Deploy applications using images from non-ACR repositories - Serverless App Engine

You can deploy applications using images from any third-party image repository, such as Docker Hub or Docker Registry.

Before you start

1. Ensure network connectivity between your SAE application and the image repository

If the image repository is within the same VPC as your SAE application, no additional network configuration is required.
If the image repository is not within the same VPC as your SAE application, you need to establish cross-VPC network connectivity or enable a public NAT Gateway for the VPC where your application is located. If the image repository has access restrictions, add the VPC subnet where your SAE application is located, or the Elastic IP Address bound to the NAT Gateway, to the whitelist of the image repository.

How to view the VPC where the SAE applications reside

Before deploying an application, schedule its region and namespace to dertermin VPC.

Log on to the SAE console, select a region at the top, and choose Namespace in the left-side navigation pane.
Click the target namespace in the list, choose Basic Information in the left-side navigation pane, and click the link for Virtual Private Cloud VPC to view information such as the VPC ID.

How to solve the issue when SAE applications deployed in regions within China cannot access overseas image repositories (such as Dockerhub)

Solution 1: Use image repositories within China

Image repositories within China (such as the ACR Artifact Center) may contain the images you want to deploy. For example, as shown in the following figure, the address of the Nginx image is registry.openanolis.cn/openanolis/nginx:1.14.1-8.6.

Solution 2: Pull overseas images locally and push them to ACR

First pull the overseas image to your local machine, then push it to ACR, and finally deploy applications using images from ACR instances in the same account or deploy applications using images from ACR instances in different accounts.

2. Configure authorization information for accessing the image repository if username and password are required

Create a Secret to store the username and password of the image repository: On the Namespace page, select the target region, click the target namespace, select Secret in the left-side navigation pane, and click Create.

For Type, select Private Image Repository Logon Secret.
Enter the IP address or domain name of the image repository.
Enter the Name and Value required to log on to the image repository.

Procedure

Log on to the SAE console, choose Applications > Applications in the left-side navigation pane, select a deployment region at the top, and then click Create Application.
If Applications > Applications is not in the navigation bar, choose Applications > Microservice Applications.
Select an application version.
Important
Lightweight Edition and Professional Edition are currently in the invitation-only testing phase. For users who are not participating in invitation-only testing, the created application is Standard Edition, and you do not need to select an application version.
- Lightweight Edition: Provides the minimum set of functions required for application operation, does not support Application Monitoring and Microservice Governance functions.
- Standard Edition: Comes with Basic Application Monitoring functions, Advanced Application Monitoring and Microservice Governance functions require additional activation and purchase.
- Professional Edition: Comes with Advanced Application Monitoring and Microservice Governance functions, no additional activation or purchase required.
On the Create Application page, customize the Application Name and configure the following parameters.
1. Select the Namespace to which the application belongs. Namespace is equivalent to K8s Namespace and can be used for resource isolation in different environments. After an application is created, you cannot change its namespace.
  - System Created: Use the default namespace, vSwitch, and security group created by the system in the current region.
  - Existing Namespace: Select the namespace, vSwitch, and security group that you created in advance.
2. Set Application Deployment Method to Select Image To Deploy, and click Set Image on the right. On the Custom Image tab, configure the following information.
  - Based on your actual network configuration, select Public Network or Private Network to access the image repository.
  - If username and password are required to access the image repository, select the Secret That Stores The Username And Password Of The Image Repository that you created earlier.
  - Enter the complete Image Address in the format <Public or private address of the image repository>:<Image Tag>, for example: nginx:1.23.1.
3. In the Capacity Settings section, configure Single Instance Type, and Instances.
(Optional) Click Next: Advanced Settings to configure the required features.
- Startup Command
  The application's startup command depends on the CMD or ENTRYPOINT set in the image. No additional configuration is required in SAE. You can customize startup commands to overwrite the pre-set startup command in the image.
- Runtime environment and lifecycle management
  By setting environment variables, setting Hosts binding, and injecting configuration information, you can change variables or configuration files in the runtime environment after application deployment without rebuilding the image.
  By setting health checks, you can monitor whether application instances are running normally and ready to handle business requests. Instances that are not running normally will be automatically restarted, and business requests will only be allocated after the instances are ready.
  Through application lifecycle management, you can customize commands to be executed after application startup and before shutdown, and implement graceful shutdown.
- Network access and service invocation
  Implement service invocation between applications through service registration and discovery. Note that if you use the MSE service registration and discovery center, additional fees apply.
  Access applications from the outside by binding NLB, binding CLB, or configuring gateway routing for applications. Note that NLB, CLB, and gateway routing require additional fees.
  Enable applications to actively access external resources or services by configuring NAT Gateway or binding EIP to application instances. Note that NAT Gateway and EIP require additional fees.
- Data persistence
  Store application data in NAS, OSS, or database to prevent data loss due to application changes or shutdowns. Note that NAS, OSS, and databases require additional fees.
- Logs and monitoring
  After deploying an application, you can view real-time logs and view resource usage and payload without additional configuration. In addition, you can output logs to SLS or Kafka for unified management and analysis. Note that SLS and Kafka require additional fees.
  ARMS Monitoring helps you get the application running status, quickly pinpoint error interfaces and slow interfaces, gain insight into performance bottlenecks, and reproduce call parameters, thereby greatly improving the efficiency of online problem diagnosis.
  For Standard Edition applications, you can view ARMS Basic Edition monitoring data after deployment without additional configuration.You can also activate and purchase ARMS Pro monitoring.
  For Professional Edition applications, enable Application Monitoring in Advanced Settings and complete application deployment, then you can View ARMS Pro Monitoring Data. No additional fees are required.
- Other features
  Microservice Governance enables Lossless Online And Offline, Traffic Protection, End-to-end Grayscale, and Same-zone Routing Priority for Java applications.
  For Standard Edition applications, go to the application details page after completing application deployment to activate and purchase MSE Microservice Governance features.
  For Professional Edition applications, enable Microservice Governance in Advanced Settings, then you can configure Lossless Online And Offline. For more features, go to the application details page after completing application deployment to configure. No additional fees are required.
  Solve the problem of resource waste caused by the CPU required during the startup loading phase being higher than usual by enabling the CPU Burst feature (only applicable to Standard Edition and Professional Edition).
  Implement decoupling and standardization of non-business functions from the main container by adding Sidecar containers.
Click Create Application.
- Creating an application takes about 1-2 minutes. You can determine whether the application is deployed successfully by viewing the change records. If the deployment fails, no application instance will be generated. Troubleshoot faults based on the error information in Change History.
- You can view the created applications in Applications > Applications. If you need to change the application configuration after deployment, click the target application to enter its details page, and then click Deploy Application. Note that the application will automatically restart to make the new configuration take effect. Perform operations during off-peak hours to minimize impacts on your business.
- You can log on to application instances through Webshell to interact with application instances through console commands.
- After creating an application, you can manually adjust the number of instances and instance specifications, or automatically adjust the number of instances by configuring Auto Scaling policies. You can also reduce costs by enabling idle mode.