Create a Container Image for HighByte Intelligence Hub

FROM eclipse-temurin:21-jdk-alpine

WORKDIR /highbyte
COPY ./HighByte-Intelligence-Hub-4.3.1/appData/ /highbyte/appData
COPY ./HighByte-Intelligence-Hub-4.3.1/runtime/ /highbyte/runtime
COPY ./HighByte-Intelligence-Hub-4.3.1/configuration /highbyte/configuration

# Make script executable
RUN chmod +x /highbyte/runtime/start-linux.sh

# Default environment variables
ENV OTEL_AGENT_JAR="" \
    JAVA_OPTS="" \
    OTEL_ENDPOINT="http://localhost:4318"\
    START_MODE="Default"\
    HA_NODE="node1"\
    HA_URI="jdbc:postgresql://pgdb-service:5432/dbName?user=username&password=password"

# Suggested ports
EXPOSE 45245
EXPOSE 1885
EXPOSE 8885
EXPOSE 9001 
EXPOSE 45345

# USER defines user the container will be run as.
RUN adduser highbyteuser -D
RUN chown -R highbyteuser /highbyte
USER highbyteuser

# Entrypoint runs the start script
ENTRYPOINT ["/highbyte/runtime/start-linux.sh"]

This file is best understood in pieces. 

The beginning line
FROM eclipse-temurin:21-jdk-alpine
defines the starting image that will used as a base. As described above, eclipse-temurin is a linux distribution with a Java runtime pre-installed. 21-jdk-alpine is a version tag that indicates this image has a Java 21 runtime installed atop Alpine Linux. This base image does NOT need to be downloaded or stored in advance.

#!/bin/sh

cd "$(dirname "$0")" || exit 1

print_usage() {
  echo "Usage: $0 [otel|help]"
  echo "  otel [collector endpoint]: Use OpenTelemetry agent to collect metrics. Optionally specify a collector endpoint."
  echo "  help: Show this help message."
}

# Environment variables are defined by image and container creation
#OTEL_AGENT_JAR=""
#JAVA_OPTS=""
#OTEL_ENDPOINT="http://localhost:4318"

# Parse arguments manually
while [ $# -gt 0 ]; do
  case "$1" in
    otel)
      OTEL_AGENT_JAR="opentelemetry-javaagent.jar"
      if [ -n "$2" ]; then
        OTEL_ENDPOINT="$2"
        shift
      fi
      ;;
    help)
      print_usage
      exit 0
      ;;
    *)
      echo "Unknown argument: $1"
      print_usage
      exit 1
      ;;
  esac
  shift
done

OTEL_AGENT_PROPERTIES="-Dotel.exporter.otlp.endpoint=${OTEL_ENDPOINT} \
-Dotel.service.name=HighByteIntelligenceHub \
-Dotel.exporter.otlp.protocol=http/protobuf \
-Dotel.metrics.exporter=otlp \
-Dotel.logs.exporter=otlp \
-Dotel.metrics.exporter.interval=30000 \
-Dotel.traces.sampler=always_off \
-Dotel.instrumentation.enabled=false \
-Dotel.instrumentation.runtime-metrics.enabled=true \
-Dotel.instrumentation.logback-appender.enabled=false \
-Dotel.instrumentation.log4j-appender.enabled=false \
-Dotel.instrumentation.jul-appender.enabled=false \
-Dotel.instrumentation.log4j-context-data.enabled=false \
-Dotel.javaagent.extensions=com.highbyte.intelligencehub.runtime.otel \
-Dotel.javaagent.logging=application"

if [ -n "$OTEL_AGENT_JAR" ]; then
  JAVA_OPTS="$JAVA_OPTS -javaagent:lib/$OTEL_AGENT_JAR $OTEL_AGENT_PROPERTIES"
  echo "Starting HighByte Intelligence Hub with OpenTelemetry agent..."
  echo "JAVA_OPTS: $JAVA_OPTS"
fi

if [ "$START_MODE" = "HA" ]; then
  # Launch java HA Mode
  java $JAVA_OPTS -cp "intelligencehub-runtime.jar:lib/*" com.highbyte.intelligencehub.runtime.HAMain start -n $HA_NODE -j env:HA_URI || \
  (
    java $JAVA_OPTS -cp "intelligencehub-runtime.jar:lib/*" com.highbyte.intelligencehub.runtime.HAMain create -n $HA_NODE -j env:HA_URI && \
    execjava$JAVA_OPTS-cp"intelligencehub-runtime.jar:lib/*"com.highbyte.intelligencehub.runtime.HAMainstart-n$HA_NODE-jenv:HA_URI
  )
else
  exec java $JAVA_OPTS -cp "intelligencehub-runtime.jar:lib/*" com.highbyte.intelligencehub.runtime.Main start
fi

