...

• A container may be only tens of megabytes in size, whereas a virtual machine with its own entire operating system may be several gigabytes in size.
• Containerization allows for greater modularity. Rather than run an entire complex application inside a single container, the application can be split in to modules.

Implementation details

...

  Containers layer - meta-rdk-containers:    

...

                 rmfstreamer.service file has been added.

•   In rdkbrowser2 container:

                 rdkbrowser2.service file has been added.

...

• runs sysmgr,irmgr and dsmgr processes inside container.
• sysmgr will be launched in new container using lxc-execute.
• irmgr and dsmgr processes has been attached to same container using lxc-attach.

 Rmfstreamer

•  runs rmfstreamer inside container.
•  rmfstreamer will be launched in new container using lxc-execute.

 Rdkbrowser2

•  runs rdkbrowser2 browser application inside container.
•  westeros will be launched in new container using lxc-execute.
•  rdkbrowser2 will be attached to the same container using lxc-attach.
  

       Note: As we are in the plan of bringing APPmanager as default application we are not running rdkbrowser2 service file on boot-up.

Building procedure

...

•     repo init -u https://code.rdkcentral.com/r/manifests -b rdk-next -m rdkv-asp-extsrc.xml
•     repo sync --no-tags
•     source meta-cmf-bsp-emulator/setup-environment
•     meta-rdk-containers/conf/machine/qemux86hybsecure.conf
•     bitbake rdk-generic-hybrid-lxc-image

...

•     pstree can be used to track the list of containers running as below.

              Image Removed Image Added

•      ps -Af | grep lxc also lists the current running containers.
       Image AddedImage Removed
  

DEBUG Logs

...

• strace can give more debug information about containers:

          Example:
          strace -f -o lxc-execute.log /usr/bin/lxc-attach -n PLATFORMCONTROL -f /container/PLATFORMCONTROL/conf/lxc.conf

          -u 704 -g 704  -- /usr/bin/dsMgrMain

...

•    RMFAPP can be used to verify rmfstreamer container.
  

...

•    Example: play  http://192.168.2.68:8080/vldms/tuner?ocap_locator=ocap://0x125d
•    RDKBROWSER2 can be used to launch any URL.
     Example: systemctl enable rdkbrowser2.service
                     systemctl start rdkbrowser2.service - user can see the webpage in rdkbrowser2.
  
     If user wants to change URL, then we need to enter into this container and need to change rdkbrowser2.sh binary  as below:
     systemctl stop rdkbrowser2.service
     systemctl stop westeros-setup.service\
     use command:
     /usr/bin/lxc-execute -n RDKBROWSER2    -f /container/RDKBROWSER2/conf/lxc.conf – /bin/sh
     and then change url in /usr/bin/rdkbrowser2.sh file inside this container environment.

Reference

...

• https://cloud.google.com/containers/
• https://www.cio.com/article/2924995/software/what-are-containers-and-why-do-you-need-them.html
• https://linuxcontainers.org/
• https://help.ubuntu.com/lts/serverguide/lxc.html
• https://linuxcontainers.org/lxc/documentation/

...