Build, Test and Push Applications for Production

Introduction

The Torizon IDE Extension offers multiple tasks for managing application containers after the debugging phase is complete:

• Build and Test Release Container Images: The run-container-torizon-release-<arch> task automatically removes debug configurations, builds, and runs the container on your target device with only the essentials for the application.
• Prepare your Application Container for Production: The create-production-image task builds a release container image and pushes it to a container registry, like DockerHub. It also creates a docker-compose.prod.yml file.
• Build and Push Applications to Torizon Cloud: The tcb-platform-publish task runs the create-production-image one and pushes docker-compose.prod.yml to Torizon Cloud as an application package.

Prerequisites

• For building container images:

  • Create a project using Torizon IDE Extension

• For pushing images to DockerHub:

  • Configure an account on DockerHub or another container registry.

• For pushing to Torizon Cloud:

  • Get Torizon Cloud credentials.zip
  • Create a New Torizon Cloud API v2 Client

Build and Test Release Container Images

You can build and run containers through the run-container-torizon-release-<arch> task, which performs the following steps:

1. Build a container image based on Dockerfile.
2. Push the container image to the local container registry (localhost:5002).
3. Pull the container image to your SoM set as the default target.
4. Run the container on your SoM using the docker-compose.yml configuration.

When debugging applications, the container is built based on Dockerfile.debug. That file contains additional dependencies and settings to enable remote debugging on VS Code. Instead, the run-container-torizon-release-<arch> task builds the container with only the essential configuration. You can use that task to test your application before moving it to production.

To run run-container-torizon-release-<arch> task, follow the steps below:

1. Click on the Explorer icon located on the VSCode Activity bar.
2. Open the TASK RUNNER tab.
3. Click on the task.

Prepare your Application Container for Production

The create-production-image task performs the following steps:

1. Build a container image based on Dockerfile.
2. Push the container image to a container registry, such as DockerHub.
3. Create the docker-compose.prod.yml file.

The docker-compose.prod.yml file is automatically created based on docker-compose.yml:

• The -debug services are removed.
• Environment variables, such as DOCKER_LOGIN and TAG, are replaced with user inputs.
• The build configuration is removed.

You can use the .yml file to create application packages on Torizon Cloud.

warning

Do not edit the docker-compose.prod.yml file. To change the rules or services of docker-compose.prod.yml, edit the docker-compose.yml file and run the create-production-image task again.

When triggered, the create-production-image task requires the following inputs:

• Docker registry: The container registry to which the task pushes the image. If empty, the task uses DockerHub. However, you can use any other registry, like GitHub and Azure.

• Docker registry user login: The task uses the user login to set the image's name, which will be userLogin/applicationName:dockerTag.

• Docker registry password: the Docker registry password or token to use to push the image to the container registry. This will be stored as a secret in the VS Code vault.

• Docker tag to use in the production image: The container tag. The image name will be userLogin/applicationName:dockerTag.

• Container architecture: The platform architecture to which the task compiles the container. Select the architecture that matches your target device.

  

Some inputs – such as the container tag – are not requested again if previously set. To change input values, edit .vscode/settings.json. For input details, see Workspace Settings.

At the finish of the task, the VS Code terminal should display the following message:

Build and Push Applications to Torizon Cloud

You can push applications to Torizon Cloud directly from the Torizon IDE extension. The tcb-platform-publish task runs create-production-image and pushes the docker-compose.prod.yml file to Torizon Cloud, creating a new application package.

Before running the tcb-platform-publish task, proceed as follows:

1. Get Torizon Cloud credentials.zip.
2. Place the credentials.zip file in the root directory of your project (where Dockerfile and docker-compose.yml are located).

When triggered, the tcb-platform-publish task requires the following inputs:

• The create-production-image inputs described in the previous section.
• Torizon Cloud API v2 Client ID.
• Torizon Cloud API v2 Client Secret.

See Creating a New Torizon Cloud API v2 Client for information about the API credentials.

At the finish of the task, you should see the following message in the terminal tab:

The application package will be available on Torizon Cloud:

Troubleshoot Execution Errors - Production

Check the Debug and Deploy section.