Install and run Form Recognizer containers

This article applies to: Form Recognizer v3.0 checkmark Form Recognizer v3.0. Earlier version: Form Recognizer v2.1

This article applies to: Form Recognizer v2.1 checkmark Form Recognizer v2.1. Later version: Form Recognizer v3.0

Azure Form Recognizer is an Azure Applied AI Service that lets you build automated data processing software using machine-learning technology. Form Recognizer enables you to identify and extract text, key/value pairs, selection marks, table data, and more from your form documents. The results are delivered as structured data that includes the relationships in the original file.

In this article you learn how to download, install, and run Form Recognizer containers. Containers enable you to run the Form Recognizer service in your own environment. Containers are great for specific security and data governance requirements.

  • Read, Layout, General Document, ID Document, Receipt, Invoice, and Custom models are supported by Form Recognizer v3.0 containers.

  • Business Card model is currently only supported in the v2.1 containers.

Important

Form Recognizer v3.0 containers are now generally available. If you are getting started with containers, consider using the v3 containers.

In this article you learn how to download, install, and run Form Recognizer containers. Containers enable you to run the Form Recognizer service in your own environment. Containers are great for specific security and data governance requirements.

  • Layout, Business Card,ID Document, Receipt, Invoice, and Custom models are supported by six Form Recognizer feature containers.

  • For Receipt, Business Card and ID Document containers you also need the Read OCR container.

Important

Prerequisites

To get started, you need an active Azure account. If you don't have one, you can create a free account.

You also need the following to use Form Recognizer containers:

Required Purpose
Familiarity with Docker You should have a basic understanding of Docker concepts, like registries, repositories, containers, and container images, as well as knowledge of basic docker terminology and commands.
Docker Engine installed
  • You need the Docker Engine installed on a host computer. Docker provides packages that configure the Docker environment on macOS, Windows, and Linux. For a primer on Docker and container basics, see the Docker overview.
  • Docker must be configured to allow the containers to connect with and send billing data to Azure.
  • On Windows, Docker must also be configured to support Linux containers.
Form Recognizer resource A single-service Azure Form Recognizer or multi-service Cognitive Services resource in the Azure portal. To use the containers, you must have the associated key and endpoint URI. Both values are available on the Azure portal Form Recognizer Keys and Endpoint page:
  • {FORM_RECOGNIZER_KEY}: one of the two available resource keys.
  • {FORM_RECOGNIZER_ENDPOINT_URI}: the endpoint for the resource used to track billing information.
Optional Purpose
Azure CLI (command-line interface) The Azure CLI enables you to use a set of online commands to create and manage Azure resources. It's available to install in Windows, macOS, and Linux environments and can be run in a Docker container and Azure Cloud Shell.

You also need a Computer Vision API resource to process business cards, ID documents, or Receipts.

  • You can access the Recognize Text feature as either an Azure resource (the REST API or SDK) or a cognitive-services-recognize-text container.

  • The usual billing fees apply.

  • If you use the cognitive-services-recognize-text container, make sure that your Computer Vision key for the Form Recognizer container is the key specified in the Computer Vision docker run or docker compose command for the cognitive-services-recognize-text container and your billing endpoint is the container's endpoint (for example, http://localhost:5000).

  • If you use both the Computer Vision container and Form Recognizer container together on the same host, they can't both be started with the default port of 5000.

  • Pass in both the key and endpoints for your Computer Vision Azure cloud or Cognitive Services container:

    • {COMPUTER_VISION_KEY}: one of the two available resource keys.
    • {COMPUTER_VISION_ENDPOINT_URI}: the endpoint for the resource used to track billing information.

Request approval to run container

Complete and submit the Azure Cognitive Services Application for Gated Services to request access to the container.

The form requests information about you, your company, and the user scenario for which you'll use the container. After you submit the form, the Azure Cognitive Services team reviews it and emails you with a decision within 10 business days.

Important

  • On the form, you must use an email address associated with an Azure subscription ID.
  • The Azure resource you use to run the container must have been created with the approved Azure subscription ID.
  • Check your email (both inbox and junk folders) for updates on the status of your application from Microsoft.

After you're approved, you'll be able to run the container after you download it from the Microsoft Container Registry (MCR), described later in the article.

