Using custom stack/rootfs in PCF Dev - rootfs

A default stack in PCF Dev is cflinuxfs2 (based on Ubuntu 14.04). But I would like to use a custom stack (specifically cflinuxfs3 based on Ubuntu 18.04).
I have built it successfully (also created a corresponding BOSH release), but I am unable to register it to my PCF Dev environment. The problem seems to be that PCF Dev does not support BOSH Director.
I have also tried to use the CF Stack API, partially succeeded in registering a new stack (name and description), but was not able to upload the actual rootfs tarball.
Could anyone help me how to properly upload a custom stack to PCF Dev?

It has been my experience that PCF Dev is mainly suitable for application development. If you want to create any bosh release, you should be using bosh lite.
I highly recommend you do a bosh lite setup with cloud foundry, and you can adjust anything you want in that setup. I have been able to do that based on bosh lite instructions and cloud foundry instructions. And I recommend you use https://github.com/starkandwayne/bucc to help you get started with bosh lite, and then add cf on top.

Related

How do I deploy .BNA file on IBM cloud blockchain 2.0 resource?

I am trying to set up a rest API that is connected to an IBM blockchain resource. I have developed a model file, logic file, and acl file.
I have it all packed up in a nice tidy .BNA, and now i would like to deploy it to a channel of my IBM cloud blockchain 2.0 resource, running on a free kubernetes cluster.
Everything on the cloud blockchain resource is set up perfectly, and all orgs, peers, orderers, msps, and CAs are set up correctly. The channel is set up properly, and has nodes and an MSP connected. I have all the admin cred .jsons
The channel only accepts smart contract files, so I tried repackaging the files (logic.js, permissions.acl, and model.cto) by putting them in a contract folder, and using the IBM Blockchain vsCode plugin to package them as a smart contract, but trying to install on the IBM cloud crashes the browser.
I am thinking maybe I have to remote connect into the IBM kubernetes cluster that the blockchain resource is sitting on, and use the hyperledger composer CLI to install the .BNA
Seems very unintuitive, but thats the one thing I can think to try while I wait for this question to get answered.
I expected to just be able to install the .BNA as a smart contract, like a .cds.
In August 2018, IBM announced that we are no longer investing in Hyperledger Composer, and instead focusing 100% on Hyperledger Fabric. As a result, IBM Blockchain Platform v2.0 will not provide any support or tooling around Hyperledger Composer.
The good news is that we've significantly invested in the programming model (APIs and SDKs) used to write smart contracts and applications in Fabric v1.4, and we've also released some great developer tooling in the form of an extension for Visual Studio Code: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=IBMBlockchain.ibm-blockchain-platform
The extension offers an extensive set of capabilities for writing smart contracts - with tooling for creating new projects, packaging them, deploying them, testing them, and debugging them - all from within one of the most popular IDEs around.
To get started - just install Visual Studio Code, and then the IBM Blockchain Platform extension (there are a few prereqs, check the README first). After that, you will be presented with a homepage that links you to tutorials and samples to help you get started.
For the first one, I can't really suggest a solution. At best, try installing and using the composer CLI and the latest version to make the bna file. Composer playground isn't maintained as well imo.
For the second part, in the connection.json file and docker there will be a bunch of IP addresses that look something like localhost:7040 and so on for the CA, orderer, org and peer. You will need to replace these using the IPs given by IBM. The examples on github that demonstrate integration are to do with nodejs SDK and not composer, however you can refer to https://github.com/IBM-Blockchain/vehicle-manufacture to get the idea.
This link is the only I could find for Hyperledger Composer and IBM platform.
(comments were getting too long to fit)

Can't find Blockchain Cloud Foundry app

I followed the instructions on IoT Asset Tracking on a Hyperledger Blockchain . BUILD and DEPLOY finished successfully, but I can't find the composer-rest-server- app under Cloud Foundry Applications.
I can use the CF Blockchain services, enter the Monitor and open the Swagger UI. The question is, where can I find the application-specific APIs mentioned in the tutorial:
If everything deployed correctly, you can find the app in the IBM Cloud dashboard at https://console.bluemix.net. If you have many apps and services deployed, make sure to filter correctly or to be aware of paging.
If you suspect that something got wrong during build and deploy, go to the toolchain and check the logs. The toolchains can also be reached from the dashboard.

How to connect the back end and the front end and use the Discovery API in IBM cloud app services?

