Container

Container

Unlike virtualisation via hypervisor, a guest does not receive a complete virtual machine in which a complete operating system with its own kernel is installed. Instead, the guest receives an isolated area in the host's operating system and uses its kernel. The advantage is that this type of virtualisation is very resource-efficient, as the guest only needs to use the resources for its own processes and not, for example, for its own kernel. The disadvantage is that the guest is restricted in terms of kernel choice and security issues. This is the case if the separation of the guests from the host and thus also from each other has been inadequately implemented or if configuration errors on the part of the user lead to, for example, the root account of the container gaining unintended access rights.

In practical use, Docker and Podman allow a specific environment to be defined via, for example, a Dockerfile and then run on any operating system that supports Podman.