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Docker Turns To Minecraft For Server Ops (sdtimes.com)

dmleonard618 writes: A new GitHub project is allowing software teams to construct software like Legos. DockerCraft is a Minecraft mod that lets administrators handle and deploy servers within Minecraft. What makes this project really interesting is that it lets you navigate through server stacks in a 3D space. "In today's world, we wanted to focus more on building. Minecraft has emerged as the sandbox game of the decade, so we chose to use that as our visual interface to Docker," Docker wrote in a blog.

93 comments

  1. recipe for server cabinet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    So how many trees does one need to chop down to craft a server cabinet?

    1. Re: recipe for server cabinet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Who cares about them servers, lets go mine for cryptocurrency!

  2. Re:Minecraft has emerged as the sandbox game of th by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm 42. I agree with his statement about it being the sandbox game of the decade. Feel free to provide your alternative when you are done with your ad hominem.

  3. Uh oh by dorix · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is all well and good until a rogue creeper blows up half of your servers.

    1. Re:Uh oh by ndavis · · Score: 1

      This is all well and good until a rogue creeper blows up half of your servers.

      Or someone just logs in and places TNT everywhere just for fun after all you are in creative mode!

    2. Re:Uh oh by RabidReindeer · · Score: 1

      Meh. Business as usual then.

    3. Re:Uh oh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a server-side mod which implies it's a private server.

      If you're private server isn't private...

      I'll let you sort out who the fool is.

    4. Re:Uh oh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Chaos Monkey anyone?

  4. It's a UNIX system... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    I know this!

    1. Re:It's a UNIX system... by selectspec · · Score: 1

      I know this!

      Classic.

      --

      Someone you trust is one of us.

  5. Burning server stacks by Sumus+Semper+Una · · Score: 2

    Well, I guess on the plus side you could see a really clear representation of how your servers smoke, catch on fire, and explode when you put too much load on them now.

    1. Re:Burning server stacks by gstoddart · · Score: 2

      I was really hoping to see a representation of a representation of this ... instead it's a link to an article where a guy says there's a thing and then links to two other things.

      I remember when we used to have links to actual articles.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  6. Aesthetics over function, FTW by pnutjam · · Score: 2

    Sounds like a great way to get unrelated items connected because it looks good.

    1. Re:Aesthetics over function, FTW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is pretty close to how cyberpunk novels/movies describe server administration. You could actually have someone hack into your minecraft server and float around manipulating servers & containers while fighting with swords & arrows.

    2. Re:Aesthetics over function, FTW by Cito · · Score: 1

      Hack the Gibson! :P

  7. minecraft is java by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    what about java multicore intelligence .

    1. Re:minecraft is java by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The server they are using isn't based on java. It's written in c++.

  8. PopularMMOs is now job training. by enjar · · Score: 2

    So now instead of my girls watching hours of PopularMMOs, they will watch hours of people managing servers? The ability of the human mind to come up with ever more inane forms of entertainment always surprises me. Plus, you know, girls and STEM careers and all that.

    Someone should come up with a Minecraft Motif skin. If you are going to go blocky and retro, at least do it right.

  9. Re:Minecraft has emerged as the sandbox game of th by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What's it like having the brain of a 10 year old?

  10. Minecraft at work by WinterBeard · · Score: 1

    Sounds like someone just wanted an excuse to play Minecraft at work. Now if I could only build fully functional physical servers out of actual LEGO bricks...

    1. Re:Minecraft at work by swb · · Score: 1

      Is there any reason that this kind of setup couldn't be used to create virtual servers and network environments?

      I've always wondered how long it would be until there was a CAD-like drawing environment for creating virtual server environments.

  11. The plural of LEGO is LEGO Bricks Not LEGOs by dcrisp · · Score: 1

    The Plural of Lego is not Legos, It's Lego Bricks.

    I cannot find the official link on their web page but the following link points points to a number of discussions and official Lego announcements and requests.
    http://english.stackexchange.c...

    Now the following is juts my personal reaction to the use of LEGOs.
    The Plural of Lego is Lego. In the same way that the plural of a Sheep is Sheep. You don't hear somebody say "I'm going to round up my Sheeps" you hear them saying "I'm going to round up my sheep" (Actually, you probably hear them say "I'm going to round up the flock" But that doesn't help my argument)

    1. Re:The plural of LEGO is LEGO Bricks Not LEGOs by dcrisp · · Score: 1

      That should, of course, have read "The following is JUST my personal" not "juts me personal"

    2. Re:The plural of LEGO is LEGO Bricks Not LEGOs by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      "I cannot find the official link on their web page but ..."

