Hosting endpoints in Docker Linux containers

This sample demonstrates how to use Docker Linux containers to host NServiceBus endpoints communicating over the RabbitMQ transport.

Prerequisites

This sample requires that the following tools are installed:

• .NET Core 7.0 SDK
• Docker Personal or higher
• If using Windows, configure Docker to use Linux containers to support the Linux-based RabbitMQ container

Running the sample

Running the sample involves building the container images and starting the multi-container application.

Building container images

Building the container images using the following command will dotnet publish (which includes dotnet restore and dotnet build) the endpoints in addition to building the container images for both the Sender and the Receiver:

$ docker-compose build

Starting containers

When the container images are ready, the containers can be started:

$ docker-compose up -d

Observing containers

Both containers log to the console. These logs can be inspected:

$ docker-compose logs sender
$ docker-compose logs receiver

Stopping and removing containers

The containers can be stopped and removed:

$ docker-compose down

Code walk-through

This sample consists of Sender and Receiver endpoints exchanging messages using the RabbitMQ transport. Each of these three components runs in a separate Docker Linux container.

Endpoint Docker image

Each endpoint is a container built on top of the official mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/runtime:7.0 image from Docker Hub. The container image builds and publishes the endpoint binaries and then uses those artifacts to build the final container image:

FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/runtime:7.0 AS base

FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:7.0 AS build

WORKDIR /src
COPY . .
WORKDIR /src/Receiver
RUN dotnet publish -c Release -o /app

FROM base AS final
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=build /app .
ENTRYPOINT ["dotnet", "Receiver.dll"]

Multi-container application

Endpoint container images for the Sender and the Receiver are combined with an official RabbitMQ image to create a multi-container application using Docker Compose:

version: "3.8"
services:   
    sender:
        image: sender
        build:
            context: .
            dockerfile: ./Sender/Dockerfile
        depends_on:
            - rabbitmq
    receiver:
        image: receiver
        build:
            context: .
            dockerfile: ./Receiver/Dockerfile
        depends_on:
            - rabbitmq
    rabbitmq:
        image: "rabbitmq:3.11-management"
        ports:
            - "15672:15672"
            - "5672:5672"
        healthcheck:
            test: ["CMD-SHELL", "if rabbitmqctl status; then \nexit 0 \nfi \nexit 1"]
            interval: 10s
            retries: 5

Transport configuration

Endpoints configure the RabbitMQ transport to use the broker instance running in the rabbitmq container:

var transport = endpointConfiguration.UseTransport<RabbitMQTransport>();
transport.ConnectionString("host=rabbitmq");
transport.UseConventionalRoutingTopology(QueueType.Quorum);

Waiting for RabbitMQ broker to become available

Both endpoints block startup until the broker becomes available using the shared ProceedIfRabbitMqIsAlive hosted service.

See the docker documentation for other options to control startup order.