balena-io-experimental / balena-engine-docker

Example balenaEngine docker image

Example balenaEngine docker image

balenaEngine is a container engine purpose-built for embedded and IoT use cases and compatible with Docker containers.

Build

This example is not published on any repo so you'll need to build it yourself.

# build local image for native platform
export DOCKER_BUILDKIT=1
export DOCKER_CLI_EXPERIMENTAL=enabled
docker build . --tag balena-engine

# OR cross-build for another platform
export DOCKER_BUILDKIT=1
export DOCKER_CLI_EXPERIMENTAL=enabled
docker build . --tag balena-engine --platform linux/arm/v7

# OR build with docker-compose
export DOCKER_BUILDKIT=1
export DOCKER_CLI_EXPERIMENTAL=enabled
export COMPOSE_DOCKER_CLI_BUILD=1
docker-compose build balena

Test

# run simple "info" and "hello-world" tests
docker run -d --privileged --name balena -p "2375:2375" balena-engine
DOCKER_HOST=tcp://127.0.0.1:2375 docker info
DOCKER_HOST=tcp://127.0.0.1:2375 docker run hello-world
docker rm --force balena

# OR test with docker-compose
docker-compose up info
docker-compose up hello-world
docker-compose down

Usage

Much like Docker-in-Docker, elevated permissions are required for running balenaEngine in a container.

# print usage flags
docker run --rm balena-engine --help

# run with volatile storage
docker run --rm -it --privileged \
  -p "2375:2375" balena-engine

# run with persistent data volume
docker run --rm -it --privileged \
  -v "balena:/var/lib/balena-engine"
  -p "2375:2375" balena-engine

# run in the background as a service (detached)
docker run -d --privileged \
  -v "balena:/var/lib/balena-engine"
  -p "2375:2375" balena-engine

See the included example docker-compose.yml file for examples running alongside other services.

Contributing

Please open an issue or submit a pull request with any features, fixes, or changes.