Docker + Open Networking : Decoupling infrastructure from hardware

Shouldn’t it be simple to take any three-server test cluster and achieve linear performance and capacity increases without an exponential increase in cost?

Medallia (http://www.medallia.com/) leveraged Docker with Mesos to transition to a microservice architecture for their applications. Join Medallia’s Architect, Thorvald Natvig (https://www.linkedin.com/in/slicer) as he explains how Docker, Mesos and Open Networking allowed Medallia to build a larger and more automated datacenter.

Data Center attributes:

Switches run like servers with 32 network cards by leveraging Cumulus Linux (https://vimeo.com/123888999)

Storage cluster consists of Linux servers running CEPH

Compute nodes are Linux servers with Docker, using Mesos and Aurora for orchestration

Architect distributed non-blocking routed (OSPF) leaf/spine architecture

Build modern data center that is simple with fewer components

Optimize compute & storage performance on a 40GbE end-to-end network

Key benefits:

Run containers with high performance networking and storage on commodity hardware and software, and not worry about infrastructure failures

Overall design is simple, making it easy to operate and maintain

The services can relocate in case of hardware failure or maintenance

On a 40GbE network, performance for storage is on par with local all-SSD storage

Performance is identical from all locations. There is no network locality

This design allows services like ZooKeeper, DNS servers, databases, and Mesos masters in Docker containers. We even run our load balancers as a relocatable service; as the IP address follows the service, we do not need to update the external-facing firewall when the service relocates

No special servers; every service runs on standardized infrastructure

Food and beverages will be provided. Ample parking available at Cumulus Networks and next door.