[sunagra27]

Dear all,


I wanted to run OpenFOAM simulation inside docker container, for this I have built the docker image from dockerfile. The dockerfile has Openfoam 5 installation along with necessary requirements.


1. When the image is built, OpenFOAM works perfectly when I enter into the container and test with "icoFoam" command.


2. But, when I exec it with "CMD" inside dockerfile, it throws an error stating "icoFoam not found".


3. All installation done with new user and not in root.


Below is the dockerfile content.

###################################################################################

   

USER root

# Install OpenFOAM5.0, paraviewopenfoam54 and PyFoam
 # Add dl.openfoam.org to the list of software repositories


 RUN sh -c "wget -O - http://dl.openfoam.org/gpg.key | apt-key add -"


 # Install the dependancies (Can also have a requirements file and build from there)


 RUN apt-get install software-properties-common -y
RUN add-apt-repository http://dl.openfoam.org/ubuntu
RUN apt-get install apt-transport-https -y
 
RUN apt-get update -y
 
RUN apt-get -y install openfoam5


# New user creation
RUN groupadd -r sunag && useradd -m -r -g sunag sunag

# Source bashrc
RUN echo "source /opt/openfoam5/etc/bashrc" >> /home/sunag/.bashrc

USER sunag

# Install pip packages for specific user
RUN python -m pip install --user numpy scipy pandas scikit-image opencv-python PyFoam open3d numpy-stl gunicorn


WORKDIR /home
CMD icoFoam

4. The CMD command when docker image is run, throws "icoFoam not found", but when the entering the container and running icoFoam, it works perfectly.


So, what am I missing here or what work around needs to be done?


Hope, it is understood.


Regards,
Sunag R A.

[olesen]

If you are running CMD, I don't know that you will have all scripts setup properly. For this we use a backend dispatch script to relay things through. See the packaging files.

https://develop.openfoam.com/packaging/containers

For example, if you even just grab the start script as described here: https://develop.openfoam.com/Develop...ompiled/docker

And use the 'openfoam-docker' script.
For example,

$ openfoam-docker / icoFoam -help

With this script and container, you can do lots of different things:

• openfoam-docker -help # help for the script
• openfoam-docker # start interactive (shell) session with openfoam
• openfoam-docker / icoFoam # Run a command within the container
• openfoam-docker -c -- comand args # Run some shell commands
• openfoam-docker / help # Display README from within the container
• openfoam-docker / -help # Display help for the dispatch script within the container
• openfoam-docker / -verbose icoFoam # Verbose sourcing of openfoam, execute application

I think that your problem has been solved if you either just use one of these existing container workflows, or you adapt the container (or scripts) to better suit your purposes. However, either you need to create dedicated containers for each solver, utility. Or you need to use a myriad of symlinks within the container to define different dispatching. But since you will very likely want to have script such as 'openfoam-docker', would probably be to do all of your symlink wrapping there.


EDIT: forgot the mention there is also a 'openfoam-docker -podman' option if that is your preference.

[sunagra27]

Dear oselen,


Thank you for your reply. With respect to the links you have shared, I actually wanted openfoam v5 only since all the files are created according to that.



And, as per the dockerfile contents, all the installation is perfect since openfoam works inside the container without any issues.

Is there any work around other than the ones you have mentioned? Like, since the error says

/bin/sh/:1:icoFoam not found

, I checked with permission issues using chmod 777 and also changing ownership too. But, from docker CMD nothing seems to be working.


I do not want to enter the container and run the OpenFOAM simulations, since I will using flask code to get requests from outside the docker, where the flask code has a function of another python file which contains all the OpenFOAM related python codes for simulation. So, I need it to work from CMD only.


Regards,


Sunag R A.

[olesen]

Originally Posted by sunagra27

Dear oselen,

Thank you for your reply. With respect to the links you have shared, I actually wanted openfoam v5 only since all the files are created according to that.

And, as per the dockerfile contents, all the installation is perfect since openfoam works inside the container without any issues.

Is there any work around other than the ones you have mentioned? ...

I can only offer help on the openfoam.com docker installation. The "v5" you mention is from somebody else. If using CMD instead of ENTRYPOINT is what you require for you application (although I honestly don't see what was wrong with my solution) you'll have to do that on your own. However, in the end you will likely discover that you need a similar mechanism to get your environment setup (within the container) as part of your dispatch.

[olesen]

Originally Posted by sunagra27

I do not want to enter the container and run the OpenFOAM simulations, since I will using flask code to get requests from outside the docker,...

I'm not sure if you noticed that the docker solution that I mentioned can be used non-interactively. Did it not work for you?

[sunagra27]

Dear oselen,


There is nothing wrong in your solution. I wanted to work with Openfoam v5 and so dint give a work around with the other versions.


I did solve it lately by adding all the ENV path to dockerfile which corresponds to Openfoam and now it is running perfectly.


Excrept of dockerfile ENV addition

ENV WM_PROJECT_INST_DIR /opt
ENV FOAM_RUN /home/niramai/OpenFOAM/-5.0/run
ENV ParaView_MAJOR 5.4
ENV WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR /opt/ThirdParty-5.0
ENV WM_LDFLAGS -m64
ENV FOAM_APP /opt/openfoam5/applications
ENV WM_CXXFLAGS -m64 -fPIC -std=c++0x
ENV FOAM_UTILITIES /opt/openfoam5/applications/utilities
ENV FOAM_APPBIN /opt/openfoam5/platforms/linux64GccDPInt32Opt/bin
ENV ParaView_DIR /opt/paraviewopenfoam54
ENV WM_PRECISION_OPTION DP
ENV FOAM_SOLVERS /opt/openfoam5/applications/solvers
ENV FOAM_EXT_LIBBIN /opt/ThirdParty-5.0/platforms/linux64GccDPInt32/lib
ENV WM_CC gcc
ENV FOAM_USER_APPBIN /home/niramai/OpenFOAM/-5.0/platforms/linux64GccDPInt32Opt/bin

Likewise, all the ENV were added.


Regards,
Sunag R A.

[olesen]

If you are defining the ENV yourself, you don't need most of those. Need WM_PROJECT_DIR so that OpenFOAM can find its etc/ content (eg, controlDict cellModels). Make sure that the value of FOAM_APPBIN is in the PATH and the value of FOAM_LIBBIN is in the LD_LIBRARY_PATH and that should be enough.