Tag Archives: fig

Docker orchestration using Fig (Tech Tip #68)

containers, techtip, wildfly, , , ,

Tech Tip #66 showed how to run a Java EE 7 application using WildFly and MySQL in two separate containers. It required to explicitly start the two containers, and link them using --link. This defining and controlling a multi-container service is a common design pattern in order to get an application up and going.

Meet Fig – Docker Orchestration Tool.

Fig allows to:

  • Define multiple containers in a single configuration file
  • Create dependencies between two containers by creating links between them
  • Start containers in the right sequence

Let’s get started!

  1. Install Fig as:
  2. Entry point to Fig is a configuration file that defines the containers and their dependencies. The equivalent configuration file from Tech Tip #65 is:

    This YML-based configuration file has:

    1. Two containers defined by the name “mysqldb” and “mywildfly”
    2. Image names are defined using “image”
    3. Environment variables for the MySQL container are defined in “environment”
    4. MySQL container is linked with WildFly container using “links”
    5. Port forwarding is achieved using “ports”
  3. All the containers can be started, in detached mode, by giving the command:

    The output is shown as:

    Fig commands allow to monitor and update the status of the containers:

    1. Logs can be seen as:
    2. Container status can be seen by giving the command:

      to show the output as:
    3. Containers can be stopped as:
    4. Alternatively, containers can be started in foreground by giving the command:

      and the output is seen as:
  4. Find out the IP address using boot2docker ip and access the app as:

Complete list of Fig commands can be seen by typing fig:

Particularly interesting is scale command, and we’ll take a look at it in a subsequent blog.

File issues on github.

Enjoy!