Container Service Administration

Note about who can administer Container Service features
As of Container Service version 3.7.0+ and XNAT version 1.9.2+, Site Admin can no longer administer features of Container Service. A user with Container Manager Role and Privileged Role can administer the Container Service. These roles can be additionally granted to the Site Admin to be able to administer Container Service.

Installing the Container Service

The XNAT Container Service is distributed as a plugin, and installation is fairly simple. However, it is important to check version compatibility requirements prior to installing.

• Installing and Enabling the Container Service in XNAT

• Container Service Compatibility Matrix

Enabling a Container Manager

As of Container Service 3.7.0 and XNAT 1.9.2, the site administrator is not automatically granted permission to administer the Container Service. There is a new Container Manager site-wide user role that must be granted. Attempting to access the Container Service administrative panels in XNAT’s plugin settings will show a “Restricted Access” warning message.

The Container Manager role can be given to any user (including yourself) in Administer > Users > User Account > Advanced Settings.

This role does not require site administration privileges, but can be combined with the Site Manager role if desired.

Configuring the Container Service for your Local Processing Environment

If you are running a local development copy of XNAT in a Vagrant VM, configuring the Container Service is fairly simple. However, in a production environment, this configuration may require coordination with your local IT Operations people.

• Configuring a Compute Backend

• Setting up Container Service on Kubernetes

  • PVC Volume Mounting

• Configuring Image Registries

Managing Commands and Images

• Adding a Command

• Enabling Commands and Setting Site-wide Defaults

• Creating and Editing a Command Definition

• Deleting a Command

• Deleting an Image

Container and Command Development Guidelines

• Building Docker Images for Container Service

• Container Development Quickstart Guide

• Creating and Editing a Command Definition

• JSON Command Definition

Enabling Automated Commands

Automated command executions based on event triggers can be managed in one of two ways, with the introduction of the Event Service in XNAT 1.8. Prior to the Event Service, this was possible via the "Command Automation" panel, which uses legacy XNAT event triggers.

• Enabling Automated Commands via the Event Service

Monitoring and Debugging Command Execution History

You can view a history of running and previously executed commands via the Command History control panel. This also lets you monitor StdOut and StdErr logs in real time for diagnostic purposes.

• Viewing Command History and Logs

Orchestrating a Series of Commands

You can set up command orchestration to define a list of commands that will run in series. Orchestrations are set up at the site administration level and then enabled at the project level (by project owners). Currently, only one orchestration can be enabled on a project at a time, and while it is enabled, any run of the initiating command will trigger the orchestration.

An update of this feature will allow multiple orchestrations to be enabled on a single project, passing these orchestration options (including "no orchestration") through to the user interface so that a user may decide at launch whether and which orchestration ought to run.

• Set Up Command Orchestration