VMware Project Pacific

2019: Release of the beta

In November, 2019 VMware announced a release of the beta of the new project – Project Pacific on which the company worked about three years. He offers a set of means for the vSphere conversion – a flagship product of VMware – to the native platform for Kubernetes clusters. So far Project Pacific is open for a limited circle of customers. Later it should become available to more wide range of clients, and then - to appear in new releases of vSphere.

Kubernetes represents the platform open source for automation of deployment, scaling and management of the containerized applications. And Project Pacific is a part of the VMware Tanzu portfolio within which the company integrates a set of the new and already available technologies of VMware in a product portfolio and services to create unified operating environment for Kubernetes clusters.

Within Project Pacific VMware significantly changes architecture of vSphere (a photo - NetworkMiddleEast)

Key step for this purpose within Project Pacific is fundamental redesign of architecture of vSphere so that she could act as a unified integrated environment of containers and virtual machines.

Such approach, as envisioned by developers, should allow administrators of vSphere and application developers to develop and manage Kubernetes and container infrastructure in Wednesday, usual for them, using means already familiar to them.

One of creators of the first versions of Kubernetes, the co-founder of Heptio company, and nowadays - the lead engineer of VMware Joe Beda, explained TAdviser that in Project Pacific in brief it is possible to select three key directions. The first – embedding of Kubernetes in vSphere at the level of a layer of management. It gives the chance due to use of uniform API to operate both virtual machines, and Kubernetes objects.

Joe Baguley, the director of VMware of technologies in EMEA region, added to told by the colleague that Kubernetes embedding as the management consoles in vSphere allows to increase scalability of the last.

The second direction – adding of a number of the functions improving work of Kubernetes in the environment of vSphere. One of critical changes affected here a hardware hypervisor of VMware of ESXi that it allowed to perform Kubernetes workload in a native way, Joe Beda says. This function received the name vSphere Native Pods.

The third – integration of an opportunity to dynamically create and carry out upgrade of the cluster Kubernetes resources over vSphere. This approach received the name Guest Kubernetes Cluster (a guest cluster of Kubernetes).

The architect of business solutions of the Russian office VMware Artem Geniyev supplements explanations of foreign specialists concerning global reorganization of architecture of vSphere. She mentions at the same time two levels, he says. One of them - at the level of management: i.e., change of the model of objects and actions put at the level of servers of management. vSphere have a unique object model inherent only in this product. And this object model changes on an object model of Kubernetes. How deployment of infrastructure is made - it belongs both to containers, and to virtual machines - will occur within an object model of Kubernetes: "i.e., we build in Kubernetes as the main management tool lifecycle of infrastructure, replacing what was earlier". Besides, VMware deeply processes the hypervisor that it could is native and most effectively start Kubernetes.

In VMware with reference to the carried-out internal tests say that Kubernetes on the vSphere platform after already carried out completions shows for 30% big performance, than on the virtual machine based on Linux (using a hypervisor of KVM) and for 8% big, than just on Linux server. The company specified TAdviser that the assessment was carried out on SPECjbb 2015 - the Java Business Benchmark test which is used for assessment of capacity of servers on which typical Java applications work.

Test results of performance of Kubernetes in the vSphere and Linux environments (a photo - TAdviser)

The VMware Tanzu project in addition to Project Pacific also includes VMware Tanzu Mission Control - the single operational console for Kubernetes clusters allowing to control all aspects of lifecycle of applications irrespective of where they are started – in public clouds, on-premise, etc.

It should be noted that it is not the first initiative of VMware to adaptation of container virtualization on the platform. For example, earlier it did it within the Project Bonneville project allowing the companies working in vSphere to start the applications packed into the containers Docker on virtual machines.

For several years the company built quite extensive solution portfolio and services for Kubernetes, including, due to acquisition of software developers in this area – Heptio and Pivotal. However this time VMware went further – for the first time it is about absolute integration into the container solution.

And it is not accidental. Demand for container virtualization in the last several years steadily grows. In many respects it is connected with the fact that applications changed: they became more heterogeneous and difficult. Therefore often they do not mean one-two virtual machines any more, and involve both virtual machines, and containers, different services, etc. It creates problems for application developers and for administrators and requires new tools which would solve these problems.

Analysts of Gartner foretell that globally by 2022 about 75% of the organizations will use the containerized applications. Seeing this trend, leaders of the industry, including Amazon, Microsoft, Google and IBM, already offer support of Kubernetes for the cloud platforms.

Development of projects with the open code which in this area already practically became the standard had a great influence on increase in demand and promoting of technologies of containerization. In particular, Docker is software for creation and start of konteynezirovanny applications, and Kubernetes. The last, initially arisen in a subsoil Google, from the moment of opening of the source code which happened in 2014 experienced phenomenal surge in popularity.

Speaking at a press conference in November, the CEO of VMware Pat Gelsinger noted that the company is going to be the curator of process of a nativization of Kubernetes in the industry, pushing community to move towards emergence of the new standard.

I am personally connected with the PCs many standards. I helped to create USB, helped to create Wi-Fi. Therefore I know that this case of strict balance between support and the involvement of the industry along with commercialization and also interest and the involvement of open source of community, - Gelsinger emphasized.