Series
SMACK 13: "Introduction to Containers (Docker and Singularity)"

Abstract

Containers are portable environments that package up code and all its dependencies so that an application can run quickly and reliably from one computing environment to another. Most people are probably familiar with full virtualization environments (such as VirtualBox), so in this talk we will explain the main differences between full virtualization and containers (sometimes called light-weight virtualization), and when to use each.

At the same time, not all container technologies have the same goals and/or approaches. Docker is the most mature container offering, but it is geared mainly towards micro-services. Singularity is a newer contender, with an emphasis on mobility of compute for scientific computing. We will introduce both softwares, showing how to create and use containers with each of them, while discussing real-life examples of their use.

The lecture notes can be found here:
https://gitlab.com/makhlaghi/smack-talks-iac/-/blob/master/smack-13-docker.md