[libvirt-users] libvirt-lxc

[Daniel P. Berrange]

On Mon, Aug 10, 2015 at 09:50:04PM +0100, Mark Clarkson wrote:
> Hi,
> I noticed that libvirt-lxc will be deprecated for RedHat:
> 
> "Future development on the Linux containers framework is now based on the
> docker command-line interface. libvirt-lxc tooling may be removed in a
> future release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (including Red Hat Enterprise
> Linux 7) and should not be relied upon for developing custom container
> management applications." - https://access.redhat.com/articles/1365153
> 
> And CentOS:
> 
> "further deprecated packages: libvirt-daemon-driver-lxc, libvirt-daemon-lxc
> and libvirt-login-shell " -
> http://wiki.centos.org/Manuals/ReleaseNotes/CentOS7
> 
> And LXC support from linuxcontainers.org is poor for RedHat/CentOS:
> 
> "... Also Cgmanager which is currently not available on CentOS 7. So cannot
> support unprivileged containers and thus LXD. Systemd based containers need
> at least LXC 1.1, lxcfs and related dependencies that are not available on
> CentOS. ... For a stable, seamless and smooth experience we suggest either
> Debian Wheezy with Flockport packages or Ubuntu Trusty. ..." -
> https://www.flockport.com/lxc-and-lxd-support-across-distributions/
> 
> It seems that the only way for me to use LXC containers on CentOS/RedHat is
> to use Docker, which I am not particularly happy about since, as I
> understand it, Docker and libvirt-lxc/linuxcontainers.org-lxc are for
> different use cases, with their own pros and cons, for example:
> "Why use LXD? ... Full operating system functionality within containers, not
> just single processes ..." - http://www.ubuntu.com/cloud/tools/lxd
> 
> There are many uses for full containers within build, server management,
> testing, etc. where quickly creating containers that look, 'feel' and act
> just like real servers is beneficial, and far cheaper (in many ways) and
> more versatile than fully virtualised machines or docker containers.
> 
> I have just discovered libvirt-lxc and found that it works well on both
> Ubuntu and RedHat, and is designed to be integrated into tooling, which is
> exactly what I need.
> 
> I considered Runc before libvirt, but libvirt is so versatile, allowing me
> to use other technologies such as qemu/kvm, and with its rich API, that I
> would prefer to use libvirt - it would allow me the most options for change
> in the future and seemed like a 'no-brainer' until I saw the deprecation
> announcement.
> 
> Will libvirt-lxc be dropped from libvirt?

Absolutely not. The decisions about what the RHEL product includes have
absolutely no bearing on the libvirt community which intends to continue
to support libvirt-lxc usage. As you say, Docker is not really a 1-1
replacement as they target different use cases. In addition we have a
GSoC project developing the ability to let you run Docker containers
using libvirt-lxc and also libvirt-kvm !

Regards,
Daniel
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