Docker containers in the cloud, an easier way

Introduction. New project. Evaluating compute on azure.

TLDR: Both Azure and AWS have integrations with Docker which let's you docker-compose.yml files to configure production environments.

Azure Container Instances

Docker

Docker overview

Linux program running in well known environment.

Locked down network by default.

docker or docker-compose locally. "Real" orchestration in production, kubernetes, (docker swarm) or something cloud specific. Notice that we don't use docker-compose in production.

Input

# Server and client, without docker
node app/index.js

curl http://localhost:8000/

Build and image

docker build -t cloud-app:0.1 ./app

docker image ls cloud-app

Server

# Start a local webserver
docker run --init cloud-app:0.1

# With open port
docker run --init -p 9000:8000 cloud-app:0.1

# Show
docker ps

Client

curl http://localhost:8000/
curl http://localhost:9000/

`docker-compose`

docker-compose --file local-app/docker-compose.yml up

docker-compose --file local-app-network/docker-compose.yml up
docker-compose --file local-app-network/docker-compose.yml up -- client

Docker image hosting

Public on docker hub.
Private in a image repository.

## Show available cloud account
# Azure resource group using `azure-cli`
az group list --output table
# AWS profile using `aws-cli`
aws configure list-profiles

AWS

# Create repository
aws --profile 'sandbox-emil.pirfalt' --region eu-west-1 \
    ecr create-repository --repository-name cloud-app

aws --profile 'sandbox-emil.pirfalt' --region eu-west-1 \
    ecr describe-repositories

# Login
image_repo='253680342693.dkr.ecr.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com'
login_password=$(aws --profile 'sandbox-emil.pirfalt' ecr get-login-password --region eu-west-1)
echo $login_password | docker login --username AWS --password-stdin $image_repo

# Tag and push
docker image ls cloud-app
docker image ls $image_repo/cloud-app

docker tag cloud-app:0.1 $image_repo/cloud-app:0.1
docker push $image_repo/cloud-app:0.1

Azure

# Create repository
az acr create \
    --resource-group 'sandbox-emil.pirfalt' \
    --name 'jaywaysandboxemil' \
    --sku Basic

# Login
image_repo='jaywaysandboxemil.azurecr.io'
az acr login --name 'jaywaysandboxemil'

# Tag and push
docker image ls cloud-app
docker image ls $image_repo/cloud-app

docker tag cloud-app:0.1 $image_repo/cloud-app:0.1
docker push $image_repo/cloud-app:0.1

Docker context

## Docker context
# Context help
docker context --help
docker context create --help

# List available docker context:s
docker context list

# Create a new docker context for the azure resource group
docker context create aci 'azure-jayway-sandbox' \
    --resource-group 'sandbox-emil.pirfalt' \
    --location 'westeurope'

# Create a new docker context for aws profile
docker context create ecs 'aws-jayway-sandbox' \
    --profile 'sandbox-emil.pirfalt'

# List available docker context:s again
docker context list

Using docker context without compose

## Context
context='aws-jayway-sandbox'
context='azure-jayway-sandbox'

# Start a webserver
docker --context "$context" run -p 80:80 nginx:1.21-alpine

# Show & test
docker --context "$context" ps
host=$(docker --context "$context" ps --format json | jq '.[0].Ports[0] | split("->") | .[0]' -r)
echo $host
curl $host

# Start with domain name
docker --context "$context" run \
    --publish 80:80 \
    --name nginx-test-1 \
    --domainname 'jayway-sandbox-nginx-test-1' \
    nginx:1.21-alpine

curl 'jayway-sandbox-nginx-test-1.westeurope.azurecontainer.io'

# Start with domain name, detached
docker --context "$context" run \
    --publish 80 \
    --name nginx-test-2 \
    --domainname 'jayway-sandbox-nginx-test-2' \
    --detach \
    nginx:1.21-alpine

curl 'jayway-sandbox-nginx-test-2.westeurope.azurecontainer.io'
until curl 'jayway-sandbox-nginx-test-2.westeurope.azurecontainer.io' --connect-timeout 3 2> /dev/null; do printf . ; done

`docker compose` (not `docker-compose`)

docker --help
docker compose --help

image_repo='jaywaysandboxemil.azurecr.io'
context='azure-jayway-sandbox'

image_repo='253680342693.dkr.ecr.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com'
context='aws-jayway-sandbox'

# Run in the cloud
docker --context $context compose --workdir cloud-app ps

time \
image_repo=$image_repo \
    docker --context $context compose --workdir cloud-app up

time \
image_repo=$image_repo \
    docker --context $context compose --workdir cloud-app down

# Inspect
docker --context $context compose --workdir cloud-app ps
host=$(
  docker --context $context compose --workdir cloud-app ps --format json | jq '.[0].Publishers[0].URL | split("->") | .[0]' -r
)

curl http://$host

TLS (Bonus)

In network reverse proxy with tls termination.

# Azure
domainname='jayway-sandbox-emil'
host_url="$domainname.westeurope.azurecontainer.io"

# AWS
host_url=localhost
host_url=$(
  docker --context $context compose --workdir reverse-proxy-app ps --format json | jq '.[] | select(.Service == "revers-proxy").Publishers[0].URL | split(":") | .[0]' -r
)



domainname=$domainname \
image_repo=$image_repo \
host_url=$host_url \
    docker --context $context compose --workdir reverse-proxy-app up

docker --context $context compose --workdir reverse-proxy-app ps

domainname=$domainname \
image_repo=$image_repo \
host_url=$host_url \
    docker --context $context compose --workdir reverse-proxy-app down


echo $host_url
curl "https://$host_url"

Discussion

Cons

It's not "real" orchestration.
It's more expensive than App Service (on Azure).
No automatic scaling.
It's less mature than App Service.
Much less configuration.

Pros

Much less configuration.
It's more cloud independent.
It's very similar to running locally.

pirfalt/docker-in-the-cloud