[Gate-users] vGATE in Docker

[David Sarrut]

Hello David,

I admit I havent try, but thank for this proposition it could be a very
good idea, in particular to use Gate on large cluster (or grid such as
EGI).

thank you,
David


On Sun, Jun 29, 2014 at 12:14 PM, Dávid Völgyes <david.volgyes at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Dear Gate users,
>
> A few days ago I announced the "vGATE inside docker" option.
> But it looks like there was a problem with the image registration at
> the Docker registry, and the images were unavailable time to time. I
> am sorry for this inconvenience.
> Now everything should be fixed, and the images are published.
>
> So If anybody tried to use my vGATE images but faced with problems,
> then please, try it again, it should work now with the same workflow I
> mentioned in my previous announcement.
>
> I hope this time everything will go smoothly.
>
> Best,
>    David
>
> On Thu, Jun 26, 2014 at 4:19 PM, Dávid Völgyes <david.volgyes at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > Dear Gate users,
> >
> > vGATE is nice, it really makes the first steps easier, but it runs in
> > a virtualbox which is resource hungry compared to a native solution.
> > However, it the last year another virtualization solution appeared,
> > this is the "docker".
> > Docker is an operating system level virtualization, therefore it does
> > not emulate CPU instructions, and in a lot of way, it's much lighter
> > than a classic virtual machine, and also much faster. An application
> > inside docker runs almost with native speed, the kernel only checks
> > the rights (e.g. file access, etc.)
> > (
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_system%E2%80%93level_virtualization
> )
> >
> > So if you use 64bit Linux with kernel 3.8 or fresher, then you can use
> > docker. Windows machines, 32bit distributions, etc. are not supported,
> > or not in a way you think. (On windows docker starts a linux kernel
> > inside a virtual machine, so you lose the "lightweight" part.)
> >
> > Docker is not an ultimate solution, but it is another option. Almost
> > like a virtual machine from management point of view with almost
> > native speed. Still, the native compiled GATE and the vGATE virtual
> > environment will have their roll, and docker is somewhere between
> > these two. There is another big deal with docker: portability. You can
> > move/copy your docker images inside your cluster and even the largest
> > cloud providers directly support docker images. (E.g. Google Cloud
> > Engine)
> >
> > Of course, you should read the docker documentation:
> http://docs.docker.com/
> >
> > Well, how can you access the docker image?
> > First of all, you can create yours if you do not trust in my version.
> > Copy the content of the vGATE image into a tar.gz file, import it from
> > Docker, and run it with "su gate -l " option which will simulate a
> > login.
> >
> > But I already made this, and a bit more. Docker has a hub (
> > https://registry.hub.docker.com/ )  where image files can be shared.
> > I published two vGATE image there: dvolgyes/vgate3 and
> dvolgyes/vgate3_vanilia.
> >
> > The vanilia version means that it's unmodified (except I deleted the
> > apt cache to reduce the size.) It is nothing more than an imported
> > filesystem from the official vGATE image.
> > The dvolgyes/vgate3 image is a bit modified. First of all, if you run
> > it without parameters, then it will start a shell as "gate" user, and
> > everything has been set. But you can also run Gate directly (or other
> > scripts) in a non-interactive mode. For this I had to set some
> > environmental variables, and I had to modifiy the bash config files. I
> > also added "sudo" rights to the "gate" user. This image is better than
> > the vanilia, but I also wanted an unmodified version, because it can
> > be a good start for other customizations.
> >
> > So the easiest way to try it:
> >
> > docker run -t -i dvolgyes/vgate3 [COMMAND]
> >
> > Where command can be anything, e.g. your simulation script, or just
> > "Gate", or anything else.
> > If you do not give any command, then a shell will start.
> >
> > You can share directories between the host and the container, with
> > this: -v /HOSTDIR:/GUESTDIR
> > E.g.
> > docker run -v /opt/my_latest_simulation/:/opt/sim/ -t -i
> > dvolgyes/vgate3 /opt/sim/simulation.sh
> >
> > The "run" command generates a new container every time from the image.
> > (Image is a read-only thing, container is an execution environment.
> > The relationship is like the class and object have in C++) When you
> > left the executed container, next time you probably want to start this
> > container with the "start" command.
> > You really should check the docker documentation at this point, at
> > least to understand the "run", "start" and the other command line
> > options in the above examples.
> >
> > Docker images are generated from "Dockerfile" which is a kind of
> > recipe to build the image. I published mine at github, if you want to
> > check it, modify it, etc. Of course, it would be possible to recompile
> > GATE inside a docker container, but I wanted to stay as close as
> > possible to the vGATE version, so I use the exact same binaries. This
> > way you can easily compare the performance of the virtualbox and the
> > docker version.
> >
> > So the github repository:  https://github.com/dvolgyes/dockerfiles
> > (Check the GATE directory.)
> >
> > I encourage everybody to try and use docker in general, because it's
> > cool. E.g. you can have several GATE/ROOT/Geant environments on the
> > same machine, and they are separated and still fast. You can use
> > cutting edge git version and change back to any previous version in a
> > few seconds. And so on.
> >
> > Well, that's it. I hope it will be useful.
> > If you have any problem related to the docker images, please let me know.
> > But please, do not ask about GATE, read the GATE manual instead. The
> > same is true for vGATE and for docker (commands, install, etc.)
> >
> >
> > Best regards,
> >   David
> > u.i.: I know that I did not finish the README file on github. I will
> > do it sometime.
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>



-- 
David Sarrut, Phd
Directeur de recherche CNRS
CREATIS, UMR CNRS 5220, Inserm U 1044
Centre de lutte contre le cancer Léon Bérard
28 rue Laënnec, 69373 Lyon cedex 08
Tel : 04 78 78 51 51 / 06 74 72 05 42
http://www.creatis.insa-lyon.fr/~dsarrut
_________________________________
 "2 + 2 = 5,  for extremely large values of 2"
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