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Community Blog Practical Exercises for Docker Compose: Part 4

Practical Exercises for Docker Compose: Part 4

This set of tutorials focuses on giving you practical experience on using Docker Compose when working with containers on Alibaba Cloud.

By Alwyn Botha, Alibaba Cloud Tech Share Author. Tech Share is Alibaba Cloud's incentive program to encourage the sharing of technical knowledge and best practices within the cloud community.

This set of tutorials focuses on giving you practical experience on using Docker Compose when working with containers on Alibaba Cloud Elastic Compute Service (ECS).

Part 3 of this series explored depends_on, volumes and the important init docker-compose options. In Part 4, we will look at some productivity tips and best practices of running Docker compose limits.

Productivity Tips

I have several bash aliases defined for frequently used Docker commands. Here are just two:

    alias nnc='nano docker-compose.yml'
    alias psa='docker ps -a'

Typing psa at shell is quicker than highlighting docker ps -a text in tutorial, then copying it, then alt-tab to console window, then pasting.

Faster docker-compose.yml edits:

  1. Install autocopy extension if you use Chrome. It automatically copies text you highlight in your browser
  2. Highlight docker-compose.yml text in tutorial
  3. Alt tab to Linux console
  4. type nnc ( editor opens docker-compose.yml file )
  5. Right click to paste ( this will be specific to the console software you use )
  6. Save

Without using extensions and aliases, this process would involve around 12 steps instead of the 6 above.

Deploy: placement constraints

The docker-compose placement constraints are used to limit the nodes / servers where a task can be scheduled / ran by defining constraints.

First we need to define some labels for our node / server. Then we can define placement constraints based on those labels.

Syntax to add a label to a node:

docker node update --label-add label-name=label-value hostname-of-node

We need our server hostname for this. Enter hostname at shell to get YOUR hostname.

Use your hostname below: ( I used localhost.localdomain = my hostname )

docker node update --label-add tuts-allowed=yes localhost.localdomain

docker node update --label-add has-ssd=yes localhost.localdomain

We can inspect our node to see those labels exist.

head -n 13 only shows the top / head 13 lines of the long inspect output.

docker node inspect self | head -n 13

Expected output :

[
    {
        "ID": "wpk3r9ypjd8f0p3koh1dikvie",
        "Version": {
            "Index": 443
        },
        "CreatedAt": "2018-11-06T09:29:29.644400514Z",
        "UpdatedAt": "2018-11-07T09:55:18.065758325Z",
        "Spec": {
            "Labels": {
                "has-ssd": "yes",
                "tuts-allowed": "yes"
            },

Now we add the placement contraints right at bottom of docker-compose.yml.

Add the following to your docker-compose.yml using

nano docker-compose.yml
version: "3.7"
services:
  alpine:
    image: alpine:3.8
    command: sleep 600

    deploy:
      placement:
        constraints:
          - node.labels.has-ssd == yes
          - node.labels.tuts-allowed == yes

The stack deploy command will only place our stack of services on nodes that match both constraints. So its an AND match - adding more constraints will be AND matched. ( There is no OR and no nested brackets like in nearly all programming languages. )

Since both constraints do match our node, the deploy will be successful.

docker stack deploy -c docker-compose.yml  mystack

Let's list running containers:

docker ps -a
CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS              PORTS               NAMES
42f8a9b43faf        alpine:3.8          "sleep 600"         12 seconds ago      Up 11 seconds                           mystack_alpine.1.ezwejfbrmhbk0k5yd9a53ei85

Success. Let's list all the services in mystack.

docker stack services mystack

ID                  NAME                MODE                REPLICAS            IMAGE               PORTS
ji5dnn9klinx        mystack_alpine      replicated          1/1                 alpine:3.8

Success. See REPLICAS column: 1 running service out of 1 requested service.

Let's now change the constraint tests so that the deploy cannot be done.

Add the following to your docker-compose.yml using

nano docker-compose.yml
version: "3.7"
services:
  alpine:
    image: alpine:3.8
    command: sleep 600

    deploy:
      placement:
        constraints:
          - node.labels.has-ssd == yeszzz
          - node.labels.tuts-allowed == yeszzz

Remove previously deployed stack:

docker stack rm mystack
docker stack deploy -c docker-compose.yml  mystack

Let's list all the services in mystack.

docker stack services mystack
ID                  NAME                MODE                REPLICAS            IMAGE               PORTS
jdg2bgxx5nfa        mystack_alpine      replicated          0/1                 alpine:3.8

Deploy did not succeed in finding any suitable nodes. See REPLICAS column: 0 running service out of 1 requested service.

