smr

Quick start

[!WARNING] The project is not stable yet. Releases and major changes are introduced often.

This is a quick start tutorial for getting a simple container up and running.

Description

A simple container manager is designed to ease life for the developers and DevOps engineers running containers on Docker.

Introducing objects which can be defined as YAML definition and sent to the simplecontainer manager to produce Docker container via reconciliation:

• Containers
• Container
• Configuration
• Resource
• Gitops
• CertKey
• HttpAuth

These objects let you manage Docker containers with configure features:

• Single Docker daemon only (Currently)
• Integrated DNS server isolated from Docker daemon
• GitOps: deploy objects from the GitOps repositories
• Replication of containers
• Reconciliation and tracking the lifecycle of the Docker containers
• Operators to implement third-party functionalities
• CLI client to interact with the simplecontainer manager
• Fast learning curve - no over complication
• Reliable dependency ordering and readiness probes
• Recreate containers from the KV store in case of failure
• Templating of the container objects to leverage secrets and configuration

Installation of the agent

To start using simple container first run it to generate smr project and build configuration file.

Example provided is for Docker platform which is only currently supported.

Future platforms to be included:

• Podman

Installation of the client

Client CLI is used for communication to the simplecontainer over network using mTLS. It is secured by mutual verification and encryption.

To install client just download it from releases:

https://github.com/simplecontainer/client/releases

Example for installing latest version:

LATEST_VERSION=$(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/simplecontainer/client/main/version)
PLATFORM=linux-amd64
curl -o client https://github.com/simplecontainer/client/releases/download/$VERSION/client-$PLATFORM
sudo mv client /usr/local/bin/smr

Running simplecontainer exposed only on localhost

Exposing the control plane only to the localhost:

smr node run --image smr --tag latest --args="create --agent smr-agent-1" --agent smr-agent-1 --wait
smr node run --image smr --tag $LATEST_SMR_COMMIT --args="start" --hostport localhost:1443 --agent smr-agent-1
smr context connect https://localhost:1443 $HOME/.ssh/simplecontainer/root.pem --context smr-agent-1 -y --wait

Running simplecontainer expoesed on the internet

Exposing the control plane to the smr.example.com (Change domain to your domain):

smr node run --image smr --tag latest --args="create --agent smr-agent-1 --domain smr.example.com" --agent smr-agent-1 --wait
smr node run --image smr --tag $LATEST_SMR_COMMIT --args="start" --agent smr-agent-1

Download $HOME/.ssh/simplecontainer/root.pem and copy-paste it to the $HOME/.ssh/simplecontainer/root.pem on the other machine.

From that machine run:

smr context connect https://smr.example.com:1443 $HOME/.ssh/simplecontainer/root.pem --context smr-agent-1 -y --wait

Explanation of what happens?

These commands will generate a project, build a configuration file, and also it will generate certificates under $HOME/.ssh/simplecontainer. These are important and used by the client to communicate with the simplecontainer in a secure manner.

The client needs this bundle to connect to the Simplecontainer API.

$ cat $HOME/.ssh/simplecontainer/root.pem
-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
MIIJQwIBADANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAASCCS0wggkpAgEAAoICAQDBNozIEBzUyvJf
ln8CH/I1cX6W/EzX+SNh/WYD2pYiCkgKgRUdPNrua7Vf3/zPrNmAqdHyQgDIjNlr
...

Exposing over IP addresses

Same as before smr client can be used:

smr node run --image smr --tag latest --args="create --agent smr-agent-1 --domain smr.example.com, smr1.example.com --ip 8.8.8.8,9.9.9.9" --agent smr-agent-1 --wait
smr node run --image smr --tag $LATEST_SMR_COMMIT --args="start" --agent smr-agent-1

As you can see multiple IP addresses and domains can be used in comma-separated format.

These are important because of certificate creation. Only domains and IPs listed in these commands can verify against the simplecontainer agent.

