Intro

Purpose: To run developer dependencies as docker containers inside a VM.

Benetifs:

Easier/faster to add & change dependecies. Developers only need to know the syntax of Dockerfile: https://docs.docker.com/reference/builder/
Faster download. The first download round might takes awhile, but the overhead for any new/changed container is very low, much lower than re-downloading the whole VM.

Suggested Components

Boot2docker to run docker containers on any OS (size: 26MB): https://github.com/boot2docker/boot2docker
Vagrant and Virtualbox for running boot2docker: https://github.com/mitchellh/boot2docker-vagrant-box
docker-compose for building & running containers: https://docs.docker.com/compose/
Rake tasks for managing the VM and the containers
private docker registry: https://docs.docker.com/registry/deploying/

Find a way to avoid port-forwarding for each container in the VM (e.g. we can open all ports)
Automate update process on vm start (check docker-compose for this)
Remove extra ssh step for entering docker containers (vagrant ssh then docker exec x /bin/bash)
Simplify process of adding/updating docker containers. Suggested approach:
- There is a folder named docker-containers.
- Each subfolder inside that folder has: service related files, a version file and a Dockerfile.
- The build script checks the private registry against the remote registry version and (re-)build and push any new or updated container(s).
- We may avoid docker-compose and rely on some ruby/bash scripts.
- or We might be able to dockerize build, update and run processes. Having a docker container (with docker-compose inside it) which runs/build/update other containers.