SAP Commerce Cloud Container-Based Setup for Development

Introduction to Containerization in SAP Commerce Cloud

Containerization is a technology used in software packaging, enabling developers to bundle an application and its dependencies into a standardized package for deployment. Containers operate in isolation from each other and the underlying host system, which contributes to their lightweight and portable characteristics. Consequently, they are well-suited for deploying applications in cloud environments, where multiple containers can efficiently utilize shared resources.

Benefits of Containerization

Containerization in SAP Commerce Cloud offers a range of benefits when setting up applications on a local machine:

• Environment Consistency: Containers encapsulate applications along with their dependencies, ensuring uniformity in the development environment across different machines and operating systems. By using container images with necessary components, developers can easily share and replicate development environments across teams.
• Dependency Management: Containers isolate dependencies within their own runtime environment, eliminating conflicts between different versions of libraries or dependencies. Developers can specify dependencies and configurations directly within a container image, minimizing dependency-related issues and setup complications.
• Resource Efficiency: Containers share the host machine’s operating system kernel, leading to more efficient resource utilization compared to traditional setups where each application consumes resources directly from the host. Multiple containers can run simultaneously on the same machine without significant overhead, optimizing resource usage.
• Isolation and Security: Containers provide a layer of isolation between applications, enhancing security by limiting the impact of any potential security breaches. Each container runs in its own isolated environment, preventing applications from interfering with each other or the host system. Additionally, container images can be scanned for vulnerabilities, and security patches can be applied to ensure a secure development environment.
• Portability: Container images are portable and can be deployed consistently across different environments, including local development machines, testing environments, and production servers. Developers can build and test applications in a containerized environment locally before deploying them to production, reducing the likelihood of environment-related issues.

Difference between traditional and container-based application setup in SAP Commerce Cloud

When comparing traditional setups with container-based setups on a local machine, several distinct differences emerge.

Environment Isolation: 

• Traditional Setup: Applications typically install their dependencies directly onto the host operating system, which can lead to potential conflicts between versions of libraries or dependencies.
• Container-Based Setup: Applications and their dependencies are encapsulated within separate containers, each with its own runtime environment. This ensures isolation, allowing multiple versions of dependencies to coexist seamlessly on the same machine without conflicts.

Resource Utilization: 

• Traditional Setup: Each application consumes system resources directly from the host machine, potentially leading to resource wastage, particularly when multiple applications require similar dependencies or libraries.
• Container-Based Setup: Containers share the host machine’s operating system kernel, ensuring efficient resource utilization. Multiple containers can run simultaneously on the same machine with minimal overhead, as they share resources like CPU, memory, and disk space.

Dependency Management: 

• Traditional Setup: Managing dependencies is often complicated, as installing, updating, or removing dependencies can inadvertently affect other applications or system components.
• Container-Based Setup: Dependencies are packaged within the container, making dependency management easier and more predictable. Each container encapsulates its dependencies, ensuring that changes made to one container do not affect others.

Development Environment Consistency:

• Traditional Setup: Developers may often encounter issues related to differences between their local development environment and the production environment, leading to inconsistencies and potential bugs.
• Container-Based Setup: Containers provide a consistent runtime environment across different stages of the development lifecycle, ensuring that applications behave consistently regardless of the underlying host machine. Developers can use the same containerized environment locally as in production, reducing the likelihood of environment-related issues.

Deployment Flexibility: 

• Traditional Setup: Deploying applications from a local development environment to production may often require manual configuration and setup, potentially leading to deployment errors or inconsistencies.
• Container-Based Setup: Container images can be easily deployed across different environments, including local machines, development servers, testing environments, and production servers, using container orchestration tools like Docker Compose or Kubernetes. This streamlines the deployment process and reduces the likelihood of deployment-related issues.

Isolation and Security: 

• Traditional Setup: Applications run directly on the host operating system, potentially exposing the system to security vulnerabilities or risks if an application is compromised.
• Container-Based Setup: Containers enhance security by isolating applications, thereby limiting the impact of potential breaches. However, to ensure robust security, it is critical to secure container images and regularly update them to mitigate vulnerabilities.

In summary, container-based application setups in SAP Commerce Cloud offer several significant advantages over traditional setups on local machines. These include improved environment isolation, optimized resource utilization, simplified dependency management, consistent development environments, streamlined deployment flexibility, and enhanced security. These benefits make containerization an attractive option for local development workflows, particularly in modern software development environments.

Introduction to Containerization Tools in SAP Commerce Cloud

This section focuses on two primary containerization tools: Docker and Podman.

