ROCm-docker

Radeon Open Compute Platform for docker

This repository contains a framework for building the software layers defined in the Radeon Open Compute Platform into portable docker images. The following are docker dependencies, which should be installed on the target machine.

• Docker on Ubuntu systems or Fedora systems
• Highly recommended: Docker-Compose to simplify container management

Docker Hub

Looking for an easy start with ROCm + Docker? The rocm/rocm-terminal image is hosted on Docker Hub. After the ROCm kernel is installed, pull the image from Docker Hub and create a new instance of a container.

sudo docker pull rocm/rocm-terminal
sudo docker run -it --rm --device="/dev/kfd" rocm/rocm-terminal

ROCm-docker quick start videos

Install rocm-kernel

• Installing ROCK kernel on Ubuntu 14.04
  • This step will eventually go away as newer linux kernel images trickle down into upcoming distros. Our kernel module developers (AMDGPU and AMDKFD) are contributing source back into the mainline linux kernel. This step of installing a ROCm specific kernel image is temporary.

wget -qO - http://packages.amd.com/rocm/apt/debian/rocm.gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -
sudo sh -c 'echo deb [arch=amd64] http://packages.amd.com/rocm/apt/debian/ trusty main  \
    > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/rocm.list'
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install rocm-kernel

Build ROCm container using docker CLI

• Clone and build the container

git clone https://github.com/RadeonOpenCompute/ROCm-docker
cd ROCm-docker
sudo docker build -t rocm/rocm-terminal rocm-terminal
sudo docker run -it --rm --device="/dev/kfd" rocm/rocm-terminal

Build ROCm container using docker-compose

• Clone and build the container using docker-compose

git clone https://github.com/RadeonOpenCompute/ROCm-docker
cd ROCm-docker
sudo docker-compose run --rm rocm

Verify successful build of ROCm-docker container

• Verify a working container-based ROCm software stack
• After step #2 or #3, a bash login prompt to a running docker container should be available
  • hcc --version should display version information of the AMD heterogeneous compiler
• Execute sample application
  • cd /opt/rocm/hsa/sample
  • sudo make
  • ./vector-copy
• Text displaying successful creation of a GPU device, successful kernel compilation and successful shutdown should be printed to stdout

Quick notes for using docker

When working with the ROCm containers, the following are common and useful docker commands:

• A new docker container typically does not house apt repository meta-data. Before trying to install new software using apt, make sure to run sudo apt update first
• A message like the following typically means your user does not have permissions to execute docker; use sudo or add your user to the docker group.
• Cannot connect to the Docker daemon. Is the docker daemon running on this host?
• Open another terminal into a running container
• sudo docker exec -it <CONTAINER-NAME> env TERM=xterm-color bash -l
• Copy files from host machine into running docker container
  • sudo docker cp HOST_PATH <CONTAINER-NAME>:/PATH
• Copy files from running docker container onto host machine
  • sudo docker cp <CONTAINER-NAME>:/PATH/TO/FILE HOST_PATH
• Commit container state to a persistent docker image
• The following asciicast demonstrates saving a container with arbitrary work into a new docker image. The new image serves as a checkpoint, that can be distributed to other users or used as a good known state

sudo docker ps -a
sudo docker commit <CONTAINER-NAME> <NEW-IMAGE-NAME>
sudo docker images

Details

Docker does not virtualize or package the linux kernel inside of an image or container. This is a design decision of docker to provide the lightweight and fast containerization. The implication for this on the ROCm compute stack is that in order for the docker framework to function, the ROCm kernel and corresponding modules must be installed on the host machine. All containers share the host kernel, The ROCm component that can not be used in a docker image is the ROCK-Kernel-Driver¹.

Installing ROCK on the host machine.

An apt-get repository is available to automate the installation of the required kernel and kernel modules.

How to build ROCm containers from source

While it is nice to quickly bring up a ROCm container from the latest apt-get release version, sometimes it is nice to be able to play with the latest development code. At the root of this repository is a bash script ./rocm-setup. It creates a set of Dockerfiles building the ROCm software components from source, with a yaml file used by docker-compose to manage the relationships between these containers.

