1. Preserving containers
Euan Cochrane
Digital Preservation Manager
Yale University Library

2. How long do we need to preserve data and software for reproducibility purposes?

3. Short answer: Forever Long(er) answer:
It depends on your philosophy of science and your faith in humanity

4. “non-reproducible single occurrences are of no significance to science”
Karl Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery, Routledge, London, 1992, p. 66.
“No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment [at any point in time] can prove me wrong.”
Albert Einstein (allegedly)
Will humanity ever not want to have the option to reproduce computational science from today?

5. How long will containers be usable?

8. NB: Interesting conversation about ABIs here: https://plus. google

9. http://unix. stackexchange

10. Linux-Dependent containers can only be guaranteed to be usable while the operating system is

11. Windows/Mac containers will be worse-off
Try running old Windows programs in Windows 10, even with the compatibility layer
Which version of Windows? Windows RT? Windows IoT? Windows 32-bit?
Apple completely dropped support for PowerPC software after OSX Tiger

12. Q: How long will containers be usable without intervention?
A: As long as the operating systems are

13. So what about the operating systems?

14. Challenges to operating system compatibility over time
Loss of backwards compatibility of new hardware with old software has happened many times in the past
E.g. Mac OS X Panther (version 10.3) requires a PowerPC processor
Old operating systems often cannot interface with modern hardware
Raspberry Pi (ARM) operating systems will not run on x86 hardware – will Raspberry Pi follow Apple and move to x86 processors?
Microsoft Windows Internet of Things edition will not run on x86 hardware
Future advances such as quantum computing or 128-bit processors could remove backwards compatibility with older operating systems

15. Summary: We can’t just put things in containers, we need to preserve the containers

16. How to preserve containers

17. Preserve access to the Operating Systems
Preserve the operating systems
Maintain and develop emulators

18. Preserving operating systems is achievable
One preserved instance of an operating system can support limitless numbers of compatible containers
We can use existing technologies and methods to preserve operating systems

19. (bwFLA) Emulation as a Service - EaaS
An emulation simplification tool
Enables remote access to emulated (or virtualized) machines via a web browser
Simplifies the use of emulation & virtualization in limitless workflows by providing a generic API to existing emulators
Enables citation of complex digital objects
Reduces preservation costs by sharing underlying (e.g. OS) bit streams amongst EMs
Can run remotely or on local hardware
Can pass hardware connections from host computer to emulated computers when run locally
Docker package available for installation locally see: freiburg.de/wordpress/?p=817

21. How might using emulation for preserving containers be incorporated into scientific workflows?
During the research process scientists test their containers to ensure they can run on Emulated Machines (EMs)
At the point of publication scientists:
Install (automatically where possible) published packages on a new EM derivative instance hosted by a digital archive
Document and configure external data dependencies either on the same EM or as an associated data source connectable to the preserved EM
Receive a unique persistent URL for the EM and it’s networked/associated “external” dependencies
Scientists share the URL for their EM with reviewers and the community
The digital archive preserves the EM over time and provides appropriate access to it

22. Challenges to achieving sustainable container preservation
Archives of preserved operating systems need to be funded, established and maintained
Instances of emulation services need to be running and accessible by scientists
Emulators need to be preserved
Big-data makes this more complicated
The scientific community needs to buy-into this vision
External data sources that are dependencies of the containers need to be able to be preserved, documented, and usefully associated with the preserved containers via a practical workflows

23. Thank you Euan Cochrane Digital Preservation Manager
Yale University Library