You won't be able to run the container if your Azure subscription hasn't been approved.

Host computer requirements

The host is a x64-based computer that runs the Docker container. It can be a computer on your premises or a Docker hosting service in Azure, such as:

Container requirements and recommendations

Required supporting containers

The following table lists the supporting container(s) for each Form Recognizer container you download. For more information, see the Billing section.

Feature container Supporting container(s)
Layout None
Business Card Computer Vision Read
ID Document Computer Vision Read
Invoice Layout
Receipt Computer Vision Read
Custom Custom API, Custom Supervised, Layout
Feature container Supporting container(s)
Read None
Layout None
General Document Layout
Invoice Layout
Receipt Read
ID Document Read
Custom Template Layout

Note

The minimum and recommended values are based on Docker limits and not the host machine resources.

Form Recognizer containers
Container Minimum Recommended
Read 8 cores, 10-GB memory 8 cores, 24-GB memory
Layout 8 cores, 16-GB memory 8 cores, 24-GB memory
General Document 8 cores, 12-GB memory 8 cores, 24-GB memory
ID Document 8 cores, 8-GB memory 8 cores, 24-GB memory
Invoice 8 cores, 16-GB memory 8 cores, 24-GB memory
Receipt 8 cores, 11-GB memory 8 cores, 24-GB memory
Custom Template 8 cores, 16-GB memory 8 cores, 24-GB memory
Read, Layout, and prebuilt containers
Container Minimum Recommended
Read 3.2 8 cores, 16-GB memory 8 cores, 24-GB memory
Layout 2.1 8 cores, 16-GB memory 8 cores, 24-GB memory
Business Card 2.1 2 cores, 4-GB memory 4 cores, 4-GB memory
ID Document 2.1 1 core, 2-GB memory 2 cores, 2-GB memory
Invoice 2.1 4 cores, 8-GB memory 8 cores, 8-GB memory
Receipt 2.1 4 cores, 8-GB memory 8 cores, 8-GB memory
Custom containers

The following host machine requirements are applicable to train and analyze requests:

Container Minimum Recommended
Custom API 0.5 cores, 0.5-GB memory 1 core, 1-GB memory
Custom Supervised 4 cores, 2-GB memory 8 cores, 4-GB memory
  • Each core must be at least 2.6 gigahertz (GHz) or faster.
  • Core and memory correspond to the --cpus and --memory settings, which are used as part of the docker compose or docker run command.

Tip

You can use the docker images command to list your downloaded container images. For example, the following command lists the ID, repository, and tag of each downloaded container image, formatted as a table:

docker images --format "table {{.ID}}\t{{.Repository}}\t{{.Tag}}"

IMAGE ID         REPOSITORY                TAG
<image-id>       <repository-path/name>    <tag-name>

Run the container with the docker-compose up command

  • Replace the {ENDPOINT_URI} and {API_KEY} values with your resource Endpoint URI and the key from the Azure resource page.

    Screenshot: Azure portal keys and endpoint page.

  • Ensure that the EULA value is set to "accept".

  • The EULA, Billing, and ApiKey values must be specified; otherwise the container can't start.

Important

The keys are used to access your Form Recognizer resource. Do not share your keys. Store them securely, for example, using Azure Key Vault. We also recommend regenerating these keys regularly. Only one key is necessary to make an API call. When regenerating the first key, you can use the second key for continued access to the service.

The following code sample is a self-contained docker compose example to run the Form Recognizer Layout container. With docker compose, you use a YAML file to configure your application's services. Then, with the docker-compose up command, you create and start all the services from your configuration. Enter {FORM_RECOGNIZER_ENDPOINT_URI} and {FORM_RECOGNIZER_KEY} values for your Layout container instance.

version: "3.9"
services:
  azure-form-recognizer-read:
    container_name: azure-form-recognizer-read
    image: mcr.microsoft.com/azure-cognitive-services/form-recognizer/read-3.0
    environment:
      - EULA=accept
      - billing={FORM_RECOGNIZER_ENDPOINT_URI}
      - apiKey={FORM_RECOGNIZER_KEY}
    ports:
      - "5000:5000"
    networks:
      - ocrvnet
networks:
  ocrvnet:
    driver: bridge

Now, you can start the service with the docker compose command:

docker-compose up

The Read container is not supported by Form Recognizer v2.1.

