Building OSv Images Using Docker

By David Jorm and Don Marti

Why build OSv images under Docker?

Building OSv from source has several advantages, including the ability to build images targeting different execution environments. The CloudRouter project is working on integrating the build script into its continuous integration system, automatically producing nightly rebuilds of all supported OSv application images.

The main problem with this approach is that it requires a system to be appropriately configured with all the necessary dependencies and source code to run builds. To build a scalable and reproducible continuous integration system, we really want to automate the provisioning of new build servers. An ideal way to achieve this goal is by creating a Docker image that includes all the necessary components to produce OSv image builds.

osv-builder: a Docker based build/development environment for OSv

The osv-builder Docker image provides a complete build and development environment for OSv, including OSv application images and appliances. It has been developed by Arun Babu Neelicattu from IIX. To download the image, run:

docker pull cloudrouter/osv-builder

OSv includes a range of helper scripts for building and running OSv images. The build script will compile OSv from the local source tree, then create a complete OSv image for a given application, based on the application’s Makefile. For more on scripts/build, see the recent blog post on the OSv build system.

Capstan

The image comes with Capstan pre-installed. Note that to use Capstan, you’ll have to run the container with the –privileged option, as it requires the KVM kernel module. For example, to build and run the iperf application:

$ sudo docker run -it \
  --privileged \
  cloudrouter/osv-builder
bash-4.3# cd apps/iperf
bash-4.3# capstan build
Building iperf...
Downloading cloudius/osv-base/index.yaml...
154 B / 154 B [=================================================================================================================] 100.00 % 0
Downloading cloudius/osv-base/osv-base.qemu.gz...
20.09 MB / 20.09 MB [=======================================================================================================] 100.00 % 1m27s
Uploading files...
1 / 1 [=========================================================================================================================] 100.00 % bash-4.3# capstan run
Created instance: iperf
OSv v0.19
eth0: 192.168.122.15
------------------------------------------------------------
Server listening on TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 64.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------

Launching an interactive session

HOST_BUILD_DIR=$(pwd)/build
docker run -it \
  --volume ${HOST_BUILD_DIR}:/osv/builder \
  cloudrouter/osv-builder

This will place you into the OSv source clone. You’ll see the prompt:

bash-4.3# 

Now, you can work with it as you normally would when working on OSv source. You can build apps, edit build scripts, and so on. For example, you can run the following commands, once the above docker run commands has been executed, to build and run a tomcat appliance.

./scripts/build image=tomcat,httpserver
./scripts/run -V

The osv Command

Note that the commands you run can be prefixed with osv, the source for which is available at assets/osv. For example you can build by:

docker run \
  --volume ${HOST_BUILD_DIR}:/osv/build \
  osv-builder \
  osv build image=opendaylight

The osv script, by default, provides the following convenience wrappers:

If any other command is used, it is simply passed on as scripts/$CMD "$@" where $@ is the arguments following the command.

You could also run commands as:

docker run \
  --volume ${HOST_BUILD_DIR}:/osv/build \
  osv-builder \
  ./scripts/build image=opendaylight

Building appliance images

If using the pre-built version from Docker Hub, use cloudrouter/osv-builder instead of osv-builder.

HOST_BUILD_DIR=$(pwd)/build
docker run \
  --volume ${HOST_BUILD_DIR}:/osv/build \
  osv-builder \
  osv appliance zookeeper apache-zookeeper,cloud-init "Apache Zookeeper on OSv"

If everything goes well, the images should be available in ${HOST_BUILD_DIR}. This will contain appliance images for QEMU/KVM, Oracle VirtualBox, Google Compute Engine and VMWare Virtual Machine Disk.

Note that we explicitly disable the build of VMware ESXi images since ovftool is not available.

Building locally

As an alternative, you can build locally with a docker build command, using the Dockerfile for osv-builder.

docker build -t osv-builder .

Then you can use a plain osv-builder image name instead of cloudrouter/osv-builder.

For more information regarding OSv Appliances and pre-built ones, check the OSv virtual appliances page.

Volume Mapping

Sending OSv patches

If you’re following the Formatting and sending patches guide on the OSv web site, just copy your patches into the builder directory in the container, and they’ll show up under your $HOST_BUILD_DIR, ready to be sent to the mailing list.

Conclusion

With the osv-builder docker image, building your own OSv images is now easier than ever before. If you are looking for a high-performance operating system to run your applications, go ahead and give it a try!

Questions and comments welcome on the osv-dev mailing list.

About the authors

David is a product security engineer based in Brisbane, Australia. He currently leads product security efforts for IIX, a software-defined interconnection company. David has been involved in the security industry for the last 15 years. During this time he has found high-impact and novel flaws in dozens of major Java components. He has worked for Red Hat’s security team, led a Chinese startup that failed miserably, and wrote the core aviation meteorology system for the southern hemisphere. In his spare time he tries to stop his two Dachshunds from taking over the house.

Don is a technical marketing manager for Cloudius Systems, the OSv company. He has written for Linux Weekly News, Linux Journal, and other publications. He co-founded the Linux consulting firm Electric Lichen, which was acquired by VA Linux Systems. Don has served as president and vice president of the Silicon Valley Linux Users Group and on the program committees for Uselinux, Codecon, and LinuxWorld Conference and Expo.