How to Deploy Virtuoso in a Docker Container

To simplify deployment, Virtuoso Open Source Edition can be run in a Docker container.

Building a VOS Base Image

The Dockerfiles below provide two VOS images:

• A base image which provides a compiled, installed VOS binary.
• A deployment image, built from the base image, which starts a VOS instance on the specified ports using the given VOS virtuoso.ini configuration file and, optionally, an existing Virtuoso database.

To build the base image:

docker build -f Dockerfile.vos_base -t openlink/vos_base:v0 .

Dockerfile.vos_base builds VOS from the VOS GitHub sources, as described in the VOS Wiki, and installs VOS in /opt/virtuoso-opensource.

Dockerfile.vos_base

FROM ubuntu:trusty

ENV VIRT_HOME /opt/virtuoso-opensource

ENV VIRT_BUILD_OPTS --with-readline

ENV VIRT_DB /var/lib/virtuoso/db

RUN apt-get -y update && \
  apt-get -y clean && \
  apt-get -y install dpkg-dev build-essential && \
  apt-get -y install autoconf automake libtool flex bison git gperf gawk m4 make libxml2-dev libssl-dev libreadline-dev wget && \
  rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* && \
  rm -rf /tmp/*

WORKDIR /opt
RUN git clone git://github.com/openlink/virtuoso-opensource.git virtuoso-opensource.src
WORKDIR /opt/virtuoso-opensource.src
RUN git checkout develop/7
RUN ./autogen.sh && ./configure --prefix=$VIRT_HOME $VIRT_BUILD_OPTS && make && make install

WORKDIR /opt/virtuoso-opensource/share/virtuoso/vad
RUN wget http://download3.openlinksw.com/uda/vad-packages/7.2/cartridges_dav.vad 

Building a VOS Deployment Image

To build the deployment image:

docker build -f Dockerfile.vos -t openlink/vos:v0 .

The image created by Dockerfile.vos runs Virtuoso in the foreground and assumes Virtuoso listens for HTTP connections on port 8890 and SQL connections on port 1111.

Dockerfile.vos

FROM openlink/vos_base:v0

ENV VIRT_HOME /opt/virtuoso-opensource
ENV VIRT_DB /opt/virtuoso-opensource/var/lib/virtuoso/db

RUN export PATH=$PATH:/opt/virtuoso-opensource/bin

EXPOSE 1111
EXPOSE 8890

WORKDIR $VIRT_DB
CMD /opt/virtuoso-opensource/bin/virtuoso-t -f

Running VOS within Docker

Initializing a new database

In order to retain changes to the Virtuoso database, the database should be held in the host file system. The database location on the host should reflect the installation directory used by the base image. Create directory /opt/virtuoso-opensource/var/lib/virtuoso/db in the host file system and provide a virtuoso.ini configuration file.

sudo mkdir -p /opt/virtuoso-opensource/var/lib/virtuoso/db

sudo cp ./virtuoso.ini.template /opt/virtuoso-opensource/var/lib/virtuoso/db/virtuoso.ini

The virtuoso.ini.template assumes the installation directory is /opt/virtuoso-opensource, with the Virtuoso HTTP server listening on port 8890 and SQL client connections made through port 1111.

Starting the VOS Container

Start a VOS container by running:

sudo docker run -v /opt/virtuoso-opensource/var/lib/virtuoso/db:/opt/virtuoso-opensource/var/lib/virtuoso/db -t -p 1111:1111 -p 8890:8890 -i openlink/vos:v0

If the db directory contains only a virtuoso.ini file, a new database will be created when the container is started for the first time. All subsequent changes to the database will be persisted to the host file system.

Using an existing database

If the db directory in the host file system contains an existing Virtuoso database, that database will be used by the container. Again, all subsequent changes to the database will be persisted to the host file system.

Installing the Cartridges VAD

The Virtuoso Sponger and its associated transformers are distributed as a VAD (Virtuoso Application Distribution). When a new database instance is created, VOS will automatically install the Virtuoso Conductor UI. However it will not automatically install the Cartridges nor any other VAD.

The latest Cartridges VAD is available for download from the Virtuoso download page, via the "Linked Open Data Transformation Middleware ("Sponger") link. This VAD is automatically downloaded as part of the VOS base image build and included in the image at /opt/virtuoso-opensource/share/virtuoso/vad.

Once a VOS instance has been initialized and the Cartridges or other VAD downloaded, the desired VAD can be installed by logging into the Virtuoso Conductor (http://{container_host}:8890/conductor), navigating to the System Admin --> Packages tab, and clicking on the Install link. Alternatively, iSQL may be used, with a command of this form:

DB.DBA.VAD_INSTALL('{vad-name}.vad',0);

Once installed, enable the desired cartridges through the Linked Data --> Sponger panel.