Integrating containers in
JavaScript
the good, the bad, and the ugly
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cloud advocate_
who am I_
ludossan@microsoft.com
{twitter, facebook, linkedin…}.lsantos.dev
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containers are a thing_
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it’s easy to control them
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if you are human_
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what if you’re not?
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then we use containerd
- High-level runtime (runtime
manager) created by the Open
Container Initiative
- Powers Docker
- Created to be manipulated
through code
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not so easy for JS devs
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Golang predominance
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Then I came across this article_
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What if I did this using
Node.js?
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The first attempt
sometimes good, mostly bad, but always ugly
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use child-process
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pros
- Super easy
- Takes advantage of ctr’s built
in features
- Faster implementation
- Can be integrated with any
external API
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so easy that I built this
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to the code
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cons
- heavily dependent on
environment
- no complete control over the
process
- Limited to parsing the string
outputs
- Error handling is poor
- Needs sudo
- Input sanitizing
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conclusion: we can integrate
containers into JS
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but I wanted a real integration
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The second attempt
mostly good, sometimes bad, kinda pretty
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containerd was meant to be extended
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but you need to know how to do it
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No content
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No content
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but it is possible
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to the code
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pros
- Proper error handling
- Proper return codes
- Allows you full control of the
pipeline
- Does not need to be in the
same machine
- Does not require sudo
- Native (gRPC module)
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cons
- Requires a LOT of knowledge
in containers
- Sparse documentation both
for gRPC and containerd
- Harder
- Might be a problem to connect
to external servers
- CRT certificates and so on