Not Yet Another Docker to Rancher Desktop Alternative

With the change to Docker, Docker is changing its license going forward with Docker Desktop as noted in their license and blog. Much like a former colleague of mine’s article YADPBP: Yet Another Docker to Podman Blog Post, I have entered into the Docker Desktop migration.

I’ve tried minikube, microk8s, podman, Lima-vm and Rancher Desktop. Many of these solutions run a single container, such as multipass. In fact, I tried using Multipass with Podman installed inside of the multipass vm. I found the networking and forwarding needs while testing multiple containers to a local dev environment was a pain. I spent a few days working with minikube, microk9s, podman and ended up on Racher Desktop.

Rancher Desktop has flavors for Mac and Linux (I don’t run Windows as a base OS anymore). I downloaded one of the tech preview releases from GitHub and installed. It’s fairly simple, and they have a straight-forward readme. One trick, be sure to install / setup nerdctl.

nerdctl is a Docker-compatible commandline replacement and integrate seamlessly with Rancher Desktop.

~/$ nerdctl run -p 9443:9443 --name fhir -e BOOTSTRAP_DB=true ibmcom/ibm-fhir-server
docker.io/ibmcom/ibm-fhir-server:latest:                                          resolved       |++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++| 
manifest-sha256:41f6894fa546899e02e4a8d2370bb6910eb72ed77ec58ae06c3de5e12f3ebb1c: done           |++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++| 
config-sha256:3c912cc1a5b7c69ae15c9b969ae0085839b926e825b6555a28518458f4bd4935:   done           |++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++| 
layer-sha256:06038631a24a25348b51d1bfc7d0a0ee555552a8998f8328f9b657d02dd4c64c:    done           |++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++| 
layer-sha256:661abc6f8cb3c6d78932032ce87eb294f43f6eca9daa7681816d83ee0f62fb3d:    done           |++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++| 
layer-sha256:e74a68c65fb24cc6fabe5f925d450cae385b2605d8837d5d7500bdd5bad7f268:    done           |++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++| 
layer-sha256:262268b65bd5f33784d6a61514964887bc18bc00c60c588bc62bfae7edca46f1:    done           |++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++| 
layer-sha256:d5e08b0b786452d230adf5d9050ce06b4f4d73f89454a25116927242507b603b:    done           |++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++| 
layer-sha256:50dc68e56d6bac757f0176b8b49cffc234879e221c64a8481805239073638fb4:    done           |++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++| 
layer-sha256:1831e571c997bd295bd5ae59bfafd69ba942bfe9e63f334cfdc35a8c86886d47:    done           |++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++| 
layer-sha256:d29b7147ca6a2263381a0e4f3076a034b223c041d2a8f82755c30a373bb6ade7:    done           |++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++| 
layer-sha256:a2643035bb64ff12bb72e7b47b1d88e0cdbc3846b5577a9ee9c44baf7c707b20:    done           |++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++| 
layer-sha256:3ba05464ea94778cacf3f55c7b11d7d41293c1fc169e9e290b48e2928eaad779:    done           |++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++| 
layer-sha256:6fb3372b06eb12842f94f14039c1d84608cbed52f56d3862f2c545d65e784a00:    done           |++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++| 
layer-sha256:4cf8515f0f05c79594b976e803ea54e62fcaee1f6e5cfadb354ab687b758ed55:    done           |++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++| 
layer-sha256:4debf1aa73b3e81393dc46e2f3c9334f6400e5b0160beb00196d0e5803af1e63:    done           |++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++| 
layer-sha256:ecaacecff5f80531308a1948790550b421ca642f57b78ea090b286f74f3a7ba1:    done           |++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++| 
layer-sha256:1ccf6767107a3807289170cc0149b6f60b5ed2f52ba3ba9b00b8d320951c4317:    done           |++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++| 
layer-sha256:8144e53119b8ac586492370a117aa83bc31cf439c70663a58894fc1dfe9a4e08:    done           |++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++| 
layer-sha256:16bdcde4e18e3d74352c7e42090514c7f2e0213604c74e5a6bf938647c195546:    done           |++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++| 
layer-sha256:e9726188008a01782dcb61103c7d892f605032386f5ba7ea2acbcb6cf9770a0e:    done           |++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++| 
layer-sha256:c37730e2eaef6bbb446d2ebe5ec230eef4abdb36e6153778d1ae8416f5543e7d:    done           |++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++| 
layer-sha256:35d3a4502906b8e3a4c962902925f8e1932c8fb012fa84e875494049d8a6b324:    done           |++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++| 
elapsed: 94.3s                                                                    total:  696.1  (7.4 MiB/s)                                       
bootstrap.sh - [INFO]: 2021-12-07_19:42:09 - Current directory: /opt/ibm-fhir-server
bootstrap.sh - [INFO]: 2021-12-07_19:42:09 - Performing Derby database bootstrapping
2021-12-07 19:42:11.348 00000001    INFO .common.JdbcConnectionProvider Opening connection to database: jdbc:derby:/output/derby/fhirDB;create=true
2021-12-07 19:42:13.138 00000001 WARNING ls.pool.PoolConnectionProvider Get connection took 1.791 seconds
2021-12-07 19:42:13.382 00000001    INFO m.fhir.schema.app.LeaseManager Requesting update lease for schema 'APP' [attempt 1]

When you see ready to run a smarter planet, the server is started.

[12/7/21, 19:45:00:437 UTC] 00000027 FeatureManage A   CWWKF0011I: The defaultServer server is ready to run a smarter planet. The defaultServer server started in 20.229 seconds.

When running the $healthcheck, you see:

curl -u fhiruser:change-password https://localhost:9443/fhir-server/api/v4/\$healthcheck -k -H "Prefer: return=OperationOutcome"
{"resourceType":"OperationOutcome","issue":[{"severity":"information","code":"informational","details":{"text":"All OK"}}]}

Racher Desktop is up… time to run with it…