Creating and Running a Docker Development Environment

by John Vincent

Posted on May 26, 2021

Build Docker images and run in Docker containers for a Development Environment.

This is part of a series of discussions regarding Deploying TaskMuncher, a React and Node application, to a Multi-Container Docker Environment at AWS using Dockerhub and Travis CI

For more details, please see Overview of Create Multi-Container Docker TaskMuncher Application at AWS

The following sections include

Overview

Docker images need to be built for

Development
Running the Production Application in a Development Environment
Deployment to AWS production

To better understand this document, a review of the following is suggested

Development

The Docker Development environment is required to

TaskMuncher Development.
Allow for the building and unit testing of a development system as part of the Travis-CI deployment to the AWS production environment.

Please review Configuring Makefiles to build and run Docker Images using Docker, Docker Compose and Dockerfile

Review make/dev.mk at Makefile for the Development Environment.

Notice targets

-dev-build - build the Docker image
-dev-sh - starts the image in a sh shell
-dev-run - execute the Docker image in a Docker container

It is recommended to

dev-sh into an image to verify the file systems are as expected as it is very easy to incorrectly configure the image.
-dev-run the image in a container to verify it is running as expected. It is very easy to incorrectly configure the application.

Run make client-dev-jest and make server-dev-jest to test all unit tests.

Run client with make client-dev-run and test with

http://localhost:8040/

Client will run but not be able to connect to other services as they are not running.

Run server with make server-dev-run and access any public end points. The server will fail as cannot connect to MongoDB container.

To build all Docker images

make all-build

To remove all Docker images and containers

make all-clean

Running Development

The application is configured to use Docker Compose. Please review Makefile using Docker Compose for a Development Environment.

To start the application

make compose-dev-up

To run the application

localhost:8100

To stop the application

make compose-dev-down

Unit Testing for Travis-CI deployment

Please review Configure Travis-CI for Docker Multi-container Deployment to AWS

Notice in .travis.yml

before_install:
  - docker build -t johnvincentio/taskmuncher-client -f ./config/client/dev/Dockerfile .
  - docker build -t johnvincentio/taskmuncher-server -f ./config/server/dev/Dockerfile .

script:
  - docker run -e CI=true johnvincentio/taskmuncher-client npm run test -- --coverage
  - docker run -e CI=true johnvincentio/taskmuncher-server npm run test -- --coverage

which

builds development version of client and server
runs unit test on client and server

Review make/dev.mk at Makefile for the Development Environment

Notice targets

client-dev-build
client-dev-jest
server-dev-build
server-dev-jest

which perform these tasks.

Review the Makefile at Makefile. Notice the target all-unit-tests

Thus, to run all unit tests

make all-unit-tests

Always ensure all unit tests are passing before attempting a deployment to production.

Production in Development Docker Containers

This application is configured to use Docker Compose. Please review Makefile using Docker Compose for a Development Environment.

To start the application

make compose-devprod-up

To run the application

localhost:8100

To stop the application

make compose-dev-down

AWS Production Docker Containers

The Docker containers that are deployed to AWS production are created by Docker during the Travis-CI deployment. For details, see

Docker Logs

Docker can show Container logs

Docker Compose

Start the application using Docker Compose

make compose-dev-up

and check containers

docker ps -all

only shows the one container taskmuncher-dev_nginx_1

02130c9dc587   taskmuncher-nginx-dev   "/docker-entrypoint.…"   8 minutes ago   Up 8 minutes   80/tcp, 0.0.0.0:8100->8100/tcp, :::8100->8100/tcp   taskmuncher-dev_nginx_1

Showing the logs

docker logs taskmuncher-dev_nginx_1

reveals limited information.

Checking the Docker Desktop Application, it shows an application taskmuncher-dev running containers

taskmuncher-dev_nginx_1
taskmuncher-dev_client_1
taskmuncher-dev_api_1
taskmuncher-dev_mongodb_1
taskmuncher-dev_mongo-client_1 which has exited(0)

To show detailed logs of the other containers

docker logs taskmuncher-dev_client_1
docker logs taskmuncher-dev_api_1
docker logs taskmuncher-dev_mongodb_1
docker logs taskmuncher-dev_mongo-client_1

Stop the application

make compose-dev-down

Docker

Start a Docker container using Docker

make client-dev-run

and check containers

docker ps -all

only shows the one container taskmuncher-client-dev

e4ce00694599   taskmuncher-client-dev-image:latest   "docker-entrypoint.s…"   8 seconds ago   Up 5 seconds   0.0.0.0:3110->3110/tcp, :::3110->3110/tcp, 0.0.0.0:8040->8040/tcp, :::8040->8040/tcp   taskmuncher-client-dev

Showing the logs

docker logs taskmuncher-client-dev

reveals detailed logs.

MongoDB

For Local MongoDB, see Installing Mac MongoDB

Start Local MongoDB

./start-database

To show MongoDB version

cd mongodb/bin
mongo --version

Connect to local MongoDB

I recommend Robo 3T MongoDB GUI Client Application.

To access Local MongoDB with Robo 3T, set Connection parameters as follows

Type: Direct Connection
Name: MongoDB on Mac local
Address: localhost
Port: 27017

Robo 3T will connect to the local instance of MongoDB.

MongoDB in a Docker Container

Let's start by running a Development version

make compose-dev-up

Notice that this starts the whole application, including a MongoDB database that is seeded with initial data.

To verify this is the correct set of data, start the application and add a new goal.

localhost:8100

To view the MongoDB data

To access the MongoDB running in the Docker Containers with Robo 3T, set Connection parameters as follows

Type: Direct Connection
Name: MongoDB on Docker Container
Address: localhost
Port: 27017

Robo 3T will connect to the local instance of MongoDB.

Notice the database has been added correctly, look for the new data in Collections.

Stop the containers

make compose-dev-down

Network Tools

Configuring Docker containers can be a balancing act between the desire for useful features and the desire for a small image for better performance.

Network configuration problems can be especially hard to diagnose.

It can sometimes be helpful to install netstat.

To better understand this document, a review of the following is suggested

Adding Network Tools to MongoDB Image

The MongoDB image is based on Ubuntu 20.04. Install net-tools

Edit ./config/mongodb/Dockerfile

...

RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y nginx curl gnupg2 wget net-tools

...

and build the image

make mongodb-dev-build

then run the image in a Docker container in one terminal

make mongodb-dev-run

and in another terminal, connect to the container

make mongodb-dev-connect

and run

netstat -a

returning

Active Internet connections (servers and established)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State      
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:27017           0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN     
tcp        0      0 2e135aa931ff:27017      172.17.0.1:58130        ESTABLISHED
Active UNIX domain sockets (servers and established)
Proto RefCnt Flags       Type       State         I-Node   Path
unix  2      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING     527867   /tmp/mongodb-27017.sock

which is helpful.

It should be noted that the following will also work.

docker exec taskmuncher-mongodb-dev netstat -a

Configuring Makefiles to build and run Docker Images using Docker, Docker Compose and DockerfileConfiguring and Using .env files