This is a Python library and set of tools that lets you build Docker images using masterless SaltStack instead of (or in addition to) using Dockerfiles. FlyingCloud is easy to run from the commandline, and built to be run on a Continuous Integration server.

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FlyingCloud
Building Docker Containers
with SaltStack
Adam Feuer and George V. Reilly

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The Story of Lectern
• Lectern Web Service
• Receives uploaded images of receipts from CookBrite mobile app
• OCRs images using Tesseract + OpenCV
• Extracts data about purchases
• Deployed on AWS ElasticBeanstalk
• Could not get app to build on Amazon Linux

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Lectern v1
• ElasticBeanstalk also supports Docker
• We built a Docker app on top of an Ubuntu image
• Solved the build problem. Sort of.
• Our build was a twisted, unmaintainable, monolithic mess of
shell scripts.
• Took an hour to build. Any failure reset the clock.

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Lectern's old Docker image setup scripts

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Lectern v2: with FlyingCloud

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One Big Idea
• Use Configuration Management to build Docker images
• Configure rather than write code
• More understandable
• Reusable and repeatable

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What is Docker?
• Lightweight Virtualization
• Run multiple containers on one host system
• Isolated process group for each container
• Shared kernel
• Run a different Linux OS in each container
• Image = filesystem snapshot
• Container = running image

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What is SaltStack?
• Configuration management system
• "Automated system administration"
• Configuration, not scripts
• Declarative, not imperative
• Salt is implemented in Python
• Though you usually write Salt States in YAML
• We use Salt Masterless mode
• Configure system at build time; no runtime dependency on Salt

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Two Ways to Build Docker Images
• Traditional
• Dockerfile: static list of commands
• Run commands inside container, then commit
• FlyingCloud
• Use SaltStack to update state of Docker image
• Easy to make layers
• Easy to run in Continuous Integration

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Example App - layers overview

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Example App - project and base layers

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Example App - app layer

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Example App - testrunner layer

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FlyingCloud Demo
See https://github.com/cookbrite/flyingcloud/tree/master/examples/flask-web-app

15. FlyingCloud
● Use Configuration Management to build
layered Docker images
● An FC Layer can be made from any of these:
○ A Dockerfile, Salt states, or custom Python code
○ Do not confuse with Docker’s layer filesystem
● Layers are buildable and/or runnable
● Can be pushed to or pulled from a Docker repository

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Kubernetes
• Google’s open source platform that automates
deployment, scaling, and operations of application
containers built on Docker images across clusters of hosts
• Our Kubernetes workflow for new services:
• Build Docker images with FlyingCloud
• Configure Kubernetes cluster
• Test cluster in Continuous Integration
• Deploy cluster to AWS

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FlyingCloud is Open Source
• Source: https://github.com/cookbrite/flyingcloud
• Docs: http://flyingcloud.readthedocs.org
• PyPI: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/flyingcloud/
• Mail: https://groups.google.com/group/flyingcloud-users
• Apache License
Contributors welcome! Especially:
• SaltStack users
• Ansible users

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We are organizing the world's product information
We’re Hiring! Located in Pioneer Square.
• Back-end devs. We're a Python shop.
• Android devs
• iOS devs
• Data scientists
Contact
• adam@metabrite.com or george@metabrite.com