AEM Docker Stack Environment

The AEM Docker Stack Environment is a simple way to get a full 1-1-1 (Author - Publish - Dispatcher) Adobe AEM stack running in docker. It's very similar to the AMS (Adobe Managed Services) environment, and the Dockerfiles were written to allow the installation of packages in the base image or the different run modes (e.g. author and publisher).

Since AMS uses the RHEL distro, the dispatcher is built on top of Centos7 and the aem-base image (from which the author and publish inherit from) are based on the amazoncorretto:11 image .

The project structure is as follows:

Structure
aem-base	Base image for all run modes and should contains the aem-quickstart-$version.jar and the license.properties file and initial bootstap packages (see disclaimer above on how to get those)
author	Builds the aem-base image and sets the instance to the author run-mode
publish	Builds the aem-base image and sets the instance to the publish run-mode
dispatcher	Builds an apache server with the dispatcher module and an haproxy server to mimic SSL

Disclaimer

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) is a proprietary software developed and owned by Adobe Systems. It is a commercial product and requires a license to use. As a proprietary solution, the source code of AEM is not publicly available, and only Adobe has the rights to modify and distribute the software. Organizations that wish to use AEM must enter into a licensing agreement with Adobe to obtain the necessary permissions and access to the software.

Basic Setup

1 - Clone the repository to your local machine

$ git clone {project url}

2 - Copy the adobe proprietary (See disclaimer above) aem-quickstart-6.5.0.jar and license.properties files into the root of the aem-base folder. Make sure the files are named exactly like that. If you wish to use different filenames you can set these in the arg variable AEM_FILE

$ cp aem-quickstart-6.5.0.jar ~/aem-docker-stack/aem-base  && cp license.properties ~/aem-docker-stack/aem-base 

2.1 (Optional) If you would like certain packages to be installed by default in the base image, copy them (the zip files) into the aem-docker-stack/aem-base/packages folder. This will save you having to install these packages manually (i.e. via package manager) everytime you delete a container.

$ cp aem_service_pack17.zip ./aem-docker-stack/aem-base/packages && \
cp acs_commons.zip ./aem-docker-stack/aem-base/packages && \
cp wknd_sites.zip ./aem-docker-stack/aem-base/packages

2.2 (Optional) You can do the same to the author and/or Publisher if you wish to install packages specific to each instance.

$ cp xraymode.zip ./aem-docker-stack/author/packages && \
cp publisher_mem.zip ./aem-docker-stack/publish/packages

3 - If you do not have a valid dispatcher configuration in your project and want one that matches the AMS cloud setup and that starts running immediately , run the script:

$ chmod +x ./aem-docker-stack/dispatcher/init-dispatcher-config.sh
$ ./init-dispatcher-config.sh

If you however have a dispatcher configuration available in your AEM project, simply bind your project's local path to the container paths (as shown in the docker-compose.yaml below).

4 - Check all environment variables in ./dispatcher/scripts/env_dispatcher.sh and change accordingly. Especially the author and publish ip's to match your own.

The defaults are as follows:

DISP_ID=docker
AUTHOR_IP=192.168.10.10 (your ip)
AUTHOR_PORT=4502
AUTHOR_DEFAULT_HOSTNAME=author.docker.local
AUTHOR_DOCROOT=/mnt/var/www/author
PUBLISH_IP=192.168.10.10 (your ip)
PUBLISH_PORT=4503
PUBLISH_DEFAULT_HOSTNAME=publish.docker.local
PUBLISH_DOCROOT=/mnt/var/www/html
LIVECYCLE_IP=127.0.0.1
LIVECYCLE_PORT=8080
LIVECYCLE_DEFAULT_HOSTNAME=aemforms-exampleco-dev.adobecqms.net
LIVECYCLE_DOCROOT=/mnt/var/www/lc
PUBLISH_FORCE_SSL=0
AUTHOR_FORCE_SSL=0
CRX_FILTER=deny
DISPATCHER_FLUSH_FROM_ANYWHERE=allow
ENV_TYPE=dev
RUNMODE=sites

5 - Launch the full stack with:

$ docker-compose up -d

A docker-compose.yaml is provided, but you can of course modify it to your needs. It may take a while for the entire stack to finish the boot the first time, especially if you have many packages in the .../packages folder. Once ready, test your configuration with:

• author - {yourip}:4502 (e.g. http://192.168.10.10:4502)
• publish - {yourip}:4503 (e.g. http://192.168.10.10:4503)
• dispatcher - http://we-retail.docker.local/content/we-retail/language-masters/en.html (***)

Configure your localhost file (***)

In order for the dispatcher to work correctly, it is advisable to configure your hosts file accordingly.

OS
Windows	c:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts
Linux	/etc/hosts

$ sudo nano /etc/hosts

127.0.0.1 author.docker.local
127.0.0.1 publish.docker.local
127.0.0.1 we-retail.docker.local
127.0.0.1 host.docker.internal

Docker Compose volume bindings

As mentioned above, you can adjust the docker-compose volume bindings. You can either copy your dispatcher configuration inside the default paths (AMS), or bind new ones to the container default location:

• Default Configuration

    volumes:
    # Dispatcher configuration
      - ./dispatcher/ams/2.6/etc/httpd/conf:/etc/httpd/conf:ro
      - ./dispatcher/ams/2.6/etc/httpd/conf.d:/etc/httpd/conf.d:ro
      - ./dispatcher/ams/2.6/etc/httpd/conf.dispatcher.d:/etc/httpd/conf.dispatcher.d:ro
      - ./dispatcher/ams/2.6/etc/httpd/conf.modules.d:/etc/httpd/conf.modules.d:ro

    # Caching      
      - ./dispatcher/mnt/author_docroot:/mnt/var/www/author:rw
      - ./dispatcher/mnt/publish_docroot:/mnt/var/www/html:rw
      
    # Logs   
      - ./dispatcher/mnt/log:/var/log/httpd:rw

• Custom Project Config

    volumes:
    # Dispatcher configuration
      - /{my_project_location}/dispatcher/src/conf:/etc/httpd/conf:ro
      - /{my_project_location}/dispatcher/src/conf.d:/etc/httpd/conf.d:ro
      - /{my_project_location}/dispacther/src/conf.dispatcher.d:/etc/httpd/conf.dispatcher.d:ro
      - /{my_project_location}/dispatcher/src/conf.modules.d:/etc/httpd/conf.modules.d:ro

    # Caching      
      - /{my_project_location}/author_docroot:/mnt/var/www/author:rw
      - /{my_project_location}/publish_docroot:/mnt/var/www/html:rw
      
    # Logs   
      - /{my_project_location}/my_log:/var/log/httpd:rw

Remember that if you change Apache/Dispatcher configuration, you must restart the apache. To access the dispatcher shell do:

docker exec -it dispatcher /bin/bash

or

docker restart -t0 dispatcher

The last command kills the container straight away without waiting for it to finish gracefully.

Tip

Use Portainer to admin your stack. It works great with it!