Why do not use snap to install Docker in the production environment?
Using snap to install software like Docker, MySQL in a production environment may put the software or system stability at risk. And it may bring a lot of trouble to the system administrators or DevOps engineers.
The reasons include:
- Your services based on Docker or MySQL will be stopped or interrupted at an uncertain time as any software installed by snap will be updated or upgraded once there are available updates
- Software may have potential security and stability issues as software installed by snap may only be verified by the developers and most likely not verified by third parties, such as by a Linux distribution maintainer.
- The config files, data coming with the packages from snap are installed to unusual directories. It brings troubles to system administrators and DevOps engineers.
For the first problem, snap does not provide any ways to control the update or upgrade process. That means the programs and services running in a production environment and serving thousands of users can be interfered at any time and no one can stop it, which is unacceptable.
And the second problem is primarily about security, stability and compatibility. As the software packages from snap directly from the developers, if you are running the software on a platform that is not fully tested, it may cause unpredictable issues. One concern of most system administrators or DevOps engineers is that the problems caused by incompatibility are very hard to locate and fix.
The last problem may not be severe but it makes batch management not possible, which is not preferable when managing a large scale deployment.
Overall, when deploying the software in a production environment, trying not to use snap will help the administrators or engineer maintain the system security, stability and compatibility.
However, snap is suitable for people who always want to taste new features.
