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Deploy static web content with Nginx

This example uses Nginx, one of the most popular web servers. Nginx can be used with Unikraft / Unikraft Cloud to serve static web content.

To run this example, 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/nginx/ directory:

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

Make sure to log into Unikraft Cloud by setting your token and a metro close to you. We use fra0 (Frankfurt, 🇩🇪) 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 443:8080 .

The output shows the instance URL and other details:

Terminal window
[] Deployed successfully!
────────── name: nginx-67zbu
────────── uuid: 8a8bc1b9-0af6-420e-a426-190dc2da9eaa
───────── state: running
─────────── url: https://nameless-fog-0tvh1uov.fra0.kraft.host
───────── image: sha256:f51ecc121c9ca34abb88a2bc6a69765501304f7893f7e85af15fbec3dc86e2bd
───── boot time: 11.13ms
──────── memory: 128 MiB
─────── service: nameless-fog-0tvh1uov
── private fqdn: nginx-67zbu.internal
──── private ip: 172.16.3.3
────────── args: /usr/bin/nginx -c /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

In this case, the instance name is nginx-67zbu and the URL is https://nameless-fog-0tvh1uov.fra0.kraft.host. They are different for each run.

Use curl to query the Unikraft Cloud instance of Nginx.

Terminal window
curl https://nameless-fog-0tvh1uov.fra0.kraft.host
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Welcome to nginx!</title>
[...]

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
nginx-67zbu nameless-fog-0tvh1uov.fra0.kraft.host running 5 minutes ago nginx@sha256:f51ecc121c9ca34abb... 128 MiB /usr/bin/nginx -c /etc/nginx/nginx.conf 11129us

When done, you can remove the instance:

Terminal window
kraft cloud instance remove nameless-fog-0tvh1uov.fra0.kraft.host

Customize your Application

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

  • Kraftfile: the Unikraft Cloud specification
  • rootfs/wwwroot/index.html: the index page of the content served
  • rootfs/conf/nginx.conf: the Nginx configuration file
spec: v0.6
runtime: nginx:latest
rootfs: ./rootfs

Update the contents of the rootfs/wwwroot/ directory to serve different static web content. For example, you could change the contents of rootfs/wwwroot/index.html to:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Hello</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Hello, World!</h2>
</body>
</html>

After re-deploying the Nginx image on Unikraft Cloud, using curl or a browser to query it will present the new page contents.

The static web content located in the rootfs/wwwroot/ can of course be generated offline by tools like Jekyll or Hugo.

If required, you can also customize the configuration of Nginx in rootfs/conf/nginx.conf. You can set a new webroot (different than wwwroot), or a different internal port, or a different index page, etc.

Learn More

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

Terminal window
kraft cloud --help

Or visit the CLI Reference.