Koordinator: A Service Approach for Replicating Docker Containers in Kubernetes

Abstract

Container-based virtualization technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes are being adopted by cloud service providers due to their simpler deployment, better performance, and lower memory footprint in relation to hypervisor-based virtualization. Kubernetes supports basic replication for availability, but does not provide strong consistency and may corrupt application state in case there is a fault. This paper presents a state machine replication scheme for Kubernetes that provides high availability and integrity with strong consistency. Replica coordination is provided as a service, with lightweight coupling to applications. Experimental results show the solution feasibility.