Tutorial: Deploy a multi-container group using a Resource Manager template
Azure Container Instances supports the deployment of multiple containers onto a single host using a container group. A container group is useful when building an application sidecar for logging, monitoring, or any other configuration where a service needs a second attached process.
In this tutorial, you follow steps to run a two-container sidecar configuration by deploying an Azure Resource Manager template using the Azure CLI. You learn how to:
- Configure a multi-container group template
- Deploy the container group
- View the logs of the containers
A Resource Manager template can be readily adapted for scenarios when you need to deploy more Azure service resources (for example, an Azure Files share or a virtual network) with the container group.
Note
Multi-container groups are currently restricted to Linux containers.
If you don't have an Azure subscription, create an Azure free account before you begin.
Prerequisites
Use the Bash environment in Azure Cloud Shell. For more information, see Quickstart for Bash in Azure Cloud Shell.
If you prefer to run CLI reference commands locally, install the Azure CLI. If you're running on Windows or macOS, consider running Azure CLI in a Docker container. For more information, see How to run the Azure CLI in a Docker container.
If you're using a local installation, sign in to the Azure CLI by using the az login command. To finish the authentication process, follow the steps displayed in your terminal. For other sign-in options, see Sign in with the Azure CLI.
When you're prompted, install the Azure CLI extension on first use. For more information about extensions, see Use extensions with the Azure CLI.
Run az version to find the version and dependent libraries that are installed. To upgrade to the latest version, run az upgrade.
Configure a template
Start by copying the following JSON into a new file named azuredeploy.json. In Azure Cloud Shell, you can use Visual Studio Code to create the file in your working directory:
code azuredeploy.json
This Resource Manager template defines a container group with two containers, a public IP address, and two exposed ports. The first container in the group runs an internet-facing web application. The second container, the sidecar, makes an HTTP request to the main web application via the group's local network.
{
"$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2015-01-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
"contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
"parameters": {
"containerGroupName": {
"type": "string",
"defaultValue": "myContainerGroup",
"metadata": {
"description": "Container Group name."
}
}
},
"variables": {
"container1name": "aci-tutorial-app",
"container1image": "mcr.microsoft.com/azuredocs/aci-helloworld:latest",
"container2name": "aci-tutorial-sidecar",
"container2image": "mcr.microsoft.com/azuredocs/aci-tutorial-sidecar"
},
"resources": [
{
"name": "[parameters('containerGroupName')]",
"type": "Microsoft.ContainerInstance/containerGroups",
"apiVersion": "2019-12-01",
"location": "[resourceGroup().location]",
"properties": {
"containers": [
{
"name": "[variables('container1name')]",
"properties": {
"image": "[variables('container1image')]",
"resources": {
"requests": {
"cpu": 1,
"memoryInGb": 1.5
}
},
"ports": [
{
"port": 80
},
{
"port": 8080
}
]
}
},
{
"name": "[variables('container2name')]",
"properties": {
"image": "[variables('container2image')]",
"resources": {
"requests": {
"cpu": 1,
"memoryInGb": 1.5
}
}
}
}
],
"osType": "Linux",
"ipAddress": {
"type": "Public",
"ports": [
{
"protocol": "tcp",
"port": 80
},
{
"protocol": "tcp",
"port": 8080
}
]
}
}
}
],
"outputs": {
"containerIPv4Address": {
"type": "string",
"value": "[reference(resourceId('Microsoft.ContainerInstance/containerGroups/', parameters('containerGroupName'))).ipAddress.ip]"
}
}
}
To use a private container image registry, add an object to the JSON document with the following format. For an example implementation of this configuration, see the ACI Resource Manager template reference documentation.
"imageRegistryCredentials": [
{
"server": "[parameters('imageRegistryLoginServer')]",
"username": "[parameters('imageRegistryUsername')]",
"password": "[parameters('imageRegistryPassword')]"
}
]
Deploy the template
Create a resource group with the az group create command.
az group create --name myResourceGroup --location eastus
Deploy the template with the az deployment group create command.
az deployment group create --resource-group myResourceGroup --template-file azuredeploy.json
Within a few seconds, you should receive an initial response from Azure.
View deployment state
To view the state of the deployment, use the following az container show command:
az container show --resource-group myResourceGroup --name myContainerGroup --output table
If you'd like to view the running application, navigate to its IP address in your browser. For example, the IP is 52.168.26.124 in this example output:
Name ResourceGroup Status Image IP:ports Network CPU/Memory OsType Location
---------------- --------------- -------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------- --------- --------------- -------- ----------
myContainerGroup danlep0318r Running mcr.microsoft.com/azuredocs/aci-tutorial-sidecar,mcr.microsoft.com/azuredocs/aci-helloworld:latest 20.42.26.114:80,8080 Public 1.0 core/1.5 gb Linux eastus
View container logs
View the log output of a container using the az container logs command. The --container-name argument specifies the container from which to pull logs. In this example, the aci-tutorial-app container is specified.
az container logs --resource-group myResourceGroup --name myContainerGroup --container-name aci-tutorial-app
Output:
listening on port 80
::1 - - [02/Jul/2020:23:17:48 +0000] "HEAD / HTTP/1.1" 200 1663 "-" "curl/7.54.0"
::1 - - [02/Jul/2020:23:17:51 +0000] "HEAD / HTTP/1.1" 200 1663 "-" "curl/7.54.0"
::1 - - [02/Jul/2020:23:17:54 +0000] "HEAD / HTTP/1.1" 200 1663 "-" "curl/7.54.0"
To see the logs for the sidecar container, run a similar command specifying the aci-tutorial-sidecar container.
az container logs --resource-group myResourceGroup --name myContainerGroup --container-name aci-tutorial-sidecar
Output:
Every 3s: curl -I http://localhost 2020-07-02 20:36:41
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
0 1663 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 0
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
X-Powered-By: Express
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Cache-Control: public, max-age=0
Last-Modified: Wed, 29 Nov 2017 06:40:40 GMT
ETag: W/"67f-16006818640"
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Content-Length: 1663
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 2020 20:36:41 GMT
Connection: keep-alive
As you can see, the sidecar is periodically making an HTTP request to the main web application via the group's local network to ensure it runs. This sidecar example could be expanded to trigger an alert if it received an HTTP response code other than 200 OK.
Next steps
In this tutorial, you used an Azure Resource Manager template to deploy a multi-container group in Azure Container Instances. You learned how to:
- Configure a multi-container group template
- Deploy the container group
- View the logs of the containers
For more template samples, see Azure Resource Manager templates for Azure Container Instances.
You can also specify a multi-container group using a YAML file. Due to the YAML format's more concise nature, deployment with a YAML file is a good choice when your deployment includes only container instances.