      For a lot of people, this fact would have been significant.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    3. Re:The plural of LEGO is LEGO Bricks Not LEGOs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://www.lego.com/en-gb/legal/legal-notice/fair-play

      Proper Use of the LEGO Trademark on a Web Site
      If the LEGO trademark is used at all, it should always be used as an adjective, not as a noun. For example, say "MODELS BUILT OF LEGO BRICKS". Never say "MODELS BUILT OF LEGOs".

    4. Re:The plural of LEGO is LEGO Bricks Not LEGOs by Cimexus · · Score: 1

      Yeah this is a pet peeve of mine too. I think it's just an American thing though. I grew up in Australia and it was always just lego. As in, "go and pick up all your lego". Etc. I never heard the 'legos' thing until I moved to the USA in my late 20s ... at first I thought I was hearing things but no, they really say it that way.

      I'm curious - anyone from outside North America that also says "legos"?

    5. Re:The plural of LEGO is LEGO Bricks Not LEGOs by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      how about in danish?

      in finnish the lego word itself gets altered to be plural, to be 'from' or whatever..

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    6. Re:The plural of LEGO is LEGO Bricks Not LEGOs by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

      The Plural of Lego is not Legos, It's Lego Bricks.

      "Lego" doesn't have a plural.

      The singular of "Lego bricks" is "Lego brick."

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  12. Oh brother -- more idiotic 3D UI by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1

    3D UI's don't work (well) because they are horribly inefficient.

    There is a reason we have shortcuts, aliases, scripts, batch files, etc. A command line, or hell, even a 2D grid of icons, is far faster time-wise then 3D spatial navigation. A modeling program such as Blender, Max, Maya, etc., are some of the most complicated UI's ever designed -- they are probably tied with the cockpit of a planes. Guess what, they all don't use a 3D UI.

    This is almost as stupid as voice navigation -- invisible interfaces are likewise inefficient.

    1. Re:Oh brother -- more idiotic 3D UI by cdrudge · · Score: 2

      3D UI's don't work (well) because they are horribly inefficient.

      When it came time for an (almost) complete novice to navigate a complex theme park security system to lock it down before a velocaraptor ate her for dinner, what type of UI did they use? A friggin 3D UI on a Unix system. If it's good enough in that case, it's good enough anywhere.

    2. Re:Oh brother -- more idiotic 3D UI by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      "There is a reason we have shortcuts, aliases, scripts, batch files, etc. A command line, or hell, even a 2D grid of icons, is far faster time-wise then 3D spatial navigation."

      Thank you for that insight, Captain Obvious.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  13. Re:Minecraft has emerged as the sandbox game of th by jeffb+(2.718) · · Score: 3, Funny

    You'll just have to wait a few years and find out for yourself.

  14. Re:And when the next Heartblead happens by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No worries, systemd will be implementing Minecraft (as unreadable binary blobs of course) early next year.

  15. The continuing wimpification of system admin by idontgno · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Once upon a time, a BOFH would manage his system with a pistol. If we KILL'ed a process, we'd loot its shotgun and be even more feared. It was brutal, bloody, and cruel. The way system administration is supposed to be. "root, red in tooth and claw."

    Now? Minecraft. And not a good PvP server, either. I'll bet they don't even have TNT or skeleton archers, either. "Creative mode". My 9-year-olds sneer at creative mode. No bloodshed. No mayhem. Nothing to lose.

    Pretty soon, it'll be VM management by buying outfits for Hello Kitty in Hello Kitty Container Adventure.

    DO NOT WAAAANT!

    --
    Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
    1. Re:The continuing wimpification of system admin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      omg i wish i had mod points for you!

    2. Re:The continuing wimpification of system admin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This post made my... week, actually.

  16. BZZZZT! Wrong! by edittard · · Score: 1

    A new GitHub project is allowing software teams to construct software like Legos.

    No it doesn't.

    --
    At the bottom of the /. main page it says 'Yesterday's News'. Well they got that right.
  17. Re:Minecraft has emerged as the sandbox game of th by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Skyrim and Fallout standout as more prominent sandbox games. Other games include Stranded Deep, Miscreated, Life is Fedual, H1Z1, DayZ, RUST ..

