GemFire XD cluster using Docker

I stared learning how to build and use Docker containers a few days back and one of my learning samples has been to build a series of docker containers to hold a Pivotal GemFire XD cluster.

First the result and then I will go into some details on how the containers were built -

This is the GemfireXD topology that I wanted to build:

The topology consists of 2 GemFire XD servers each running in its own process and a GemFire XD locator to provide connectivity to clients using this cluster and to load balance between the 2(or potentially more) server processes.

The following fig definition shows how my cluster is configured:

fig.yml:

locator:
  image: bijukunjummen/gfxd-locator
  ports:
    - "10334"
    - "1527:1527"
    - "7075:7075"

server1:
  image: bijukunjummen/gfxd-server
  ports:
    - "1528:1528"
  links:
    - locator
  environment: 
   - CLIENT_PORT=1528

server2:
  image: bijukunjummen/gfxd-server
  ports:
    - "1529:1529"
  links:
    - locator
  environment: 
   - CLIENT_PORT=1529   

This simple fig definition would boot up and start the 3 container cluster, linking the Locator to the GemfireXD server and information about this cluster can be viewed through a tool called Pulse that GemFire XD comes packaged with:

This cluster definition is eminently repeatable - I was able to publish the 2 images "gfxd-locator" and "gfxd-server" to Docker Hub and using the fig.yml the entire cluster can be brought up by anybody with a local installation of Docker and Fig.

So how was the Docker image created:

I required two different Docker image types - a GemFire XD locator and a GemFire XD server, there is a lot common among these images, they both use the common Gemfire XD installation except for how each of them is started up. So I have a base image which is defined in the Dockerfile at this github location which builds on top of the CentOS image and deploys the Gemfire XD to the image. Then I have the Gemfire XD server and the locator images deriving from the base image with ENTRYPOINT's specifying how each of the processes should be started up.

The entire project is available at this github location - https://github.com/bijukunjummen/docker-gfxd-cluster and the README instruction there should provide enough information on how to build up and run the cluster.

To conclude, this has been an excellent learning exercise on how Docker works and how easy Fig makes it to orchestrate multiple containers to create a cohesive cluste, to share a repeatable configuration.

I would like to thank my friends Alvin Henrick and Jeff Cherng for their help with a good part of the Docker and GemFire XD configurations!