Creating a Container-Optimized Deployment

This full example describes how to create a deployment with a virtual machine that uses a container-optimized image. For more information on using containers with Compute Engine, see Container-Optimized Compute Engine Images.

This walk-through describes how to:

  1. Create a simple container manifest.
  2. Create a configuration and template that uses a container image.
  3. Deploy your resources and verify that the deployment was successful.

Create a container manifest

To use containers, you must define a container manifest. The manifest describes properties such as the container image, containers to launch, commands to execute on boot, and ports to enable.

Create a file named container_manifest.yaml with the following contents:

# Copyright 2016 Google Inc. All rights reserved. # # Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); # you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. # You may obtain a copy of the License at # # http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 # # Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software # distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, # WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and # limitations under the License. # This is a container manifest, as described here: # https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/containers/container_vms apiVersion: v1 kind: Pod metadata:  name: simple-echo spec:  containers:  - name: simple-echo  image: gcr.io/google-samples/hello-app:2.0  imagePullPolicy: Always  ports:  - containerPort: 8080  hostPort: 8080 

This manifest creates a container named simple-echo that uses the Hello Application container image and launches an echo server that listens on port 8080.

Create a template and configuration

Next, create a template that launches a virtual machine instance with a container-optimized image. Create a file named container_vm.[jinja|py] with the following contents:

Jinja

 {% set COMPUTE_URL_BASE = 'https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/' %} {% set BASE_NAME = env['deployment'] + '-' + env['name'] %} {% macro GlobalComputeUrl(project, collection, name) -%} {{ COMPUTE_URL_BASE }}projects/{{ project }}/global/{{ collection }}/{{ name }} {%- endmacro %} {% macro ZonalComputeUrl(project, zone, collection, name) -%} {{ COMPUTE_URL_BASE }}projects/{{ project }}/zones/{{ zone }}/{{ collection }}/{{ name }} {%- endmacro %} resources: - name: {{ BASE_NAME }}  type: compute.v1.instance  properties:  zone: {{ properties['zone'] }}  machineType: {{ ZonalComputeUrl(env['project'], properties['zone'], 'machineTypes', 'n1-standard-1') }}  metadata:  items:  - key: gce-container-declaration  value: |  {{ imports[properties['containerManifest']]|indent(12) }}  disks:  - deviceName: boot  type: PERSISTENT  autoDelete: true  boot: true  initializeParams:  diskName: {{ BASE_NAME }}-disk  sourceImage: {{ GlobalComputeUrl('cos-cloud', 'images', properties['containerImage']) }}  networkInterfaces:  - accessConfigs:  - name: external-nat  type: ONE_TO_ONE_NAT  network: {{ GlobalComputeUrl(env['project'], 'networks', 'default') }}  serviceAccounts:  - email: default  scopes:  - https://www.googleapis.com/auth/logging.write  - https://www.googleapis.com/auth/monitoring.write 

Python

# Copyright 2016 Google Inc. All rights reserved. # # Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); # you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. # You may obtain a copy of the License at # # http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 # # Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software # distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, # WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and # limitations under the License. """Creates a Container VM with the provided Container manifest.""" COMPUTE_URL_BASE = 'https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/' def GlobalComputeUrl(project, collection, name): return ''.join([COMPUTE_URL_BASE, 'projects/', project, '/global/', collection, '/', name]) def ZonalComputeUrl(project, zone, collection, name): return ''.join([COMPUTE_URL_BASE, 'projects/', project, '/zones/', zone, '/', collection, '/', name]) def GenerateConfig(context):  """Generate configuration.""" res = [] base_name = (context.env['deployment'] + '-' + context.env['name']) # Properties for the container-based instance. instance = { 'zone': context.properties['zone'], 'machineType': ZonalComputeUrl(context.env['project'], context.properties['zone'], 'machineTypes', 'n1-standard-1'), 'metadata': { 'items': [{ 'key': 'gce-container-declaration', 'value': context.imports[ context.properties['containerManifest']], }] }, 'disks': [{ 'deviceName': 'boot', 'type': 'PERSISTENT', 'autoDelete': True, 'boot': True, 'initializeParams': { 'diskName': base_name + '-disk', 'sourceImage': GlobalComputeUrl('cos-cloud', 'images', context.properties[ 'containerImage']) }, }], 'networkInterfaces': [{ 'accessConfigs': [{ 'name': 'external-nat', 'type': 'ONE_TO_ONE_NAT' }], 'network': GlobalComputeUrl(context.env['project'], 'networks', 'default') }], 'serviceAccounts': [{ 'email': 'default', 'scopes': [ "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/logging.write", "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/monitoring.write" ] }] } res.append({ 'name': base_name, 'type': 'compute.v1.instance', 'properties': instance }) # Resources to return. resources = { 'resources': res, } return resources 

