Docker CE for all distributions

The previous post mentioned that Docker provides CE packages for Ubuntu. For users of Debian, SLES, RHEL, Fedora, ClefOS, openSUSE, and Alpine, there is still an option to get the latest Docker CE version to their environment:

First CE for s390x by Docker

Today, Docker CE v17.06 has been released. It offers a series of enhancements as laid out in their announcement blog post. However, there is one more thing: the release comes with s390x binaries. Out of the three major enterprise distributions supported on the mainframe, Docker offers CE for Ubuntu. Particularly, Docker CE is not provided for SLES and RHEL (on any platform). Accordingly, binaries are available for Ubuntu for IBM z Systems.
(Note: See the next post if your distribution of choice happens to be something else than Ubuntu.)

Another Base Image Option: Alpine for s390x

Alpine Linux has announced their new 3.6 release which includes s390x support. Alpine is a minimal Linux distro. Contrary to other distributions, it uses musl as runtime library (not glibc), helping in downsizing images.

A Docker image named s390x/alpine is available at Docker Hub and while being a fully functional base, it is just 5 MB (!) in size:

New Docker Engine Release Scheme

It's a while since Docker changed their release naming system. In the past, the version looked like 1.xx, with xx counting up. After 1.13, Docker moved to a pattern that is easy to grasp and accommodates various life cycles of free and commercial releases.

Docker in the Datacenter

In this year's DockerCon back in April 2017, then-Docker CEO Ben Golub announced Docker will support the mainframe (and Power).

While technically, this is no news, it means Docker, Inc. will support s390x -- good news and another option besides distribution offerings for those looking at running Docker in production on the mainframe. More details to follow as they are announced and available.

Relaunch of Containerz Blog

After quite some inactivity on this blog, I decided to revive this blog. Expect to read regularly about news, how-tos and other information related to container technology on the mainframe. A few posts are in the pipe already.