When applications are being run in Docker containers the dependencies for the container are managed via Docker images or a Dockerfile. The Docker host, running the containers, doesn't need to have all possible dependences locally. Rather, it only needs the minimum requirements of the host. We developed a minimal host install, via Ansible, to setup etcd, docker, fleet, and other elements needed in a Docker host on Debian.

IPv6 is a solution for numerous networking issues. As networks migrate from IPv4 to IPv6 there is still significant use of IPv4. Most notably with the global web. If we're, for example, attempting to use IPv6 for networking within our Docker cluster we may want those containers to interact with IPv4 networks. We explored ways to bridge these protocols.

Ansible, typically used to automate servers and applications, can be used to automate other computing systems as well. One example is the network switches enabling communication between servers. To enable configuration of switches we wrote software enabling Ansible to configure HP ProVision and HP Comware switches.

Most of the libraries that allow you to communicate with MySQL block waiting on a response. libAttachSQL, which came out of the ATG, is a lightweight non-blocking C API. Its functionality can be exposed to other languages as well. One example, under development, is pyattachsql that exposes the non-blocking functionality to python.

Ever consider patching the Linux kernel without restarting it? When you're operating a large cloud there are times you have a large number of machines that need to be updated and you may want to do so without taking them offline. We reviewed the options for live updates, produced a demo, and came to some practical conclusions.