Slow Startup RiB Container on Apple M1

[chrisage]

Background:
The rack-box docker image is only built for linux/amd64 OS/ARCH resulting in slow startup times on Apple Silicone (tested on M1) - requesting RiB docker image distribution for linux/arm64

Acceptance Criteria:
Integrate aarch64 RIB image creation & deployment process to github action

Implementation Details:
Modify the github action to push an aarch64 docker image on release -
https://github.com/ge-high-assurance/RACK/blob/master/.github/workflows/release.yml

The base docker image (ubuntu) should be updated to aarch64 @ https://hub.docker.com/_/ubuntu

Add another builder to the https://github.com/ge-high-assurance/RACK/blob/ff93cbacd621838bfd765a7e4492f56bbca5f0b2/rack-box/rack-box-docker.json#L11C12-L11C12 packer file. Ref packer docker builder documentation

    {
      "type": "docker",
      "changes": [
        "ENTRYPOINT [ \"/usr/bin/python3\", \"/usr/bin/systemctl\" ]"
      ],
      "commit": true,
      "image": "arm64v8/ubuntu:22.04",
      "platform": "linux/arm64/v8",
      "pull": false
    }

[glguy]

RACK without a native build on M1 macOS is basically unusable for the production ingestion package. I've been using a locally packed docker image against the arm64v8/ubuntu:22.04 base image and it's working great. I don't know how to automate the construction of that using Github actions, myself, however.

[chrisage]

Arm64 images must be built using the same OS/arch.

The rack-box files include x86 specific files (python) and cannot be reused. Removed:

Test dependency architecture compatibility prior to modifying the github build action:
1.) Run the Build Virtual Machine workflow
2.) Download the rack-box-files zip, unzip it in your RACK/rack-box/files
3.) Run the packer command

GitHub arch provision action (qemu with docker buildx):

• Github Action Plugin: https://github.com/marketplace/actions/run-on-architecture
• POC Confirmed: https://blog.devgenius.io/how-to-build-your-docker-images-using-multi-arch-to-support-arm64-m1-macbook-6ebc42a47cd7
• Github CI Example: https://discuss.hashicorp.com/t/does-packers-docker-builder-build-with-buildkit-buildx/21698/2

[chrisage]

The build process for arch64 requires an arch64 github action runner that can only be configured as a standalone runner. Instead you can build the docker image locally on an arch64 machine. The main difference between arch builds is the base docker image used and python dependencies (the packer process expects dependencies to be mounted into the image as a volume).

To build arch64 RACK Image locally (requires arch64 machine):

1. Update the RACK/rack-box/rack-box-docker.json builder to "platform": "linux/arm64/v8", and pull: true
2. Download the installation package (files) from the latest successful GitHub action
3. Expanded the downloaded files directory and copy to RACK/rack-box/files
4. Rebuild & Replace the rack-cli.tar.gz file (needed for arch specific python deps):
   a. cd /RACK/cli
   b. change the PyYaml rep in requirements.txt to v6.0.1
   c. install reqs with pip3 wheel --wheel-dir=wheels -r requirements.txt
   d. delete all installed wheels from ./wheels except for the semtk-python library
   e. remove the semtk-python library req from requirements.txt
   ^ the above steps are required to avoid dependency on git
   f. zip entire cli library into RACK/rack-box/files place: tar -zcvf rack-cli.tar.gz ./RACK/
   g. modify the RACK/rack-box/install.sh script to build the RACK CLI with:
   # under cd "/home/${USER}/RACK/cli/"
pip3 wheel --wheel-dir=wheels -r requirements.txt
pip3 wheel --wheel-dir=wheels .
5. Re-run packer build rack-box-docker.json from RACK/rack-box

[chrisage]

See Github Runners (and tool info) @
https://github.com/actions/runner-images/blob/main/images/linux/Ubuntu2204-Readme.md
And self-hosted M1 runners here:
https://github.blog/changelog/2022-08-09-github-actions-ubuntu-22-04-is-now-generally-available-on-github-hosted-runners/

[tuxji]

I understand we cannot automate the CI build of an arch64 RACK image except on an arch64 github action runner, which would have to be a standalone (self-hosted) machine available somewhere on the Internet. Still, you can build the arch64 RACK image manually on a Mac M1 computer using the installation package (files) from the latest successful GitHub action. If you can push the built image to Docker Hub as well (it should be just a matter of granting your account the necessary privilege), then RACK users will be able to download and run the appropriate image for their architecture.

[chrisage]

Another option might be to use docker's buildx command (referenced in an earlier comment) but this might require overhaul of the CI/CD action.

Docker Docs:
https://www.docker.com/blog/multi-arch-build-and-images-the-simple-way/

Targeting for post-release. blocked on cost of running standalone || time for CI/CD development

[glguy]

I haven't automated the process, but when we make the next release I can build a docker image to update for it