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concepts, howto |
Building Docker images with GitLab CI/CD
GitLab CI/CD allows you to use Docker Engine to build and test docker-based projects.
One of the new trends in Continuous Integration/Deployment is to:
- Create an application image.
- Run tests against the created image.
- Push image to a remote registry.
- Deploy to a server from the pushed image.
It's also useful when your application already has the Dockerfile
that can be
used to create and test an image:
docker build -t my-image dockerfiles/
docker run my-image /script/to/run/tests
docker tag my-image my-registry:5000/my-image
docker push my-registry:5000/my-image
This requires special configuration of GitLab Runner to enable docker
support
during jobs.
Runner Configuration
There are three methods to enable the use of docker build
and docker run
during jobs; each with their own tradeoffs.
An alternative to using docker build
is to use kaniko.
This avoids having to execute Runner in privileged mode.
TIP: Tip: To see how Docker and Runner are configured for shared Runners on GitLab.com, see GitLab.com Shared Runners.
Use shell executor
The simplest approach is to install GitLab Runner in shell
execution mode.
GitLab Runner then executes job scripts as the gitlab-runner
user.
-
Install GitLab Runner.
-
During GitLab Runner installation select
shell
as method of executing job scripts or use command:sudo gitlab-runner register -n \ --url https://gitlab.com/ \ --registration-token REGISTRATION_TOKEN \ --executor shell \ --description "My Runner"
-
Install Docker Engine on server.
For more information how to install Docker Engine on different systems checkout the Supported installations.
-
Add
gitlab-runner
user todocker
group:sudo usermod -aG docker gitlab-runner
-
Verify that
gitlab-runner
has access to Docker:sudo -u gitlab-runner -H docker info
You can now verify that everything works by adding
docker info
to.gitlab-ci.yml
:before_script: - docker info build_image: script: - docker build -t my-docker-image . - docker run my-docker-image /script/to/run/tests
-
You can now use
docker
command (and installdocker-compose
if needed).
NOTE: Note:
By adding gitlab-runner
to the docker
group you are effectively granting gitlab-runner
full root permissions.
For more information please read On Docker security: docker
group considered harmful.
Use docker-in-docker workflow with Docker executor
The second approach is to use the special docker-in-docker (dind)
Docker image with all tools installed
(docker
) and run the job script in context of that
image in privileged mode.
NOTE: Note:
docker-compose
is not part of docker-in-docker (dind). To use docker-compose
in your
CI builds, follow the docker-compose
installation instructions.
DANGER: Danger:
By enabling --docker-privileged
, you are effectively disabling all of
the security mechanisms of containers and exposing your host to privilege
escalation which can lead to container breakout. For more information, check
out the official Docker documentation on
Runtime privilege and Linux capabilities.
Docker-in-Docker works well, and is the recommended configuration, but it is not without its own challenges:
-
When using docker-in-docker, each job is in a clean environment without the past history. Concurrent jobs work fine because every build gets its own instance of Docker engine so they won't conflict with each other. But this also means that jobs can be slower because there's no caching of layers.
-
By default, Docker 17.09 and higher uses
--storage-driver overlay2
which is the recommended storage driver. See Using the overlayfs driver for details. -
Since the
docker:19.03.8-dind
container and the Runner container don't share their root filesystem, the job's working directory can be used as a mount point for child containers. For example, if you have files you want to share with a child container, you may create a subdirectory under/builds/$CI_PROJECT_PATH
and use it as your mount point (for a more thorough explanation, check issue #41227):variables: MOUNT_POINT: /builds/$CI_PROJECT_PATH/mnt script: - mkdir -p "$MOUNT_POINT" - docker run -v "$MOUNT_POINT:/mnt" my-docker-image
An example project using this approach can be found here: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-examples/docker.
In the examples below, we are using Docker images tags to specify a
specific version, such as docker:19.03.8
. If tags like docker:stable
are used, you have no control over what version is going to be used and this
can lead to unpredictable behavior, especially when new versions are
released.
TLS enabled
NOTE: Note Requires GitLab Runner 11.11 or later, but is not supported if GitLab Runner is installed using the Helm chart. See the related issue for details.
The Docker daemon supports connection over TLS and it's done by default for Docker 19.03.8 or higher. This is the suggested way to use the docker-in-docker service and GitLab.com Shared Runners support this.
-
Install GitLab Runner.
