Containers are useful. Whether you’re shipping things across the blue seas or encapsulating applications on a computer system, they provide numerous benefits. HPC Administrators will know that applications today can depend upon multiple packages, libraries and environments. Docker, a container technology for Linux, based on well proven technologies brings together ease of setup, use and efficiency to application management. Leveraging Docker in High-Performance Computing is one approach to address application “dependency hell”, as well as easing transition to the cloud.

Workload managers are commonly used in High Performance Computing environments to drive effective use of compute resources and ensure alignment of resources with business priorities. IBM Platform LSF, a leading workload management family of products provides support for workloads to run within user-specified Docker containers by way of an integration package available as an open beta on Service Management Connect.

By leveraging the rich Platform LSF plugin framework, the Docker integration works seamlessly and allows users to specify a defined Docker image as a submission option. All resource constraints, environment variables are automatically passed to the container thanks to the integration and Platform LSF job lifecycle management functions including monitoring resource usage as well as control actions (i.e. suspend, resume and terminate) are also supported for Docker containers.

Ease the burden of administration and ensure consistency with IBM Platform LSF and Docker! - and have a whale of a time!