IBM Cloud Code Engine#

IBM Code Engine allows you to run your application, job or container on a managed serverless platform. Auto-scale workloads and only pay for the resources you consume.

IBM Code Engine exposes both Knative and Kubernetes Job Descriptor API. Lithops supports both of them. Follow IBM Code Engine documentation to get more details on the difference between those APIs.

Installation#

Choose one option:

Option 1 (IBM CLoud Dashboard):#

  1. Navigate to the IBM Cloud Code Engine dashboard and create a new project in your preferred region.

Option 2 (IBM CLoud CLI tool):#

In this step you are required to install IBM Cloud CLI tool, Code Engine plugin and create new Code Engine project

  1. Install the IBM Cloud CLI:

    curl -sL https://ibm.biz/idt-installer | bash

  2. Login to your account, pointing to the region you want to create a project

    ibmcloud login -r us-south

  3. Install the IBM Code Engine plugin:

    ibmcloud plugin install code-engine

  4. Create a new Code Engine project (you can also do this through the dashboard). If you already have an existing project, then proceed to step 5:

    ibmcloud ce project create --name myproject

  5. Target to your project:

    ibmcloud ce project select --name myproject

Configuration#

Choose one option:

Option 1 (IBM IAM):#

  1. If you don’t have an IAM API key created, navigate to the IBM IAM dashboard.

  2. Click Create an IBM Cloud API Key and provide the necessary information.

  3. Copy the generated IAM API key (You can only see the key the first time you create it, so make sure to copy it).

  4. Locate the kubernetes config file using the IBM CLoud CLI:

    ibmcloud ce project current

  5. Print the content of the kubernetes config file and copy the namespace value under the context section.

  6. Edit your lithops config and add the following keys:

    lithops:
    backend: code_engine
    
ibm:
    iam_api_key: <IAM_API_KEY>
   
code_engine:
    namespace  : <NAMESPACE>
    region     : <REGION>

Option 2 (KUBECONFIG file):#

  1. Locate the kubernetes config file using the IBM CLoud CLI:

    ibmcloud ce project current

  2. Set or copy the KUBECONFIG environment variable as printed in the previous step:

    export KUBECONFIG=<PATH TO YAML FILE>

  3. Edit your lithops config and add the following keys:

    lithops:
    backend: code_engine
   
code_engine:
    kubecfg_path: <PATH TO CONFIG YAML FILE>

Runtime#

Use your own runtime#

If a pre-built runtime is not provided, Lithops automatically builds the default runtime the first time you run a script. For this task it uses the docker command installed locally in your machine. To make this working, you need:

  1. Install the Docker CE version.

  2. Login to your docker account:

    docker login

Custom runtime#

If you need to create a runtime with custom system packages and libraries, please follow Building and managing Lithops runtimes to run the functions

Configure a private container registry for your runtime#

Configure Docker hub#

To configure Lithops to access a private repository in your docker hub account, you need to extend the Code Engine config and add the following keys:

code_engine:
    ....
    docker_server    : docker.io
    docker_user      : <Docker hub username>
    docker_password  : <DOcker hub access TOEKN>

Configure IBM Container Registry#

To configure Lithops to access to a private repository in your IBM Container Registry, you need to extend the Code Engine config and add the following keys:

code_engine:
    ....
    docker_server    : us.icr.io  # Change-me if you have the CR in another region
    docker_user      : iamapikey
    docker_password  : <IBM IAM API KEY>

Summary of configuration keys for Job API:#

Group

Key

Default

Mandatory

Additional info

code_engine

namespace

no

Namespace name

code_engine

region

no

Cluster region. One of us-south, jp-tok, eu-de, eu-gb

code_engine

kubecfg_path

no

Mandatory if no namepsace and no region. Path to kubecfg file. Only set if config file not in ~/.kube/config or KUBECONFIG env var not present

code_engine

docker_server

docker.io

no

Docker server URL

code_engine

docker_user

no

Docker hub username

code_engine

docker_password

no

Login to your docker hub account and generate a new access token here

code_engine

max_workers

1000

no

Max number of workers per FunctionExecutor()

code_engine

worker_processes

1

no

Number of Lithops processes within a given worker. This can be used to parallelize function activations within a worker. It is recommendable to set this value to the same number of CPUs of the container.

code_engine

runtime

no

Docker image name.

code_engine

runtime_cpu

0.125

no

CPU limit. Default 0.125vCPU. See valid combinations

code_engine

runtime_memory

256

no

Memory limit in MB. Default 256Mi. See valid combinations

code_engine

runtime_timeout

600

no

Runtime timeout in seconds. Default 600 seconds

code_engine

connection_retries

no

If specified, number of job invoke retries in case of connection failure with error code 500

Lithops using Knative API of Code Engine#

The preferable way to run Lithops in Code Engine is by using the JOB API. However, Lithops can be also executed in Code Engine using the Knative API. To configure this mode of execution refer to the Knative documentation and follow the steps to configure Knative.

Test Lithops#

Once you have your compute and storage backends configured, you can run a hello world function with:

lithops test -b code_engine -s ibm_cos

Viewing the execution logs#

You can view the function executions logs in your local machine using the lithops client:

lithops logs poll

Troubleshooting#

Fault#

Lithops throws exception with ‘Missing access token parameter’

Cause / Remedy#

This likely occurs when you were logout from ibmcloud or the kubectl token can’t re-generate new authentication token. To resolve this login into ibmcloud and re-create kubectl file

ibmcloud login -r <CE Project Region>
ibmcloud target -g <GROUP> -o <ORG>
ibmcloud ce project select --name <CPROJECT NAME> --kubecfg