  18. is allowing the needful to be being done by edittard · · Score: 1

    Correction: no it isn't.

    Do you shake (I mean are you shaking) - your head from side to side as you are writing?

    --
    At the bottom of the /. main page it says 'Yesterday's News'. Well they got that right.
    1. Re:is allowing the needful to be being done by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      You are such an edittard you make your own mistakes just so you can edit them?

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    2. Re:is allowing the needful to be being done by edittard · · Score: 1

      You know how it goes ... slow news day, not enough coffee ...

      --
      At the bottom of the /. main page it says 'Yesterday's News'. Well they got that right.
  19. Re:Minecraft has emerged as the sandbox game of th by nitehawk214 · · Score: 4, Funny

    What's it like having the brain of a 10 year old?

    Its great, I keep it in a jar on the shelf.

    --
    I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
  20. Re:Minecraft has emerged as the sandbox game of th by Penguinisto · · Score: 4, Funny

    Nah - forget Minecraft as a sysadmin tool... let's bring back PSDOOM!

    (just don't kill the init monster! )

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
  21. Re:Minecraft has emerged as the sandbox game of th by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why should there be an "alternative" for a game if you're forty two fucking years old? Ever heard of women, scotch, other people, volunteering, the outside? That's a fucking sandbox.

  22. Re:Minecraft is for LUDDITES. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So tell me, since you apparently have firsthand knowledge, how does castration really feel?

  23. I'd use it by i_ate_god · · Score: 1

    I've never played minecraft but I'm a huge fan of garrys mod and space engineers. I'd use this, but only for my small home network. Its impractical but fun, which is perfect for hobby grade stuff.

    I.can't imagine myself using it in any professional capacity and I can't see how it would be easier than what we have now.

    --
    I'm god, but it's a bit of a drag really...
    1. Re:I'd use it by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      "I.can't imagine myself using it in any professional capacity and I can't see how it would be easier than what we have now."

      I'm not saying that this kind of thing will take off, but I will point out that pretty much every innovation that ever took off started with someone saying exactly this kind of thing about it.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    2. Re:I'd use it by i_ate_god · · Score: 1

      it's also a wide open invitation for someone more imaginative than I to point out how it could be practical. This is a message forum after all ;)

      --
      I'm god, but it's a bit of a drag really...
    3. Re:I'd use it by RabidReindeer · · Score: 1

      I can see setup networks of interconnected containers using a Minecraft-style GUI as easier than using vi to set up docker-composer files.

      What worries me is that it also allows easy visualization of the resulting constructs meaning that PHBs will think that that means they understand them.

  24. Help me! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I accidentally sent Minecraft to my 3D printer and now it won't stop printing!

    1. Re:Help me! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Quick, log into your Minecraft interface for docker and issue a kill print command to your printer.

  25. Re:And when the next Heartblead happens by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    You update the Docker container with the latest updates ("apt-get update && apt-get upgrade") and push the updated docker container ("docker push apache-server") to your own private Docker repository. You can do one of many things on the 1000 production machines. You could write a script to monitor the Docker repo for changes and on a change pull the image (docker pull apache-server:latest") and then restart the container(s) ("docker stop web-server && docker rm web-server && docker run apache-server -t web-server").

    You really aren't curious about how to manage containers in production but are just interested in spreading FUD about something you clearly know nothing about.

  26. Re:Minecraft has emerged as the sandbox game of th by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I hear it's rather painful when a woman gets sand in her box. Maybe that's why you seem irritable?

  27. So I need java or windows only to admin? by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    So I need java or windows only to admin?

    Maybe it's better then the flash only vsphere (for now). Qemu / libvirt can be done with CLI.

    1. Re:So I need java or windows only to admin? by dj.delorie · · Score: 1

      Minecraft requires java, yes, but it runs just fine on Linux.

    2. Re:So I need java or windows only to admin? by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1
      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    3. Re:So I need java or windows only to admin? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      i was kind of planning to fork this and build a libvirt version of it for fun and exercise :P

  28. They bred raptors? by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    They bred raptors?

  29. some one watched too much jurassic park by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "it's a Unix system, I know this".

    oh no, its minecraft, close enough.

  30. Re:Minecraft has emerged as the sandbox game of th by invid · · Score: 1

    Minecraft has emerged as the sandbox game of the decade

    ... for 10 year olds.

    Minecraft is too popular for the "cool" kids.

