Need Help with Docker Implementation in MS Azure

1 points by calpas 8 years ago | 6 comments

Hello guys,

I need your assistance with Docker. I currently have two Azure VMs (both Ubuntu 16.04) for Zabbix (Enterprise server monitoring) and Snipe-IT (Asset Management). Now the requirement is to replace these two machines with Docker.

How would you implement this? It should run in Azure. Would you make a VM and run two containers (Zabbix and Snipe-IT) and a container for MySQL? Or would you implement it via Docker CE for Azure?

Where are the differences and what is the most cost effective in the end? A swarm is not desired, it should not be too mega complicated.

I look forward to your suggestions.

andymoe 8 years ago |

I’d look at this service to see if you can simplify: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/container-instanc...

I’ve run Docker CE on azure vms on individual host, also customized ACS for swarm and they are both a PITA in their own ways.

Either way use terraform or ARM templates to provision where you can. Probably need the ARM templates for the newer container instance service since I doubt terraform is updated yet.

calpas 8 years ago | |

Hello Andymoe, thank you for your quick answer.

Azure container instances look good, I'll take a closer look at that. What would the implementation then look like? I need two containers for the apps and then one for the MySQL database. So in the end I would have 3 container instances, correct?

Is it cheaper to use Azure MySQL or to run MySQL in a container instance?

Thanks in advance

andymoe 8 years ago | | |

I'd just use the hosted MySQL service.

It will take a lot of time configuring MySQL to be production ready with backups, etc. Layer on top of that the complexity of running it in a container... How do you patch the DB software if you run it in a container? Make a new container stop the existing container and reattach the data volume correctly and then you have to deal with downtime or a cluster of containers running the DB if you don't want downtime. You're going to have a bad time unless you really know what you are doing and I still would not run MySQL in a container instance.

sheraz 8 years ago | | |

Be advised that Azure container instances are very expensive to run 24/7. This is not the intended use.

ACI current pricing as of Dec 2017

1 create request x 1GB memory x 1 month (2592000 seconds) x $0.0000125 (GB/sec) = $32

1 create request x 1 CPU Core x 1 month (2592000 seconds) x $0.0000125 (GB/sec) = $32

Total ~ $64 / month.

I think you might be better off running an Ubuntu VM with Docker for your services and then add Azure Databases for MySQL for persistence. That is how I deploy inside azure.