docker-geoserver

A simple docker container that runs Geoserver influenced by this docker recipe: https://github.com/eliotjordan/docker-geoserver/blob/master/Dockerfile

Getting the image

There are various ways to get the image onto your system:

The preferred way (but using most bandwidth for the initial image) is to get our docker trusted build like this:

docker pull kartoza/geoserver

To build the image yourself:

docker build -t kartoza/geoserver git://github.com/kartoza/docker-geoserver

To build yourself with a local checkout:

git clone git://github.com/kartoza/docker-geoserver
docker build -t kartoza/geoserver .

Building with Oracle JDK

To replace OpenJDK Java with the Oracle JDK, set build-arg ORACLE_JDK=true:

docker build --build-arg ORACLE_JDK=true -t kartoza/geoserver .

Alternatively, you can download the Oracle JDK 7 Linux x64 tar.gz currently in use by webupd8team's Oracle JDK installer (usually the latest version available from Oracle) and place it in resources before building.

To enable strong cryptography when using the Oracle JDK (recommended), download the Oracle Java policy jar zip for the correct JDK version and place it at resources/jce_policy.zip before building.

Building with plugins

To build a GeoServer image with plugins (e.g. SQL Server plugin, Excel output plugin), download the plugin zip files from the GeoServer download page and put them in resources/plugins before building. You should also download the matching version GeoServer WAR zip file to resources/geoserver.zip.

Removing Tomcat extras during build

To remove Tomcat extras including docs, examples, and the manager webapp, set the TOMCAT_EXTRAS build-arg to false:

docker build --build-arg TOMCAT_EXTRAS=false -t kartoza/geoserver .

Building with file system overlays (advanced)

The contents of resources/overlays will be copied to the image file system during the build. For example, to include a static Tomcat setenv.sh, create the file at resources/overlays/usr/local/tomcat/bin/setenv.sh.

You can use this functionality to write a static GeoServer directory to /opt/geoserver/data_dir, include additional jar files, and more.

Overlay files will overwrite existing destination files, so be careful!

Run (manual docker commands)

Note: You probably want to use docker-compose for running as it will provide a repeatable orchestrated deployment system.

You probably want to also have postgis running too. To create a running container do:

docker run --name "postgis" -d -t kartoza/postgis:9.4-2.1
docker run --name "geoserver"  --link postgis:postgis -p 8080:8080 -d -t kartoza/geoserver

You can also use the following environment variables to pass a user name and password. To postgis:

• -e USERNAME=
• -e PASS=

These will be used to create a new superuser with your preferred credentials. If these are not specified then the postgresql user is set to 'docker' with password 'docker'.

Note: The default geoserver user is 'admin' and the password is 'geoserver'. We highly recommend changing these as soon as you first log in.

Run (automated using docker-compose)

We provide a sample docker-compose.yml file that illustrates how you can establish a GeoServer + Postgis orchestrated environment with nightly backups that are synchronised to your backup server via btsync.

If you are not interested in the backups and btsync options, comment out those services in the docker-compose.yml file.

Please read the docker-compose documentation for details on usage and syntax of docker-compose - it is not covered here.

If you are interested in btsync backups, install [Resilio sync] on your desktop NAS or other backup destination and create two folders:

• one for database backup dumps
• one for geoserver data dir

Then make a copy of each of the provided EXAMPLE environment files e.g.:

cp btsync-db.env.EXAMPLE btsync-db.env
cp btsync-media.env.EXAMPLE btsync-media.env

Then edit the two env files, placing your Read/Write resilio keys in the place provided.

To run the example do:

docker-compose up

Which will run everything in the foreground giving you the opportunity to peruse logs and see that everything spins up nicely.

Once all services are started, test by visiting the GeoServer landing page in your browser: http://localhost:8080/geoserver.

To run in the background rather, press ctrl-c to stop the containers and run again in the background:

docker-compose up -d

Note: The docker-compose.yml does not use persistent storage so when you remove the containers, all data will be lost. Either set up btsync (and test to verify that your backups are working, we take no responsibiliy if the examples provided here do not produce a reliable backup system), or use host based volumes (you will need to modify the ``docker-compose.yml``` example to do this) so that your data persists between invocations of the compose file.

Run (automated using rancher)

An even nicer way to run the examples provided is to use our Rancher Catalogue Stack for GeoServer. See http://rancher.com for more details on how to set up and configure your Rancher environment. Once Rancher is set up, use the Admin -> Settings menu to add our Rancher catalogue using this URL:

https://github.com/kartoza/kartoza-rancher-catalogue

Once your settings are saved open a Rancher environment and set up a stack from the catalogue's 'Kartoza' section - you will see GeoServer listed there.

If you want to synchronise your GeoServer settings and database backups (created by the nightly backup tool in the stack), use (Resilio sync)[https://www.resilio.com/] to create two Read/Write keys:

• one for database backups
• one for GeoServer media backups

Note: Resilio sync is not Free Software. It is free to use for individuals. Business users need to pay - see their web site for details.

You can try a similar approach with Syncthing or Seafile (for free options) or Dropbox or Google Drive if you want to use another commercial product. These products all have one limitation though: they require interaction to register applications or keys. With Resilio Sync you can completely automate the process without user intervention.

Storing data on the host rather than the container.

Docker volumes can be used to persist your data.

mkdir -p ~/geoserver_data
docker run -d -v $HOME/geoserver_data:/opt/geoserver/data_dir kartoza/geoserver

You need to ensure the geoserver_data directory has sufficient permissions for the docker process to read / write it.

Setting Tomcat properties

To set Tomcat properties such as maximum heap memory size, create a setenv.sh file such as:

JAVA_OPTS="$JAVA_OPTS -Xmx1536M -XX:MaxPermSize=756M"
JAVA_OPTS="$JAVA_OPTS -Djava.awt.headless=true -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC -XX:+CMSClassUnloadingEnabled"

Then pass the setenv.sh file as a volume at /usr/local/tomcat/bin/setenv.sh when running:

docker run -d -v $HOME/setenv.sh:/usr/local/tomcat/bin/setenv.sh kartoza/geoserver

Credits

• Tim Sutton (tim@kartoza.com)
• Shane St Clair (shane@axiomdatascience.com)
• Alex Leith (alexgleith@gmail.com)