{"id":{"repo_id":"mit","oai_identifier":"oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/100683"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/mit/oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/100683","repository":{"repo_id":"mit","name":"MIT","base_url":"https://dspace.mit.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"VM2Docker : automating the conversion from virtual machine to docker container","abstract":"Container technology represents a flourishing field in cloud computing. For many types of computing, containers are a viable alternative to virtual machines because many applications do not require isolated kernels. Containers share the kernel with the host, as opposed to virtual machines which have a completely isolated kernel. Because of this distinction, containers are more lightweight and higher performing, but also have less isolation and therefore increased security concerns. The Docker framework, among other alternatives, has gotten the most attention and popularity over the past year and provides a powerful layered filesystem to improve deployability and provide space savings for those containers that share many layers in common. As of this writing, there is no system for automatically converting VMs to containers, as all configuration must be done manually. This is potentially unwieldy for system administrators looking to convert five to ten, or even hundreds, of virtual machines at once. This thesis presents a system we call VM2Docker that attempts to automate this conversion. VM2Docker specifically focuses on automatically generating layers for Docker to take advantage of the filesystem similarities across VMs of the same operating system. VM2Docker has been tested on various releases of Ubuntu, CentOS, and Mageia with a large degree of success and is able to provide filesystem space savings and deployment speed improvements with as few as 2 instances of a VM of a given operating system and release.","abstract_html":"Container technology represents a flourishing field in cloud computing. For many types of computing, containers are a viable alternative to virtual machines because many applications do not require isolated kernels. Containers share the kernel with the host, as opposed to virtual machines which have a completely isolated kernel. Because of this distinction, containers are more lightweight and higher performing, but also have less isolation and therefore increased security concerns. The Docker framework, among other alternatives, has gotten the most attention and popularity over the past year and provides a powerful layered filesystem to improve deployability and provide space savings for those containers that share many layers in common. As of this writing, there is no system for automatically converting VMs to containers, as all configuration must be done manually. This is potentially unwieldy for system administrators looking to convert five to ten, or even hundreds, of virtual machines at once. This thesis presents a system we call VM2Docker that attempts to automate this conversion. VM2Docker specifically focuses on automatically generating layers for Docker to take advantage of the filesystem similarities across VMs of the same operating system. VM2Docker has been tested on various releases of Ubuntu, CentOS, and Mageia with a large degree of success and is able to provide filesystem space savings and deployment speed improvements with as few as 2 instances of a VM of a given operating system and release.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Lubin, Eric, M. Eng. Massachusetts Institute of Technology"],"institution":"Massachusetts Institute of Technology","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":"Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.","school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Jim Yang and Martin C. Rinard."],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2015,"date_issued":"2015","date_published":"2015","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:20:55Z","subjects":["Electrical Engineering and Computer Science."],"languages":["eng"],"rights":["M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission."],"rights_urls":["http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582"],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/100683","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Jim Yang and Martin C. Rinard."]},{"key":"dc:contributor.department","label":"Department","values":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science."]},{"key":"dc:contributor.other","label":"Dc Contributor Other","values":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Lubin, Eric, M. Eng. Massachusetts Institute of Technology"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2016-01-04T20:53:08Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2016-01-04T20:53:08Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2015"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Electrical Engineering and Computer Science."]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language.iso","label":"Language (ISO)","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission."]},{"key":"dc:rights.uri","label":"Rights URI","values":["http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/100683"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Thesis: M. Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2015.","Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.","Includes bibliographical references (pages 66-68)."]},{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Container technology represents a flourishing field in cloud computing. For many types of computing, containers are a viable alternative to virtual machines because many applications do not require isolated kernels. Containers share the kernel with the host, as opposed to virtual machines which have a completely isolated kernel. Because of this distinction, containers are more lightweight and higher performing, but also have less isolation and therefore increased security concerns. The Docker framework, among other alternatives, has gotten the most attention and popularity over the past year and provides a powerful layered filesystem to improve deployability and provide space savings for those containers that share many layers in common. As of this writing, there is no system for automatically converting VMs to containers, as all configuration must be done manually. This is potentially unwieldy for system administrators looking to convert five to ten, or even hundreds, of virtual machines at once. This thesis presents a system we call VM2Docker that attempts to automate this conversion. VM2Docker specifically focuses on automatically generating layers for Docker to take advantage of the filesystem similarities across VMs of the same operating system. VM2Docker has been tested on various releases of Ubuntu, CentOS, and Mageia with a large degree of success and is able to provide filesystem space savings and deployment speed improvements with as few as 2 instances of a VM of a given operating system and release."]},{"key":"dc:description.degree","label":"Dc Description Degree","values":["M. Eng."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["VM2Docker : automating the conversion from virtual machine to docker container"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Jim Yang and Martin C. Rinard."],"dc:contributor.department":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science."],"dc:contributor.other":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science."],"dc:creator":["Lubin, Eric, M. Eng. Massachusetts Institute of Technology"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2016-01-04T20:53:08Z"],"dc:date.available":["2016-01-04T20:53:08Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2015"],"dc:description":["Thesis: M. Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2015.","Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.","Includes bibliographical references (pages 66-68)."],"dc:description.abstract":["Container technology represents a flourishing field in cloud computing. For many types of computing, containers are a viable alternative to virtual machines because many applications do not require isolated kernels. Containers share the kernel with the host, as opposed to virtual machines which have a completely isolated kernel. Because of this distinction, containers are more lightweight and higher performing, but also have less isolation and therefore increased security concerns. The Docker framework, among other alternatives, has gotten the most attention and popularity over the past year and provides a powerful layered filesystem to improve deployability and provide space savings for those containers that share many layers in common. As of this writing, there is no system for automatically converting VMs to containers, as all configuration must be done manually. This is potentially unwieldy for system administrators looking to convert five to ten, or even hundreds, of virtual machines at once. This thesis presents a system we call VM2Docker that attempts to automate this conversion. VM2Docker specifically focuses on automatically generating layers for Docker to take advantage of the filesystem similarities across VMs of the same operating system. VM2Docker has been tested on various releases of Ubuntu, CentOS, and Mageia with a large degree of success and is able to provide filesystem space savings and deployment speed improvements with as few as 2 instances of a VM of a given operating system and release."],"dc:description.degree":["M. Eng."],"dc:identifier.uri":["http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/100683"],"dc:language.iso":["eng"],"dc:publisher":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology"],"dc:rights":["M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission."],"dc:rights.uri":["http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582"],"dc:subject":["Electrical Engineering and Computer Science."],"dc:title":["VM2Docker : automating the conversion from virtual machine to docker container"],"dc:type":["Thesis"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:20:55Z"}