4

shortname: BEP-4
name: Standard process to set up a local node for development & testing, using Docker Compose
type: standard
status: raw
editor: Muawia Khan <muawia@bigchaindb.com>

Abstract

In the current BigchainDB repository we have 8 docker-compose files, each serving a specific function:

• docker-compose.yml
  • DEPRECATED: Used for deployment of single node development BigchainDB v1.3.
• docker-compose.travis.yml
  • Used to setup the continous integration environment on Travis.
• docker-compose.tendermint.yml
  • Used to deploy Single node development environment for BigchainDB(integrated with Tendermint).
• docker-compose.network.yml
  • Used to deploy 4 node development environment for BigchainDB(integrated with Tendermint)
• docker-compose.docs.yml
  • Used to build and host BigchainDB docs.
• docker-compose.ssl.yml
  • DEPRECATED: Used for deployment of single node BigchainDB v1.3, SSL enabled for MongoDB authentication and authorization.
• docker-compose.rdb.yml
  • DEPRECATED: Used to deploy single node BigchainDB v1.3 with RethinkDB as the backend database.
• docker-compose.benchmark.yml
  • DEPRECATED: Used to deploy standalone BigchainDB v1.3 development environment.

Majority of the above mentioned files are either not in use OR can be integrated in a way that all of them are being tested effectively with CI pipeline(s).

We also have multiple Dockerfiles in the repository:

• Dockerfile
  • Dockerfile used to build and publish BigchainDB production images.
• Dockerfile-dev
  • Dockerfile used for development purposes.
• compose/bigchaindb-driver/Dockerfile
  • Dockerfile used to spawn a container in development environment with bigchaindb-driver installed.
• compose/bigchaindb-server/Dockerfile
  • This is a duplicate of Dockerfile-dev
• compose/travis/Dockerfile
  • Dockerfile used to build/run BigchainDB service in CI.

Motivation

There are multiple problems with our current workflow and directory structure which also impacts testing:

• We need to deprecate or remove the unused or redundant docker-compose and Docker file(s).
• Since our development and CI files are different, there is no way to test the development docker-compose file(s). There are two solutions to this:
  • Write tests to test the docker-compose for development.
  • Integrate the development and CI workflow.

Specification

Proposed Solution

• Clean up the deprecated workflow(s).

  • Remove docker-compose.rdb.yml.
  • Remove docker-compose.benchmark.yml.
  • Remove docker-compose.docs.yml, since building documentation should be part of a development environment.
  • Remove docker-compose.ssl.yml, because we are planning to remove SSL support for MongoDB.
  • Remove docker-compose.network.yml file, this workflow will be supported by another deployment method. Currently, we are not using this method for development. We will have Vagrant, Ansible and K8s network driver to offer this functionality.

• Update the workflows with the new deployment workflow(s).

  • Update docker-compose.yml to support the current deployment strategy i.e. BigchainDB + Tendermint + Stand alone MongoDB.

• Integrate the development and CI compose file(s) in such a way that there are minimal differences and they can be tested on a CI, also rename the files:

  • docker-compose.yml will have the base services i.e. BigchainDB, MongoDB, Tendermint started with:
    • docker-compose up bdb
  • Any tools used to help with development, bigchaindb-driver, nginx, and curl-client,can be brought up using:
    • docker-compose up curl-client
    • docker-compose up bdb-driver
    • docker-compose up vdocs

• Update the MongoDB and Tendermint version(s) to the latest supported version:

  • mongo:3.4.13
  • tendermint/tendermint:0.13

• Deprecate the redundant Dockerfiles and only keep two:

  • Dockerfile
  • Dockerfile-dev

• Remove compose/bigchaindb-server, compose-bigchaindb-driver, and compose/travis.

• [IF NEEDED]: Introduce bigchaindb/tools directory to handle Dockerfile(s) for tools required for development i.e.

  • bigchaindb-driver
    • Python driver to interact and transact with the BigchainDB server.
  • curl-client
    • To verify if tendermint service is up i.e. making a curl call to /abci_query endpoint and BigchainDB root endpoint.
  • nginx
    • For hosting docs

End user impact

This will impact and introduce ease for end users i.e. users deploying BigchainDB for development and testing.

Build

# For development/testing and CI
docker-compose build

Run

# For development/testing and CI
docker-compose up bdb

Run tests

# Without coverage
docker-compose run --rm --no-deps bdb pytest -v

# With coverage
docker-compose run --rm --no-deps bdb pytest -v --cov=bigchaindb

Build docs

docker-compose run --rm --no-deps bdb make -C docs/server html

Deployment impact

One impact on the deployment strategy is covered with earlier in the End user impact section of this document.

Another deployment impact this change will have is with CI, we will need to update the CI scripts @bigchaindb/.ci to use docker-compose.yml instead of docker-compose.travis.yml.

Documentation impact

Following documents will be impacted:

• CONTRIBUTING.md
• Run BigchainDB with Docker
• tests/README.d
• TENDERMINT_INTEGRATION.rst
• docs/contributing

Rationale

Already covered with Abstract and Motivation

Implementation

Assignee(s)

Primary assignee(s): @muawiakh

Targeted Release

BigchainDB==v2.0

Status

unstable

Copyright Waiver

To the extent possible under law, all contributors to this BEP have waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this BEP.