Process Containerization

You can transform processes in the VMs that are identified as non-analysable components during analysis.

Prerequisites

• Ensure that you have the required permissions. For more information, see Overview Application Transformer for VMware Tanzu Roles.

• Add a vCenter Server.
• Assign REPLATFORM tag to the VM that contains a process to containerize.
• Add an Image Registry.
• You must have read permission on the folders or files that you select for copying to the OCI image.
  Note: In some versions of Windows OS Mozilla Firefox browser, process containerization stops responding after Entrypoint stage.

  To avoid the issue, update the Mozilla Firefox browser to the latest version or use a different browser. You can see the list of supported at Supported Web Browsers.

Procedure

1. Click Transform from the main menu.
2. On the left navigation page, go to Inventory > Virtual Machines.
3. Click on the three dots next to the VM name.
4. Select Process Containerization.
   You see the different phases involved to create a docker image for the process.
5. Initiate the Image Template Creation.
   1. Enter an unique name to identify image template.
   2. Enter the base image name in the repository/image:tag format to use as base image for building OCI image.
   3. Select a source registry to pull the base image. By default, Application Transformer for VMware Tanzu tries to pull from docker hub with anonymous account, which might later fail due to docker restrictions.
   4. Click Validate to verify if the base image exists.
   5. Click Save > Next.
6. Select the environment variables.
   1. Search or scroll-down to select a process on the left section of the screen.
   2. Select the required environment variables on the right section of the screen.
      Note: You can add custom variables.
   3. Click Save > Next.
   These are the values to the ENV parameter in the docker file.
7. Expand the file tree to select the files and folders to copy from the source VM to the image.
   Note: If the file or folder has more than 10 recursive symlinks, you see the Too many symlinks encountered in resolving filename error message. Application Transformer for VMware Tanzu does not create symlink for the file with in the image, instead it copies the file content.
8. Click Upload to override configurations or allow customizations and select the files.

   You must upload the file with same file name or a zipped folder with same name to override the source VM files and folder. These overridden files will be copied to the image. You can delete the overridden file, if required.

9. Click Save > Next.
10. Upload a shell script (.sh file) to configure the container that will run as an executable or edit the commands to start the docker image.
    Note: By default, the command line of the selected process is used as entrypoint.sh, which you can modify.
11. Click Save > Next.
12. Review or modify the parameter values that you provided for the docker file and click Next.
13. Specify the image tag and enter the repository to push the built OCI image and artifacts.
14. Click Validate and click Containerize.
    You see the Build Image and Push Image tasks are running in the Recent Tasks pane.

Results

Go to Transform > Artifacts > Image Templates to see the new image template that you created.

What to do next

• Click the Download Image Artifact link to download the image template.

  The template contains, the files that you downloaded, a sample deployment file, the docker file, and the entry point script file.

• Use the deployment file to edit and deploy the image in the Tanzu Kubernetes Grid cluster.