Gemstone in Docker

GemStone is a powerful object-oriented database management system. See the GemTalk Systems home page for more information.

This is not an official GemTalk Systems LLC release, but my own independent repackaging. The GemStone database license can be found at https://downloads.gemtalksystems.com/pub/GemStone_License_Agreement.pdf.

This repository contains files that can be used and extended to build a docker container to run GemStone.

Getting started

Clone this repository
Build a docker image with
```
 docker build . -t gemstone
```

Run the docker image in a container with

 docker run -it -p 40055:40055 --shm-size 1G gemstone

If all goes well you should see something like (note that version number may be different):

startnetldi[Info]: GemStone version '3.5.0'
startnetldi[Info]: Starting GemStone network server 'gs64ldi'.
startnetldi[Info]: GEMSTONE is: '/gemstone/GemStone64Bit3.5.0-x86_64.Linux'.
[Info]: Loaded /gemstone/GemStone64Bit3.5.0-x86_64.Linux/lib/libnetldi-3.5.0-64.so
startnetldi[Info]: Log file is '/opt/gemstone/log/gs64ldi.log'.
startnetldi[Info]: GemStone server 'gs64ldi' has been started, process 8
startstone[Info]: GemStone version '3.5.0'
startstone[Info]: Starting Stone repository monitor gs64stone.
startstone[Info]: GEMSTONE is: '/gemstone/GemStone64Bit3.5.0-x86_64.Linux'.
startstone[Info]:
  GEMSTONE_SYS_CONF=/gemstone/GemStone64Bit3.5.0-x86_64.Linux/data/system.conf
  GEMSTONE_EXE_CONF=/gemstone/gs64stone.conf
stoned[Info]: Log file is '/gemstone/GemStone64Bit3.5.0-x86_64.Linux/data/gs64stone.log'.
startstone[Info]: GemStone server gs64stone has been started, process 10
Status        Version    Owner     Started     Type       Name
-------      --------- --------- ------------ ------      ----
OK           3.5.0     gsadmin   Nov 05 19:35 Netldi      gs64ldi
OK           3.5.0     gsadmin   Nov 05 19:35 Stone       gs64stone
OK           3.5.0     gsadmin   Nov 05 19:35 cache       gs64stone~533fe7e9ef943228
Sleeping...

Persistent data

If you run the database as described above, your data will disappear as soon as you stop the container. Ouch. This is typical of docker-based systems. We need to provide persistent storage to the container so that your database can persist between runs.

The supplied Dockerfile creates a directory /gemstone-data and places a single extent file in that directory. The configuration file system.conf specifies that this directory should be used to store all persistent GemStone data. To persist data between invocations you can:

Use docker volumes -- this is probably the best way to maintain your development database in a local docker volume.
Create permanent storage through your cloud provider and "mount" it at that location.

These options are described below.

Storing data in a docker volume

Create the volume:

docker volume create gemstone-vol
docker run -it --rm --mount source=gemstone-vol,target=/gemstone-data gemstone /bin/bash
> cp ${GEMSTONE}/data/extent0.dbf /gemstone-data
> exit

Whenever you run your gemstone server, specify the that the volume must be mounted:

docker run -it --rm -p 40055:40055 --shm-size 1G --mount source=gemstone-vol,target=/gemstone-data gemstone

Note that you can access this volume in any docker container by mounting the volume when you launch the container.

Storing data in cloud provider's volume

This process depends on your cloud provider. The steps are typically:

Allocate a persistent volume with ample size for your database.
Attach the volume to a "compute instance" of some kind.
Copy the default extent0.db file to the volume
Make sure that when your gemstone containers are launched by your provider, you have the volume mounted in the correct place on the compute instance and within the container.

I will try to provide concrete examples when time permits.

Start/stopping server

Here is a startup script that I use:

{
#!/bin/sh

docker run -d -p 40055:40055 --shm-size 1G --mount source=gemstone-data,target=/gemstone-data gemstone
}


Similarly for shutdown (note: you may have to modify the gs version):

{ #!/bin/sh

id=docker ps | grep gemstone | awk '{print $1}' if [ "$id" == "" ]; then echo Not running exit 1 fi

docker exec -it $id /gemstone/GemStone64Bit3.5.5-x86_64.Linux/bin/stopstone gs64stone SystemUser docker exec -it $id '/gemstone/GemStone64Bit3.5.5-x86_64.Linux/bin/stopnetldi'

sleep 1 docker stop $id }

Viewing logs

To view the gemstone logs first find your gemstone docker container id:

> docker container ls | grep gemstone
8922a14116d0        gemstone            "/bin/sh -c ./runGem…"   2 minutes ago       Up 2 minutes        0.0.0.0:40055->40055/tcp   mystifying_babbage

then use cat or tail to view the log:

> docker exec 8922a14116d0 cat /gemstone/GemStone64Bit3.5.0-x86_64.Linux/data/gs64stone.log

Backups

TBD

GemStone system configuration

You can modify the system.conf file to suit your needs. Documentation is availble in the System Administration manual on the GemStone web site.

Using a non-community key file

The Dockerfile included in this repository builds an image that includes the GemStone community edition license (included when you downloaded the zip file above). If you would like to build a docker image that uses a different key file, you can create a separate Dockerfile like:

FROM gemstone:latest

USER gsadmin
COPY --chown=gsadmin:users gemstone.key /gemstone-keys

Note that this Dockerfile assumes that you tagged the base GemStone docker image using the name gemstone.

Using a "secret" for your key file

Most cloud platforms support secure storage of "secrets." Examples: Docker Swarm secrets, Kubernetes secrets, AWS secrets. GCP secrets management

If you prefer to place your GemStone key file in one of those secrets systems, you simply need to make sure that the key is available as /gemstone-keys/gemstone.key when the gemstone container starts. Most of these secrets management systems provide a way to "mount" your secrets inside the container.

cdavidshaffer / gemstone-docker