-
Register GitLab Runner from the command line to use
docker
andprivileged
mode:sudo gitlab-runner register -n \ --url https://gitlab.com/ \ --registration-token REGISTRATION_TOKEN \ --executor docker \ --description "My Docker Runner" \ --docker-image "docker:19.03.8" \ --docker-privileged \ --docker-volumes "/certs/client"
The above command will register a new Runner to use the special
docker:19.03.8
image, which is provided by Docker. Notice that it's using theprivileged
mode to start the build and service containers. If you want to use docker-in-docker mode, you always have to useprivileged = true
in your Docker containers.This will also mount
/certs/client
for the service and build container, which is needed for the docker client to use the certificates inside of that directory. For more information how Docker with TLS works check https://hub.docker.com/_/docker/#tls.The above command will create a
config.toml
entry similar to this:[[runners]] url = "https://gitlab.com/" token = TOKEN executor = "docker" [runners.docker] tls_verify = false image = "docker:19.03.8" privileged = true disable_cache = false volumes = ["/certs/client", "/cache"] [runners.cache] [runners.cache.s3] [runners.cache.gcs]
-
You can now use
docker
in the build script (note the inclusion of thedocker:19.03.8-dind
service):image: docker:19.03.8 variables: # When using dind service, we need to instruct docker, to talk with # the daemon started inside of the service. The daemon is available # with a network connection instead of the default # /var/run/docker.sock socket. Docker 19.03 does this automatically # by setting the DOCKER_HOST in # https://github.com/docker-library/docker/blob/d45051476babc297257df490d22cbd806f1b11e4/19.03/docker-entrypoint.sh#L23-L29 # # The 'docker' hostname is the alias of the service container as described at # https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/docker/using_docker_images.html#accessing-the-services. # # Note that if you're using GitLab Runner 12.7 or earlier with the Kubernetes executor and Kubernetes 1.6 or earlier, # the variable must be set to tcp://localhost:2376 because of how the # Kubernetes executor connects services to the job container # DOCKER_HOST: tcp://localhost:2376 # # Specify to Docker where to create the certificates, Docker will # create them automatically on boot, and will create # `/certs/client` that will be shared between the service and job # container, thanks to volume mount from config.toml DOCKER_TLS_CERTDIR: "/certs" services: - docker:19.03.8-dind before_script: - docker info build: stage: build script: - docker build -t my-docker-image . - docker run my-docker-image /script/to/run/tests
TLS disabled
Sometimes there are legitimate reasons why you might want to disable TLS. For example, you have no control over the GitLab Runner configuration that you are using.
Assuming that the Runner config.toml
is similar to:
[[runners]]
url = "https://gitlab.com/"
token = TOKEN
executor = "docker"
[runners.docker]
tls_verify = false
image = "docker:19.03.8"
privileged = true
disable_cache = false
volumes = ["/cache"]
[runners.cache]
[runners.cache.s3]
[runners.cache.gcs]
You can now use docker
in the build script (note the inclusion of the
docker:19.03.8-dind
service):
image: docker:19.03.8
variables:
# When using dind service we need to instruct docker, to talk with the
# daemon started inside of the service. The daemon is available with
# a network connection instead of the default /var/run/docker.sock socket.
#
# The 'docker' hostname is the alias of the service container as described at
# https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/docker/using_docker_images.html#accessing-the-services
#
# Note that if you're using GitLab Runner 12.7 or earlier with the Kubernetes executor and Kubernetes 1.6 or earlier,
# the variable must be set to tcp://localhost:2375 because of how the
# Kubernetes executor connects services to the job container
# DOCKER_HOST: tcp://localhost:2375
#
DOCKER_HOST: tcp://docker:2375
#
# This will instruct Docker not to start over TLS.
DOCKER_TLS_CERTDIR: ""
services:
- docker:19.03.8-dind
before_script:
- docker info
build:
stage: build
script:
- docker build -t my-docker-image .
- docker run my-docker-image /script/to/run/tests
Use Docker socket binding
The third approach is to bind-mount /var/run/docker.sock
into the
container so that Docker is available in the context of that image.
NOTE: Note:
If you bind the Docker socket when using GitLab Runner 11.11 or
newer,
you can no longer use docker:19.03.8-dind
as a service because volume bindings
are done to the services as well, making these incompatible.
In order to do that, follow the steps:
-
Install GitLab Runner.
