Docketeer XIX: New Features in Uncharted Seas

Co-authored by: Joseph Ahn, Aiden Carere, Chris Rodriguez, Ellis Song, Dylan Sterling

In an era where scalability and security are paramount, container management tools like Docker and Kubernetes are indispensable. Docketeer enhances this ecosystem by offering detailed visualizations of critical metrics across containers, networks, volumes, and more.

Since its launch, Docketeer has continuously improved by strengthening security via advanced vulnerability metrics as well as enhancing the user interface. The latest version adds revamped caching functionalities, dynamic Prometheus reconfigurations, consistent Grafana plot rendering, more comprehensive vulnerability metrics and accessibility features for developers with color vision deficiencies.

What’s new in Docketeer v19.0?

A new Configuration feature

Our new configuration feature permits users to seamlessly adjust global settings, fine-tune scrape configurations, and manage monitoring endpoints, with instant updates facilitated by a “Reconfigure Prometheus” button. This integration not only elevates user interaction but also improves developer productivity, ensuring that modifications are error-free and optimally performant.

MongoDB for saving configurations

Our team has implemented MongoDB as the primary database for Docketeer, utilizing its non-relational nature to manage diverse and dynamically evolving data for Prometheus configurations. Chosen for its superior handling of unstructured data and horizontal scalability, MongoDB enhances real-time updates and retrievals, crucial for rapid application of container configuration changes. This setup ensures high availability and boosts Docketeer’s responsiveness by streamlining the storage and retrieval of configuration settings and container states.

A new caching mechanism

With recent news of Redis transitioning away from a fully open-source model, the Docketeer team also made the decision to implement Memcached as its primary caching tool in lieu of Redis. The team ultimately opted for Memcached, because of its simplified configuration and reduced memory overhead. This targeted utilization facilitated rapid access to image vulnerabilities, significantly improving the performance and efficiency of our container management and monitoring workflows within the Docketeer environment. Additionally, leveraging Memcached — an open-source solution — enhanced our flexibility in customization and reduced the total cost of ownership, aligning with our commitment to open-source technologies.

Additional vulnerability details

By leveraging Grype scan templates, we now provide more detailed vulnerability information, including the “fixed-in” status. Vulnerabilities that have been patched in updated package versions are now quickly observable and fixable by users. Users can also click on these details to for further vulnerability descriptions.

Consistent Grafana plot rendering

The Docker containerization sequence has now been updated to address previous concerns of erratic Grafana plot renderings, due to an inconsistent connection between Prometheus and its targets. This restructuring led to a more consistent and reliable visualization of metrics, enhancing both system stability and data integrity, while markedly improving the observability pipeline’s efficiency and responsiveness.

Accessibility feature for color-deficient developers

Recognizing that over 300 million people globally have color vision deficiencies, we introduced a toggle button to adjust the color scheme of the displayed vulnerabilities, enhancing usability for affected developers.

Enhanced UI

Finally, several UI improvements were implemented including a more visually striking and intuitive color scheme for Image vulnerabilities, as well as a loading emblem and error modal to communicate ongoing fetch requests and operational timeouts, respectively.

Looking Ahead

As Docketeer continues to evolve, future enhancements will focus on integrating more seamless Kubernetes monitoring metrics and enabling users to access saved Prometheus configurations directly from the MongoDB database. This will further enrich user interactions with the extension by meeting specific needs.

Thank you for your continued support. Stay tuned for future updates that will significantly enhance user experience with Docketeer.