Containerisation Hack of a Legacy Software Solution - Alex Carter - CodeMill - Dec 2017

“Let’s put Numéro into Containers on
Windows!”
This is what happened…

Callcredit
Who we are
• Credit Reference Agency
• Data Company
• Windows .NET
• “Software” Products

Protects Cardholder Data
Regulates Use & Storage of Personal Info.
Implementation of the FoI Act
Financial markets need to be honest, fair and effective so that consumers get a fair deal.

numéro
Numéro solutionNuméro solution

Some Of Our Clients
UTILITYTELECOMSRETAIL FINANCIAL GOV

Platform
 Windows
 SQL
 .Net / IIS
 Java / Tomcat
 NodeJS / IIS
 nginx
Tools
 Visual Studio
 Git
 Jenkins
 Redmine
 Grunt
 Package Managers
Headline Technical Info – Numéro Interactive

Enterprise / Bespoke Solutions
Browser Mobile
App
Data
Platform DefinitionApp Definition – ADK
ConfigurationContent
API Based Architecture
Core
Services
API
Transactions
API
Web API
Web UI
Creation
API
API
Identity and Access Management
PUBLIC/DMZPRIVATECLIENT
JSON Store
API
Enterprise
API Process Proxy
Legacy
Services
Legacy
Services

Value Stream Mapping
Retrospective

Fact finding
Talk of the future not allowed!

Identify waste
Types of wasteRed pen

Lots of waste
Important to be open

Time for the green pen
How can we improve?

• Starts with sales
Issues can be introduced long
before any technology involved

• Manual steps, waiting,
• multiple deployments
Multiple manual
deployments
Lots of waiting and
manual steps

Long builds – 8 hours
Failures common -> re run -> 16 hours
Due to tech debt, such as redundant tests
Queued builds due to hardware bottleneck

Manual deployment, often
using copy/paste over RDP
One site uses Octopus for
deployment
Multiple customers means
multiple deploys
Some customers don’t
upgrade: wait time to receive
value = infinity!

Callcredit’s requirements:
• Portable (deployable onto platform of choice)
• Push an update once to all live instances
• Quickly replicate any bespoke customer solution
• Methodology suitable for other software products
• Scalability
• Resilience
Containers were the most obvious thing to try

Before the Hackathon Started, we…
• Identified the minimum viable components
 Database
 Core Services
 Identity Component
• Built Numéro solution from scratch
• Confirmed Prerequisites
• Created a Pipeline in Octopus Deploy
• Set up Azure Sandbox
• Set up VSTS
• Imported code into VSTS from Git
Prep Work

http://www.visualstudio.com/news/release-archive-vso

Why VSTS?
• Callcredit use TFS
• Integrate Numéro with other product teams’ practices
• Useful to have a cloud service - sharing with remote teams
• Strong push to evaluate VSTS
• Updates and enhancements handled by Microsoft
• VSTS Updated before TFS

Aims for the Hack
• Build our three components within VSTS
 Database
 Core Services
 Identity Component
• Release Process:
 Docker Containers
 Test and Live environments
 Azure
• Monitoring

DevTest Labs Azure DevTest
Labs

DevOps process with containers

IIS with .NET 4.5 (numerocr.azurecr.io/iis-net45)
FROM microsoft/windowsservercore
SHELL ["powershell"]
RUN Add-WindowsFeature Web-Server,NET-Framework-45-Core,NET-Framework-45-
ASPNET,Web-Net-Ext45,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-ISAPI-Filter,Web-Asp-Net45
COPY waitservice.ps1 /
CMD c:waitservice.ps1 -ServiceName W3SVC -AllowServiceRestart

Tomcat & Java in addition to IIS
(numerocr.azurecr.io/tomcat-java-iis)
FROM numerocr.azurecr.io/iis-net45
COPY /drop /drop
RUN /drop/scripts/install.ps1
Reusing existing
PowerShell

Core Services
(numerocr.azurecr.io/core)
FROM numerocr.azurecr.io/tomcat-java-iis
COPY /drop/smartagent/ /drop/smartagent/
COPY /drop/scripts/ /drop/scripts/
COPY /drop/certs/ /drop/certs/
#dns fix due to bug
RUN set-itemproperty -path 'HKLM:SYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesDnscacheParameters'
-Name ServerPriorityTimeLimit -Value 0 -Type DWord
RUN .dropscriptsinstall.ps1
EXPOSE 80

node.js on IIS
FROM numerocr.azurecr.io/iis-net45:279
## Install IIS RewriteModule
RUN Invoke-WebRequest -Uri http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=615137 -OutFile
rewrite.msi
RUN Start-Process -Wait -FilePath .rewrite.msi -ArgumentList /quiet, /norestart
RUN Remove-Item rewrite.msi
## Install IISNode
COPY iisnode-core_x64.msi iisnode.msi
RUN Start-Process -Wait -FilePath .iisnode.msi -ArgumentList /quiet, /norestart
RUN Remove-Item iisnode.msi

