waharnum/beachfront

A very basic proof-of-concept for managing multiple static sites as Docker containers

What is this?

A very basic proof-of-concept for managing multiple static sites as discrete Docker containers, composited with an Ansible playbook for ease of use.

Prerequisites for local demonstration:

• Running Docker setup, including docker-compose (FE, Docker Machine on OS X)
• handbook.floeproject.local and fluidproject.local are both defined in /etc/hosts to resolve to the Docker host, FE:
  • {docker-host-ip} handbook.floeproject.local
  • {docker-host-ip} fluidproject.local
• you have previously-built containers for static sites available via docker hub or other means, that serve on port 80 (as an example, I've created ones for the ILDH and the Fluid Project site, using the standard nginx image)
  • https://hub.docker.com/r/aharnum/ildh-docker/
  • https://hub.docker.com/r/aharnum/fluidproject-docker/

Running locally

• ansible-playbook beachfront.yml -i hosts --connection=local
• cd products
• docker-compose up
• sites will be visible on
  • http://handbook.floeproject.local/
  • http://fluidproject.local/

How it works

1. maintain list of static site containers configurations in beachfront.yml/vars
2. list is used by Ansible to generate
   • individual nginx configuration files for each back-end static site, to configure reverse proxy behaviour
   • a Dockerfile based on the nginx image that loads all the needed static site configuration files when built
   • docker-compose.yml configuration file
     • docker-compose up can then start all the necessary containers and exposes the 'back end' containers serving static sites to nginx functioning as a reverse proxy