Difference between Docker and Vagrant

In this article, we discuss the differences between Docker and Vagrant. Before going to the differences, let us understand each term.

What is the Docker?

Docker is an application that offers software solutions for the construction, evaluation, and deployment of services. Docker encapsulates the software, bringing together in a container all that is required to build, run, and execute it, including libraries, system tools, code, and runtime. Docker allows applications to be deployed and scaled to any environment within a short span and ensures that it would run.

Using Docker on AWS gives developers and administrators a tremendously dependable and cost-effective approach to building, delivering, and operating distributed applications of any complexity. Although all containers operate with one operating system kernel, they consume less resources than a virtual machine.

Why is Docker popular?

Docker has become popular because of the changes it brought to software development and deployment. The following are some of the main reasons for Docker becoming popular:

• Portability: Docker ensures that the developers package all the applications with all the requisite dependencies in relatively small containers. They assist in maintaining the quality of the performance in the various computing systems.
• Reproducibility: Packaging up the applications and their dependencies into a container also makes it solid in software setups to be consistently the same across the development, testing, and production environments.
• Efficiency: Docker is a container-based architecture that optimizes the resource utilization. It enables the developers to execute the various encapsulated applications in a single host system.
• Scalability: This scalability feature of Docker helped the developers to ease their application handling at the time of workload increase.

Components of Docker

Several components of Docker are as follows:

1. Docker Engine: The Docker Engine is the heart of Docker and is a system that is built like a client-server application and it comprises of the following:
   
   • A server is a type of long-running program called a daemon process (the docker command).
   • A REST API that defines the interface for client-server communication of the daemon.
   • A command-line interface (CLI) client - the "docker" command.
2. Docker Images: A docker image is an image that can be run inside the Docker Container.
3. Docker Containers: The container is the operational instance of Docker images. Containers can be created, started, stopped, moved, or deleted by Docker API or CLI.
4. Docker Registry: A Docker registry can be defined as a centralized place for the storage and distribution of Docker images.
5. Docker Networking: Docker uses native networking and containers that can search for each other and connect securely.
6. Docker Volumes: Docker volumes provide a solution that helps provide and manage data utilized and generated by Docker containers. Volumes are to hold data and be always available no matter the state of the container.
7. Docker Compose: Docker Compose is used to define and run multi-container Docker applications. It uses a YAML-based file to describe the services of the application.

What is the Vagrant?

It is an open-source application that enables the creation and management of virtual machines conveniently. VMs are fully functional computers on top of an application that resides on the actual hardware device. They can be best described as virtual computers with their own OS, applications, and settings, just like the actual PCs.

Vagrant simplifies the creation of VMs by using pre-made virtual machine templates known as "boxes". These boxes consist of operating systems and their configurations to avoid manual input. Vagrant uses a custom file known as a "Vagrantfile" where we define the virtual machine(VM).

Why is Vagrant popular?

An application is made of several elements, all of which must be put in the right manner for the application to run. For example, modern web applications can use languages like Java, JavaScript, Python, etc. Databases like MySQL, Oracle, MongoDB, etc. and other elements depending upon the requirements.

Components of Vagrant:

Several main components of Vagrant are as follows:

• Vagrant: The Vagrant CLI that is used in commanding the creation, deletion, and manipulation of the virtual machines.
• Vagrantfile: It is a text file that is written in Ruby language. It is used in defining the Vagrant environment and includes items like base box, network and HOST config, provisioner, and others.
• Providers: Vagrant uses the concept of a provider to interact with virtualization platforms, such as VirtualBox, VMware, Hyper-V, and among others. The provider is responsible for the instantiation and management of the virtual machine.
• Provisioners: Provisioners are used to automatically start software on a Virtual Machine(VM) upon creation and to change configurations.
• Boxes: The boxes are principally derived from the virtual operating system files that are used to build virtual machines. Boxes can be obtained from the Vagrant Cloud and created from scratch.
• Plugins: Many possible plugins can be installed into Vagrant, including those that enable specific providers, provisioners, or command-line options.
• Networking: Network access of the virtual machine is achieved through available Vagrant networking options of private networks, forwarded ports, etc.

Key differences between Docker and Vagrant:

There are several key differences between Docker and Vagrant. Some main differences are as follows:

Conclusion:

In conclusion, Docker and Vagrant are two development and deployment tools that are built for two different purposes. Docker concentrates on application containers and provides small and quick booting containers that share the same operating system kernel as the host OS. Therefore, Docker containers are very portable and efficient in terms of resource usage.

Containers are suitable for applications that are new age and are meant for large-scale installations because they offer quick deployment and portability across contexts. Vagrant is designed to provision and manage virtual machines. Vagrant VMs are slightly heavier than Containers in terms of resource usage and take longer to boot up but offer good isolation, and we can easily provision from Vagrantfiles. Docker has the best performance in microservices and cloud-native applications, while Vagrant should be preferred when full OS environments or complex configurations are needed. Hence, the decision to choose Docker or Vagrant depends on the requirement of resources.