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Deploy Memcached

This guide shows you how to use Memcached, an in-memory key-value store for small chunks of arbitrary data (strings, objects) from results of database calls, API calls, or page rendering.

To run it, follow these steps:

  1. Install the kraft CLI tool and a container runtime engine, e.g. Docker.

  2. Clone the examples repository and cd into the examples/memcached/ directory:

Terminal window
git clone https://github.com/kraftcloud/examples
cd examples/memcached/

Make sure to log into Unikraft Cloud by setting your token and a metro close to you. We use fra0 (Frankfurt, πŸ‡©πŸ‡ͺ) in this guide:

Terminal window
# Set Unikraft Cloud access token
export UKC_TOKEN=token
# Set metro to Frankfurt, DE
export UKC_METRO=fra0

When done, invoke the following command to deploy this application on Unikraft Cloud:

Terminal window
kraft cloud deploy -p 11211:11211/tls -M 256 .

The output shows the instance URL and other details:

Terminal window
[●] Deployed successfully!
β”‚
β”œβ”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€ name: memcached-arkv7
β”œβ”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€ uuid: da436eca-bc64-46d7-a04c-72832652b10e
β”œβ”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€ state: running
β”œβ”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€ fqdn: weathered-smoke-hehsdinv.fra0.kraft.host
β”œβ”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€ image: memcached@sha256:f53cdbce4dc185e8acc8ecb93a0ab0ba99085ca0837a0ad2062aae9e31382e58
β”œβ”€β”€β”€β”€β”€ boot time: 19.27 ms
β”œβ”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€ memory: 256 MiB
β”œβ”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€ service: weathered-smoke-hehsdinv
β”œβ”€β”€ private fqdn: memcached-arkv7.internal
β”œβ”€β”€β”€β”€ private ip: 172.16.6.5
└────────── args: /usr/bin/memcached -u root

In this case, the instance name is memcached-arkv7; it’s different for each run.

To test the deployment, first forward the port with the kraft cloud tunnel command:

Terminal window
kraft cloud tunnel 11211:memcached-arkv7:11211

Now, on a separate console, run the following commands to test that it works (you should see output when incrementing):

Terminal window
telnet 127.0.0.1 11211
set test 0 0 1
0
incr test 1
incr test 1

To exit telnet run:

Terminal window
Ctrl + ]
Ctrl + C

To disconnect, simply kill the tunnel command with ctrl-C

At any point in time, you can list information about the instance:

Terminal window
kraft cloud instance list
NAME FQDN STATE CREATED AT IMAGE MEMORY ARGS BOOT TIME
memcached-arkv7 weathered-smoke-hehsdinv.fra0.... running 11 minutes ago memcached@sha256:f53cdbce4... 256 MiB /usr/bin/memcached -u root 19266us

When done, you can remove the instance:

Terminal window
kraft cloud instance remove memcached-arkv7

Customize your Application

To customize the application, update the files in the repository, listed below:

  • Kraftfile: the Unikraft Cloud specification, including command-line arguments
  • Dockerfile: In case you need to add files to your instance’s rootfs
spec: v0.6
runtime: memcached:latest
rootfs: ./Dockerfile
cmd: ["/usr/bin/memcached", "-u", "root"]

Learn More

Use the --help option for detailed information on using Unikraft Cloud:

Terminal window
kraft cloud --help

Or visit the CLI Reference.