Aries Containers¶

Aries Containers is a project to manage container deployment, such as docker containers, from a Java API.

Aries Containers is an Apache Aries subproject to manage container deployments, such as docker-based microservices, from a Java API.

Many technologies exist to manage container deployments. Examples include Kubernetes, Marathon/Mesos, Docker Swarm, Amazon ECS and others. While each technology provides specific features, many of these management technologies share common behaviour. Aries Containers provides an abstraction that allows users to easily switch between these technologies.

Benefits:

Requirements change - container users may find that they need to change target platforms at short notice. Using an abstraction API +

Requirements change - container deployers may find that they need to change target platforms at short notice. Using an abstraction API helps making such changes without too much additional work.

Testing - many container management systems require cluster of machines or otherwise large setup which may make testing during -development difficult. Aries Containers also contains a docker.local binding which makes it possible to run the same code with a different -binding on a local developer machine, as long as docker is installed there.

+development difficult. Aries Containers also contains a docker.local binding which makes it possible to run the same code with using +a local docker installation on the developer's machine.

Current modules:

Current Aries Containers modules:

containers-api - the API implemented by the various bindings.

containers-docker-local - Binding that uses the local docker installation.

@@ -308,7 +308,7 @@ binding on a local developer machine, as

containers-examples - Examples.

...

This project may be used as input to the design process of the OSGi RFP 179.

This project could influence the design process of the OSGi RFP 179.

Source¶

As an alternative, Aries Containers can also be used in a plain Java environment. Instead of obtaining the bindings from the service registry, they need to be instantiated directly in this case.

OSGi example¶

The OSGi example uses the Felix SCR implementation to get the currently active ServiceManager injected into a simple servlet. The servlet provides a simple UI to perform some of the management operations.

The servlet is written using OSGi Declarative Service annotations and OSGi Http Whiteboard annotations and can be found here: ServiceManagerServlet.java

@Component(service = Servlet.class,
     property = {HttpWhiteboardConstants.HTTP_WHITEBOARD_SERVLET_PATTERN + "=/manager"})
 public class ServiceManagerServlet extends HttpServlet {
@@ -348,7 +347,7 @@ protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest
 In short - an OSGi Declarative Service Component is registered as a HTTP Whiteboard Servet. The Aries Containers Service Manager is
 injected into the serviceManager field and then used in the servlet to manage services.
 This demo can be launched in any OSGi framework that supports Declarative Services and the HTTP Whiteboard. For example, to run this demo 
-Apache Felix, add:
+with the Apache Felix OSGi framework, add:
 
 The Felix SCR Declarative Services Implementation
 Felix Configuration Admin Service Implementation
@@ -361,7 +360,7 @@ Apache Felix, add:
 Aries Containers Docker Local
 SLF4J API and implementation.
 
-Finally add the OSGI demo bundle itself. The resulting bundle list will look like this:
+Finally add the OSGi demo bundle itself. The resulting bundle list will look like this:
 lb
 START LEVEL 1
    ID|State      |Level|Name
@@ -386,11 +385,18 @@ Apache Felix, add:
 
 
 
-Now you can access the servlet at http://localhost:8080/containers/manager
+Now you can access the servlet at http://localhost:8080/containers/manager
 
+After adding a container you can inspect its result by querying docker for its running containers:
+$ docker ps
+CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND              STATUS              PORTS                   NAMES
+7cc5c753777e        httpd               "httpd-foreground"   Up 4 seconds        0.0.0.0:51467->80/tcp   myapache
+
+
+
 Plain Java example¶
 This example launches a small Java Application to create a service deployment. Initially a single container is deployed. The user can 
-modify the number of replicas using the application.
+modify the number of replicas from within the application.
 The code can be found here: Main.java
 The main functionality is:
         ServiceManager sm = new LocalDockerServiceManager();
@@ -417,7 +423,7 @@ modify the number of replicas using the
 Docker Local¶
 This binding works by issuing docker commands on the local machine and is very useful for testing. Make sure the environment 
 variables normally provided via docker-machine env <myenv> are set.
-OSGi ServiceManager identifier: container.factory.binding = docker.local
+OSGi ServiceManager identifier property: container.factory.binding = docker.local
 Constructor, for use outside of OSGi: org.apache.aries.containers.docker.local.impl.LocalDockerServiceManager
 Marathon¶
 This binding uses Marathon as the underlying container manager. It requires the following configuration to be set:
@@ -426,8 +432,8 @@ variables normally provided via do
 

 
 
-Once configured, the Marathon binding will register its OSGi service. 
-OSGi ServiceManager identifier: container.factory.binding = marathon
+Once configured, the Marathon binding will register its OSGi service. 
+OSGi ServiceManager identifier property: container.factory.binding = marathon
 Constructors, for use outside of OSGi: org.apache.aries.containers.marathon.impl.MarathonServiceManager
 /**
  * Create the Marathon Service Manager.