Suggestions to improve Dockerfile - reduce image size

[barakbd]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

1. Use node:carbon-alpine base image to reduce image size (unless you you really need the full size node image)

2. Volumes:
   No need to mkdir + VOLUME. Also, it is possible to specify multi in one line
   https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/builder/#volume

3. Non-root user:
   https://github.com/nodejs/docker-node/blob/master/docs/BestPractices.md#non-root-user

4. Entrypoint - use node and not npm
   https://github.com/nodejs/docker-node/blob/master/docs/BestPractices.md#docker-run

5. Multi stage Dockerfile - reduce image size by building final image without devDependencies:
   Docker multi stage - https://docs.docker.com/develop/develop-images/multistage-build/
   TravisCI supported - Upgrade Docker for multi-stage build support travis-ci/travis-ci#8181

Suggestted Dockerfile

FROM node:carbon-alpine

#after this you can just use ./ to refer to cwd
WORKDIR /parse-server

#Specify multiple volumes in one line - reuse layers during build
VOLUME ["/parse-server/config", "/parse-server/cloud"]

#Copy into /parse-server which is current working directory
COPY ./ ./ 

RUN npm install && \
    npm run build

ENV PORT=1337

EXPOSE $PORT

# non-root user
USER node

# start with node, not npm
ENTRYPOINT ["node", "./bin/parse-server", "--"]

[flovilmart]

The main issues we have with the docker setup is that it isn’t that easy to get started IHMO.

As the cloud, config and all env are provided a posteriori, and possible with more package to install from npm/yarn, the base image as it is, isn’t mega useful.

Would you have an idea on how to solve that?

ie: making a base image useful enough that you can start quickly AND fully enjoy when you have complex config/cloud code

[flovilmart]

I’m also thinking using with k8s, can we provide an easy to use pod template or helm that ‘scales’.

Otherwise it’s easy to package a node app into a docker image, so we should encourage people to build a node app, and then use docker for their deployment

[barakbd]

I just stated using the docker image. But I do have some experience with Docker/K8s, so if I can understand the problem better, I could help.
What do you mean "cloud, config and all env are provided a posteriori"?

[flovilmart]

I mean that as there are two main ways to use parse-server with docker.

1. One would be to use the auto generated image, mount the volumes, and pass the env variables / config at ‘docker run’ time. In this scenario, the user don’t write any docker file. Using with k8s there is no custom image and no need to customize further.

2. The other option for the user is to use parse-server as an npm dependency, (like in parse-server-example) and treat everything as a nodejs app. Therefore the dockerfile is justFROM node.

The benefits of 1 are that the whole thing is Docker oriented. No need to know about node runtimes etc...

The benefits of 2 is that it’s node JS oriented and easy to run locally.

Do you see what I mean?

My ‘issue’ at this time is that the two options are totally valid. I tend to go to option 2 so Docker is not ‘required’ to run the projects locally. As the 2 options are totally valid, it’s ‘hard’ for someone to pick the right one, OR to properly explain it, or to make an image that is very very useful for everyone.

[acinader]

I haven't been able to get #1 to work with our cloud code. I haven't put too much effort into it, but I did try just dockerizing the full repo. As I recall, I wasn't able to get my cloud code running. so far I have gone with #2 as @flovilmart suggests.

[acinader]

I am interested in figuring out a Kubernetes recipe for parse-server deployment.

[barakbd]

I'm actually having trouble installing the npm. bcrypt needs to build for some reason, and I have python 3.x instead of 2.7. Once I solved that, it says I'm missing Xcode build tools...

This is exactly why docker is great - no need to worry about environment setup.
Had someone been able to get cloud code working with the docker image?
I will be able to try this week.
Once I get the basic image working, I can talk about K8s.

[barakbd]

I can help with multi state docker build, docker-compose and CI, though I have experience with Jenkins, not TravisCI

[flovilmart]

@barakbd you’ll Likely need Xcode installed and the command line tools. (Which can be installed through https://github.com/KrauseFx/xcode-install/blob/master/README.md)

[acinader]

I think that for our on-boarding documentation, the docker solution should be a workflow that uses the prebuilt parseplatform/parse-server docker.

I played around with this a bit over the last few days and made more successful progress than I have to date. I set up three containers: mongo, parse-server, and parse-dashboard. In the case of the dashboard, I mounted a volume with the dashboard config in it. In the case of parse server, I created a volume with cloud code in it and passed the rest of the config via command line arguments to docker run.

I put a package.json in the cloud directory with lodash as a dependency and used lodash.
I used a parse-server object (the LoggerController).

Here's the cloud code which all worked as expected (I could verify the lodash use in the dashboard and I could see the 'hi mom' in the docker logs):

const { AppCache } = require('/parse-server/lib/cache');
const _ = require('lodash');

const unsorted = [10,7,4,6,9,3,8,2,1];

Parse.Cloud.beforeSave('GameScore', (request) => {
  const { loggerController: logger } = AppCache.get(Parse.applicationId);
  logger.info('hi mom');
  const sample = _.sample(unsorted);
  const { object: gameScore } = request;
  gameScore.set({ sample });
  return gameScore;
});

So this to me is a good proof of concept that docker images can work and is reasonable.

The next step for me is to try and put it all together in k8s to see how easy it is to get running locally in minikube.

@barakbd. Do you want to open a pr with your docker file changes? I haven't tested with those yet, but I will.

[barakbd]

I want to test first. Do you know if the docker image is built from an express app that imports parse-server or is it pure parse-server?
I am a bit busy this week, but hopefully by next week, I will be able to run the container and see the contents (directories/files) in the image.
Then I will build, and compare sizes.

[flovilmart]

@barakbd the docker image that we auto build is using the parse-server CLI so it's creating it's own express server.

See: https://github.com/parse-community/parse-server/blob/master/src/cli/parse-server.js

Which is basically:

1. parsing the configuration / arguments / environment variables with the help of commander
2. calling ParseServer.start() with the result of step 1.

[barakbd]

By the way, this is a cleaner way for gitignore/dockerignore - https://stackoverflow.com/questions/987142/make-gitignore-ignore-everything-except-a-few-files

# Ignore everything
*

# But not these files...
!.gitignore
!script.pl
!template.latex
# etc...

# ...even if they are in subdirectories
!*/

# if the files to be tracked are in subdirectories
!*/a/b/file1.txt
!*/a/b/c/*

[barakbd]

Just to confirm why I would like to reduce the image size:
Git repo size is around 6 mb (https://api.github.com/repos/parse-community/parse-server)

"size": 6102

Docker image size is 897 mb (docker images)

parseplatform/parse-server         latest              e3c6c9eea775        5 days ago          897MB

Am I correct?