Container-based Continuous Delivery for Clusters

Abstract: The focus of this master’s thesis was aimed at E.ON’s electricity saving project, 100koll, in collaboration with IT-consulting firm Data Ductus.The 100koll users demand high availability, which creates a complex underlaying system-infrastructure. The processes of deploying and preparing new releases to the system is presently done manually. Data Ductus is requesting an investigation on whether or not containers can facilitate the preparation processes to a point where delivery is done continuously. The solution which was introduced follows five steps of implementation which involves a programmable infrastructure, deployment strategies and a deployment pipeline with a feedback system. What the solution shows us is that containers were able to facilitate certain parts of the implementation process that previously prevented Data Ductus from achieving continuous delivery. However, the conducted research also proves with the help of the implementation processes that achieving continuous delivery is not all to do with having access to the correct tools; it also has to do with the mindset of the people involved.