Difference between Minikube, Kubernetes, Docker Compose, Docker Swarm, etc

Question

I am new to cluster container management, and this question is the basis for all the freshers over here.

I read some documentation, but still, my understanding is not too clear, so any leads.. helping to understand?

1. Somewhere it is mentioned, Minikube is used to run Kubernetes locally. So if we want to maintain cluster management in my four-node Raspberry Pi, then Minikube is not the option?
2. Does Minikube support only a one-node system?
3. Docker Compose is set of instructions and a YAML file to configure and start multiple Docker containers. Can we use this to start containers of the different hosts? Then for simple orchestration where I need to call container of the second host, I don't need any cluster management, right?
4. What is the link between Docker Swarm and Kubernetes? Both are independent cluster management. Is it efficient to use Kubernetes on Raspberry Pi? Any issue, because I was told that Kubernetes in single node takes the complete memory and CPU usage? Is it true?
5. Is there other cluster management for Raspberry Pi?

I think this 4-5 set will help me better.

Answer 1

Presuming that your goal here is to run a set of containers over a number of different Raspberry Pi based nodes:

• Minikube isn't really appropriate. This starts a single virtual machine on a Windows, MacOS or Linux and installs a Kubernetes cluster into it. It's generally used by developers to quickly start-up a cluster on their laptops or desktops for development and testing purposes.

• Docker Compose is a system for managing sets of related containers. So for example if you had a web server and database that you wanted to manage together you could put them in a single Docker Compose file.

• Docker Swarm is a system for managing sets of containers across multiple hosts. It's essentially an alternative to Kubernetes. It has fewer features than Kubernetes, but it is much simpler to set up.

If you want a really simple multi-node Container cluster, I'd say that Docker swarm is a reasonable choice. If you explicitly want to experiment with Kubernetes, I'd say that kubeadm is a good option here. Kubernetes in general has higher resource requirements than Docker Swarm, so it could be somewhat less suited to it, although I know people have successfully run Kubernetes clusters on Raspberry Pis.