Overlay2

Overlay2

Overlay2 is a storage driver for Docker that leverages the layering filesystem of UnionFS to enable image layers and containers to share files efficiently. It improves upon the older Overlay driver with enhanced performance and stability.
Overlay2 image
docker storage virtualization containers

Overlay2: Storage Driver for Docker

Overlay2 is a storage driver for Docker that leverages the layering filesystem of UnionFS to enable image layers and containers to share files efficiently. It improves upon the older Overlay driver with enhanced performance and stability.

What is Overlay2?

Overlay2 is a storage driver designed for use with Docker containers. It builds on the functionality of the overlay filesystem in Linux to enable efficient sharing of files between containers and disk space usage.

Some key points about Overlay2:

  • It is the default Docker storage driver since Docker 1.13 and continues to be the preferred choice
  • Overlay2 addresses limitations with the previous Overlay driver, improving performance and stability
  • It leverages UnionFS to create image layers and containers that can share files, resulting in disk space savings
  • Only disk space is consumed when files are modified within a container, through use of copy-on-write
  • Overlay2 limits the number of inodes consumed compared to other storage drivers
  • It is generally faster at starting containers and at container deletion compared to DeviceMapper

In summary, Overlay2 combines several storage capabilities to deliver an efficient and high-performance storage driver for running Docker containers and images.

Overlay2 Features

Features

  1. Union file system for layering Docker images
  2. Efficient sharing of files between containers
  3. Improved performance over older Overlay driver
  4. More stable than previous storage drivers
  5. Built-in garbage collection

Pricing

  • Open Source

Pros

Faster start up of containers

Lower storage space usage

Better disk I/O performance

More stable overlay mount

Easier cleanup of unused image layers

Cons

Increased memory usage

More complexity than other storage drivers

Not compatible with some filesystems like Btrfs

Still in experimental phase, not production-ready yet


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