With DevOps evolving as the primary practice of IT operations and development, development engineers are participating through the entire software development cycle – right from design and development to production support.

Kubernetes, Docker, and Jenkins are some of the vital cogs in DevOps automation.

In this blog, we explain the differences between Kubernetes, Docker, and Jenkins model along with their pros and cons.

Kubernetes

Created by Google, Kubernetes is an open-source CMS that handles a containerized program in any categories of physical, virtual, or cloud environments.

A flexible container tool that provides for the most complex applications runs on clusters of millions of independent servers. Anyone with legit credentials can manage the Kubernetes containerized software.

Features of Kubernetes

  • Service location and load balancing: Kubernetes finds and allots containers with IP addresses with a unique DNS name, which the DevOps engineer further uses for load balancing.
  • Planning and Placement: Placing the containers in the cluster is a crucial aspect that makes the decision based on the types of resources it requires and how long.
  • Auto Scaling: Auto scaling directly depends on CPU utilization and the vertical scaling of programs is triggered by the CLI.
  • Self-Repair: This is a special characteristic of Kubernetes that will reboot the whole container when it malfunctions. As soon as the nodes stop working, containers are restored and reassigned to the other nodes.
  • Storage Orchestration: Storage orchestration allows the client to scale the network storage system and localize it.
  • Batch execution: Kubernetes manages both batches as well as CI workloads, including restoring containers that don’t function.
  • Configuration Management and Secrets: The information stored under a module called Secrets are utilized while configuring the software without having to reestablish the image.

Docker

Docker is also an open-source technology that automates the classification of various applications in lightweight and transferable containers. Docker uses many Linux kernel attributes and sandbox processes in configurable virtual environments.

Although container virtualization is an old concept, top firms including Red Hat and Microsoft depend on Docker for their DevOps.

Features of Docker

  • Fast and simple configuration: Configuring the system is easier with Docker as it is used in various environments.
  • Increase productivity: Technical configuration and quick deployment of the application is made easier with Docker as it helps extend the apps in a remote environment.
  • Application Isolation: Docker provides containers that help run applications in an isolation environment. The containers are isolated from each other, allowing you to run any application.
  • Swarm: This is a clustering and scheduling tool for Docker containers that uses API as its front end. It also manages a cluster of Docker hosts with a single virtual host.
  • Routing Mesh: This directs all the incoming requests for published ports on free nodes to an active container. The node and container are connected even if no task is running on the node.
  • Services: This allows you to identify the state of the container inside each cluster. Each study represents a container waiting to be deployed and Swarm schedules them in a queue across nodes.
  • Security Management: This feature saves critical information into the Swarm and then chooses to give access to secrets.

Jenkins

Jenkins is a free automation tool that has many plugins for Continuous Integration. Designed to develop and test your software projects and applications, Jenkins is much more straightforward for IT teams to merge any changes in the project.

With Jenkins, you can enhance the software development cycle through end-to-end automation.

Features of Jenkins

  • Easy Installation: Jenkins is a platform-agnostic, independent Java-based program, which is ready to be deployed within Windows OS, Mac OS, and Unix.
  • Easy Configuration: Its web-based interface allows an easy configuration system, featuring fault checks and an Ask Help feature.
  • Available Plugins: Plugins are integrated with every CI/CD toolchain tool.
  • Extensible: Jenkins is expandable through the plugin architecture, exploring endless possibilities.
  • Easy Distribution: Jenkins can distribute tasks across several machines for faster delivery.

Salient Differences

  • Docker and Swarm don’t support auto-scaling. Kubernetes provides auto-scaling, whereas Jenkins gets the support from Kubernetes.
  • Kubernetes supports limits to 5000 nodes, whereas Docker Swarm supports 2000+ nodes. The number depends on the limit set in the number of master and slaves.
  • Docker Swarm is more comprehensive and highly customizable, whereas Jenkins is customizable with the help of plugins.
  • Kubernetes and Jenkins provide low fault tolerance unlike Docker.
  • Docker is a container engine that can make and handle containers, whereas Jenkins is a CI/CD model that can build and test applications. Kubernetes automates computer applications with the external help of CI/CD.
  • Docker is used for building and running multiple transferable environments, whereas Jenkins is an automated software testing tool for your app. On the other hand, Kubernetes is a system for automating deployment, scaling, and management.
  • Jenkins provides an easy UI/UX for the end-user to create and manage CI/CD pipelines using its plugins. Organizations also build Docker images and run Docker containers by leveraging Jenkins CI/CD pipeline.

Abstract

Considering the budget, features, scalability, and robustness, the IT teams need to take a call on which model to implement. Deciding on the right set of tools is a challenging task, but we recommend you to combine 2 or more models for your organization.

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