Microsoft Rolls Out Azure Container Service Preview -- Redmondmag.com

Microsoft Rolls Out Azure Container Service Preview

By Kurt Mackie
12/02/2015

Microsoft issued a preview today of its Azure Container Service for public testing.

The service provides open source tools support for managing clusters of virtual machines that host containerized applications. Right now, the Azure Container Service only supports Linux containers. Microsoft plans to support Windows Server Containers in a future update.

The Azure Container Service preview was built in collaboration with Microsoft's partners, Docker Inc. and Mesosphere. The service supports those partners' scheduling and orchestration tools, such as Docker Compose or Mesosphere's Datacenter Operating System. Microsoft's Azure Container Service provides an API that those tools can use. Alternatively, any software capable of leveraging the API can be used, per Microsoft's announcement.

Microsoft provides Azure Resource Manager templates for the Azure Container Service that can be used with Apache Mesos (an open source container scheduling and orchestration service) and Docker Swarm (an open source clustering tool). Microsoft supports both of these open source tools because they are "popular among our customers today," per the announcement. The Azure Resource Manager is currently Microsoft's leading-edge tool for managing virtual machines on Azure, although its older Azure Service Manager tool also can be used.

Microsoft's video accompanying the announcement described the Azure Container Service as being used by developers for dev-test purposes. It can help when checking in code during builds. It's possible to use the open source Jenkins solution as a continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) server for code builds using the Azure Container Service, according to the video.

Right now, to try out the Azure Container Service preview, users have to "self-nominate" themselves. That's done by filling out this 10-question online survey. Users also need an Azure account to test it, which can be the free trial version. Microsoft plans to broaden access to the preview sometime in "early 2016."

About the Author

Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.

Featured

Using Configuration Files to Control PowerShell Scripts, Part 2: Building Blocks

Learn how to use PowerShell's GUI capabilities to dynamically create configuration files that enhance script flexibility and usability.
U.S. House Leaders Unveil Bipartisan Strategy for AI Governance and Innovation

On Tuesday, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries received the final report from the bipartisan House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence, which outlines essential principles and recommendations to bolster American leadership in AI.
Using Configuration Files to Control PowerShell Scripts, Part 1: The Basics

Learn how to use JSON configuration files to make PowerShell scripts more dynamic, flexible and user-friendly.
Exchange Online Receiving Enhanced Message Trace

Microsoft has announced the public preview of its enhanced Message Trace feature in the Exchange admin center (EAC) for Exchange Online.
Major Microsoft Multifactor Authentication Vulnerability Revealed

A vulnerability in Microsoft’s multifactor authentication (MFA) system has been uncovered by cybersecurity firm Oasis Security, allowing attackers to bypass security measures and access sensitive data across services including Outlook, OneDrive, Teams and Azure.