    --
    The Moore-Murphy Law: The number of things that will go wrong will double every 2 years.
  31. 1993 - 2015 by raluxs · · Score: 1

    1993 Jurassic Park : This is Unix, I know this
    2015 jurassic World X : This is Minecraft, I know this

    1. Re:1993 - 2015 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Amazingly, the interface Lex used was not constructed for the film. That was real. Ahh, SGI.

    2. Re:1993 - 2015 by zawarski · · Score: 1

      I hate this hacker shit!

    3. Re:1993 - 2015 by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      Even if it had been constructed for the film, it still would have been real.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  32. Re:Minecraft has emerged as the sandbox game of th by dj.delorie · · Score: 1

    I've found that children enjoy the base game but don't have the attention span to do really mind-expanding things with it. I'm 49, play modded Minecraft a lot, and find the technical and artistic challenges very enticing and involved. It's like any other inspired-crafting hobby - a box of legos, a palette of paints, a bag of ICs, a block of wood - you get out of it as much as you put into it. While a 10 year old can build a small lego kit, there are groups of adults who reproduce whole movie scenes with them. A child's fingerpainting and Bob Ross's paintings come from the same basic colors. And where would technology be if someone didn't put all those electronic parts together in new and interesting ways?

    If you look at an open-ended opportunity and only see a limited outcome, is the problem with the opportunity, or the person who doesn't see it?

  33. Re:And when the next Heartblead happens by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My intention is not to spread FUD. I'm genuinely interested and what you wrote in your answer is definitely something to look into. My understanding is that this is however not the way most Docker users uses Docker, but I don't have any statistics. However, according to some people that do it doesn't look very good.

    For example, CVE-2014-0160, aka "Heartbleed" has been known for over 18 months, yet Quay Scanning found it is still a potential threat to 80 percent of the Docker images users have stored on Quay. Just like CoreOS Linux contains an auto-update tool which patched Heartbleed at the OS layer, we hope this tool will improve the security of the container layer, and help make CoreOS the most secure place to run containers.

    Now I don't know exactly what Quay is. But if 80 percent of images are still vulnerable to something that was fixed over 72 hours ago then that sounds like a lot of people are seriously not paying attention.

  34. Re:Minecraft has emerged as the sandbox game of th by Dunbal · · Score: 1

    When I was young you could make love on the beach. Now you go to jail if you get caught.

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  35. what could go wrong? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Jurassic Park had this technology, it worked wonders for them!

    http://www.highdefdigest.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Jurassic-Park-screenshot.jpg

  36. Re:Minecraft has emerged as the sandbox game of th by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You clearly don't know what prominent means. Your grab bag of DayZ inspired clones are so incredibly niche and platform-limited that most gamers have never even heard of them. Most *gamers* are familiar with Bethesda games but outside that group it's not well recognised. EVERYONE knows what Minecraft is.

    Now if you had said Grand Theft Auto you might have an argument. Pretty much everyone alive knows about that one too. But in terms of prominence Minecraft still takes it due to it's penetration in serious disciplines like academia and science.

  37. Re:Minecraft has emerged as the sandbox game of th by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    OH SNAP!

  38. Re:And when the next Heartblead happens by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There is nothing particularly concerning about images on a public repository that require updates. No admin is just going to deploy any kind of system (be it baremetal, VM or container) without checking if updates are required. Install any Linux distribution from scratch and you'll have to do the same thing. Every way of packaging software known to man has this limitation.

  39. Re:Minecraft has emerged as the sandbox game of th by RabidReindeer · · Score: 2

    GTA makes a great model for systems management!

  40. Re:Minecraft has emerged as the sandbox game of th by RabidReindeer · · Score: 1

    Next you'll be saying that there's a difference between code produced by a 10-year old and one trained in advanced Information Technology.

    That's a slippery slope that leads to thinking that you can't just hire people to do enterprise-grade IT work for milk and cookies.

  41. Re:And when the next Heartblead happens by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I agree, most people are idiots and can't be bothered to learn to do something the right way. All too often I see people on /. saying that it's impossible to keep Docker containers up to date. Keeping containers secure and up to date is pretty easy. I doubt people running insecure Docker containers would do a better job keeping their VM/hardware OS patched.

  42. Re:And when the next Heartblead happens by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Keep in mind that these numbers may be extremely skewed/outright dishonest. The apache-server example above could have 40 different images stored on their servers. Each image being an iteration of changes, apache-server:v1.00 - apache-server:v1.39 very well may all be insecure while apache-server:v1.40 is patched and is the Docker image running in production. It's technically true that 39 of the images may be insecure but if they're not being ran then it doesn't matter. Quay has no idea which containers people are running they're just hosting private Docker repos.

  43. Oracle and SAP should jump on this.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I definitely want to see my Oracle DBA's managing complex databases and replication via blocks and 3d environments in Minecraft...

    I just can just hear it now...

    "You put a lava bucket in the which furnace?" "Hey guys, a customer just said they lost their DB connection, and are getting 'object does not exist' errors"

    "Ya, that's because this SOB put a lava bucket in the Oracle Financials furnace"

    "Oh shit, that told Oracle Financials to drop the schema"

  44. Disclosure! by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

    A scary Demi Moore face chasing Michael Douglas around the server farm!

  45. Re:Minecraft has emerged as the sandbox game of th by reboot246 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm 62 and I love Minecraft! An eight year old got me started by asking me how to do things within the game. I started playing so I could answer his questions, and got hooked. I could play for hours.

    Women? I've had more than my fair share and now I'm slowing down in that particular activity. The parts still work, but the desire to use them has declined, much like my 64 year old girlfriend's.

    Scotch? I don't drink. That's dangerous.

    Other people? I don't really like crowds, if that's what you're talking about. Family and a few friends will do for me. When you have NINE grandchildren, you don't really have to go far to be among people.

    Volunteering? Been there, done lots of that. I now prefer $$.

    The outside? I've spent nearly 40 years working outside, several years as a Scout leader being outside, played sports outside, hunted outside, fished outside, etc.. I don't need more time trying to get skin cancer, thank you. After traveling on my job for so many years, I don't even want to go on vacation anywhere except home.

    You need to realize that different people like to spend their time doing whatever they like doing. I suggest you spend yours chilling out a little.

  46. Warning by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just beware of having your avatar starve while playing.

    Also, keep the lights on or you might lose data to creepers.

    1. Re:Warning by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      on an ordinary minecraft server you can simply turn off mob griefing so a creeper exploding will only hurt players and not destroy any blocks. now if you had sheep to represent containers it would be a different problem :P

  47. Better link to the actual project by BuishMeister · · Score: 1

    Why link to the crappy ad-laden SD times article and not to the actual GitHub project https://github.com/docker/dock...

  48. Re: Minecraft has emerged as the sandbox game of t by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Being awesome

  49. Re:Minecraft has emerged as the sandbox game of th by Pikoro · · Score: 1

    I was going to bring up psdoom as well. I'd like to see a mod for GTA 4/5 that works in a similar manner. NPCs as random processes and such ;)

    --
    "Freedom in the USA is not the ability to do what you want. It is the ability to stop others from doing what THEY want"
  50. Reminds me of a Tom Clancy book by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

    There was a scene in a Tom Clancy book where a computer-geek super-agent had the task of tracking down a terrorist's email traffic. So, did he hack into a mail server using a terminal window and download logs?

    No. He put on a VR headset, booted up his favourite Wild West metaphor, moseyed into town (literally; he spent time walking), went into the local post office (a metaphor for a mail server) and used his fingers to leaf through virtual paper records.

    I've read one Dan Brown book and one Tom Clancy book, and the Tom Clancy was by the far the most awful.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    1. Re:Reminds me of a Tom Clancy book by _Sharp'r_ · · Score: 1

      To be fair, it sounds like you read one of those "Op Center by Tom Clancy" style books, where if you look at the fine print he came up with the basic setting and the actual author is someone you've never heard of they're using to cash in a bit more on the marketing power of his name.

      --
      The party of stupid and the party of evil get together and do something both stupid and evil, then call it bipartisan.
    2. Re:Reminds me of a Tom Clancy book by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

      Huh. That explains a lot, because I really liked (the movies based on) his other books. I owe Mr Clancy a posthumous apology for assuming it was him who wrote the execrable chapter where the heavily-muscled assassin goes for a work-out at the gym and two other heavily muscled men admire him and compliment his physique. Or the subplot where the son of one of the lead characters is hinted to be involved to be in a nefarious plot, a thread which goes nowhere, then overcomes his abandonment issues by discovering his love of Frisbee(tm).

      TL:DR; the book sucked, and I'm still bitter about the hours I wasted reading it.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  51. IBM: Minecraft for WebSphere Admin by pdclarry · · Score: 1

    IBM has had a Minecraft admin console for WebSphere for several years.