Examples of how node labels can be used:

  1. Label nodes with ssds so that certain apps that require ssds can run only on such nodes.
  2. Label nodes with graphics cards so that apps can find such nodes
  3. Label nodes with country, state, city names as required
  4. Separate batch and realtime applications
  5. Run development jobs only on development machines.
  6. Run your under-development applications only on your physical computer - keep code that hogs cpu and ram from negatively affecting your colleagues.

You can find more information about placemente here: https://docs.docker.com/compose/compose-file/#placement

and about constraints here: https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/commandline/service_create/#specify-service-constraints-constraint

Deploy: replicas

Specify the number of containers that should be running at any given time.

Till now you ran with just one replica - the default.

Let's demo running 3 replicas.

Add the following to your docker-compose.yml using

nano docker-compose.yml
version: "3.7"
services:
  alpine:
    image: alpine:3.8
    command: sleep 600

    deploy:
      replicas: 3

Remove previous running mystack

docker stack rm mystack

Expected output :

Removing service mystack_alpine
Removing network mystack_default

Deploy our new stack:

docker stack deploy -c docker-compose.yml  mystack

Expected output :

Creating network mystack_default
Creating service mystack_alpine

Output does not look promising - no mention of 3 replicas. Let's list the services in mystack

docker stack services mystack

Expected output :

ID                  NAME                MODE                REPLICAS            IMAGE               PORTS
pv2ebn95au9j        mystack_alpine      replicated          3/3                 alpine:3.8

3 replicas running out of 3 requested. Success.

Let's list running containers:

docker ps -a
CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS              PORTS               NAMES
80de65e6e0d3        alpine:3.8          "sleep 600"         9 seconds ago       Up 6 seconds                            mystack_alpine.2.51hlsv3s7ky5zr02fprjaxi59
440548cfcc7d        alpine:3.8          "sleep 600"         9 seconds ago       Up 6 seconds                            mystack_alpine.1.za68nt6704xobu2cxbz7x7p3l
19564317375f        alpine:3.8          "sleep 600"         9 seconds ago       Up 7 seconds                            mystack_alpine.3.1ut387z38e2hrlmahalp7hfsa

As expected: 3 containers running.

Investigate our server work load via top

top - 09:45:33 up  2:02,  2 users,  load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.05
Tasks: 133 total,   1 running, 132 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s):  0.3 us,  0.2 sy,  0.0 ni, 99.5 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st
MiB Mem :  985.219 total,  472.004 free,  171.848 used,  341.367 buff/cache
MiB Swap: 1499.996 total, 1499.996 free,    0.000 used.  639.379 avail Mem

  PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND
  939 root      20   0  950.7m 105.9m  29.2m S   0.7 10.8   1:19.36 dockerd
  946 root      20   0  424.8m  29.1m  12.1m S        2.9   0:14.14 docker-containe
 5082 root      20   0    7.2m   2.7m   2.0m S        0.3           docker-containe
 4950 root      20   0    7.2m   2.6m   2.0m S        0.3           docker-containe
 5075 root      20   0    7.2m   2.4m   1.9m S        0.2           docker-containe

Each of our 3 tiny containers use around 2.5 MB ram residently.

You now have 3 full Alpine Linux distros running in isolated environments - 2.5 MB in ram size each. Impressive.

Compare this to having 3 separate virtual machines. Each such VM would need 50 MB overhead just to exist. Plus it would need several 100 MBs of diskspace each.

Each container started up in around 300 ms, which is not possible with VMs.

Deploy: resources: reservations cpu ( over provision )

We use the reservations: cpu config settings to reserve cpu capacity.

Let's over-provision cpu to see if Docker follows our instructions.

Add the following to your docker-compose.yml using

nano docker-compose.yml
version: "3.7"
services:
  alpine:
    image: alpine:3.8
    command: sleep 600

    deploy:
      replicas: 6

      resources:
        reservations:
          cpus: '0.5'

My server has 2 core, so 2 cpus are available.