Usage: ./rocm-setup [--master | --develop] [--release | --debug]
Default flags: --master --release

--master) Build dockerfiles from stable master branches; exclusive with --develop
--develop) Build dockerfiles from integration branches; exclusive with --master
--release) Build release containers; minimizes size of docker images; exclusive with --debug
--debug) Build debug containers; symbols generated and build tree intact for debugging; exclusive with --release

./rocm-setup generates Dockerfiles from textual template files ending with the .template suffix. Each sub-directory of this repository corresponds to a docker 'build context' responsible for a software layer in the ROCm stack. After running the script, each directory contains a generated 'Dockerfile'. The parameters to the script control the flavor of the components to build, for instance: debug builds of the /develop branches.

ROCm component dictionary

What git branches are built with ./rocm-setup

When building ROCm components from source, we are locking down branches to known good configurations.

Docker compose

./rocm-setup prepares an environment that can be controlled with Docker Compose. An output of the script is a docker-compose.yml file in the root of the repository, which coordinates the relationships between the various ROCm software layers. Additionally, the docker-compose.yml file can be extended to easily launch interactive application or development containers built on top of the ROCm software stack.

Running a ROCm container using binaries built from source

Using docker-compose, a target is provided that will import the data-only containers which build the individual ROCm components. If the images are not yet built, docker-compose will make sure to build them in the proper order. If they have already been built, it will re-use existing images.

• docker-compose run --rm rocm-from-src

Creating a custom application/development container

The /rocm-terminal sub-directory contains a Dockerfile to build an image specifically built for ROCm software development. Useful development tools are pre-installed into the container, and it's meant to serve as a starting point for interested developers to customize a dockerfile for their own projects. To begin, simply:

1. copy the /rocm-terminal sub-directory into a new directory name, such as /my-rocm-terminal
2. open and customize the Dockerfile; pre-install dependencies and services
3. modify the docker-compose.yml.template file and add a new service which prepares a new image

• copy the 'rocm' target to build a container using the latest ROCm binary release
• copy the 'rocm-from-src' target to build a container using the latest ROCm source

4. Run ./rocm-setup script to generate a new docker-compose.yml
5. docker-compose run --rm <new-target-name>

For illustration, yaml source for an image that builds ROCm from source looks like

new-rocm-app:                         # docker-compose target name; was 'rocm-from-src'
  build:
    context: ./my-app                 # new directory used as build context
    dockerfile: Dockerfile
  devices:
    - "/dev/kfd"
  image: rocm/rocm-app               # the name of the generated docker image
  volumes:
    - ~:/usr/local/src/host-home     # add as many host directories to map into container as needed here
  volumes_from:                      # this section imports the binaries built from source
    - roct:ro
    - rocr:ro
    - hcc-lc:ro
    - hcc-hsail:ro

Saving work in a container

Docker containers are typically ephemeral, and are discarded after closing the container with the '--rm' flag to docker run. However, there are times when it is desirable to close a container that has arbitrary work in it, and serialize it back into a docker image. This may be to to create a checkpoint in a long and complicated series of instructions, or it may be desired to share the image with others through a docker registry, such as docker hub.

sudo docker ps -a  # Find container of interest
sudo docker commit <container-name> <new-image-name>
sudo docker images # Confirm existence of a new image

rocm-user has root privileges by default

The dockerfile that serves as the 'terminal' creates a non-root user called rocm-user. Since this container is meant to serve as a development environment (and therefore apt-get likely needed), the user has been added to the linux sudo group. In addition, since it is somewhat difficult to set and change passwords in a container (often requiring a rebuild), the password prompt has been disabled for the sudo group. While this is convenient for development to be able sudo apt-get install packages, it does imply lower security in the container.

An option to increase container security:

1. Eliminate the sudo-nopasswd COPY statement in the dockerfile and replace with
2. Your own password with RUN echo 'account:password' | chpasswd

Running an application using docker-compose

You can run the new container (and its dependencies) with docker-compose.

docker-compose run --rm <my-rocm-terminal>  # run as rocm-user

To shut down ROCm dependencies and clean up

docker-compose down -v

Footnotes:

[1] It can be installed into a container, it just doesn't do anything because containers do not go through the traditional boot process. We actually do provide a container for ROCK-Kernel-Driver, but it not used by the rest of the docker images. It does provide isolation and a reproducible environment for kernel development.