[ADD] Adding blog post describing Docker Up & Running book review. (#23)

* [ADD] Adding blog post describing Docker Up & Running book review.

Author: ultimatecoder

_posts/2017-12-05-book-review-docker-up-running.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: "Book review 'Docker Up & Running'"
+date: "2017-12-05 11:26:32 +0530"
+tags:
+  - books
+  - docker
+  - linux
+---
+
+
+![book image docker up and running]({{
+site.url}}/assets/images/book_review_docker_up_and_running/main.jpg)
+
+In the modern era of software engineering, terms are coined with a new wrapper.
+Such wrappers are required to make bread-and-butter out of it. Sometimes good
+marketed terms are adopted as best practices. I was having a lot of confusion
+about this Docker technology. Even I was unfamiliar with the concept of
+containers. My certain goal was to get a higher level overview first and then
+come to a conclusion. I started reading about the Docker from its official
+getting started guide. It helped me to host this blog using Docker, but I was
+expecting some more in-depth overview. With that reason, I decided to look for
+better resources. By reading some Quora posts and Goodreads reviews, I decided
+to read “Docker Up & Running by K. Matthias and S. Kane”. I am sharing my
+reading experience here.
+
+
+## TL;DR
+
+The book provides a nice overview of Docker toolchain. It is not a reference
+book. Even though few options are deprecated, I will advise you to read this
+book and then refer the [official documentation](https://docs.docker.com/) to
+get familiar with the latest development.
+
+
+## Detailed overview
+
+I got a printed copy at nearly 450 INR (roughly rounding to 7 USD, where 1 USD =
+65 INR) from [Amazon](https://www.amazon.in/). The prize is fairly acceptable
+with respect to the print quality. The book begins with a little history of containers (Docker is an implementation of the container). Initial chapters give
+a higher level overview of Docker tools combining Docker engine, Docker image,
+Docker registry, Docker compose and Docker container. Authors have pointed out
+situations where Docker is not suitable. I insist you do not skip that topic. I
+skipped the dedicated chapter on installing Docker. I will advise you to skip
+irrelevant topics because the chapters are not interlinked. You should read
+chapter 5 discussing the behavior of the container. That chapter cleared many of
+my confusions.  Somehow I got lost in between, but re-reading helped. Such
+chapters are enough to get a general idea about Docker containers and images.
+Next chapters are focused more on best practices to setup the Docker engine.
+Frankly, I was not aware of possible ways to debug, log or monitor containers at
+runtime. This book points few expected production glitches that you should keep
+in mind. I didn't like the depicted testing workflow by authors. I will look for
+some other references which highlight more strategies to construct your test
+workflow. If you are aware of any, please share them with me via e-mail. I know
+about achieving auto-scaling using various orchestration tools. This book
+provides step by step guidance on configuring and using them. Mentioned tools
+are [Docker Swarm](https://github.com/docker/swarm),
+[Centurion](https://github.com/newrelic/centurion) and [Amazon EC2 container
+service](https://aws.amazon.com/ecs/). Unfortunately, the book is missing
+[Kubernets](https://kubernetes.io/) and
+[Helios](https://github.com/spotify/helios) here. As a part of advanced topics,
+you will find a comparison of various filesystems with a shallow overview of how
+Docker engine interacts with them. The same chapter is discussing available
+execution drivers and introduces [LXC](https://linuxcontainers.org/) as another
+container technology. This API option is deprecated by [Docker version
+1.8](https://github.com/moby/moby/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md#180-2015-08-11) which
+makes [libcontainer](https://github.com/docker/libcontainer) the only dependency. I learned how Docker containers provide
+the virtualization layer using [Namespaces][namespaces]. Docker limits the execution of
+container using [CGroups (Control
+Groups)][cgroups].
+[Namespaces][namespaces] and [CGroups][cgroups] are
+GNU/Linux level dependencies used by Docker under the hood. If you are an API
+developer, then you should not skip Chapter 11. This chapter discusses two
+well-followed patterns [Twelve-Factor App](https://12factor.net/) and [The Reactive manifesto](https://www.reactivemanifesto.org/). These
+guidelines are helpful while designing the architecture of your services. The
+book concludes with further challenges of using Docker as a container tool.
+
+
+One typo I found at page number 123, second last line.
+
+```
+expore some of the tools...
+```
+
+Here, `expore` is a typo and it should be
+
+```
+explore some of the tools...
+```
+
+I have submitted it to the [official
+errata](http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/errataunconfirmed.csp?isbn=0636920036142).
+At the time of writing this post, it has not confirmed by authors. Hope they
+will confirm it soon.
+
+
+### Who should read this book?
+
+* Developers who want to get an in-depth overview of the Docker technology.
+
+* If you set up deployment clusters using Docker, then this book will help you
+  to get an overview of Docker engine internals. You will find security and
+  performance guidelines.
+
+* This is not a reference book. If you are well familiar with Docker, then this
+  book will not be useful. In that case, the Docker documentation is the best
+  reference.
+
+* I assume Docker was not supporting Windows platform natively when the book was
+  written. The book focuses on GNU/Linux platform. It highlights ways to run
+  Docker on Windows using VMs and [Boot2Docker](http://boot2docker.io/) for
+  Non-Linux VM-based servers.
+
+
+### What to keep in mind?
+
+* Docker is changing rapidly. There will be situations where mentioned options
+  are deprecated. In such situation, you have to browse the latest Docker
+  documentation and try to follow them.
+
+* You will be able to understand the official documentation better after reading
+  this book.
+
+
+## Conclusion
+
+* Your GNU/Linux skills are your Docker skills. Once you understand what the
+  Docker is, then your decisions will become more mature.
+
+
+###### Proofreaders: [Dhavan Vaidya](http://codingquark.com/), [Polprog](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsxonLIUu9tB8QWNuFIXCwg/featured)
+
+## Printed Copy
+
+* [Amazon](https://www.amazon.in/Docker-Up-Running-Karl-Matthias/dp/9352131320)
+* [Flipkart](https://www.flipkart.com/docker-up-running/p/itme8n74nhfg2wnm?pid=9789352131327)
+* [O'REILLY](http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920036142.do)
+
+[namespaces]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_namespaces
+[cgroups]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cgroups