Deploy Azure IPAM in Container App Environment

[tonyhogsten]

Hey!

We're attempting to deploy IPAM in an container app environment, as one container app (all 3 containers running in the container app). We have it deployed on a workload profile, internal networking. However, we can't seem to get it to work. The nginx isn't properly deployed as it cannot find the hosts defined in nginx.conf.

2023-12-21T10:09:31.560336786Z 2023/12/21 10:09:31 [emerg] 1#1: host not found in upstream "ipam-ui" in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:7
2023-12-21T10:09:31.560357175Z nginx: [emerg] host not found in upstream "ipam-ui" in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:7

Has anyone deployed this into container app and got it to work?

The engine and ui containers are running correctly.

engine

2023-12-21T10:03:25.279345558Z INFO:     Will watch for changes in these directories: ['/ipam']
2023-12-21T10:03:25.279434655Z INFO:     Uvicorn running on http://0.0.0.0:80 (Press CTRL+C to quit)
2023-12-21T10:03:25.279583434Z INFO:     Started reloader process [8] using WatchFiles
2023-12-21T10:03:32.467718503Z 2023-12-21 10:03:32.466 | INFO     | uvicorn.server:serve:76 - Started server process [10]
2023-12-21T10:03:32.469710873Z 2023-12-21 10:03:32.467 | INFO     | uvicorn.lifespan.on:startup:46 - Waiting for application startup.
2023-12-21T10:03:32.469818566Z 2023-12-21 10:03:32.467 | INFO     | app.main:set_globals:363 - Creating Database...
2023-12-21T10:03:32.621532657Z 2023-12-21 10:03:32.620 | WARNING  | app.main:set_globals:368 - Database exists! Using existing database...
2023-12-21T10:03:32.622741002Z 2023-12-21 10:03:32.621 | INFO     | app.main:set_globals:374 - Creating Container...
2023-12-21T10:03:34.440227262Z 2023-12-21 10:03:34.439 | INFO     | app.main:db_upgrade:189 - No existing spaces to convert...
2023-12-21T10:03:34.450057625Z 2023-12-21 10:03:34.449 | INFO     | app.main:db_upgrade:209 - No existing users to convert...
2023-12-21T10:03:34.460400060Z 2023-12-21 10:03:34.459 | INFO     | app.main:db_upgrade:229 - No existing admins to convert...
2023-12-21T10:03:34.534044866Z 2023-12-21 10:03:34.532 | INFO     | app.main:db_upgrade:248 - No existing user objects to patch...
2023-12-21T10:03:34.564305159Z 2023-12-21 10:03:34.563 | INFO     | app.main:db_upgrade:268 - No existing admin objects to patch...
2023-12-21T10:03:34.569683531Z 2023-12-21 10:03:34.569 | INFO     | app.main:db_upgrade:294 - No existing reservations to patch...
2023-12-21T10:03:34.588081990Z 2023-12-21 10:03:34.587 | INFO     | app.main:db_upgrade:321 - No existing External CIDRs to patch...
2023-12-21T10:03:34.588726072Z 2023-12-21 10:03:34.588 | INFO     | uvicorn.lifespan.on:startup:60 - Application startup complete.

ui

2023-12-21T10:03:27.266717490Z  INFO  Accepting connections at http://localhost:80

Any help would be appreciated

[DCMattyG]

Hi @tonyhogsten, whilst I won't be able to provide you each and every specific on running the IPAM solution in ACA, I can try to steer you in the correct direction. I've tested the IPAM solution in ACA before and frankly it's a bit messy and convoluted, though you can get it to work.

First and foremost, you do not need all 3 containers. NGINX isn't useful with ACA as ACA already has a built-in ingress controller.

In addition, the IPAM app is designed with the assumption there is a single url fronting the UI and the Engine components. When you separate these into multiple container apps, this is no longer true and the containers need to be instructed how to reach each other. On the Container App running the Engine, you'll need to apply an Environment Variable called IPAM_UI_URL with the value being the FQDN exposed by the Container App running the UI container. Likewise you'll need to apply an Environment Variable to the Container App running the UI called 'VITE_IPAM_ENGINE_URL' with the value being the FQDN exposed by the Container App running the Engine Container.

Besides that you'll just need to make sure the correct Environment Variables and Secrets are set that come from the original deployment and are applied to the respective containers. If all is set correctly, you should be able to hit the UI FQDN and be good to go.

Now that we've gotten through all of that, can you share some reasons that are driving you're decision to run this solution in Azure Container Apps as opposed to App Services or AKS? I'm always looking for feedback on better ways to enable the deployment of the Azure IPAM solution, but my testing of Azure Container Apps has led me to believe that though this solution does technically work, it's a bit messy and adds some unnecessary complexity (in my personal option).

Thanks so much for reaching out!

[tonyhogsten]

Thank you for your guidance!

We got it working when separating the apps as per your suggestion. We assumed that if we ran multiple containers in one app, that they should be able to reach each other locally through localhost.

Regarding as to why we are doing it, is a more complex question, but in short we are trying to introduce ways of working in different Azure services where container apps is one of them, and so we're trying to lead by example. For various reasons we can't use AKS, and while Web App would work fine, we just wanted to have a BFF example in Container Apps running.

Thank you so much for your assistance, I wish you a great continuation of this year and wish you the best.

[DCMattyG]

Great to hear @tonyhogsten, and I understand. As you can imagine it's difficult to take into account every possible way end users could deploy this product at the end of the day, but I greatly appreciate you reaching out for assistance and I'm so glad you were able to get things working in the end!

[DCMattyG]

One last note is I'm almost done collapsing this down from 3 containers into a single container. This work is nearly complete and might greatly simplify things for your ACA deployment.