In this configuration I am attempting to provision 6 * .5 = 3 cpus.

You need to edit those settings to cause this to fail on your tiny laptop or at your monster employer super-server.

Let's remove existing stacks.

docker stack rm mystack

Let's attempt deployment:

docker stack deploy -c docker-compose.yml  mystack

UNEXPECTED output :

Creating service mystack_alpine
failed to create service mystack_alpine: Error response from daemon: network mystack_default not found

Sometimes the above happens, just rerun the deploy till error no longer appears.

Investigate the result of the deploy:

docker ps -a
CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS              PORTS               NAMES
a8861c79e3e8        alpine:3.8          "sleep 600"         40 seconds ago      Up 37 seconds                           mystack_alpine.6.pgtvnbpxpy4ony26pmp8ekdv1
3d2a0b8e52e9        alpine:3.8          "sleep 600"         40 seconds ago      Up 37 seconds                           mystack_alpine.5.j52dwbe7qqx0nn5nhanp742n4
5c2674b7fa36        alpine:3.8          "sleep 600"         40 seconds ago      Up 37 seconds                           mystack_alpine.1.bb1ocs3zkz730rp9bpf6s9jux
f984a8d52393        alpine:3.8          "sleep 600"         40 seconds ago      Up 38 seconds                           mystack_alpine.4.mr5ktkei9pn1dzhkggq2e48o9

4 containers listed. This makes sense : 4 * .5 = 2 cpus used.

List all services in mystack:

docker stack services mystack
ID                  NAME                MODE                REPLICAS            IMAGE               PORTS
7030g8ila28h        mystack_alpine      replicated          4/6                 alpine:3.8

Only 4 of 6 containers provisioned: Docker ran out of cpus to provision.

Important: this was a reservation provision. It can only reserve what exists.

Deploy: resources: reservations: RAM ( over provision )

Let's over provision RAM. ( We will use this functionality correctly later in this tutorial. )

Add the following to your docker-compose.yml using

nano docker-compose.yml
version: "3.7"
services:
  alpine:
    image: alpine:3.8
    command: sleep 600

    deploy:
      replicas: 6

      resources:
          memory: 2000M

My server has 1 GB ram available.

In this configuration I am attempting to provision 6 * 2 = 12 MB.

As before: you need to edit those settings to cause this to fail on your tiny laptop or at your monster employer super-server.

Let's remove existing stacks.

docker stack rm mystack

Let's attempt deployment:

docker stack deploy -c docker-compose.yml  mystack

To list running stack services run:

docker stack services mystack

Expected output :

ID                  NAME                MODE                REPLICAS            IMAGE               PORTS
l7yr2m5k6edf        mystack_alpine      replicated          0/6                 alpine:3.8

Zero services deployed. Docker does not even deploy one container using 50% of the reserved ram specified. It assumes correctly - if you specify a RAM reservation your container needs that MINIMUM to run successfully. Therefore if the reservation is impossible the container does not start.

We have seen resources limits are obeyed.

Let's define reasonable limits to see how it works.

Deploy: resources: limits: cpu

The Alpine service below is constrained to use no more than 20M of memory and 0.50 (50%) of available processing time (CPU).

Add the following to your docker-compose.yml using

nano docker-compose.yml  
version: "3.7"
services:
  alpine:
    image: alpine:3.8
    command: sleep 600

    deploy:
      replicas: 1

      resources:
        limits:
          cpus: '0.5'
          memory: 20M

Note we only need one replica from here onwards.

docker stack rm mystack

Deploy our stack:

docker stack deploy -c docker-compose.yml  mystack
docker ps -a

Expected output :

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS                       PORTS               NAMES
11b8e8c2838b        alpine:3.8          "sleep 600"         3 seconds ago       Up 1 second                                      mystack_alpine.1.qsamffjd1vg0137off9xinyzg

Our container is running. Let's enter it and benchmark cpu speed.

docker exec -it mystack_alpine.1.qsamffjd1vg0137off9xinyzg /bin/sh

Enter commands shown at the container / # prompt:

/ #  time dd if=/dev/urandom bs=1M count=2 | md5sum
2+0 records in
2+0 records out
real    0m 0.57s
user    0m 0.00s
sys     0m 0.28s
064be3476682daf856bb32fa00d29e2e  -
/ # exit

Benchmark explanation:

  1. time: measures elapsed time: shows those 3 timer lines
  2. dd if=/dev/urandom bs=1M count=2: copies bs (blocksize) one MB of randomness twice
  3. md5sum: calculates md5 hashes ( give cpu a load )

We have bench times for cpu limit 0.5 - which means nothing if we cannot compare it.

