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Image: Use Docker with the New InstallAnywhere 2015

If you haven’t heard of Docker, odds are you soon will. As mentioned in Flexera’s webinar, What’s New in InstallAnywhere 2015, Docker is gaining significant traction as the “go to” open platform for building, shipping and running today’s applications. It gives programmers, development teams and operations engineers the common toolbox they need to take advantage of the distributed and networked nature of modern applications.

Docker automates the deployment of applications inside software containers for Linux, Mac OS and Windows. It enables flexibility and portability on where the application can run, whether on laptop, data center VMs or the cloud.

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Included with InstallAnywhere 2015 is a sample project of everything you need to explore the functionality of Docker containers. To use this sample to create Docker containers, follow these steps:

  1. Open the InstallAnywhere project.
  2. Navigate to the Build Containers view of the Build page.
  3. Set the Build Docker Container option to Yes.
  4. Change the Container Name to IAbookstore.
  5. Under Docker Engine, provide the credentials of the Docker engine on which you want to build the IABookStore container. The Docker engine login credentials must be a user whose entry is available in the machine’s sudoers file.
  6. Under Select Base Image, select a valid base image from the same Docker engine to build the container from. Click the Refresh button to display the list of images.
  7. Add the installer of your IABookStore application by clicking Add/Remove in the Setups to Install field and selecting An installer out of the current InstallAnywhere project.
  8. Edit and review the corresponding Dockerfile that is created. Below is the sample of a Dockerfile for the application:
  9. To start your container after build, set Start Container to Yes and enter the following in the Run Command field:
  10. After building the container and starting it, the IABookStore application should now be running at:
    http://<IP_OF_DOCKERENGINE>:<PORT_ON_DOCKER_ENGINE_MAPPED_TO_PORT_ON_CONTAINER>/IABookStore
    where:

    • <IP_OF_DOCKERENGINE>—The IP of the Docker engine provided in the Docker engine credential details
    • <PORT_ON_DOCKER_ENGINE_MAPPED_TO_PORT_ON_CONTAINER>—Port number on the Docker engine host which is mapped to the port inside IABookStore container. This information is available from the -p argument in the Run command.

For step-by-step details, prerequisites, and general troubleshooting tips for this sample project, please refer to the InstallAnywhere 2015 User Guide.

 

InstallAnywhere is the leading multiplatform development solution for application producers who need to deliver a professional and consistent cross installation experience for physical, virtual and cloud environments. From a single project file and build environment, InstallAnywhere creates reliable installations for on-premises platforms – Windows, Linux, Apple OS X, Solaris, AIX , HP-UX, and IBM iSeries – and enables you to take existing and new software products to a virtual and cloud infrastructure and build Docker containers.  Get your free trial of InstallAnywhere or contact us for more information.

InstallShield® is the world’s leading Windows installation development solution. InstallShield is designed to enable development teams to be more agile, collaborative and flexible when building reliable InstallScript and Windows Installer MSI installations for desktop, server, Web, virtual and traditional applications. The software installer of choice for today’s sophisticated application producers, InstallShield is the only software installer that can directly convert MSIs to Microsoft App-V virtual packages. Get your free trial of InstallShield today or contact us for more information.