SPARCRequest with Docker (contributed by OHSU, Iowa, MUSC)

Quick Overview, “What is Docker?”

Docker uses “containers” that house all the dependencies, libraries, etc, an application requires, without needing to install any of these onto the host computer natively. It does this without emulating hardware, so the performance costs that would normally be a concern with VMs are absent here.

Docker Compose, is an additional feature, allowing for a single file to specify multiple containers, and provides an easily managed place to control the parameters for those containers.

For more information, refer to the following Docker documentation:

• Get started

• What is Docker?

Open Source Experience

OHSU

Iowa

Uses Docker containers to deploy SPARC. Orchestrate with Docker Compose, not Kubernetes.

• Overall experience is good.

• Some things in the environment / setup are a little awkward but stable.

  • Run MariaDB on the same host as SPARC, but not in a container. Therefore, has to reach out from the container to the host

  • Still use Apache and want it to serve static files. Therefore, have some steps that copy static file out of the container to the host

  • Smtp email sending -- wanted to keep config out of the container, so run a copy of sendmail and mount config from host into the container.