So let us change cpu limit to 0.25 in docker-compose.yml

          cpus: '0.25'

Then run at shell:

docker stack rm mystack
docker stack deploy -c docker-compose.yml  mystack
docker ps -a # to get our container name 
docker exec -it mystack_alpine.1.cbaakbi027ue0c1rtj0z463qz /bin/sh

Rerun our bencmark:

/ # time dd if=/dev/urandom bs=1M count=2 | md5sum
2+0 records in
2+0 records out
real    0m 1.27s
user    0m 0.00s6d9b25e860ebef038daa165ae491c965  -
sys     0m 0.30s
/ # time dd if=/dev/urandom bs=1M count=2 | md5sum
2+0 records in
2+0 records out
real    0m 1.33s
ed29ebf0ef70923f9b980c65495767eb  -
user    0m 0.00s
sys     0m 0.33s
/ # exit

Results make sense - around 50% slower - with 50% less cpu power available.

Quick final test: 100% cpu power

So let us change cpu limit to 1.00 in docker-compose.yml

          cpus: '1.00'

then run at shell:

docker stack rm mystack

docker stack deploy -c docker-compose.yml  mystack

docker ps -a

docker exec -it your-container-name /bin/sh

Enter commands shown:

/ # time dd if=/dev/urandom bs=1M count=2 | md5sum
2+0 records in
2+0 records out
real    0m 0.25s
user    0m 0.00s
sys     0m 0.24s
facbf070f7328db3321ddffca3c4239e  -
/ # time dd if=/dev/urandom bs=1M count=2 | md5sum
2+0 records in
2+0 records out
616ba74d54b8a176f559f41b224bc3a3  -real 0m 0.29s
user    0m 0.00s
sys     0m 0.28s
/ # exit

Very fast runtimes: 100% cpu limit is 4 times faster than 25% cpu power

You now have experienced that limiting cpu power per container works as expected.

If you have only one production server, you can use this knowledge to run cpu-hungry batch processes on the same server as other work - just limit the batch process cpu severely.

Resources: limits: memory

This configuration option limits max RAM usage for your container.

Add the following to your docker-compose.yml using

nano docker-compose.yml  
Version: "3.7"
services:
  alpine:
    image: alpine:3.8
    command: sleep 600

    deploy:
      replicas: 1

      resources:
        limits:
          cpus: '1.00'
          memory: 4M

Run:

docker stack rm mystack

docker stack deploy -c docker-compose.yml  mystack

docker ps -a

Expected output :

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS              PORTS               NAMES
2e0105ce94fd        alpine:3.8          "sleep 600"         3 seconds ago       Up 1 second                             mystack_alpine.1.ykn9fdmeaudp4ezar7ev19111

We now have a running container with a memory limit of 4MB.

Let's be a typical inquisitive Docker administrator and see what happens if we use 8 MB /dev/shm RAM .

docker exec -it mystack_alpine.1.ykn9fdmeaudp4ezar7ev19111 /bin/sh

Enter commands as shown:

