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Bazel vs Kubernetes: What are the differences?
# Introduction
Key differences between Bazel and Kubernetes:
1. **Build vs Orchestration**: Bazel is primarily a build tool that focuses on creating optimized build configurations and dependencies for software projects. On the other hand, Kubernetes is an orchestration tool that automates the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.
2. **Scope of Functionality**: Bazel is more focused on the build aspect of software development, providing features for efficient building and testing of code. In contrast, Kubernetes is designed for managing the entire lifecycle of applications in a distributed environment, handling scheduling, scaling, and service discovery.
3. **Language Support**: Bazel supports a wide range of programming languages and build environments, making it versatile for various types of projects. Kubernetes, on the other hand, is language-agnostic and can work with any containerized application, regardless of the programming language used.
4. **Community and Ecosystem**: Bazel is maintained by Google and has a strong community of developers contributing to its development. Kubernetes, developed by Google but now managed by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), has a larger ecosystem with support from various companies and organizations.
5. **Scaling and Resource Management**: While Bazel excels at building and managing dependencies for individual software projects, Kubernetes is focused on scaling applications across a cluster of machines, handling resource allocation, and ensuring high availability through replication and auto-scaling capabilities.
6. **Deployment Automation**: Kubernetes provides powerful features for automating deployment processes, managing updates, and rolling out new versions of applications through declarative configuration files. Bazel, while capable of building deployable artifacts, does not offer the same level of deployment automation and management as Kubernetes.
In Summary, Bazel and Kubernetes differ in their primary functions (build vs orchestration), scope of functionality, language support, community involvement, scaling capabilities, and deployment automation features.
Hello, we have a bunch of local hosts (Linux and Windows) where Docker containers are running with bamboo agents on them. Currently, each container is installed as a system service. Each host is set up manually. I want to improve the system by adding some sort of orchestration software that should install, update and check for consistency in my docker containers. I don't need any clouds, all hosts are local. I'd prefer simple solutions. What orchestration system should I choose?
If you just want the basic orchestration between a set of defined hosts, go with Docker Swarm. If you want more advanced orchestration + flexibility in terms of resource management and load balancing go with Kubernetes. In both cases, you can make it even more complex while making the whole architecture more understandable and replicable by using Terraform.
We develop rapidly with docker-compose orchestrated services, however, for production - we utilise the very best ideas that Kubernetes has to offer: SCALE! We can scale when needed, setting a maximum and minimum level of nodes for each application layer - scaling only when the load balancer needs it. This allowed us to reduce our devops costs by 40% whilst also maintaining an SLA of 99.87%.
Our whole DevOps stack consists of the following tools:
- GitHub (incl. GitHub Pages/Markdown for Documentation, GettingStarted and HowTo's) for collaborative review and code management tool
- Respectively Git as revision control system
- SourceTree as Git GUI
- Visual Studio Code as IDE
- CircleCI for continuous integration (automatize development process)
- Prettier / TSLint / ESLint as code linter
- SonarQube as quality gate
- Docker as container management (incl. Docker Compose for multi-container application management)
- VirtualBox for operating system simulation tests
- Kubernetes as cluster management for docker containers
- Heroku for deploying in test environments
- nginx as web server (preferably used as facade server in production environment)
- SSLMate (using OpenSSL) for certificate management
- Amazon EC2 (incl. Amazon S3) for deploying in stage (production-like) and production environments
- PostgreSQL as preferred database system
- Redis as preferred in-memory database/store (great for caching)
The main reason we have chosen Kubernetes over Docker Swarm is related to the following artifacts:
- Key features: Easy and flexible installation, Clear dashboard, Great scaling operations, Monitoring is an integral part, Great load balancing concepts, Monitors the condition and ensures compensation in the event of failure.
- Applications: An application can be deployed using a combination of pods, deployments, and services (or micro-services).
- Functionality: Kubernetes as a complex installation and setup process, but it not as limited as Docker Swarm.
- Monitoring: It supports multiple versions of logging and monitoring when the services are deployed within the cluster (Elasticsearch/Kibana (ELK), Heapster/Grafana, Sysdig cloud integration).
- Scalability: All-in-one framework for distributed systems.
- Other Benefits: Kubernetes is backed by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), huge community among container orchestration tools, it is an open source and modular tool that works with any OS.
Pros of Bazel
- Fast28
- Deterministic incremental builds20
- Correct17
- Multi-language16
- Enforces declared inputs/outputs14
- High-level build language10
- Scalable9
- Multi-platform support5
- Sandboxing5
- Dependency management4
- Windows Support2
- Flexible2
- Android Studio integration1
Pros of Kubernetes
- Leading docker container management solution166
- Simple and powerful130
- Open source108
- Backed by google76
- The right abstractions58
- Scale services26
- Replication controller20
- Permission managment11
- Supports autoscaling9
- Cheap8
- Simple8
- Self-healing7
- Open, powerful, stable5
- Promotes modern/good infrascture practice5
- Reliable5
- No cloud platform lock-in5
- Scalable4
- Quick cloud setup4
- Cloud Agnostic3
- Custom and extensibility3
- A self healing environment with rich metadata3
- Captain of Container Ship3
- Backed by Red Hat3
- Runs on azure3
- Expandable2
- Sfg2
- Everything of CaaS2
- Gke2
- Golang2
- Easy setup2
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Cons of Bazel
- No Windows Support3
- Bad IntelliJ support2
- Poor windows support for some languages1
- Constant breaking changes1
- Learning Curve1
- Lack of Documentation1
Cons of Kubernetes
- Steep learning curve16
- Poor workflow for development15
- Orchestrates only infrastructure8
- High resource requirements for on-prem clusters4
- Too heavy for simple systems2
- Additional vendor lock-in (Docker)1
- More moving parts to secure1
- Additional Technology Overhead1