Most of these lines are unchanged from the default configuration and have largely to do with configuring OpenTelemetry. This image will not be configured specifically for OpenTelemetry, and that process is outside the scope of this article. 

The notable sections are as follows:

One block of commands setting variables is commented out. the '#' character indicates a comment, meaning descriptive language can be added in for human user/reader context, but those lines will not be observed by the program assembling the container image. This lets us make some notes or 'deactivate' certain pieces of the start script.
# Environment variables are defined by image and container creation
#OTEL_AGENT_JAR=""
#JAVA_OPTS=""
#OTEL_ENDPOINT="http://localhost:4318"
These lines set environment variables in the default installation, but Docker will allow the user to set these variables elsewhere, so these lines are deactivated to avoid overwriting a user's instruction.

Near the end of the file, there is a block of code:

if [ "$START_MODE" = "HA" ]; then
# Launch java HA Mode
java $JAVA_OPTS -cp "intelligencehub-runtime.jar:lib/*" com.highbyte.intelligencehub.runtime.HAMain start -n $HA_NODE -j env:HA_URI || \
(
  java $JAVA_OPTS -cp "intelligencehub-runtime.jar:lib/*" com.highbyte.intelligencehub.runtime.HAMain create -n $HA_NODE -j env:HA_URI && \
  execjava$JAVA_OPTS-cp"intelligencehub-runtime.jar:lib/*"com.highbyte.intelligencehub.runtime.HAMainstart-n$HA_NODE-jenv:HA_URI
)
else
exec java $JAVA_OPTS -cp "intelligencehub-runtime.jar:lib/*" com.highbyte.intelligencehub.runtime.Main start
fi

This block checks to see if the user has set the environment variable "START_MODE" to 'HA.' If so, the container tries to join a High Availability pool if available - if not available, it creates the pool and then joins it using the info from "HA_NODE" and "HA_URI." And if the user did NOT set "START_MODE" to "HA," then the Intelligence Hub starts in standard mode. 

This start-linux.sh script will replace the start-linux.sh script in the default software package at Highbyte-Intelligence-Hub-X.X.X/runtime/start-linux.sh.

Process Walkthrough for Image Creation

With the context of the above additional pieces required to create the custom Docker image, the following is a step-by-step process to create the custom image. This assumes a prior installation of Docker or Docker Desktop.

• Download Intelligence Hub form the HighByte Account Portal Downloads page. 
  • Extract the zip folder
  • Make note of the "inner folder" that holds appdata, runtime, and configuration directories. 
• Save the above Dockerfile into the extracted directory along side / next to the inner folder.
  • the dockerfile should simply be named 'Dockerfile' with no extensions.
• Replace the "inner folder"/runtime/start-linux.sh with the start-linux.sh script defined above.
  • At this point, it is not necessary, but beneficial to also remove start-windows.bat, start-macos.sh, stop-windows.bat, and stop-macos.sh.
• Open Windows Command Prompt or PowerShell and navigate to the "outer folder" - the directory in which you have stored the "inner folder" and the Dockerfile. 
• In the same Powershell or Command Prompt, run the command docker build -t highbyteu:4.3.1 .
This may take a few minutes to complete. 
  
  • This command instructs docker to use the Dockerfile to create the image.
    • Docker will automatically download the required Eclipse-Temurin image necessary to start.
  • The image will be named "highbyteu" for "highbyte unified" - this can be changed as desiered
  • The -t flag indicates that the image will be tagged with 4.3.1 which is the Intelligence Hub version being used here. This is a good convention and should generally be followed.
  • The final '.' at the end means "use the resources here" to build the image. This is where we stored the
    Dockerfile and the downloaded Intelligence Hub files. 

• Verify your image is available with the command docker image

If all is successful, the image should now be ready for use.