I run a small server with Proxmox, and I’m wondering what are your opinions on running Docker in separate LXC containers vs. running a specific VM for all Docker containers?
I started with LXC containers because I was more familiar with installing services the classic Linux way. I later added a VM specifically for running Docker containers. I’m thinking if I should continue this strategy and just add some more resources to the docker VM.
On one hand, backups seem to be easier with individual LXCs (I’ve had situations where I tried to update a Docker container but the new container broke the existing configuration and found it easiest just to restore the entire VM from backup). On the otherhand, it seems like more overhead to install Docker in each individual LXC.
I can’t say much to docker in LXC as I’m not using it, I vaguely remember some limitation I’ve read of but if it works fine for you those don’t seem to apply.
A VM has more overhead than an LXC, but with several LXCs maybe a single VM wins on overhead.
I currently have most Docker containers in one VM and am thinking about splitting it, the main reason is that 2 deployments have way larger volumes than the rest. This leads to the snapshots of the VM being very large as well and if I would need to restore from snapshots for a “small” application, it would take super long because of the large ones.
A single VM may be a bit easier on maintenance than several LXCs.
If you don’t have a specific reason to switch, I would not.