/ # df -h
Filesystem                Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/docker-253:1-388628-c88293aae6b79e197118527c00d64fee14aec2acfb49e5f1ec95bc6af6bd874b
                         10.0G     37.3M     10.0G   0% /
tmpfs                    64.0M         0     64.0M   0% /dev
tmpfs                   492.6M         0    492.6M   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/mapper/centos00-root
                         12.6G      5.5G      7.2G  43% /etc/resolv.conf
/dev/mapper/centos00-root
                         12.6G      5.5G      7.2G  43% /etc/hostname
/dev/mapper/centos00-root
                         12.6G      5.5G      7.2G  43% /etc/hosts
shm                      64.0M         0     64.0M   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs                   492.6M         0    492.6M   0% /proc/acpi
tmpfs                    64.0M         0     64.0M   0% /proc/kcore
tmpfs                    64.0M         0     64.0M   0% /proc/keys
tmpfs                    64.0M         0     64.0M   0% /proc/timer_list
tmpfs                    64.0M         0     64.0M   0% /proc/timer_stats
tmpfs                    64.0M         0     64.0M   0% /proc/sched_debug
tmpfs                   492.6M         0    492.6M   0% /proc/scsi
tmpfs                   492.6M         0    492.6M   0% /sys/firmware
/ # dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/shm/fill bs=1M count=4
4+0 records in
4+0 records out
/ # df -h
Filesystem                Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/docker-253:1-388628-c88293aae6b79e197118527c00d64fee14aec2acfb49e5f1ec95bc6af6bd874b
                         10.0G     37.3M     10.0G   0% /
tmpfs                    64.0M         0     64.0M   0% /dev
tmpfs                   492.6M         0    492.6M   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/mapper/centos00-root
                         12.6G      5.5G      7.2G  43% /etc/resolv.conf
/dev/mapper/centos00-root
                         12.6G      5.5G      7.2G  43% /etc/hostname
/dev/mapper/centos00-root
                         12.6G      5.5G      7.2G  43% /etc/hosts
shm                      64.0M      4.0M     60.0M   6% /dev/shm
tmpfs                   492.6M         0    492.6M   0% /proc/acpi
tmpfs                    64.0M         0     64.0M   0% /proc/kcore
tmpfs                    64.0M         0     64.0M   0% /proc/keys
tmpfs                    64.0M         0     64.0M   0% /proc/timer_list
tmpfs                    64.0M         0     64.0M   0% /proc/timer_stats
tmpfs                    64.0M         0     64.0M   0% /proc/sched_debug
tmpfs                   492.6M         0    492.6M   0% /proc/scsi
tmpfs                   492.6M         0    492.6M   0% /sys/firmware


/ # dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/shm/fill bs=1M count=8
Killed


/ # df -h
Filesystem                Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/docker-253:1-388628-c88293aae6b79e197118527c00d64fee14aec2acfb49e5f1ec95bc6af6bd874b
                         10.0G     37.3M     10.0G   0% /
tmpfs                    64.0M         0     64.0M   0% /dev
tmpfs                   492.6M         0    492.6M   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/mapper/centos00-root
                         12.6G      5.5G      7.2G  43% /etc/resolv.conf
/dev/mapper/centos00-root
                         12.6G      5.5G      7.2G  43% /etc/hostname
/dev/mapper/centos00-root
                         12.6G      5.5G      7.2G  43% /etc/hosts
shm                      64.0M      5.4M     58.6M   9% /dev/shm
tmpfs                   492.6M         0    492.6M   0% /proc/acpi
tmpfs                    64.0M         0     64.0M   0% /proc/kcore
tmpfs                    64.0M         0     64.0M   0% /proc/keys
tmpfs                    64.0M         0     64.0M   0% /proc/timer_list
tmpfs                    64.0M         0     64.0M   0% /proc/timer_stats
tmpfs                    64.0M         0     64.0M   0% /proc/sched_debug
tmpfs                   492.6M         0    492.6M   0% /proc/scsi
tmpfs                   492.6M         0    492.6M   0% /sys/firmware
/ # exit

Explanation of what happened above:

First we run df -h to determine /dev/shm size and usage:

shm                      64.0M         0     64.0M   0% /dev/shm

Then we add 4MB to /dev/shm:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/shm/fill bs=1M count=4

recheck its usage - see 4M used:

shm                      64.0M      4.0M     60.0M   6% /dev/shm

Then we add 8MB to /dev/shm - overwriting previous contents:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/shm/fill bs=1M count=8
Killed

and this command gets killed.

check /dev/shm usage again.

shm                      64.0M      5.4M     58.6M   9% /dev/shm

It used slightly over 4MB before container ran out of RAM.

Conclusion: Docker docker-compose memory limits get enforced.

By default containers have UNLIMITED ram usage available to them. Therefore use this resource limit to prevent your ram from being totally consumed by runaway containers.

Even if you do not know precisely what a good limit is set it anyway: 20, 50, 100 MB are all better than letting 240 GB be consumed.

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