Hi
we are running some 140 remote servers (in the 7 seas via satellite connections), and in each one of them we run:
- jboss
- postgresql
- uucp (not as a daemon)
- gpsd
- samba
- and possibly some other services
Hardware and software upgrades are very hard since there is no physical access to those servers by trained personnel, and also there is a diversity of software versions.
The idea for future upgrades is to containerize certain aspects of the software. The questions are (I am not skilled in docker, only minimal contact with lxd) :
- is this a valid use case for containerization?
- are there any gotchas around postgersql, the reliability of the system ?
- since we are talking about 4+ basic services (pgsqk, jboss, uucp, samba), is docker a good fit or should we be looking into lxd as well?
- are there any success stories of other after following a similar path?
Thank you!
PS
For those who wonder about UUCP, UUCP was our comms solution prior we installed TCP/IP on the vessels. However, to this day, it provides a nice management layer, a sort of protection before data leave
the vessel or reach the vessel, in a user controlled manner. So uucp stayed as it matched exactly the business as far data transfers and emails are concerned. It would be hard to uniformly manage data
transfers and emails in/out in a plain TCP/IP setup (rsync, ftp, etc, sendmail/exim4/postfix or other MTA).
--
Achilleas Mantzios
DBA, Analyst, IT Lead
IT DEPT
Dynacom Tankers Mgmt
