Container distance measurement and clustering
An apparatus in one embodiment comprises a plurality of container host devices of at least one processing platform. The container host devices implement a plurality of containers for executing applications on behalf of one or more tenants of cloud infrastructure. One or more of the container host devices are each configured to compute distance measures between respective pairs of the containers and to assign the containers to container clusters based at least in part on the distance measures. The distance measures may be computed as respective content-based distance measures between hash identifiers of respective layers of layer structures of the corresponding containers. The apparatus may further comprise an interface configured to present a visualization of the container clusters. User feedback received via the interface is utilized to alter at least one parameter of the computation of distance measures and the assignment of clusters to container clusters.
1. An apparatus comprising:
a plurality of container host devices;
the container host devices implementing a plurality of containers for executing applications on behalf of one or more tenants of cloud infrastructure;
wherein one or more of the container host devices are each configured to compute distance measures between respective pairs of the containers and to assign the containers to container clusters based at least in part on the distance measures;
wherein the distance measures are computed as respective content-based distance measures between hash identifiers of respective layers of layer structures of the corresponding containers;
wherein a given one of the layer structures comprises:
one or more read-only layers each associated with one or more container images; and
one or more read-write layers each associated with at least one running instance of at least one of the containers;
wherein assigning the containers to the container clusters comprises sorting distance measures for respective pairs of the containers in a designated order and applying at least one filter to the sorted distance measures to assign particular pairs of the containers to particular ones of the container clusters; and
wherein the assignment of the containers to container clusters based at least in part on the distance measures facilitates identification of containers that exhibit at least a specified degree of similarity to one another in their respective content;
the container host devices being implemented on at least one processing platform comprising a processor coupled to a memory.
2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein at least a subset of the container host devices comprise respective virtual machines controlled by a hypervisor of the processing platform.
3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the container host devices are configured as a plurality of nodes each comprising a plurality of containers and sharing a common storage system.
4. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising an interface configured to present a visualization of the container clusters.
5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein the visualization comprises a distance matrix having rows and columns corresponding to respective ones of the containers and entries corresponding to the computed distance measures between respective pairs of the containers.
6. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein the interface is configured to support entry of user feedback and wherein at least one parameter of the computation of distance measures and the assignment of clusters to container clusters is altered based at least in part on user feedback received via the interface.
7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the distance measure for a given one of the pairs of containers is computed as a Hamming distance between hash identifiers of respective layers of layers structures of the corresponding containers.
8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the Hamming distance for the given one of the pairs of containers is computed as:
d=C /min( X,Y )
where d is the Hamming distance, C denotes a count of mismatched layers between the layer structures of the corresponding containers, and X and Y denote respective total numbers of layers in the layer structures of the corresponding containers.
9. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein changes in the layer structures are tracked and the computation of distance measures and assignment of containers to container groups repeated such the container clusters vary dynamically over time.
10. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein different data services are implemented by each of one or more of the container host devices for different ones of the container clusters.
11. A method comprising:
configuring a plurality of container host devices in cloud infrastructure;
utilizing the container host devices to implement a plurality of containers for executing applications on behalf of one or more tenants of the cloud infrastructure;
computing distance measures between respective pairs of the containers; and
assigning the containers to container clusters based at least in part on the distance measures;
wherein the distance measures are computed as respective content-based distance measures between hash identifiers of respective layers of layer structures of the corresponding containers;
wherein a given one of the layer structures comprises:
one or more read-only layers each associated with one or more container images; and
one or more read-write layers each associated with at least one running instance of at least one of the containers;
wherein assigning the containers to the container clusters comprises sorting distance measures for respective pairs of the containers in a designated order and applying at least one filter to the sorted distance measures to assign particular pairs of the containers to particular ones of the container clusters; and
wherein the assignment of the containers to container clusters based at least in part on the distance measures facilitates identification of containers that exhibit at least a specified degree of similarity to one another in their respective content;
the method being performed by at least one processing platform comprising a processor coupled to a memory.
12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:
providing an interface configured to present a visualization of the container clusters;
receiving user feedback via the interface; and
altering at least one parameter of the computation of distance measures and the assignment of containers to container clusters based at least in part on the user feedback.
13. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory processor-readable storage medium having stored therein program code of one or more software programs, wherein the program code when executed by at least one processing platform comprising a processor coupled to a memory causes the processing platform:
to configure a plurality of container host devices in cloud infrastructure;
to utilize the container host devices to implement a plurality of containers for executing applications on behalf of one or more tenants of the cloud infrastructure;
to compute distance measures between respective pairs of the containers; and
to assign the containers to container clusters based at least in part on the distance measures;
wherein the distance measures are computed as respective content-based distance measures between hash identifiers of respective layers of layer structures of the corresponding containers;
wherein a given one of the layer structures comprises:
one or more read-only layers each associated with one or more container images; and
one or more read-write layers each associated with at least one running instance of at least one of the containers;
wherein assigning the containers to the container clusters comprises sorting distance measures for respective pairs of the containers in a designated order and applying at least one filter to the sorted distance measures to assign particular pairs of the containers to particular ones of the container clusters; and
wherein the assignment of the containers to container clusters based at least in part on the distance measures facilitates identification of containers that exhibit at least a specified degree of similarity to one another in their respective content.
14. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the program code when executed by said at least one processing platform further causes the processing platform:
to provide an interface configured to present a visualization of the container clusters;
to receive user feedback via the interface; and
to alter at least one parameter of the computation of distance measures and the assignment of containers to container clusters based at least in part on the user feedback.
15. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the visualization comprises a distance matrix having rows and columns corresponding to respective ones of the containers and entries corresponding to the computed distance measures between respective pairs of the containers.
16. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the distance measure for a given one of the pairs of containers is computed as a Hamming distance between hash identifiers of respective layers of layers structures of the corresponding containers.
17. The computer program product of claim 16 wherein the Hamming distance for the given one of the pairs of containers is computed as:
d=C /min( X,Y )
where d is the Hamming distance, C denotes a count of mismatched layers between the layer structures of the corresponding containers, and X and Y denote respective total numbers of layers in the layer structures of the corresponding containers.
18. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein changes in the layer structures are tracked and the computation of distance measures and assignment of containers to container groups repeated such the container clusters vary dynamically over time.
19. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein different data services are implemented by each of one or more of the container host devices for different ones of the container clusters.
20. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the container host devices are configured as a plurality of nodes each comprising a plurality of containers and sharing a common storage system.