Configure Application Containers

Many aspects of Commerce application container configuration are specified in files that are checked into source control, in the CloudOps for Kubernetes Git project cloud-ops-kubernetes under path terraform/commerce-stack/env-file. Elastic Path refers to these files as Resource Profiles.

The Resource Profiles specify configuration values that can be tuned per environment type, such as memory and CPU allocation for the various application containers.

Two Resource Profile files are included out of the box:

• terraform/commerce-stack/env-file/dev.tfvars: An example that is a suitable starting point for a development or QA environment.
• terraform/commerce-stack/env-file/prod-small.tfvars: An example that is a suitable starting point for a production environment with low load requirements.

Creating a Custom Resource Profile

If is common for Commerce environments to be tuned to meet unique requirements. Complete the below steps to create custom resourcing profiles, to tune your Commerce container configuration.

1. Copy one of the existing files to a new file in the terraform/commerce-stack/env-file directory. Ensure that new file has no spaces in the name and has the .tfvars extension.

2. Make the desired changes to the values in the new *.tfvars file.

3. Commit and push the changes to the CloudOps for Kubernetes repository and branch used by the Jenkins job deploy-or-delete-commerce-stack.

You can create multiple resource profiles. It is possible to have a different resource profile for each type of environment, or even a unique profile for each environment.

Using the Resource Profiles

You specify which resource profile to use when you configure a Commerce environment using the deploy-or-delete-commmerce-stack Jenkins job. That job contains a parameter named epStackResourcingProfile, and that parameter is where you specify which resource profile to use for the given Commerce environment.

The value to specify for parameter epStackResourcingProfile is the file name, minus the extension. For example:

• If you want to use terraform/commerce-stack/env-file/prod-small.tfvars then specify prod-small in parameter epStackResourcingProfile.

• If you created and want to use a custom file named terraform/commerce-stack/env-file/my-custom-profile1.tfvars then specify my-custom-profile1 in parameter epStackResourcingProfile.

Contents of the Resource Profile Files

The Resource Profile files contain various values that impact different aspect of the container configuration. The details below are a guide to the purpose to the various values in the files.

• Used to configure the Kubernetes container resource allocation:

  • EP_*_CPU_CORES
  • EP_*_CONTAINER_MEMORY

• Used to configure the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) heap size: EP_*_JVM_MEMORY

• Used to configure the Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA), if the HPA enabled in the deploy-or-delete-commmerce-stack Jenkins with parameter includeHorizontalPodAutoscalers:

  • EP_*_MIN_REPLICAS
  • EP_*_MIN_REPLICAS
  • EP_*_TARGET_CPU_UTILIZATION
  • EP_*_MAX_SURGE
  • EP_*_MAX_UNAVAIL

• Used to configure the size and cleanup of the volume used to store Java heap dumps:

  • EP_HEAPDUMP_PVC_SIZE
  • EP_APP_HEAPDUMP_MAX_USAGE

• Used to define JVM arguments used by all Commerce applications: EP_X_JVM_ARGS

• Used to define JVM arguments for specific Commerce applications:

  • EP_BATCH_X_JVM_ARGS
  • EP_CM_X_JVM_ARGS
  • EP_CORTEX_X_JVM_ARGS
  • EP_SYNC_X_JVM_ARGS
  • EP_INTEGRATION_X_JVM_ARGS
  • EP_SEARCH_X_JVM_ARGS

important

To use the above JVM arguments for specific Commerce applications, ensure that you are using and building your Commerce images with Commerce containerization tools that support this option.

The following versions of the Elastic Path Docker project support this feature.

• Release 4.5.2 and higher.
• Release 4.4.5 and higher.
• Release 4.3.5 and higher.