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**DRAFT**

Introduction

Both Docker Compose and Open Horizon are tools for managing the deployment and lifecycle management of containerized applications, but there are significant differences.  This article will attempt to explain service software lifecycle management, and then compare and contrast the approaches used by these two tools.  This article assumes a basic familiarity with the idea of containerized software.

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Docker Compose and Open Horizon may then be compared using the above lifecycle stages in a table:

StagesDocker ComposeOpen Horizon
Deployment

manually run "docker-compose pull" on destination

not typically needed since this is included in intialization

automatically triggered on destination by Agent when an agreement is formed
Initializationmanually run "docker-compose up" on destinationautomatically run on destination by Agent after deployment completes successfully
Operation

manually run "docker-compose ps" on destination

does not otherwise monitor or alert to runtime failures

docker-compose up to manually retart if application is updated

Agent automatically monitors running services and implements restarts and rollbacks as needed

If a service is updated, agreement is terminated and re-negotiated

Removalmanually run "docker-compose down" on destinationIf an agreement is terminated, Agent will automatically halt and remove running services

In summary, Docker Compose is a tool for an operator to manually administer the service software lifecycle directly on destination hosts.  Open Horizon is a tool for an operator to specify the conditions under which the service software lifecycle should be automatically administered autonomously on each host by the Open Horizon Agent.

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