I am very new to using APIs so please excuse me. I am currently using a Python-Django App service from IBM cloud app services and the IBM Watson Discovery resouce. I have followed all the steps given here:
https://console.bluemix.net/docs/apps/tutorials/tutorial_web.html#before-you-begin
I have a machine that has docker and so the app got built successfully. However I am lost as to how I am supposed to get the front end ( which I am writing in bootstrap, javascript ) to connect to the backend and link the API.
EDIT
For example : I want my app to accept documents, feed them in Discovery, extract the keywords and sentiments and display them in the UI. How do I know what to access from the server side code and what to link where in the UI.
It is a very broad question but its a compulsory project I need to do and I am clueless. Pleaassee Help !
Before you try to integrate an API, you will need to be familiar with Python and Django. If that is not the case, then you really need to go through a series of tutorials.
Then before deploying to the cloud, you will be better off running your Django app locally on your laptop. Use pip to install the watson-developer-cloud pypi module and use the API documentation to build the python code in your Django application - https://www.ibm.com/watson/developercloud/discovery/api/v1/python.html?python#query
If none of this makes sense, then you need to brush up on your knowledge of Python, Pip, and Django.
When you have the app running on your machine, then you will be ready to package it up into either a docker image or cloud foundry container and deploy to the cloud.

Can Bluemix environment be replicated on developer laptops?

Can Bluemix environment with Liberty be replicated on developer laptops for offline development? Will I be able to run Bluemix local with Openstack on a quad core i5?
You can run Cloud Foundry in a VM on your laptop using bosh-lite. You could also install the open source Liberty buildpack into this local CF with the buildpack dependencies cached giving you an environment that could work offline.
The Bluemix services will not be available to you though, if you are offline, so the answer really depends on what services you need. You could reasonably set up some kind of local database but many of the services would just be unavailable.
I am not sure what exact your requirement is. IBM Liberty profile can be setup with Eclipse and you can create a server in local to test your java/JEE code. This is very simple, you need to install liberty plugin in Eclipse and create a server. See documentations in IBM web site.
See this url if it helps.. you can integrate BlueMix server to your Ecplise IDE
https://console.ng.bluemix.net/docs/manageapps/eclipsetools/eclipsetools.html

Heroku-like services for Scala?

I love Heroku but I would prefer to develop in Scala rather than Ruby on Rails.
Does anyone know of any services like Heroku that work with Scala?
UPDATE: Heroku now officially supports Scala - see answers below for links
As of October 3rd 2011, Heroku officially supports Scala, Akka and sbt.
http://blog.heroku.com/archives/2011/10/3/scala/
Update
Heroku has just announced support for Java.
Update 2
Heroku has just announced support for Scala
Also
Check out Amazon Elastic Beanstalk.
To deploy Java applications using
Elastic Beanstalk, you simply:
Create your application as you
normally would using any editor or IDE
(e.g. Eclipse).
Package your
deployable code into a standard Java
Web Application Archive (WAR file).
Upload your WAR file to Elastic
Beanstalk using the AWS Management
Console, the AWS Toolkit for Eclipse,
the web service APIs, or the Command
Line Tools.
Deploy your application.
Behind the scenes, Elastic Beanstalk
handles the provisioning of a load
balancer and the deployment of your
WAR file to one or more EC2 instances
running the Apache Tomcat application
server.
Within a few minutes you will
be able to access your application at
a customized URL (e.g.
http://myapp.elasticbeanstalk.com/).
Once an application is running,
Elastic Beanstalk provides several
management features such as:
Easily deploy new application versions
to running environments (or rollback
to a previous version).
Access
built-in CloudWatch monitoring metrics
such as average CPU utilization,
request count, and average latency.
Receive e-mail notifications through
Amazon Simple Notification Service
when application health changes or
application servers are added or
removed.
Access Tomcat server log
files without needing to login to the
application servers.
Quickly restart
the application servers on all EC2
instances with a single command.
Another strong contender is Cloud Foundry. One of the nice features of Cloud Foundry is the ability to have a local version of "the cloud" running on your laptop so you can deploy and test offline.
I started working on the exact same thing as what you said a few weeks ago. I use Lift, which is a great framework and has a lot of potential, on top of Linux chroot environment.
I'm done with a demo version, but Linux chroot is not that stable (nor secure), so I'm now switching to FreeBSD jail on Amazon EC2, and hopefully it'll be done soon.
http://lifthub.net/
There are also other Java hosting environment including VMForce mentioned above.
If you are looking for a custom setup which also has the ease of deployment that heroku offers: http://dotcloud.com. They are invite only right now but I was given access in under three days. I am working on a Lift/MongoDB project there and it works well.
Off the top of my head, only VMForce comes to mind, but its not available yet. This will be a Java-oriented service, so that probably means you'll have to spend a wee bit of time figuring out how to package the app.
For more discussion, there was a debate about this in 2008.
I'm not entirely sure if it's really suitable or not, but people have deployed Scala applications to Google App Engine, for example http://mawson.wordpress.com/2009/04/10/first-steps-with-scala-on-google-app-engine/
Actually you can run scala on heroku right now. You don't believe it?
https://github.com/lstoll/heroku-playframework-scala
I'm not sure the tricks lstoll has used are legit but using the
new cedar platform where you can run custom processes and some
ingenious Gemfile hacking he has managed to bootstrap the Java
play platform into a process. Seems to work as he has a live
site running a test page.
Stax cloud service offers preconfigured lift project skeleton. Also, there is a tutorial on how to deploy lift project to appengine.