Deploy a Virtual Container Host for Use with dch-photon

This version of vSphere Integrated Containers includes an image repository named dch-photon, that is pre-loaded in the default-project in vSphere Integrated Containers Registry.

The dch-photon image allows container developers to deploy a standard Docker container host that runs in a Photon OS container. Container developers can use this Docker engine to perform operations in standard Docker. For example, developers can use dch-photon containers to perform operations that virtual container hosts (VCHs) do not support in this version of vSphere Integrated Containers, such as docker build and docker push.

For container developers to be able to deploy containers from the dch-photon image, you must deploy VCHs with a specific minimum configuration:

  • The VCH must be able to pull the dch-photon image from the vSphere Integrated Containers Registry instance. You must provide the registry's CA certificate to the VCH so that it can connect to the registry.
  • A dch-photon container creates an anonymous volume, and as such requires a volume store named default.

Example

This example shows how to use both the Create Virtual Container Host wizard and vic-machine to create a VCH with the minimum configuration required to deploy a dch-photon container.

Prerequisites

  1. Log in to the vSphere Integrated Containers Management Portal with a vSphere administrator, Cloud Admin, or DevOps admin user account.
  2. Go to Administration > Configuration, and click the link to download the Registry Root Cert.

Create VCH Wizard

  1. Log in the HTML5 vSphere Client and go to the vSphere Integrated Containers view.
  2. Click vSphere Integrated Containers in the main panel, select the Virtual Container Hosts tab, and click + New Virtual Container Host.
  3. On the General Settings page, enter a name for the VCH, for example, vch_dch_photon, and click Next.
  4. On the Compute Capacity page, expand the Compute resource inventory hierarchy and select a standalone host, cluster, or resource pool to which to deploy the VCH, and click Next.
  5. On the Storage Capacity page, select a datastore to use as the Image Datastore.
  6. Remain on the Storage Capacity page and configure the volume datastore.
    1. Set the Enable anonymous volumes switch to the green ON position.
    2. Select a datastore to use as a volume datastore.
    3. Optionally provide the path to a folder in that datastore.
    4. Click Next.
  7. On the Configure Networks page, select existing port groups for use as the bridge and public networks, and click Next.
  8. On the Security page, for simplicity, leave the default options for automatic server certificate generation, and set the Client Certificates switch to the gray OFF position to disable client certificate verification.
  9. Remain on the Security page, click Registry Access, and under Additional registry certificates, click Select to upload the certificate for vSphere Integrated Containers Registry, then click Next.
  10. On the Operations User page, enter the user name and password for an existing vSphere account, select the Grant this user any necessary permissions check box, and click Next.
  11. On the Summary page, click Finish.

vic-machine Command

For simplicity, this example vic-machine create command deploys a VCH with the --no-tlsverify flag, so that container application developers do not need to use a TLS certificate to connect a Docker client to the VCH. However, the connection between the VCH and the registry still requires certificate authentication.

vic-machine-operating_system create
--target 'Administrator@vsphere.local':password@vcenter_server_address/dc1
--compute-resource cluster1
--image-store datastore1
--bridge-network vch-bridge
--name vch_dch_photon
--thumbprint vcenter_server_certificate_thumbprint
--no-tlsverify
--registry-ca cert_path/ca.crt
--volume-store datastore_name:default

You could also specify --volume-store nfs://datastore_name/path_to_share_point:default to designate an NFS share point as the default volume store.

Result

The VCH that you deployed can access vSphere Integrated Containers Registry, and has a volume store named default. It is ready for container developers to use with dch-photon containers.

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