Windows Developer Environment

Description

This project contains the core automation required to ensure a consistent development environment across Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10. While Windows 10 contains the hypervisor support required to run Docker for Windows, unfortunately Windows 7 does not. This project, therefore, uses Vagrant to build and manage a local VM and runs applications within Docker containers running in the guest VM. In this way, developers making use of both Windows 7 and 10 can make use of the same development environment.

Technology Stack

This project is structured in such a way as to allow locally developed applications to automatically run on a local VirtualBox VM. These application will run in Docker containers and are defined using Docker-Compose files. Vagrant is used to provision and configure the VM and serves as a utility to manage containers running in the VM. Vagrant, VirtualBox, Docker-Compose and Docker are required in order to run this project locally.

It is highly recommended that engineers become acquainted with various supporting technologies. You can find more information here:

• Read more about Vagrant (https://www.vagrantup.com/docs/getting-started/)
• Read more about VirtualBox (https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/UserManual.html)
• Read more about Docker (https://www.docker.com/tryit/)
• Read more about Docker Compose (https://docs.docker.com/compose/)

Developer Environment Prerequisites

Since docker is dependent on key components of the Linux kernel, it must be run on Linux. If a developer is already running Linux natively, she needs only to install docker on Linux in order to run the application locally. If, however, a developer is running on Windows 7, then she must run a local VM with a kernel supported by Docker.

It is suggest that developers install Vagrant, VirtualBox and Docker Toolkit locally on Windows 7 in order to support these requirement:

• Install Vagrant (https://www.vagrantup.com/docs/installation/)
• Install VirtualBox (https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads)
• Install Docker Toolbox (https://www.docker.com/products/docker-toolbox)

Also note that your local git installation should be configured to use the appropriate hhtp proxy (if required):

> git config --global http.proxy http://proxy.mydomain.com:80    

*NOTE: Windows 10 users must disable Hyper-V in order to make use of VirtualBox & Vagrant.

Project directory layout

.
├── apps                      # Application source parent directory
│   ├── sample-react-app         # Sample React application
│   └── sample-flask-app         # Sample Python application
├── images                    # Documentation files (alternatively `doc`)
│   ├── python-2.7-dev           # Core Python 2.7 dev image source files
│   ├── react-dev                # Core React dev image source files
│   ├── centos-dev               # Core CentOS dev image source files, pre-configured for dev use
│   └── ubuntu-dev               # Core Ubuntu dev image source files, pre-configured for dev use
├── .gitignore                # VM hidden directories/files ignored
├── README.md                 
├── Vagrantfile               # VM automation file
└── vm                        # VM management script

Spin up your VM

You can execute the following command locally to provision and configure your VM:

$ ./vm up

You can, then, run an application in a container in your VM as follows:

$ ./vm start sample-flask-app

If you navigate to http://localhost:3000/, you will see the response "Flask Dockerized" in your browser.

NOTE: The initial set up of the VM will take a few minutes.

Configuring you applications

Applications can be added to the 'apps' directory and are expected to contain a 'docker-compose.yml' file, which define the manner in which an application container should be provisioned.

NOTE: Ports 3000 - 3020 have be pre-configured to forward all traffic from your host PC to your guest linux VM. If ports within that range are used by application containers, they application will be automatically accessible on the host PC.

Additional Commands

Below is a list of commands to interact with a application running in a docker container in your local VM:

• ./vm stop : Stop the app:

  $ ./vm stop sample-flask-app

• ./vm restart : Restart the app:

  $ ./vm restart sample-flask-app

• ./vm clean : Stop the app and clean up all volumes and containers

  $ ./vm clean sample-flask-app

• ./vm logs : Tail the container logs of the supplied application

  $ ./vm logs sample-flask-app

• ./vm ssh: SSH into the VM:

  $ ./vm ssh

• ./vm ssh : Create a terminal session into the running app container:

  $ ./vm ssh sample-flask-app

• ./vm destroy: Completely delete the local VM and all associated files

  $ ./vm destroy

• ./vm docker : Run arbitrary docker commands

  $ ./vm docker ps -a

• ./vm docker-compose : Run arbitrary docker-compose commands

  $ ./vm docker-compose sample-flask-app run app

• ./vm standalone : Create a standalone app container

  $ ./vm standalone sample-flask-app

Adhoc Containers

Adhoc containers can be created by referencing the relevant base image and creating a container using the docker cli. An example is as follows:

# create a new container using an existing image
$ ./vm docker run --name adhoc -it -p 3003:5000 -v /var/local/dev-env/apps/sample-flask-app:/var/local/app python-2.7- dev bash

# remove adhoc container
$ ./vm docker rm adhoc