-
Register GitLab Runner from the command line to use
docker
and share/var/run/docker.sock
:sudo gitlab-runner register -n \ --url https://gitlab.com/ \ --registration-token REGISTRATION_TOKEN \ --executor docker \ --description "My Docker Runner" \ --docker-image "docker:19.03.8" \ --docker-volumes /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
The above command will register a new Runner to use the special
docker:19.03.8
image which is provided by Docker. Notice that it's using the Docker daemon of the Runner itself, and any containers spawned by Docker commands will be siblings of the Runner rather than children of the Runner. This may have complications and limitations that are unsuitable for your workflow.The above command will create a
config.toml
entry similar to this:[[runners]] url = "https://gitlab.com/" token = REGISTRATION_TOKEN executor = "docker" [runners.docker] tls_verify = false image = "docker:19.03.8" privileged = false disable_cache = false volumes = ["/var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock", "/cache"] [runners.cache] Insecure = false
-
You can now use
docker
in the build script (note that you don't need to include thedocker:19.03.8-dind
service as when using the Docker in Docker executor):image: docker:19.03.8 before_script: - docker info build: stage: build script: - docker build -t my-docker-image . - docker run my-docker-image /script/to/run/tests
While the above method avoids using Docker in privileged mode, you should be aware of the following implications:
-
By sharing the docker daemon, you are effectively disabling all the security mechanisms of containers and exposing your host to privilege escalation which can lead to container breakout. For example, if a project ran
docker rm -f $(docker ps -a -q)
it would remove the GitLab Runner containers. -
Concurrent jobs may not work; if your tests create containers with specific names, they may conflict with each other.
-
Sharing files and directories from the source repo into containers may not work as expected since volume mounting is done in the context of the host machine, not the build container. For example:
docker run --rm -t -i -v $(pwd)/src:/home/app/src test-image:latest run_app_tests
Making docker-in-docker builds faster with Docker layer caching
When using docker-in-docker, Docker will download all layers of your image every
time you create a build. Recent versions of Docker (Docker 1.13 and above) can
use a pre-existing image as a cache during the docker build
step, considerably
speeding up the build process.
How Docker caching works
When running docker build
, each command in Dockerfile
results in a layer.
These layers are kept around as a cache and can be reused if there haven't been
any changes. Change in one layer causes all subsequent layers to be recreated.
You can specify a tagged image to be used as a cache source for the docker build
command by using the --cache-from
argument. Multiple images can be specified
as a cache source by using multiple --cache-from
arguments. Keep in mind that
any image that's used with the --cache-from
argument must first be pulled
(using docker pull
) before it can be used as a cache source.
Using Docker caching
Here's a .gitlab-ci.yml
file showing how Docker caching can be used:
image: docker:19.03.8
services:
- docker:19.03.8-dind
variables:
# Use TLS https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/docker/using_docker_build.html#tls-enabled
DOCKER_HOST: tcp://docker:2376
DOCKER_TLS_CERTDIR: "/certs"
before_script:
- docker login -u $CI_REGISTRY_USER -p $CI_REGISTRY_PASSWORD $CI_REGISTRY
build:
stage: build
script:
- docker pull $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE:latest || true
- docker build --cache-from $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE:latest --tag $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE:$CI_COMMIT_SHA --tag $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE:latest .
- docker push $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE:$CI_COMMIT_SHA
- docker push $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE:latest
The steps in the script
section for the build
stage can be summed up to:
- The first command tries to pull the image from the registry so that it can be
used as a cache for the
docker build
command. - The second command builds a Docker image using the pulled image as a
cache (notice the
--cache-from $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE:latest
argument) if available, and tags it. - The last two commands push the tagged Docker images to the container registry so that they may also be used as cache for subsequent builds.
Use the OverlayFS driver
NOTE: Note:
The shared Runners on GitLab.com use the overlay2
driver by default.
By default, when using docker:dind
, Docker uses the vfs
storage driver which
copies the filesystem on every run. This is a disk-intensive operation
which can be avoided if a different driver is used, for example overlay2
.
Requirements
-
Make sure a recent kernel is used, preferably
>= 4.2
. -
Check whether the
overlay
module is loaded:sudo lsmod | grep overlay
If you see no result, then it isn't loaded. To load it use:
sudo modprobe overlay
If everything went fine, you need to make sure module is loaded on reboot. On Ubuntu systems, this is done by editing
/etc/modules
. Just add the following line into it:overlay
Use the OverlayFS driver per project
You can enable the driver for each project individually by using the DOCKER_DRIVER
environment variable in .gitlab-ci.yml
:
variables:
DOCKER_DRIVER: overlay2
Use the OverlayFS driver for every project
If you use your own GitLab Runners, you
can enable the driver for every project by setting the DOCKER_DRIVER
environment variable in the
[[runners]]
section of config.toml
:
environment = ["DOCKER_DRIVER=overlay2"]
If you're running multiple Runners you will have to modify all configuration files.
NOTE: Note: Read more about the Runner configuration and using the OverlayFS storage driver.
Using the GitLab Container Registry
Once you've built a Docker image, you can push it up to the built-in GitLab Container Registry.
Troubleshooting
docker: Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at tcp://docker:2375. Is the docker daemon running?
This is a common error when you are using Docker in Docker v19.03 or higher.
This occurs because Docker starts on TLS automatically, so you need to do some set up. If:
- This is the first time setting it up, carefully read using Docker in Docker workflow.
- You are upgrading from v18.09 or earlier, read our upgrade guide.