Add support for Docker Compose with pre-built images from a container repository

[alobbs]

Feature Request: Currently, the Docker Compose file relies on local sources to build and run Abbey. To improve ease of installation in certain environments, it would be beneficial to provide a Docker Compose configuration that uses pre-built images from a container repository (e.g., Docker Hub).

[gkamer8]

Thanks, yeah this was definitely something I thought about doing before the recent release. The reason I didn't do it was to keep deploying easier while I'm fixing little bugs that are coming up. There's also a question of what to do with the various containers needed to support Abbey.

I could run a bunch of processes in one container, or split them up (so, you'd do docker compose with Redis, MySQL, plus a prebuilt Abbey backend, prebuilt frontend, then prebuilt backend with different commands to do Celery/db_pooler which share the same dockerfile) – not sure which is more preferable for people. Options would be:

• Make all 6 different services using 2 Abbey prebuilt images, where each container is running 1 process
• Make 4 different services using 2 Abbey prebuilt images where the backend container is running 3 processes
• Make 3 different services using 1 Abbey prebuilt image where the backend / frontend / db_pooler / celery are all combined.
• Make 2 different services, same as before but including Redis in the prebuilt image
• Make 1 big service which includes the MySQL db as well

Thoughts?

[alobbs]

I would use public base images for Redis (image: redis:latest) and MySQL (image: mysql:latest). In the case of Celery, it'd run in its own container based on the python:latest image (+ pip?).

I'm not sure about the Abbey services, though. You're the expert :)

[gkamer8]

Thanks, I'll have to think about it some more. I think when I tackle this, I will also tackle the issue with the size of the images (way way too big right now).

[gkamer8]

Hello– the latest version has some progress on this! The backend service has subsumed celery, redis, and db_pooler. Still no pre-built docker containers, mostly due to fear of maintainability and effort.