Create the corresponding schema file, which enforces the structure of the template:

Jinja

# Copyright 2016 Google Inc. All rights reserved. # # Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); # you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. # You may obtain a copy of the License at # # http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 # # Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software # distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, # WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and # limitations under the License. info:  title: Container VM  author: Google Inc.  description: Creates a Container VM with the provided Container manifest. required:  - zone  - containerImage  - containerManifest properties:  zone:  description: Zone in which this VM will run  type: string  containerImage:  description: Name of the Google Cloud Container VM Image  type: string  containerManifest:  description: String containing the Container Manifest in YAML  type: string 

Python

# Copyright 2016 Google Inc. All rights reserved. # # Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); # you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. # You may obtain a copy of the License at # # http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 # # Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software # distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, # WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and # limitations under the License. info: title: Container VM author: Google Inc. description: Creates a Container VM with the provided Container manifest. required: - zone - containerImage - containerManifest properties: zone: description: Zone in which this VM will run type: string containerImage: description: Name of the Google Cloud Container VM Image type: string containerManifest: description: String containing the Container Manifest in YAML type: string 

Notice there are a number of parameters defined in this template including:

  • The deployment, name, and project environment variables. Deployment Manager automatically populates those variables without additional action from you.
  • The zone, containerImage, and containerManifest properties, which will be defined in the configuration.

Create a configuration file named container_vm.yaml that looks like the following:

Jinja

# Copyright 2016 Google Inc. All rights reserved. # # Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); # you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. # You may obtain a copy of the License at # # http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 # # Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software # distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, # WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and # limitations under the License. imports: - path: ../../common/container_manifest.yaml  name: container_manifest - path: container_vm.jinja resources:  - name: my-container-vm  type: container_vm.jinja  properties:  zone: ZONE_TO_RUN  containerImage: family/cos-stable  containerManifest: container_manifest 

Python

# Copyright 2016 Google Inc. All rights reserved. # # Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); # you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. # You may obtain a copy of the License at # # http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 # # Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software # distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, # WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and # limitations under the License. imports: - path: ../../common/container_manifest.yaml  name: container_manifest - path: container_vm.py resources:  - name: my-container-vm  type: container_vm.py  properties:  zone: ZONE_TO_RUN  containerImage: family/cos-stable  containerManifest: container_manifest 

Make sure to replace ZONE_TO_RUN with the desired zone for your virtual machine. Notice that the file has also defined the container image to use and the container manifest that you created earlier.

Deploy your virtual machine instance

Finally, deploy your virtual machine instance using the Google Cloud CLI:

gcloud deployment-manager deployments create my-container-deployment \ --config container_vm.yaml 

Once the deployment has been created, you can view the details of your deployment. For example:

 $ gcloud deployment-manager deployments describe my-container-deployment creationTimestamp: '2015-04-02T12:24:31.645-07:00' fingerprint: '' id: '8602410885927938432' manifest: https://www.googleapis.com/deploymentmanager/v2/projects/myproject/global/deployments/my-container-deployment/manifests/manifest-1428002671645 name: my-container-deployment state: DEPLOYED resources: NAME TYPE ID UPDATE_STATE ERRORS my-container-deployment-my-container-vm compute.v1.instance 3775082612632070557 COMPLETED - 

Verify that your instance is running

To test that your container instance started up, visit the virtual machine's external IP address in your browser, which should print hello world:

  1. Add a Compute Engine firewall rule to allow you to query traffic on the virtual machine through port 8080:

    gcloud compute firewall-rules create allow-8080 --allow tcp:8080 
  2. Get your instance's external IP address:

     $ gcloud compute instances describe my-container-deployment-my-container-vm ... name: my-container-vm-my-container-deployment networkInterfaces: - accessConfigs: - kind: compute#accessConfig name: external-nat natIP: 104.197.8.138 type: ONE_TO_ONE_NAT name: nic0 network: https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/myproject/global/networks/default networkIP: 10.240.97.220 scheduling: automaticRestart: true onHostMaintenance: MIGRATE selfLink: https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/myproject/zones/us-central1-a/instances/my-container-deployment-my-container-vm status: RUNNING tags: fingerprint: 42WmSpB8rSM= zone: https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/myproject/zones/us-central1-a ...

    In this case, the external IP is 104.197.8.138.

  3. In a browser window, enter in the external IP and port 8080 in the browser bar. For example, 104.197.8.138:8080.

    If successful, you should see a hello world message.

(Optional) Delete your deployment

If you want to save on costs and no longer want or need your deployment, delete your deployment.

gcloud deployment-manager deployments delete my-container-deployment 

What's next

Explore more about Deployment Manager in the Complete User Guides or through the API.

Try out some other tutorials: