Running the LAVA dispatcher in a Docker container¶

Running a LAVA dispatcher in a Docker container requires quite a few special options, to ensure that the dispatcher has access to system resources that are, in most Docker use cases, invisible to containers. This is automated by the lava-docker-worker program, provided by the lava-dispatcher-host package.

lava-docker-worker should support all use cases that the regular LAVA worker supports, except running LXC containers. In particular, lava-docker-work does support running other docker containers, QEMU/KVM, and other regular device types, as long as the required user space tools are included in the LAVA worker docker image.

1: install and configure lava-dispatcher-host¶

lava-dispatcher-host needs to be installed in the host machine (bare metal) for the LAVA dispatcher to work inside a container, as well as Docker itself.

Debian package¶

If you are using the Debian package, just installing it will do all necessary setup.

Other means¶

If you are installing lava-dispatcher-host in some other way, you need to run the following command, as root:

# lava-dispatcher-host rules install

This step needs to be repeated when lava-dispatcher-host is upgraded, to make sure you have the most up to date udev rules file for it.

2: start lava-docker-worker¶

Debian package¶

To run the Docker Dispatcher, first edit /etc/lava-dispatcher-host/lava-docker-worker and set the connection parameters. At least URL and TOKEN are probably needed:

WORKER_NAME="--name myworker"

# ...

# Server connection
URL="https://my.lava.server/"
TOKEN="--token 0123456789012345678901234567890123456789"

Make sure Docker get installed from Docker's official repo. At the time of writing this doc, Docker version 18.09.1 installed from Debian's official repo doesn't work with lava-docker-worker.

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sh get-docker.sh

Debian Testing/Sid User

Install docker.io instead if the above docker CE installation script doesn't support your distribution.

apt-get install docker.io

Then enable and start the lava-docker-worker service:

sudo systemctl enable lava-docker-worker.service
sudo systemctl start lava-docker-worker.service

Other means¶

If you installed LAVA in a way that doesn't provide a lava-docker-worker systemd service, you can just run lava-docker-worker as any user that can run docker. You need to pass the relevant arguments to have it connect to your LAVA server:

$ lava-docker-worker --url https://my.lavaserver.com/ --token 0123456789012345678901234567890123456789

3: build customized image¶

To build customized image for additional packages you might require, first edit /etc/lava-dispatcher-host/lava-docker-worker and set the BUILD_DIR parameter to a directory with a Dockerfile inside.

# Docker build directory
# Should be set to a directory with a Dockerfile inside.
BUILD_DIR="/etc/lava-dispatcher-host/build"

Then restart the lava-docker-worker service.

sudo systemctl restart lava-docker-worker.service

Base image

A new Dockerfile.lava will be generated with the base image that matches your LAVA server version for building your customized image. All the FROM commands defined in your Dockerfile will be ignored.

4: provide custom tools in the container¶

If either of /usr/share/lava-docker-worker or /usr/local/share/lava-docker-worker exists, they are bind monted into the container by default, and if there is a bin subdirectory in any of then, that gets added to the default $PATH.

Additionally, you can mount other host directories inside the container by using the --mount option. Edit /etc/lava-dispatcher-host/lava-docker-worker and set the MOUNTS option:

MOUNTS="--mount /path/to/tools/bin:/usr/local/bin"