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Run a Rust Actix Web app

This example uses actix-web, a popular Rust web framework. 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/http-rust1.75-actix-web4/ directory:

Terminal window
git clone https://github.com/kraftcloud/examples
cd examples/http-rust1.75-actix-web4/

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: http-rust175-actix-web4-3pj27
────────── uuid:33e9b4ba-58d7-4b3a-b9dd-4c406c0e7b07
───────── state: running
─────────── url: https://autumn-silence-wupu2nus.fra0.kraft.host
───────── image: http-rust175-actix-web4@sha256:11723705230f0f4545d2be7e4867dc67b396870769e91f05e2fa6d9da94f9b59
───── boot time: 11.67 ms
──────── memory: 128 MiB
─────── service: autumn-silence-wupu2nus
── private fqdn: http-rust175-actix-web4-3pj27.internal
──── private ip: 172.16.3.3
────────── args: /server

In this case, the instance name is http-rust175-actix-web4-3pj27 and the URL is https://autumn-silence-wupu2nus.fra0.kraft.host. They are different for each run.

Use curl to query the Unikraft Cloud instance of the Rust-based HTTP web server:

Terminal window
curl https://autumn-silence-wupu2nus.fra0.kraft.host
curl https://autumn-silence-wupu2nus.fra0.kraft.host/hey
Hello world!
Hey there!

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
http-rust175-actix-web4-3pj27 autumn-silence-wupu2nus.fra0.kraft.host running 10 minutes ago http-rust175-actix-web4@sha256:11723705230f0f4545d2be7... 128 MiB /server 11672us

When done, you can remove the instance:

Terminal window
kraft cloud instance remove http-rust175-actix-web4-3pj27

Customize your Application

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

  • src/main.rs: the actual implementation
  • Cargo.toml: the Cargo package manager configuration file
  • Kraftfile: the Unikraft Cloud specification
  • Dockerfile: the Docker-specified application filesystem
spec: v0.6
runtime: base:latest
rootfs: ./Dockerfile
cmd: ["/server"]

The following options are available for customizing the application:

  • If only updating the implementation in the src/main.rs source file, no other change is required.

  • If new files are added, these have to be copied in the application filesystem, using the COPY command in the Dockerfile. If new Rust source code files are added, be sure to configure required dependencies in the Cargo.toml file.

  • If a new executable is built, update the cmd line in the Kraftfile and replace /server with the path to the new executable.

  • More extensive changes may require expanding the Dockerfile with additional Dockerfile commands.

Learn More

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

Terminal window
kraft cloud --help

Or visit the CLI Reference.