On Monday, August 31, 2020, Amazon Web Services announced the general availability of AWS Bottlerocket, a new open source Linux-based Operating System (OS) purpose-built to run containers.
The general availability of any major new container-focused service from our friends at AWS warrants a minimum of a quick sit-down to learn more. This one is with SCTG’s Senior Director of Cloud Solutions, Josh Quint.
What stands out about AWS Bottlerocket
When asked, “What stands out to you about AWS Bottlerocket?,” Josh noted the following:
- It’s purpose-built with just-enough-Linux OS for containerized apps. It has everything you need, and nothing you don’t.
- It’s a solid platform for those who want (or need) to manage their own host servers and use AWS EKS (Kubernetes) or ECS (Docker) to do so.
- There’s a seamless migration opportunity, as AWS Bottlerocket is compatible with containers running on Amazon Linux 2.
- Amazon images of AWS Bottlerocket are fully supported by AWS. No additional license or support costs are incurred.
- Atomic (a new update system) is used to publish AWS-verified updates. This should prevent “hung” updates, eliminate updates that can’t be rolled back, and — most importantly — should prevent systems from going unpatched due to concerns about updates not deploying properly.
- Your software must be containerized to run third-party apps. The design is purposefully minimal and specific to AWS and containerization.
- Safety Tip: EKS can manage the OS, updates and reboots. However, you must make sure your application state can survive a reboot at any time.
- Key Feature: AWS Bottlerocket is managed with an ‘admin’ container and EKS, so no direct access to the OS is needed by admins, minimizing the number of opportunities for errors to occur.
- There are no additional costs for the OS. You are only responsible for the underlying EC2 costs.
If you have any questions, please let us know.
