| :title: Process Management with CFEngine |
| :description: Managing containerized processes with CFEngine |
| :keywords: cfengine, process, management, usage, docker, documentation |
| |
| Process Management with CFEngine |
| ================================ |
| |
| Create Docker containers with managed processes. |
| |
| Docker monitors one process in each running container and the container lives or dies with that process. |
| By introducing CFEngine inside Docker containers, we can alleviate a few of the issues that may arise: |
| |
| * It is possible to easily start multiple processes within a container, all of which will be managed automatically, with the normal ``docker run`` command. |
| * If a managed process dies or crashes, CFEngine will start it again within 1 minute. |
| * The container itself will live as long as the CFEngine scheduling daemon (cf-execd) lives. With CFEngine, we are able to decouple the life of the container from the uptime of the service it provides. |
| |
| |
| How it works |
| ------------ |
| |
| CFEngine, together with the cfe-docker integration policies, are installed as part of the Dockerfile. This builds CFEngine into our Docker image. |
| |
| The Dockerfile's ``ENTRYPOINT`` takes an arbitrary amount of commands (with any desired arguments) as parameters. |
| When we run the Docker container these parameters get written to CFEngine policies and CFEngine takes over to ensure that the desired processes are running in the container. |
| |
| CFEngine scans the process table for the ``basename`` of the commands given to the ``ENTRYPOINT`` and runs the command to start the process if the ``basename`` is not found. |
| For example, if we start the container with ``docker run "/path/to/my/application parameters"``, CFEngine will look for a process named ``application`` and run the command. |
| If an entry for ``application`` is not found in the process table at any point in time, CFEngine will execute ``/path/to/my/application parameters`` to start the application once again. |
| The check on the process table happens every minute. |
| |
| Note that it is therefore important that the command to start your application leaves a process with the basename of the command. |
| This can be made more flexible by making some minor adjustments to the CFEngine policies, if desired. |
| |
| |
| Usage |
| ----- |
| |
| This example assumes you have Docker installed and working. |
| We will install and manage ``apache2`` and ``sshd`` in a single container. |
| |
| There are three steps: |
| |
| 1. Install CFEngine into the container. |
| 2. Copy the CFEngine Docker process management policy into the containerized CFEngine installation. |
| 3. Start your application processes as part of the ``docker run`` command. |
| |
| |
| Building the container image |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| The first two steps can be done as part of a Dockerfile, as follows. |
| |
| .. code-block:: bash |
| |
| FROM ubuntu |
| MAINTAINER Eystein Måløy Stenberg <eytein.stenberg@gmail.com> |
| |
| RUN apt-get -y install wget lsb-release unzip |
| |
| # install latest CFEngine |
| RUN wget -qO- http://cfengine.com/pub/gpg.key | apt-key add - |
| RUN echo "deb http://cfengine.com/pub/apt $(lsb_release -cs) main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cfengine-community.list |
| RUN apt-get update |
| RUN apt-get install cfengine-community |
| |
| # install cfe-docker process management policy |
| RUN wget --no-check-certificate https://github.com/estenberg/cfe-docker/archive/master.zip -P /tmp/ && unzip /tmp/master.zip -d /tmp/ |
| RUN cp /tmp/cfe-docker-master/cfengine/bin/* /var/cfengine/bin/ |
| RUN cp /tmp/cfe-docker-master/cfengine/inputs/* /var/cfengine/inputs/ |
| RUN rm -rf /tmp/cfe-docker-master /tmp/master.zip |
| |
| # apache2 and openssh are just for testing purposes, install your own apps here |
| RUN apt-get -y install openssh-server apache2 |
| RUN mkdir -p /var/run/sshd |
| RUN echo "root:password" | chpasswd # need a password for ssh |
| |
| ENTRYPOINT ["/var/cfengine/bin/docker_processes_run.sh"] |
| |
| |
| By saving this file as ``Dockerfile`` to a working directory, you can then build your container with the docker build command, |
| e.g. ``docker build -t managed_image``. |
| |
| Testing the container |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| Start the container with ``apache2`` and ``sshd`` running and managed, forwarding a port to our SSH instance: |
| |
| .. code-block:: bash |
| |
| docker run -p 127.0.0.1:222:22 -d managed_image "/usr/sbin/sshd" "/etc/init.d/apache2 start" |
| |
| We now clearly see one of the benefits of the cfe-docker integration: it allows to start several processes |
| as part of a normal ``docker run`` command. |
| |
| We can now log in to our new container and see that both ``apache2`` and ``sshd`` are running. We have set the root password to |
| "password" in the Dockerfile above and can use that to log in with ssh: |
| |
| .. code-block:: bash |
| |
| ssh -p222 root@127.0.0.1 |
| |
| ps -ef |
| UID PID PPID C STIME TTY TIME CMD |
| root 1 0 0 07:48 ? 00:00:00 /bin/bash /var/cfengine/bin/docker_processes_run.sh /usr/sbin/sshd /etc/init.d/apache2 start |
| root 18 1 0 07:48 ? 00:00:00 /var/cfengine/bin/cf-execd -F |
| root 20 1 0 07:48 ? 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/sshd |
| root 32 1 0 07:48 ? 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start |
| www-data 34 32 0 07:48 ? 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start |
| www-data 35 32 0 07:48 ? 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start |
| www-data 36 32 0 07:48 ? 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start |
| root 93 20 0 07:48 ? 00:00:00 sshd: root@pts/0 |
| root 105 93 0 07:48 pts/0 00:00:00 -bash |
| root 112 105 0 07:49 pts/0 00:00:00 ps -ef |
| |
| |
| If we stop apache2, it will be started again within a minute by CFEngine. |
| |
| .. code-block:: bash |
| |
| service apache2 status |
| Apache2 is running (pid 32). |
| service apache2 stop |
| * Stopping web server apache2 ... waiting [ OK ] |
| service apache2 status |
| Apache2 is NOT running. |
| # ... wait up to 1 minute... |
| service apache2 status |
| Apache2 is running (pid 173). |
| |
| |
| Adapting to your applications |
| ----------------------------- |
| |
| To make sure your applications get managed in the same manner, there are just two things you need to adjust from the above example: |
| |
| * In the Dockerfile used above, install your applications instead of ``apache2`` and ``sshd``. |
| * When you start the container with ``docker run``, specify the command line arguments to your applications rather than ``apache2`` and ``sshd``. |