Docker and Podman are both containerization technologies that facilitate the packaging and execution of applications within isolated environments. They adhere to the Open Container Initiative (OCI) standards, ensuring compatibility between container images created with one tool to be used with the other.

Below is a table summarizing the key features of Docker and Podman: 

Step-by-Step Guide to SAP Commerce Cloud Containerization Setup

Choosing the Containerization Platform and Installation

We will be using docker for this example

Installing Docker on Linux (Ubuntu)

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl

sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings

sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

echo “deb [arch=$(dpkg –print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(. /etc/os-release && echo “$VERSION_CODENAME”) stable” | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

sudo apt-get update

Download the latest DEB package

wget https://desktop.docker.com/linux/main/amd64/149282/docker-desktop-4.30.0-amd64.deb

Install the package with apt as follows:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install ./docker-desktop-<version>-<arch>.deb

Installing Docker in Mac  

Download the installer using the download buttons at the top of the page, or from the release notes(https://docs.docker.com/desktop/release-notes/).

Double-click Docker.dmg to open the installer, then drag the Docker icon to the Applications folder. By default, Docker Desktop is installed at /Applications/Docker.app.

Double-click Docker.app in the Applications folder to complete the Docker Installation.

Installing Docker in Windows

Download the installer using the download button at the top of the page, or from the release notes(https://docs.docker.com/desktop/release-notes).

Double-click Docker Desktop Installer.exe to run the installer. By default, Docker Desktop is installed at C:\Program Files\Docker\Docker.

When prompted, select WSL 2 or Hyper-V option on the Configuration page as per your choice of backend.

If your system only supports one of the two options, you will not be able to select which backend to use.

Follow the instructions on the installation wizard to authorize the installer and proceed with the installation.

Building & Running SAP Commerce Cloud and other required application service containers

A GitLab repository has been created with all the necessary files required to build Hybris version 2205.12, along with SOLR version 8.11 and MySQL DB version 8.0. Below is our target setup.

                           

Before doing this setup, make sure your system or docker-machine has enough resources. I would recommend at least 100GB disk space, 4 CPUs and 8GB RAM allocated to Docker.

Clone the GitLab repository

git clone https://gitlab.com/neocloudops-public/hybris_container_project.git

NB:

• Place your Hybris ZIP file (for ex: CXCOMM220500P_12-80006942.ZIP) inside `app-hybris/files` & `app-solr/files` directory.
• If you are building and setting up hybris locally on a MacOS silicon chip-based machine, make sure you uncomment 1 line in 2 files (docker-compose.yml & app-hybris/Dockerfile  >>> just search for `macos`)

Build DB, SOLR & Hybris Images and run containers

cd hybris_container_project

docker compose up -d –build

Containers will get built and will start automatically. Verify the container logs to confirm the services are up & running properly.

If you check the app-db container logs, you should see a line saying:

[Server] /usr/sbin/mysqld: ready for connections

If you check the app-solr container logs, you should see a line saying:

INFO  (main) [   ] o.e.j.s.Server Started

If you check the app-hybris container logs, you should see a line saying:

INFO: Server startup in **** ms

Now let’s restart the containers (Maybe you will get some errors in container startup in the above step, restart will fix those issues),

docker compose down && docker compose up –d –build

Once containers are up,

Open http://localhost:8983/solr/#/ for SOLR Admin.

Open http://localhost:8985 for PHPMyAdmin. Give `host` as `app-db` & `username/password `as `hybris/hybris` to login.

Open https://localhost:9002/ for Hybris HAC.  Do a system Initialization with default settings. Once it is finished, you will be able to log in to HAC as an Admin user  using `admin/admin` credentials.

Open the below URL for the default electronic store:

https://localhost:9002/yacceleratorstorefront/electronics/en/?site=electronics&clear=true 

 

So, what is happening here is when you execute docker-compose up –build, it looks at the configuration in docker-composer.yml. In that file, it’s specified to build an image for the Solr app, Db app & Hybris app containers. To do this, it reads the instructions from the Dockerfile located inside the app-solr, app-db & app-hybris directories respectively. This file contains all the steps needed to create the image, like installing software or setting configurations. There’s also a tool called phpMyAdmin included, which helps manage the database easily.

Once the images are created based on the instructions in these Dockerfiles, they are saved. Then, using the settings from docker-compose.yml, Docker creates and starts containers using these saved images.

Conclusion

Ready to optimize your SAP Commerce Cloud setup?  Contact PIT solutions for expert guidance on containerized development environments.