What is Docker Container?
Docker Container is a virtual environment that holds a space in user memory. It virtualizes the held memory. Users can launch their web apps, services, etc. in the container.
Every container runs on a Linux kernel as isolated from each other. So, you can run multiple containers at the same time.
If we think virtualization type 1, executed operating systems on phyiscal hardware are containers for Docker.
Docker vs Traditional Virtualization Models
Docker:
- Uses only user memory
- Docker images limited to megabytes, not gigabytes
- Fast startup
Hypervisor VMs:
- Provides better isolation
- Provide better resource allocation, uses hardware memory directly
You can red “Virtualization & Hypervisor Types” article to learn about “What is virtualization and what are hypervisor types?“.