Aristotle Cloud Federation: Container Runtimes Technical Report

TL;DR

This report investigates the challenges and user experiences of deploying container runtimes like Docker, Singularity, and X-Containers in scientific research, focusing on performance and usability issues on cloud and HPC platforms.

Contribution

It provides insights into container selection challenges, user pain points, and lessons learned for scientific computing environments.

Findings

Identified key user pain points in container adoption.

Analyzed application performance across container runtimes.

Shared best practices for container deployment in research settings.

Abstract

A National Science Foundation-sponsored container runtimes investigation was conducted by the Aristotle Cloud Federation to better understand the challenges of selecting and using Docker, Singularity, and X-Containers. The main goal of this investigation was to identify the "pain points" experienced by users when selecting and using containers for scientific research and to share lessons learned. Application performance characteristics are included in this report as well as user experiences with Kubernetes and container orchestration on cloud and HPC platforms. Scientists, research computing practitioners, and educators may find value in this report when considering the use and/or deployment of containers or when preparing students to meet the unique challenges of using containers in scientific research.