Docker

App Developers - build containers
SysAdmins - run containers

Running vs Building a container

Running a container

It is similar to launching an application.

There is a pre-configured script configured at build time with the ENTRYPOINT instruction that contains the script to launch and the container runs till the script exits with status 0.

Using command line

docker pull <container image URL>

docker run -d --name=<NAME> [ -e <ENV VARIABLE> -p <PORT MAPPING/PROTOCOL> -v <VOLUME MAPPING> ] [other options] <container image URL>

You may be used to seeing the parts of the command being split into lines:

docker pull <container image URL>

docker run -d \
--name=<NAME> \
[ -e <ENV VARIABLE> \
-p <PORT MAPPING/PROTOCOL> \
-v <VOLUME MAPPING> ] \
[other options] \
<container image URL>

Using Docker Compose

Create a .yml Docker Compose file with the following contents to describe the parameters of the container.

version: <version>

services:
  <NAME>:
    image: <container image URL>
    [
    environment:
      - [ENV VARIABLE 1]
      - [ENV VARIABLE 2]
    ports:
      - [PORT MAPPING/PROTOCOL]
    volumes:
      - [VOLUME MAPPING 1]
      - [VOLUME MAPPING 2]
    ]
    [other options]

Building a container

Containers are built using Dockerfiles. A Dockerfile is comprised of many instructions. The instructions are written as uppercase by convention. All Dockerfiles begin with the FROM <base image> instruction, which may only be preceded by ARG instructions.

When using a Dockerfile, the easiest way to think about what needs to be put into a new container is this way: You're taking some base-level container and adding or overriding stuff in your Dockerfile to ultimately generate a stand-lone container that's a new image.

So if you're trying a centos:7 container and installing an application into it and make it autostartup and run when you do the run command, you'll need to remember these key things:

• Use the RUN syntax for any command-line things you'd need to do
• Use the COPY syntax to take files from your local computer and put them into the container image
• Learn BASH scripting and update the default ENTRYPOINT so your Bash script executes the new software and doesn't exit the script.

e.g.:

#!/bin/bash
echo "Hello World" > test.txt
./Instagram.AppImage
/bin/bash

With this script in place, even if the binary crashes, the container will fallback to bash shell and you can then check for any logs or troubleshoot.

Obviously, this is for debugging, and not for production.

RUN vs CMD vs ENTRYPOINT instructions

• RUN executes commands in a new layer and creates a new image. So it is recommended to chain them together.
  • e.g. it's used for installing software packages
• CMD sets default commands and/or parameters for the container.
  • If the CMD does not define an executable, it should be defined by the ENTRYPOINT
  • In case there are multiple CMD statements, only the last one gets executed.
  • It can be overwritten from the command line when a Docker container runs.
• ENTRYPOINT configures a container that'll run as an executable.
  • Unlike CMD, an ENTRYPOINT command does not get ignored by additional parameters that are specified in the docker run command.

All three instructions have two forms: Shell form and Executable form.

Shell form

<Instruction> <Command>
e.g.:

CMD echo "Hello World!"

Executable form

<Instruction> ["executable", "parameter1", "parameter2", ...]
e.g.: ```

RUN ["apt", "install", "firefox"]

How CMD and ENTRYPOINT interact

• In the absence of an ENTRYPOINT, If the CMD has an executable, it will be executed along with its parameters.
• If there is an ENTRYPOINT, the CMD parameters are passed in addition to the ENTRYPOINT executable and parameters.
• If there are executables in both CMD and ENTRYPOINT, ENTRYPOINT takes precedence.

Docker Compose

Docker compose is used to keep a seperation of conerns. Different apps and services should run in different containers.

e.g. You have an app that has both a web component and a database component.

1. You need a Dockerfile to build the web piece of the application (install middleware, copy application code, run webserver).
2. You also need a Dockerfile to build the database piece of the application (install database software, run SQL to build schema, startup the database).
3. You need a docker-compose file that starts up both containers together.
4. Run docker-compose up to start up the full stack application

e.g.:

...
services:
    webserver:
        image: dockersamples/visualizer: stable
        ports:
            - "8080:8080"
        volumes:
            - "/var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock"
        deploy:
            placement:
                constraints: [node.role == manager]
        networks:
            - webnet
    database:
        image: redis
        ports:
            - "6379:6379"
        volumes:
            "/home/docker/data:/data"
        deploy:
            placement:
                constraints: [node.role == manager]
        command: redis-server --appendonly yes
        networks:
            - webnet
networks:
    webnet:
...

Kubernetes

Kubernetes/K8s is essentially docker compose on steroids.

Docker compose defines the application stack to run.
Kubernetes defines the application stack and lets the control plane monitor the containers, deploys them to multiple servers, and keeps them running if they were to crash.

Kubernetes is what should be used in a production ready, highly available application, rather than docker-compose which better suits a demo environment.

The components of the Kubernetes Control Plane are:

kube-apiserver : The API server exposes the Kubernetes API
etcd : Consistent and HA key-value store used s Kubernetes' backing store for all cluster data
kube-scheduler : Watches for newly created Pods with no assigned node and selects a node for them to run on
kube-controller-manager : Runs controller processes