MS SQL Server
ENV sql_express_download_url "https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=829176"
SHELL ["powershell", "-Command", "$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'; $ProgressPreference = 'SilentlyContinue';"]
RUN Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $env:sql_express_download_url -OutFile sqlexpress.exe ;
Start-Process -Wait -FilePath .sqlexpress.exe -ArgumentList /qs, /x:setup ;
.setupsetup.exe /q /ACTION=Install /INSTANCENAME=SQLEXPRESS /FEATURES=SQLEngine /UPDATEENABLED=0
/SQLSVCACCOUNT='NT AUTHORITYSystem' /SQLSYSADMINACCOUNTS='BUILTINADMINISTRATORS' /TCPENABLED=1 /NPENABLED=0
/IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS ;
Remove-Item -Recurse -Force sqlexpress.exe, setup
RUN stop-service MSSQL`$SQLEXPRESS ;
set-itemproperty -path 'HKLM:softwaremicrosoftmicrosoft sql
servermssql13.SQLEXPRESSmssqlserversupersocketnetlibtcpipall' -name tcpdynamicports -value '' ;
set-itemproperty -path 'HKLM:softwaremicrosoftmicrosoft sql
servermssql13.SQLEXPRESSmssqlserversupersocketnetlibtcpipall' -name tcpport -value 1433 ;
set-itemproperty -path 'HKLM:softwaremicrosoftmicrosoft sql servermssql13.SQLEXPRESSmssqlserver' -name
LoginMode -value 2;
HEALTHCHECK CMD [ "sqlcmd", "-Q", "select 1" ]
What about data?

nginx
RUN mkdir /drop
RUN wget -uri 'http://nginx.org/download/nginx-1.11.12.zip' -OutFile /drop/nginx.zip
RUN Expand-Archive -Path /drop/nginx.zip -DestinationPath /nginx -Force
COPY nginx.conf /nginx/nginx-1.11.12/conf/
COPY certs/hack.numerotraining.com.key /nginx/nginx-1.11.12/conf/
COPY certs/hack.numerotraining.com.cer /nginx/nginx-1.11.12/conf/
#dns fix due to bug
RUN set-itemproperty -path 'HKLM:SYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesDnscacheParameters' -
Name ServerPriorityTimeLimit -Value 0 -Type Dword
EXPOSE 80
EXPOSE 443
WORKDIR /nginx/nginx-1.11.12
ENTRYPOINT ["nginx.exe"]
nginx for SSL offload
and routing

Build Definition
Flag: we set tests to continue on error
Docker tasks once build is complete

Push the image to Azure Container Registry
• acr

View verbose logs for
each build stage

View build output
including test and
deployment status

Release using Docker Compose
• Why Compose & Swarm?
• Needed to deploy to single VM
• Swarm provides a Windows only solution
• No Linux servers required
• What's in the compose file?
• Services and their configuration
• Image
• Ports
• Environment variables
• Dependencies
• Networking details

Release Pipeline
Used docker-compose up to run
containers. If using Swarm would
use docker deploy
For the hack, two
environments Test &
LV (live)

Monitoring
• Microsoft Operations Management Suite
• Collects logs from Docker hosts
• Integrates into the Azure portal
• Allows export of logs to external platforms such
as ELK

• Right now…
• Map and Script everything we did
• Shout about it
• Orchestration: Kubernetes? Swarm?
• Recreate it in a fully automated way from scratch – on Azure
• Within a Year
• Prove Portability – Callcredit environment – AWS
• Add Customer config
• Fully functional, Live customer solution running in containers
• Begin containerisation of next Software product
Next steps

Callcredit’s requirements:
• Portable (deployable onto platform of choice)
• Push an update once to all live instances
• Quickly replicate any bespoke customer solution
• Methodology suitable for other software products
• Scalability
• Resilience

• Right now…
• Map and Script everything we did
• Shout about it
• Orchestration: Kubernetes? (Marcus - Swarm?)
• Recreate it in a fully automated way from scratch – on Azure
• Within a Year
• Prove Portability – Callcredit environment – AWS
• Add Customer config
• Fully functional, Live customer solution running in containers
• Begin containerisation of next Software product
Next steps

Resources
Alex Carter
System Build Engineer
Callcredit Information Group
Email: Alexandra.carter@callcreditgroup.com
Twitter: @smileandeliver
• DevOps Fundamentals:
https://channel9.msdn.com/Series/DevOps-Fundamentals
• DevOps Dimensions:
https://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/DevOps-Dimension
• Lots of videos about Azure and containers
https://channel9.msdn.com/
• Get access to free online training:
https://mva.microsoft.com/training-topics/devops
• Numero Interactive:
http://www.thisisnumero.com/
• Callcredit
http://www.callcredit.co.uk/
Want access to Azure, VSTS and more for FREE?
Visual Studio Dev Essentials - https://www.visualstudio.com/dev-essentials/

Containerisation Hack of a Legacy Software Solution - Alex Carter - CodeMill - Dec 2017

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