Contexts and control plane

To access the simplecontainer control plane via local or public network, context needs to be added with the appropriate mtls bundle generated.

smr context connect https://localhost:1443 $HOME/.ssh/simplecontainer/root.pem --context smr-agent-1
{"level":"info","ts":1720694421.2032707,"caller":"context/Connect.go:40","msg":"authenticated against the smr-agent"}
smr ps
GROUP  NAME  DOCKER NAME  IMAGE  IP  PORTS  DEPS  DOCKER STATE  SMR STATE

Access to the control plane of the simplecontainer is configured successfully if you get similar output.

Running Docker containers using GitOps

It is possible to keep definition YAML files in the repository and let the simplecontainer apply it from the repository.

smr apply https://raw.githubusercontent.com/simplecontainer/examples/main/tests/apps/gitops-plain.yaml 

Applying this definition will create GitOps object on the simplecontainer.

smr gitops list
GROUP     NAME          REPOSITORY                                             REVISION  SYNCED        AUTO   STATE    
examples  plain-manual  https://github.com/simplecontainer/examples (cb849c3)  main      cb849c3       false  InSync  

smr gitops sync test smr

smr ps 
GROUP    NAME     DOCKER NAME        IMAGE           IP  PORTS  DEPS  DOCKER STATE  SMR STATE         
example  busybox  example-busybox-1  busybox:latest                   running       running (50m40s)  
example  busybox  example-busybox-2  busybox:latest                   running       running (50m40s)  

In this example, auto sync is disabled and needs to be triggered manually. When triggered the reconciler will apply all the definitions in the /tests/minimal directory from the https://github.com/simplecontainer/examples repository.

To see more info about the Gitops object:

smr gitops get examples plain-manual

Output:

{
  "gitops": {
    "meta": {
      "group": "examples",
      "name": "plain-manual"
    },
    "spec": {
      "API": "",
      "automaticSync": false,
      "certKeyRef": {
        "Group": "",
        "Name": ""
      },
      "context": "",
      "directory": "/tests/minimal",
      "httpAuthRef": {
        "Group": "",
        "Name": ""
      },
      "poolingInterval": "",
      "repoURL": "https://github.com/simplecontainer/examples",
      "revision": "main"
    }
  },
  "kind": "gitops"
}

Running containers (Plain way)

Run the next commands:

smr secret create secret.mysql.mysql.password 123456789
smr apply https://raw.githubusercontent.com/simplecontainer/examples/main/tests/simple-dependency-readiness/mysql-config.yaml
smr apply https://raw.githubusercontent.com/simplecontainer/examples/main/tests/simple-dependency-readiness/mysql-envs.yaml
smr apply https://raw.githubusercontent.com/simplecontainer/examples/main/tests/simple-dependency-readiness/nginx-config.yaml
smr apply https://raw.githubusercontent.com/simplecontainer/examples/main/tests/simple-dependency-readiness/traefik-config.yaml
smr apply https://raw.githubusercontent.com/simplecontainer/examples/main/tests/simple-dependency-readiness/containers.yaml

This example demonstrates:

• configuration
• resource
• container
• readiness check
• dependency

After running commands above, check the smr ps:

smr ps
GROUP    NAME     DOCKER NAME        IMAGE         IP                                      PORTS                      DEPS      DOCKER STATE  SMR STATE         
mysql    mysql    mysql-mysql-1      mysql:8.0     10.10.0.3 (ghost), 172.17.0.4 (bridge)  3306                                 running       running (51m17s)  
mysql    mysql    mysql-mysql-2      mysql:8.0     10.10.0.2 (ghost), 172.17.0.3 (bridge)  3306                                 running       running (51m15s)  
nginx    nginx    nginx-nginx-1      nginx:1.23.3  10.10.0.6 (ghost), 172.17.0.6 (bridge)  80, 443                    mysql.*   running       running (51m14s)  
traefik  traefik  traefik-traefik-1  traefik:v2.5  10.10.0.5 (ghost), 172.17.0.5 (bridge)  80:80, 443:443, 8888:8080  mysql.*   running       running (51m15s)  

Containers from group mysql will start first. Traefik and nginx will wait till mysql is ready because of the dependency defined.

Important links

• https://github.com/simplecosntainer/smr
• https://github.com/simplecontainer/client
• https://github.com/simplecontainer/examples
• https://smr.qdnqn.com

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0. See more in LICENSE file.