Get started with your Developer Sandbox for Red Hat OpenShift

Learning path | 3 resources | 20 mins | Published on March 1, 2024

This activity, created by Don Schenck, will show you how to set up and use the Developer Sandbox for Red Hat OpenShift. With the Developer Sandbox, you experience hands-on learning resources without setup or configuration, and learn to develop quicker than ever before.

  1. Overview: Get started with your Developer Sandbox for Red Hat OpenShift
  2. Build your application from source code Page | 10 mins
  3. Build your application from a container image Page | 10 mins

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Build your application from a container image

November 29, 2023
Don Schenck
Related topics:
C#ContainersGoJavaKubernetesMicroservicesNode.jsPythonRubyServerless
Related products:
Developer SandboxRed Hat OpenShift
Developer Sandbox

In the first lesson, you set up your Developer Sandbox environment and built an application from source code. Now it's time to do the same thing with a container image.

In order to get full benefit from taking this lesson, you need to:

In this lesson, you will:

  • Set up your Developer Sandbox
  • Set up a cluster
  • Build the application from a container image

Build the application from a container image

To build your application from a container image, switch to the Developer view in your OpenShift dashboard (Figure 8):

The Developer view in your OpenShift dashboard.
Figure 2: The Developer view in your OpenShift dashboard.

Next, select +Add to display the many options available for adding an application to your cluster (Figure 9).

Select +Add to display the available options.
Figure 3: Select +Add to display the available options.

In our case, we are interested in the Git Repository/Import from Git option. Select Import from Git (Figure 10).

Selecting Import from Git will build an application from your source code.
Figure 4: Selecting Import from Git will build an application from your source code.

You will be prompted to enter a URL that points to a Git repo. This is where things get interesting. OpenShift will copy the repo to an internal storage location, inspect it, and attempt to discern the import strategy to build it.

OpenShift will choose one of the following methods to build the application:

  • Option 1: Using the Builder image for the programming language used (i.e., the s2i option).
  • Option 2: Using the Dockerfile that is found in the Git repo.
  • Option 3: Using the DevFile that is found in the Git Repo.

Again, we’re focusing on Option 1 right now: Using the Builder image and the s2i technology. The Builder image is determined by inspecting the source code and may be .NET, JBoss, Perl, or one of several other options.

Here are some URLs of sample code that you can use for their related languages:

Select the Container images option (Figure 11).

Use this option to run an existing container image in OpenShift.
Figure 11: Use this option to run an existing container image in OpenShift.

This is the option I use 100% of the time. I like to build and test my images on my PC, then push them to my image registry (quay.io/donschenck). Once I host an image in a registry, it's very simple to get it into OpenShift.

Just like the other two options, the simplest path is to provide the location of the input—an image in this case (Figure 12), and click Create. Yes, it really is that simple.

Provide the location of the input and click Create.
Figure 12: Provide the location of the input and click Create.

Is there more?

Yes. Play around. Try things. Break things. Learn more about the Developer Sandbox. Learn more about OpenShift. There is a wealth of knowledge for you to learn within the Red Hat Developer program.

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Build your application from source code