Month: January 2022

Docker FAQs

Last Updated on February 16, 2022 by sandeeppote

Docker Engine and Architecture FAQ’s

Components of the Docker Engine – Docker Daemon, Rest API and Docker Cli

Component that manages Images, Containers, Volumes and Network – Docker Daemon

Component that manages containers in Docker Engine – LibContainer

Container can run with Docker – Yes

Component keeps alive container even if Docker Daemon is not working – Containerd-Shim

Docker engine objects- Images, Container, Volume and Network

In Container data is writable but not persistable – Yes

Dcoker looks for images in docker hub by default- Yes

Readonly component in Docker engine – Docker Images

Default directory where Docker data is stored (Ubuntu) – /var/lib/docker

Directory where the Docker config is stored(Ubuntu)- /etc/docker

OCI stands for – Open Container Initiative

OCI specification – runtime-spec and image-spec

View version of Docker engine – docker version

Stop the Docker service – systemctl stop docker or/and systemctl stop docker.socket

Start the Docker service – systemctl start docker.socket or/and systemctl start docker

Check Status of Docker service – systemctl status docker

Debug docker whilst starting the service – dockerd –debug

Where is the Daemon file located (Ubuntu) – /etc/docker/daemon.json

Where is the daemon socket located (Ubuntu) – /var/run/docker.sock

Port to connect the docker externaly with encrypted trafic – 2376

Port to connect the docker externaly with unencrypted trafic – 2375

Start the docker daemon manually – dockerd

Default docker daemon interface – Unix Socket

Default network driver – bridge

Stop Command signals running container on STOP command – SIGTERM followed by SIGKILL

Restart policies – no, on-failure, always and unless-stopped

Reduce container downtime due to daemon failure or restart- Enable Live Restore

Docker Images FAQ’s

Default Docker Image Registry – Docker Hub

Various Image Registry –

  • Docker Trusted Registry
  • Google Container Registry
  • Amazon Container Registry
  • Azure Container Registry

Types of Images in Docker Hub

  • Official Images
  • Verified Images
  • User Images

Base vs Parent Image –

Base Image are creatged from scratch, which means its empty. You cannot create a scratch image as it is always to be used. Any other images created from Base Image but used as parent to custom images are Parent Image. e.g. Ubuntu which is made from debian image. Here debian image is a Parent Image

Docker Swarm

What is the maximum and recommended number of mananger a swarm cluste can have? There is no max limit but recommended is 7 managers in swarm cluster

Cache Busting and Version Pinning when building Docker images

Last Updated on February 7, 2022 by sandeeppote

docker file – Layered Architecture

Docker uses Layered Architecture. When using Docker files it creates a new layer in the image which adds additional space to the image based on the instructions for that layer.

When a Docker build command is run it proceeds from the first instruction in Docker file to the last while caching each stage so as if the build fails next time build uses cache until it ran succesully and invalidated the stage that failed and the following stage. Layers repurpose the previous layers and don’t have to build all of them again.

In below example Docker file has 6 stages. Each stage will be cached when build command is ran.

Suppose a build fails at Stage 3 due to some reason or new package has to be added the Docker will invalidate the Stage 3 and the following stages

Next time when a issue is rectified the build command will repurpose the previuos layers and build the failed stages

docker file – Layered Architecture

But in this case the repository will not be update, so how to resolve or update the repository with the packages-

Cache Busting

In this case we can to combine the instructions so the repository is updated along with packages as below

docker file – Cache Busting and Version Pinning

Merging Stage 2 and Stage 3 from the previous docker file in to single instruction will ensure the repository is first udpated and pakages are installed

Merging these stages is called as Cache Busting

Version Pinning

You can also explicity mention the version of package to be installed

In stage 2 docker file is instrcuting to install python3-pip 21.3.1 version

Best Practice-

Instructions which are most frequently modified should be at the bottom of the file and the instructions which are least modified should be at the top of the docker file

Docker storage for Ubuntu

Last Updated on April 13, 2022 by sandeeppote

Docker uses storage drivers to store the read-only images and writable containers

It basically has 6 layers

Read-only/Image Layers

  1. Base Image e.g. Ubuntu OS
  2. Packages/Repositories e.g. apt etc
  3. Dependencies e.g. pip etc
  4. Custom Code e.g. python code etc
  5. Enrtypoint or command i.e. excutes the program

Writable Layer

6. Container Layer

Layers of a container based on the Ubuntu image

Data and files related to images and containers are store in /var/lib/docker folder in Ubuntu

To check the storage driver used by the docker, use following command-

docker info | more

Im my case it is overlay2

You can also use this command to get the storage driver

docker info | grep "Storage Driver"

How to change the storage driver

Stop the Docker service

systemctl stop docker.socket
systemctl stop docker

Check the docker service status

service docker status

Backup the docker folder

cp -au /var/lib/dovker /var/lib/docker.bk

Change the storage driver

echo '{ "storage-driver": "aufs" }' | sudo tee /etc/docker/dameon.json
service docker start

Image credit and reference links –

https://docs.docker.com/storage/storagedriver/

https://docs.docker.com/storage/storagedriver/overlayfs-driver/

Error while starting the SOLR

Do you see this error while starting the SOLR?

Check the Environment Variable JAVA_HOME and if the path of the jre is correct.

In my case due to the recent JAVA sdk update the path was not changed in environmental variable to reflect the actual path.

So one of the issue could be the incorrect path. Change this to the actual path.

And here we have the SOLR service running

Create your first Sitecore OrderCloud Marketplace

Last Updated on January 23, 2022 by sandeeppote

Login to the OrderCloud portal.

https://portal.ordercloud.io/login

You will be shown the Dashboard and an option to create New Sitecore OrderCloud Marketplace

Step 1 – Select Region

While writing this blog there are 4 Regions avaialble for you to select. As per the document you should create Marketplace in Us-West region by default so as to seed using headstart. If you want to use regions other than Us-West you might have to request this to OrderCloud team.

Select region Us-West from the region option.

Step 2 – Autoselected Environment

By default the Sandbox environment is selected for you to try the OrderCloud. If you want to access Staging or Production contact OrderCloud team.

Step 3 – Provide Mareketplace ID [optional]

Provide the Marketplace Id if you want to have your own name. Id’s are Writable i.e. if you chose your ID OrderCloud will generate the same for you or you may let the OrderCloud auto generate the ID.

Chose the Marketplace ID

Step 4 – Provide Marketplace Name

Provide Marketplace name or description here. Click on Create Marketplace.

A new Marketplace will be created and you will be redirected to the Settings tab of the Marketplace with Instance details and other Basic info.

You should also see your newly created Marketplace in Dashboard

Now lets try creating a Marketplace with the same name in the same region i.e. Us-West

You can see OderCloud doesn’t allow to create a new Maretplace with the same name

If you also try creating a Marketplace with the same name in different region it wont allow-

Create a new Marketplace without providing the ID

A new Marketplace is created and OrderCloud gave it a Unique ID