24.1 Introduction to Docker?

• What is Docker
• Working with Docker
• docker-compose

24.1.1 What is Docker?

For a quick and accessible introduction to Docker, we suggest this YouTube video: Learn Docker in 12 Minutes.

For more comprehensive Docker documentation, we refer you to the Docker documentation website.

For a useful analogy for Docker containerization, we refer you to the webcomic xkcd.

Docker is a technology for encapsulating software in “containers”, somewhat similarly to virtual machines. Like virtual machines, Docker containers facilitate software distribution by bundling the software with all of its dependencies in a single location. Unlike virtual machines, Docker containers are meant to only run a single service or process and are build on top of existing services provided by the host OS (such as disk access, networking, memory management etc.).

In Docker, an image refers to a binary snapshot of a piece of software and all of its dependencies. A container refers to a running instance of a particular image. A good rule of thumb is that each container should be responsible for no more than one running process. A software stack refers to a collection of containers, each responsible for its own process, working together to power a particular application. Docker makes it easy to run multiple software stacks at the same time in parallel on the same machine. Stacks can be given a unique name, which is passed along as a prefix to all their containers. Inside these stacks, containers can communicate using generic names not prefixed with the stack name, making it easy to deploy multiple stacks with the same internal configuration. Containers within the same stack communicate with each other via a common network. Like virtual machines or system processes, Docker stacks can also be instructed to open specific ports to facilitate communication with the host and other machines.

The PEcAn database BETY provides an instructive case-study. BETY is comprised of two core processes – a PostgreSQL database, and a web-based front-end to that database (Apache web server with Ruby on Rails). Running BETY as a “Dockerized” application therefore involves two containers – one for the PostgreSQL database, and one for the web server. We could build these containers ourselves by starting from a container with nothing but the essentials of a particular operating system, but we can save some time and effort by starting with an existing image for PostgreSQL from Docker Hub. When starting a Dockerized BETY, we start the PostgreSQL container first, then start the BETY container telling it how to communicate with the PostgreSQL container. To upgrade an existing BETY instance, we stop the BETY container, download the latest version, tell it to upgrade the database, and re-start the BETY container. There is no need to install new dependencies for BETY since they are all shipped as part of the container.

The PEcAn Docker architecture is designed to facilitate installation and maintenance on a variety of systems by eliminating the need to install and maintain complex system dependencies (such as PostgreSQL, Apache web server, and Shiny server). Furthermore, using separate Docker containers for each ecosystem model helps avoid clashes between different software version requirements of different models (e.g. some models require GCC <5.0, while others may require GCC >=5.0).

The full PEcAn Docker stack is described in more detail in the next section.

24.1.2 Working with Docker

To run an image, you can use the Docker command line interface. For example, the following runs a PostgreSQL image based on the pre-existing PostGIS image by mdillon:

docker run \
    --detach \
    --rm \
    --name postgresql \
    --network pecan \
    --publish 9876:5432 \
    --volume ${PWD}/postgres:/var/lib/postgresql/data \
    mdillon/postgis:9.6-alpine

This will start the PostgreSQL+PostGIS container. The following options were used:

• --detach makes the container run in the background.
• --rm removes the container when it is finished (make sure to use the volume below).
• --name the name of the container, also the hostname of the container which can be used by other docker containers in the same network inside docker.
• --network pecan the network that the container should be running in, this leverages of network isolation in docker and allows this container to be connected to by others using the postgresql hostname.
• --publish exposes the port to the outside world, this is like ssh, and maps port 9876 to port 5432 in the docker container
• --volume maps a folder on your local machine to the machine in the container. This allows you to save data on your local machine.
• mdillon/postgis:9.6-alpine is the actual image that will be run, in this case it comes from the group/person mdillon, the container is postgis and the version 9.6-alpine (version 9.6 build on alpine linux).

Other options that might be used:

• --tty allocate a pseudo-TTY to send stdout and stderr back to the console.
• --interactive keeps stdin open so the user can interact with the application running.
• --env sets environment variables, these are often used to change the behavior of the docker container.

To see a list of all running containers you can use the following command:

docker ps

To see the log files of this container you use the following command (you can either use their name or id as returned by docker ps). The -f flag will follow the stdout/stderr from the container, use Ctrl-C to stop following the stdout/stderr.

docker logs -f postgresql

To stop a running container use:

docker stop postgresql

Containers that are running in the foreground (without the --detach) can be stopped by pressing Ctrl-C. Any containers running in the background (with --detach) will continue running until the machine is restarted or the container is stopped using docker stop.

24.1.3 docker-compose

For a quick introduction to docker-compose, we recommend the following YouTube video: Docker Compose in 12 Minutes.

The complete docker-compose references can be found on the Docker documentation website.

docker-compose provides a convenient way to configure and run a multi-container Docker stack. Basically, a docker-compose setup consists of a list of containers and their configuration parameters, which are then internally converted into a bunch of docker commands. To configure BETY as described above, we can use a docker-compose.yml file like the following:

version: "3"
services:
  postgres:
    image: mdillon/postgis:9.5
  bety:
    image: pecan/bety
    depends_on:
      - postgres

This simple file allows us to bring up a full BETY application with both database and BETY application. The BETY app will not be brought up until the database container has started.

You can now start this application by changing into the same directory as the docker-compose.yml file (cd /path/to/file) and then running:

docker-compose up

This will start the application, and you will see the log files for the 2 different containers.