For up-to-date product documentation, see the IBM MobileFirst Foundation Developer Center.

Build and running the MobileFirst Server container

Use the scripts that are provided to build and run your customized image. We can find the scripts in the V8.0.0 package installation directory under mfpf-server/scripts.

Before you begin

• You finished customizing the image.

Scripts can only be run from within the scripts folder. Do not modify the given folder structure.

The following methods are supported for passing parameters to the scripts:

• Command-line arguments (Usage: scriptname.sh [-command|--command] ARGUMENT)
• Interactive method (By running the script with no command-line arguments.)
• Properties files (By customizing the related args/*.properties files.)

  We can find information about the required and optional arguments in the properties files, such as the default values, input descriptions, and so forth. The script properties files are located in the following folders in the package_root/:

  • mfpf-server-libertyapp/scripts/args
  • mfpf-analytics/scripts/args
  • mfpf-server/scripts/args

  Example command execution usage: prepareserver.sh args/prepareserver.properties

Procedure

The first step describes how to retrieve the public IP address to be bound with the container, which is a required argument when you run the startserver.sh script (as described in step 2).

1. Retrieve and take note of a public IP address to bind to the container.

   To get IP information, use Cloud Foundry CLI plug-in for IBM® Containers (cf ic) commands.

   • To retrieve the list of IP addresses that are potentially available to you (based on user ID), run cf ic ip list.

     The IP addresses that are listed with no corresponding container ID are available for use.

     An IP address with a corresponding container ID indicates that the IP address is already in use. If all IP addresses are already in use, we can request a new IP address.

   • To request a new IP address, run cf ic ip request.

2. Create a Bluemix® database service instance.

   We can create a database service instance on Bluemix in two ways:

   • Using the Bluemix dashboard.
   • Using the Cloud Foundry command line utility.

   Use one of the following methods to create the database service instance.

   Using the Bluemix dashboard:

   To create a service instance of dashDB™ database on Bluemix, follow the next steps.

   1. Log in to Bluemix.
   2. Select the space name where we want to create the service instance (example: dev).
   3. Click USE SERVICES OR APIS.
   4. Search for dashDB, from the services catalog.
   5. Select a value of Leave unbound for the App field. Enter a name for the service instance in the Service name field. Select an Enterprise Transactional Plan for the service and click CREATE.

      Note:

      dashDB Enterprise Transactional Bluemix plans are the only dashDB plans supported. dashDB Transactional plans currently available are:

      • Enterprise Transactional 2.8.500
      • Enterprise Transactional 12.128.1400

      The dashDB database service instance is created on Bluemix.

   Using the Cloud Foundry command line utility:

   1. Log in to Bluemix by using the following command:

      cf login [-a API_URL] [-u USERNAME] [-p PASSWORD] [-o ORG] [-s SPACE]

      Where:

      -u user_name

      Your user name.

      -p password

      Your password.

      Security consideration: If you provide the password using the -p parameter, the password might be recorded in your command line history. If you do not want the password to be recorded, instead of using the -p parameter, consider entering the password when the command line interface prompts you, during the execution of the cf login command.

      -o organization_name

      The name of the organization that we want to log in to.

      -s space_name

      The name of the space that we want to log in to.

      -a https://api.DomainName

      The URL of the API endpoint of Bluemix. This parameter is optional.

   2. To create the service instance, run the following command:

      cf create-service service_name plan_name service_instance

      We can use one of the following examples:

      cf create-service dashDB EnterpriseTransactional2.8.500 mfpfdashdbservice

      cf create-service dashDB EnterpriseTransactional12.128.1400 mfpfdashdbservice

   Note: The deployment of the dashDB Enterprise Transactional plans may not be immediate. You might be contacted by the Sales team before the deployment of the service.

3. Run the scripts in the order listed:

   initenv.sh

   This script logs in to the container service. You must run this script before we can run any subsequent scripts.

   Your Bluemix log-in credentials as well as the organization name and space name are required arguments.

   prepareserverdbs.sh

   This script prepares the dashDB database service instance by creating the required tables and also configures the MobileFirst Server to use the database.

   Your Bluemix database service instance name Service name, created in Step 2, is supplied as an argument to this script.

   We can optionally specify a database schema name. The default schema name is MFPDATA.

   prepareserver.sh

   This script builds the server image with the mfp-server customizations and sends the image to IBM Containers.

   The MobileFirst Server image name is a required argument. Use the following format: BluemixRegistry/PrivateNamespace/ImageName:TagName. Example: registry.ng.bluemix.net/PrivateNamespace/mfpserver

   startserver.sh

   The script runs the MobileFirst Server image as a stand-alone container.

   The MobileFirst Server image name, the container name, and the public IP address from which the container is started (from step 1) are required arguments for running the image as a container.

   Tip: If you are running a startserver.sh or startservergroup.sh script interactively and configuring an analytics image (by using MFPF_PROPERTIES), we must provide the configuration information every time the script is run, and for each runtime, to avoid losing the configuration. For example, if you provided an analytics configuration (such as MFPF_PROPERTIES=mfp.analytics.url:http://127.0.0.1/analytics-service/rest,mfp.analytics.console.url:http://127.0.0.1/analytics/console for the first runtime but did not provide it the next time that you ran the script for a different runtime, the configuration for the MobileFirst Server would be lost.

   startservergroup.sh

   The script runs the MobileFirst Server image as a container group.

   Required arguments include: the MobileFirst Server image name, the container group name, the minimum and maximum number of container instances within the group, and the host name to which the group must be mapped.

Parent topic: MobileFirst Server container