Project Types

When creating a new container, you must select the project type. A project is a network-wide administrative identifier (ID) for related work. All processes that run in a container have the same project ID, and a container tracks the resources being used with the project ID. The container type is based on which project type is selected when creating the container.

Every container has a project name that is a permanent part of its information. When a container is activated on a host, this project name is added to that host's /etc/project file. This entry remains as long as the container is active on that host.

You cannot have two projects with the same project name active on a host at the same time. This is because processes that run in a container are tracked with the project ID, so every project name on a host must be unique.

When creating user-based and group-based projects, the user or group name becomes part of the project name. For user-based containers, the project name becomes user.username. For group-based containers, the project name becomes group.groupname. Therefore, when creating user-based or group-based projects, you cannot use a user name or group name that duplicates the /etc/project entries for the default containers. For more information, see Default Containers.

You provide a project name of your choosing as part of the creation process for application-based containers. The Project Creation wizard accepts duplicate project names for different application-based projects. But two application-based projects that have the same project name cannot be active on the same host at the same time. Reuse project names when creating application-based projects, only if you plan to activate these containers on different hosts. If you try to activate a second project on a host that already has a project with the identical project name, the activation fails.

The following table provides details about the three project types that are available and which changes occur based on the selection.