Validate that the service is running

There are several ways to validate that the container is running:

  • The container provides a homepage at \ as a visual validation that the container is running.

  • You can open your favorite web browser and navigate to the external IP address and exposed port of the container in question. Use the listed request URLs to validate the container is running. The listed example request URLs are http://localhost:5000, but your specific container may vary. Keep in mind that you're navigating to your container's External IP address and exposed port.

    Request URL Purpose
    http://localhost:5000/ The container provides a home page.
    http://localhost:5000/ready Requested with GET, this request provides a verification that the container is ready to accept a query against the model. This request can be used for Kubernetes liveness and readiness probes.
    http://localhost:5000/status Requested with GET, this request verifies if the api-key used to start the container is valid without causing an endpoint query. This request can be used for Kubernetes liveness and readiness probes.
    http://localhost:5000/swagger The container provides a full set of documentation for the endpoints and a Try it out feature. With this feature, you can enter your settings into a web-based HTML form and make the query without having to write any code. After the query returns, an example CURL command is provided to demonstrate the HTTP headers and body format that's required.

Screenshot: Azure containers welcome page.

Stop the containers

To stop the containers, use the following command:

docker-compose down

Billing

The Form Recognizer containers send billing information to Azure by using a Form Recognizer resource on your Azure account.

Queries to the container are billed at the pricing tier of the Azure resource that's used for the Key. You're billed for each container instance used to process your documents and images.

Note

Currently, Form Recognizer v3 containers only support pay as you go pricing. Support for commitment tiers and disconnected mode will be added in March 2023. Azure Cognitive Services containers aren't licensed to run without being connected to the metering / billing endpoint. Containers must be enabled to always communicate billing information with the billing endpoint. Cognitive Services containers don't send customer data, such as the image or text that's being analyzed, to Microsoft.

Queries to the container are billed at the pricing tier of the Azure resource that's used for the Key. You're billed for each container instance used to process your documents and images. Thus, If you use the business card feature, you're billed for the Form Recognizer BusinessCard and Computer Vision Read container instances. For the invoice feature, you're billed for the Form Recognizer Invoice and Layout container instances. See, Form Recognizer and Computer Vision Read feature container pricing.

Azure Cognitive Services containers aren't licensed to run without being connected to the metering / billing endpoint. Containers must be enabled to always communicate billing information with the billing endpoint. Cognitive Services containers don't send customer data, such as the image or text that's being analyzed, to Microsoft.

Connect to Azure

The container needs the billing argument values to run. These values allow the container to connect to the billing endpoint. The container reports usage about every 10 to 15 minutes. If the container doesn't connect to Azure within the allowed time window, the container continues to run, but doesn't serve queries until the billing endpoint is restored. The connection is attempted 10 times at the same time interval of 10 to 15 minutes. If it can't connect to the billing endpoint within the 10 tries, the container stops serving requests. See the Cognitive Services container FAQ for an example of the information sent to Microsoft for billing.

Billing arguments

The docker-compose up command starts the container when all three of the following options are provided with valid values:

Option Description
ApiKey The key of the Cognitive Services resource that's used to track billing information.
The value of this option must be set to a key for the provisioned resource that's specified in Billing.
Billing The endpoint of the Cognitive Services resource that's used to track billing information.
The value of this option must be set to the endpoint URI of a provisioned Azure resource.
Eula Indicates that you accepted the license for the container.
The value of this option must be set to accept.

For more information about these options, see Configure containers.

Summary

That's it! In this article, you learned concepts and workflows for downloading, installing, and running Form Recognizer containers. In summary:

  • Form Recognizer provides seven Linux containers for Docker.
  • Container images are downloaded from mcr.
  • Container images run in Docker.
  • The billing information must be specified when you instantiate a container.

Important

Cognitive Services containers are not licensed to run without being connected to Azure for metering. Customers need to enable the containers to communicate billing information with the metering service at all times. Cognitive Services containers do not send customer data (for example, the image or text that is being analyzed) to Microsoft.

Next steps