+11
    2
    2423
    PythonDockerKubernetes+7
    3
    1138
    May 21 2020 at 12:02AM

    Rancher Labs

    KubernetesAmazon EC2Grafana+12
    5
    1521
    Apr 16 2020 at 5:34AM

    Rancher Labs

    KubernetesRancher+2
    2
    958
    What are some alternatives to Docker Machine, Kubernetes, and Rancher?
    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.
    boot2docker
    boot2docker is a lightweight Linux distribution based on Tiny Core Linux made specifically to run Docker containers. It runs completely from RAM, weighs ~27MB and boots in ~5s (YMMV).
    Docker
    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
    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.
    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.
    See all alternatives