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I'm trying to set up a primitive CI/CD pipeline using 2 Docker containers -- I'll call them jenkins and node-app. My aim is for the jenkins container to run a job upon commit to a GitHub repo (that's done). That job should run a deploy.sh script on the node-app container. Therefore, when a developer commits to GitHub, jenkins picks up the commit, then kicks off a job including automated tests (in the future) followed by a deployment on node-app.

The jenkins container is using the latest image (Dockerfile).

The node-app container's Dockerfile is:

FROM node:latest
EXPOSE 80
WORKDIR /usr/src/final-exercise
ADD . /usr/src/final-exercise

RUN apt-get update -y
RUN apt-get install -y nodejs npm
RUN cd /src/final-exercise; npm install

CMD ["node", "/usr/src/final-exercise/app.js"]

jenkins and node-app are linked using Docker Compose, and that docker-compose.yml file contains (updated, thanks to @alkis):

node-app:
  container_name: node-app
  build: .
  ports:
   - 80:80
  links:
   - jenkins
jenkins:
  container_name: jenkins
  image: jenkins
  ports:
   - 8080:8080
  volumes:
   - /home/ec2-user/final-exercise:/var/jenkins

The containers are built using docker-compose up -d and start as expected. docker ps yields (updated):

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE                    COMMAND                  CREATED                 STATUS              PORTS                               NAMES
69e52b216d48        finalexercise_node-app   "node /usr/src/final-"   3 hours ago         Up 3 hours          0.0.0.0:80->80/tcp                  node-app
5f7e779e5fbd        jenkins                  "/bin/tini -- /usr/lo"   3 hours ago         Up 3 hours          0.0.0.0:8080->8080/tcp, 50000/tcp   jenkins

I can ping jenkins from node-app and vice versa.

Is this even possible? If not, am I making an architectural mistake here?

Thank you very much in advance, I appreciate it!

EDIT: I've stumbled upon nsenter and easily entering a container's shell using this and this. However, these both assume that the origin (in their case the host machine, in my case the jenkins container) has Docker installed in order to find the PID of the destination container. I can nsenter into node-app from the host, but still no luck from jenkins.

reedflinch
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1 Answers1

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node-app:
  build: .
  ports:
   - 80:80
  links:
   - finalexercise_jenkins_1

jenkins:
  image: jenkins
  ports:
   - 8080:8080
  volumes:
   - /home/ec2-user/final-exercise:/var/jenkins

Try the above. You are linking by image name, but you must use container name. In your case, since you don't specify explicitly the container name, it gets auto-generated like this

finalexercise : folder where your docker-compose.yml is located
node-app      : container configs tag
1             : you only have one container with the prefix finalexercise_node-app. If you built a second one, then its name will be finalexercise_node-app_2

The setup of the yml files:

node-app:
  build: .
  container_name: my-node-app
  ports:
   - 80:80
  links:
   - my-jenkins

jenkins:
  image: jenkins
  container_name: my-jenkins
  ports:
   - 8080:8080
  volumes:
   - /home/ec2-user/final-exercise:/var/jenkins

Of course you can specify a container name for the node-app as well, so you can use something constant for the communication.

Update

In order to test, log to a bash terminal of the jenkins container

docker exec -it my-jenkins bash

Then try to ping my-node-app, or even telnet for the specific port. 

ping my-node-app:80

Or you could

telnet my-node-app 80

Update

What you want to do is easily accomplished by the exec command. From your host you can execute this (try it so you are sure it's working) 

docker exec -i <container_name> ./deploy.sh

If the above works, then your problem delegates to executing the same command from a container. As it is you can't do that, since the container that's issuing the command (jenkins) doesn't have access to your host's docker installation (which not only recognises the command, but holds control of the container you need access to).

I haven't used either of them, but I know of two solutions

  1. Use this official guide to gain access to your host's docker daemon and issue docker commands from your containers as if you were doing it from your host.
  2. Mount the docker binary and socket into the container, so the container acts as if it is the host (every command will be executed by the docker daemon of your host, since it's shared).

This thread from SO gives some more insight about this issue.

Community
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Alkis Kalogeris
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  • That is extremely helpful as far as organizing my containers -- thank you. However, I'm still struggling with figuring out how to initiate commands for my node-app container **from** my jenkins container. For example, jenkins telling node-app that it needs to run `deploy.sh`. – reedflinch Jan 11 '16 at 16:06
  • The same applies. Give a name to your node-app container and use that as hostname while in jenkins, to communicate with the node-app. I've updated my answer to make it a little more clear – Alkis Kalogeris Jan 12 '16 at 05:06
  • Appreciate that. I've been able to ping the node-app container the entire time, however. What I can't figure out is how to call the `deploy.sh` script from jenkins. – reedflinch Jan 12 '16 at 19:35
  • I've updated my answer. Please don't forget to accept the answer if it solved your problem. – Alkis Kalogeris Jan 12 '16 at 19:59
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    I used a [very helpful link](http://container-solutions.com/running-docker-in-jenkins-in-docker/) in addition to alkis' answer. My final solution involved what the author calls Docker-outside-of-Docker (DooD), whereby the **jenkins** container actually runs `docker exec -i node-app bash` and then passing in the deploy commands to the **node-app** container. Please note that the -t flag in `docker exec -it node-app bash` in alkis' answer will not work, as you'll get a tty error. – reedflinch Jan 13 '16 at 17:08