Logentries Makes Free Docker Container Log Analytics Available

How to Better Integrate Cloud Apps by Managing the Integration Lifecycle

As applications based on Docker containers are heading into production, IT operations teams are going to discover that most of the tools they have in place don’t support Docker containers running on bare-metal servers. For that reason, Logentries this week announced that it is making its log management and analytics service for tracking Docker containers available for free for 30 days, delivered as a cloud service.

Logentries CEO Andrew Burton says the amount of activity surrounding the deployment of applications based on Docker containers that the company is seeing has spiked in the last few months. As a Docker technology partner, Logentries is providing access to a free trial edition of its service for organizations that have deployed fewer than 100 containers or less and 100GB of data.

Once the 30-day trial is over, these organizations have the option to either subscribe to the service or continue using a free version of Logentries that stores data only for seven days.

The challenge that IT operations teams face is that when Docker containers are deployed on bare metal servers, they lose visibility. IT organizations, of course, can opt to deploy these containers on top of virtual machines, but many organizations are deploying the Docker containers directly on bare metal servers as an alternative to deploying virtual machines that over time have a tendency to become bloated.

Naturally, the other big issue with Docker containers is that they tend to be ephemeral. Because they can be spun up and down so quickly, many IT operations teams might not even know a particular Docker container was even running.

Obviously, deploying Docker containers in production environments is still in its infancy. But IT operations teams might want to start thinking about how to get a better handle on what is occurring around Docker containers today before they spin out of control.