Sitecore on Docker Part 4

October 28, 2021

Sitecore
Platform Support
Development & Engineering
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Sitecore on Docker Part 4

Creating a Sitecore 9.3.0 Docker Development Environment

This blog post assumes you ve read my previous blog post: Sitecore 9.3.0 on Docker [Part 3] - Preparing our Development Environment.

Please bookmark Sitecore s Local Sitecore development with containers documentation as a reference for this effort.

Spoiler Alert

We are unable to use the .\docker-examples\custom-images directory to create an SXC 9.3.0 development environment.

The main reason is that the .\docker-examples\custom-images\docker-compose.*.yml files source sitecore-xp0-* Docker images that don t exist for SXC 9.3.0. At the time I m writing this, only Sitecore 10 is supported.

We know these images don t exist because there are no such Docker build.json files that define these images for Sitecore 9.3.0 in the https://github.com/Sitecore/docker-images repository.

However, we do know that we can get an SXC 9.3.0 Docker Container running using the configurations found at https://github.com/Sitecore/docker-images/tree/master/build/windows/tests/9.3.x.

So, we ll roll out our own development environment.

Creating our solution structure:

1. Clone the https://github.com/Sitecore/docker-images repository.

2. Clone the https://github.com/Sitecore/docker-examples repository.

3. Create a new local directory for our SXC 9.3.0 Development environment files. Let s name our directory SXC9.3.0-Docker-Image.

4. Copy all the files in the docker-images\build\windows\tests\9.3.x\ directory to our SXC9.3.0-Docker-Image directory.

5. I m digging the separation of concerns found in the docker-examples\custom-images\ directory, so we ll reproduce it in our SXC9.3.0-Docker-Image directory:

a. Create the \docker directory

b. Move the SXC9.3.0-Docker-Image\data directory to the new \docker directory

c. Copy the following directories and files from the docker-examples\custom-images\docker directory to our SXC9.3.0-Docker-Image\docker directory:

  • build
  • deploy
  • traefik
  • clean.ps1
  • .gitignore

d. Copy the .\docker-examples\custom-images\src solution files to SXC9.3.0-Docker-Image\src

e. Copy the following files from .\docker-examples\custom-images to the SXC9.3.0-Docker-Image directory:

  • .dockerignore
  • Directory.Build.targets
  • DockerExamples.sln
  • Dockerfile
  • init.ps1
  • nuget.config
  • Packages.props

f. Create an SXC-9.3.0-Docker-Image\scripts folder. Move our needed scripts into the new directory:

  • docker-images\build\Set-LicenseEnvironmentFile.ps1
  • SXC-9.3.0-Docker-Image\startup
  • Modify all references to the volume mapping .\startup in the docker-compose.xp.sh.yml file to: .\scripts\startup
  • Delete the SXC-9.3.0-Docker-Image\Clean-Data.ps1 file

Now, we re in good shape:

Fixing our solution:

Our Frankenstein solution is a nice start, but it won t build properly. We need to modify a few things to make this solution viable.

As I wish to run SXC 9.3.0, I ll use the docker-compose.xc.sxa.storefront.yml file as an example. We ll be sourcing the docker-examples\custom-images\docker-compose.yml and docker-compose.xp1.override.yml files for the changes we ll need to make.

1. Open the docker-compose.xc.sxa.storefront.yml file

2. Add a monitor service to the top of the file:

monitor:
    image: rahnemann/windows-hosts-writer:1.3-nanoserver-${NANOSERVER_VERSION}
    volumes:
      - C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc:C:\driversetc
      - source: '\\.\pipe\docker_engine'
        target: '\\.\pipe\docker_engine'
        type: npipe

3. Copy the traefik definition from docker-examples\custom-images\docker-compose.yml into docker-compose.xc.sxa.storefont.yml

4. Throughout the docker-compose.xc.sxa.storefront.yml file, modify all \data volume definitions by prefacing the source path with .\docker :
- .\docker\data\solr:C:\Data

5. Throughout the docker-compose.xc.sxa.storefront.yml file, change the destination of the ${LOCAL_DEPLOY_PATH} to c:\src. This accommodates the Sitecore 9.3.0 Watch.ps1 script. - ${LOCAL_DEPLOY_PATH}\website:C:\src

6. Create a docker-compose.xc.sxa.storefront.override.yml file

7. Modify the docker-compose.xc.sxa.storefront.override.yml with the content from the docker-examples\custom-image\ docker-compose.xp1.override.yml file:

a. Copy in the solution service definition

b. ? Copy in the redis service definition. Modify the BASE_IMAGE value to:

