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Yesterday I had a couple of hours left over as I was on a train on the way to do a presentation. So I thought i would play around a little with the Azure Container Service. Seeing that I have gotten hooked on Docker, having the ability to spin up a Docker cluster while on the train using just my mobile phone for the connection, seems like a really cool thing. I guess normal people read books and watch Netflix on the train. Me...I spin up 5 Docker clusters...

Setting up an Azure Container Service is really simple, so let's have a look at it.

Setting up a new Container Service

You just go to the portal and choose to add a new Azure Container Service, and accept that it will use the Resource Manager deployment model. Then you have to fill out a bit of information.

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In the previous posts, I have talked about everything from what Docker is, to how you can set up a stack of containers using docker-compose, but all of the posts have been about setting up containers on a single machine. Something that can be really useful, but imagine being able to deploy your containers just as easily to a cluster of machines. That would be awesome!

With Docker Swarm, this is exactly what you can do. You can set up a cluster of Docker hosts, and deploy your containers to them in much the same way that you would deploy to a single machine. How cool is that!

Creating a cluster, or swarm

To be able to try out what it’s like working with a cluster of machines, we need a cluster of machines. and by default, Docker for Windows/Mac includes only a single Docker host when it’s installed. However, it also comes with a tool called docker-machine that can be used to create more hosts very easily.

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In the previous posts about Docker, here, here and here, we’ve looked at what Docker is, how to set up a basic container and how to set up a stack of containers using docker-compose. One thing we haven’t talked about is the fact that most projects use some form of persistent data store, and the most common store, at least in my world, is a relational database of some sort. So this time, I want to cover something that might seem slightly odd…setting up an MS SQL Server…on Linux…in Docker.

Yes, you heard me right… I’m going to show you how to set up an MS SQL Server instance in a Linux-based Docker container. Something that wouldn’t have been possible, in any way, not too long ago, but Microsoft “recently” released a version of MS SQL Server that runs on Linux, which is really cool. And running it in Docker just makes sense!

Running MS SQL Server in a Docker container

Starting a SQL Server instance in a Docker isn’t that hard, but there are a couple of things that need to be set up for it to work.

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So far in this little blog series about Docker, I have covered what Docker is, how it works, how to get a container up and running using pre-built images, as well as your own images. But so far, it has all been about setting up a single container with some form of application running inside it. What if we have a more complicated scenario? What if we have a couple of different things we want to run together? Maybe we want to run our ASP.NET Core app that we built in the previous post behind an nginx instance instead of exposing the Kestrel server to the internet… Well, obviously Docker has us covered.

However, before we go any further, I just want to mention that I will only be covering something called docker-compose in this post. This can be used to create a stack of containers that are set started and stopped together. I will not be covering distributing the application accross several nodes this time. There will be more about that later. And even if that is probably the end goal in a lot of cases, being able to just run on a single host can be useful as well. Especially while developing stuff.

What is docker-compose?

When you installed Docker for Windows or Docker for Mac, you automatically got some extra tools installed. One of them is docker-compose, which is a tool for setting up several containers together in a stack, while configuring their network etc. Basically setting up and configuring a set of containers/apps that work together.

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In the previous post, I talked a bit about what Docker is, how it works, and so on. And I even got to the point of showing how you can create and start containers using existing images from Docker Hub. However, just downloading images and running containers like that, is not very useful. Sure, as a Microsoft dev, it's kind of cool to start up a Linux container and try out some leet Linux commands in bash. But other than that it is a little limiting. So I thought I would have a look at the next steps involved in making this and actually useful thing…

Creating something to host in a container

The first step in using Docker is to have something that should run inside of our containers. And since I am a .NET developer, and .NET Core has Linux support, I thought I would write a small ASP.NET Core application to run in my container.

Note: Before you can run this, you need to install the .NET Core SDK…

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In the last part, we went had a thorough look at scopes, and scope “inheritance”. That means that we have now covered setting up Angular, creating modules and controllers, and how to utilize two-way data binding using the scope object. The next step is to learn how to work with dependency injection in Angular to provide the same dependency injected service structure that Angular uses internally.

Dependency injection isn’t complicated as such, you register a service that another unit of code can request to get access to. That is the extremely simple definition. To support this in Angular we depend on the $provide service. This service is used to locate dependencies that other pieces of code require. Unfortunately, something as simple as this, actually becomes a little complicated and hard to grasp in Angular. Not because it is really complicated, but because there are so many options…

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In the previous part, I talked fairly detailed about how the scopes use prototypical inheritance, and how we can use this to our advantage by either using simple property types, or by using complex types.

In this part, I want to cover some functionality given to us by Angular when using the scope…

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In the last part, we talked about how to set up to group different bits and pieces of a solution into units. We also talked about how to create controllers inside those modules. We briefly looked at creating a controller and using it to work with the scope object, and how, by using data binding, could update the UI in a more structured way.

In this part, we will take a deeper look into using controllers and scope. Mostly about how to use the scope to be honest. Controllers are all about functionality, while scope is about data binding. As I don’t have a special solution to build, there isn’t going to be a whole lot of functionality. There will be just enough functionality to show the stuff I am talking about…

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In the previous part, I covered how to get started with Angular, as well as the basics of how it works “internally”. This part will build on that knowledge, and add modules and controllers to the mix.

If you haven’t read the previous part, I suggest at least skimming through it. The first part might not be necessary to understand this part, but the basics covered in the previous will be…

To start off, we need a clean “solution”, containing only an index.htm file, and Angular… The index.htm file should look something like this

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Ok, if you have read my first post in this series about getting started with AngularJS, you will know what AngularJS is, as well as why I am creating yet another introduction to it. In this part, I want to focus on getting started. The first baby steps in the road to building SPAs with Angular.

The first step is to set up a new application. In this case, let’s keep it ridiculously simple. It doesn’t have to be a big complicated solution and use big IDEs like Visual Studio. At least not in the beginning. IDEs have their place, but for now, adding a simple folder on the computer is enough to get started. This folder will be the “solution”. And Notepad will be the editor.

You are obviously more than welcome to use another editor. Notepad is in no way the only editor that was built with Angular in mind. But it, or very similar editors, are pre-installed on most development computers in the world.

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