Nested Kubernetes with Loft

Matryoshka

Loft Saves Resources

On the one hand, companies do not need to spend large amounts of money on hardware; on the other hand, the additional features save resources. At your request, Loft can put currently unused virtual Kubernetes clusters into a kind of sleep until they are needed again, without your explicit intervention. This feature is obviously aimed at companies where developers only need their Kubernetes environments for testing on an irregular basis. In practice, switching off instances that are not needed at the moment means that tests can be planned and executed more efficiently with the same hardware.

Other Amenities

Loft extends Kubernetes with a kind of tenant capability that cannot even be approached with the original. But that is obviously not enough for the creators of the solution, so they draw on the gamut of features that scalable software should have today.

For example, if you want to know what the resource usage caused by Loft looks like in the target clusters, you can roll out the Prometheus that is integrated in Loft with a few commands from the command line. The time series database benefits because Loft itself provides various metrics in Prometheus-compatible format. The services mesh natively (Figure 5).

Figure 5: The Loft developers have also thought of interfaces for state-of-the-art monitoring systems such as Prometheus. ©Loft

Different Versions

Loft is not open source software but a proprietary product. Parts of the solution can be found under an open license on GitHub, but anyone who wants to use the solution on a large scale will have to purchase the licenses from the manufacturer. The Free version comes without a price tag but only allows the use of three user accounts. It can connect a maximum of two Kubernetes clusters and roll out five virtual clusters. The Productive variant costs $20 per user per month, supports up to 200 users, and can connect 10 Kubernetes clusters and create any number of virtual clusters. If you need the larger package and features such as high availability, you can purchase the Enterprise license for $47 per user per month.

Buy this article as PDF

Express-Checkout as PDF
Price $2.95
(incl. VAT)

Buy ADMIN Magazine

SINGLE ISSUES
 
SUBSCRIPTIONS
 
TABLET & SMARTPHONE APPS
Get it on Google Play

US / Canada

Get it on Google Play

UK / Australia

Related content

  • Kubernetes containers, fleet management, and applications
    Kubernetes is all the rage, but many admins find themselves struggling to get started. We present the basic architecture and the most important components and terms.
  • Correctly integrating containers
    If you run microservices in containers, they are forced to communicate with each other – and with the outside world. We explain how to network pods and nodes in Kubernetes.
  • Linking Kubernetes clusters
    When Kubernetes needs to scale applications, it searches for free nodes that meet a container's CPU and main memory requirements; however, when the existing hardware is at full capacity, the Kubernetes Cluster Federation project (KubeFed) takes the pain out of adding clusters.
  • Five Kubernetes alternatives
    Many admins consider Kubernetes the obvious choice for managing containers; however, don't ignore the highly efficient alternatives just because they are less prominent.
  • VMware connections to the Kubernetes market
    VMware Tanzu comprises several tools and services that make it easy to build, run, and manage a Kubernetes environment from a single point of control.
comments powered by Disqus
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs



Support Our Work

ADMIN content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you've found an article to be beneficial.

Learn More”>
	</a>

<hr>		    
			</div>
		    		</div>

		<div class=