${REGISTRY}sitecore-redis:3.0.504-windowsservercore-${WINDOWSSERVERCORE_VERSION}

c. Copy in the cd service definition

  • Change the image value to: ${REGISTRY}${COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME}-xc-sxa-storefront-cd:${VERSION:-latest}
  • Change the BASE_IMAGE value to: ${REGISTRY}sitecore-xc-sxa-storefront-cd:${SITECORE_VERSION}-windowsservercore-${WINDOWSSERVERCORE_VERSION}
  • Remove the SXA_IMAGE and TOOLING_IMAGE variables
  • Remove the entrypoint variable
  • Modify the docker/build/cd/Dockerfile:

    • Remove any SXA_IMAGE variable references

    • Remove any TOOLING_IMAGE variable references

d. Copy in the cm service definition

  • Change the image value to: ${REGISTRY}${COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME}-xc-sxa-storefront-cm:${VERSION:-latest}
  • Change the BASE_IMAGE value to: ${REGISTRY}sitecore-xc-sxa-storefront-standalone:${SITECORE_VERSION}-windowsservercore-${WINDOWSSERVERCORE_VERSION}
  • Remove the SPE_IMAGE, SXA_IMAGE, TOOLING_IMAGE, and HORIZON_RESOURCES_IMAGE variables
  • Remove the entrypoint variable
  • Remove the Sitecore_Horizon_ClientHost variable
  • Modify the docker/build/cm/Dockerfile:
  • Remove references to the SPE_IMAGE, SXA_IMAGE, TOOLING_IMAGE, and HORIZON_RESOURCES_IMAGE variables

e. Copy in the xdbcollection service definition

  • Change the service name to xconnect
  • Change the image value to: ${REGISTRY}${COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME}-xc-xconnect:${VERSION:-latest}
  • Change the BASE_IMAGE value to: ${REGISTRY}sitecore-xc-xconnect:${SITECORE_VERSION}-windowsservercore-${WINDOWSSERVERCORE_VERSION}

8. Modify the SXC9.3.0-Docker-Image\.env file with content from the docker-examples\custom-image\.env file:

  • BUILD_CONFIGURATION

  • COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME

  • LOCAL_DATA_PATH

  • LOCAL_DEPLOY_PATH

  • SOLUTION_BASE_IMAGE

  • SOLUTION_BUILD_IMAGE: Change the value of this variable to: mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/framework/sdk:4.8-windowsservercore-ltsc2019. The reason being that our build will fail with the following message:

    Step 13/22 : RUN nuget restore
 	---> Running in 6a3dea67ca77
MSBuild auto-detection: using msbuild version
'16.11.0.36601' from 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft
 Visual Studio\2019\BuildTools\MSBuild\Current\Bin'.

MsBuild timeout out while trying to get project to project
references.

    The reason for this failure is that the SOLUTION_BUILD_IMAGE, defined in the .env file: mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/framework/sdk:4.8 doesn t have TLS enabled.

  • TRAEFIK_IMAGE

  • TRAEFIK_ISOLATION

9. In the Packages.props file, change the value to 9.3.0

10. In the \src\DockerExamples.Xconnect\App_Data\Moedls\DockerExamples.Xconnect.Model.DemoModel, 1.0.json file, change the Sitecore.Xconnect.Collection.Model Version value to 9.3

Pre-Flight Checks

Before we fire our solution up, there s some pre-flight checks we need to run through:

1. Make sure you ve built all the required Sitecore 9.3.0 Docker Images.
You ll find a walk-through of this process in my previous blog post - Sitecore 9.3.0 on Docker [Part 1] - Hosting Docker on an External Drive

2. Check that any of the port mappings defined in the docker-compose.xc.sxa.storefront.yml and docker-compose.xc.sxa.storefront.override.yml files don t conflict with existing services your machine is hosting. For example, any local SOLR servers.

3. In your \.env file, modify the COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME value to something meaningful to your project. For some reason, Docker will ask you to use all lower-case letters. This value will be used to create the Docker Image specified in the docker-compose.xc.sxa.storefront.override.yml file.

Firing up our solution

1. Open an administrative PowerShell Terminal

2. Clean out your data directories: >.\docker\clean.ps1

3. Run the init.ps1 script: >init.ps1 [Path to your Sitecore license file] [Your custom host name]
Please know that [Your custom host name] will be the second segment of your new Sitecore domains and written to your host's file.

4. Run docker-compose: > docker-compose -f .\docker-compose.xc.sxa.storefront.yml -f .\docker-compose.xc.sxa.storefront.override.yml up. With a little luck, your Docker application will start successfully.

Your CM instance will be at: http://localhost:44001/ and http://cm.

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