By Steve Endow
UPDATE: If you're interested in a convenient way to run the BcContainerHelper PowerShell commands, check out Krzysztof's Azure Data Studio Notebook with sample BcContainerHelper commands. Jupyter Notebooks are a great way to include documentation and commands in a single convenient format.
Have you used the new New-BcContainerWizard tool? If not, settle in! And I'll throw in a story about a puzzling Docker error and how Freddy helped me work through it.
Here's a video where I walk through my recent Docker learning:
Yesterday I planned on working through Erik Hougaard's video about calling an
external web API from AL and processing the JSON response.
Since I needed a new BC Docker Container to work on the demo code, I thought
it would be a good opportunity to test Freddy's new BC Container Wizard
tool. So I made sure I had the latest version of NAV Container Helper,
and typed New-BcContainerWizard.
The wizard is a really nifty PowerShell utility that asks you a series of
questions that walk you through the different options available when using the
NewBcContainer command. After I completed the questions, it provided me
with this script.
$containerName = 'sandbox1'
$password = 'P@ssword'
$securePassword = ConvertTo-SecureString -String $password -AsPlainText -Force
$credential = New-Object pscredential 'admin', $securePassword
$auth = 'UserPassword'
$artifactUrl = Get-BcArtifactUrl -type 'Sandbox' -version '' -country 'us' -select 'Latest'
$licenseFile = 'c:\zdisks\business central\2020-06bcv16license.flf'
New-BcContainer `
-accept_eula `
-containerName $containerName `
-credential $credential `
-auth $auth `
-artifactUrl $artifactUrl `
-updateHosts `
-assignPremiumPlan `
-licenseFile $licenseFile `
-dns '192.168.25.21' `
-imageName 'mybc16'
Setup-BcContainerTestUsers -containerName $containerName -Password $credential.Password -credential $credential
This is a really great tool. When I first started using NavContainerHelper, it seemed very confusing and I had no idea which options to include and which values made sense for my needs. This wizard resolves that and will be a great resource for people who are new to Docker.
Now that I had my nifty PowerShell script, I ran it.
 |
| Sad Trombone |
"This request is not supported"
Um. What?
After a bit of googling, I eventually made my way to the NavContainerHelper GitHub repository to see if I could learn anything from the Issues list. I saw another issue that also had "CreateComputeSystem", but the specific error was different.
So I submitted a separate issue on GitHub. This was the first GitHub issue I've ever submitted, so I didn't know how or what to include. I used another issue as an example, and I stumbled through the process, including what I was trying to do, a copy of my New-BcContainer script, and as much information about the error that I had available.
Freddy responded within a few hours asking for the full build log from a successful container build (excluding the imageName parameter). I was able to attach that full build log as a text file.
Within a few minutes, he replied, explaining that the log showed I was using a very old version of windows.
 |
| The last few digits are the important ones |
Sure enough, Windows Update had a few failed updates. Those failed updates had prevented ANY updates from being applied to my server. Once I cleared those errors and updated my server to the latest windows build, the New-BcContainer script worked successfully with the imageName parameter.
I then looked through the full container build log that I had submitted to the issue, and sure enough, there it was.
 |
| I'm talkin' to you! |
Among the hundreds of lines that scrolled by during the build process, the warning was right there, showing that I had a very old Windows build and that the generic image didn't match.
While this did delay me by over a day in my AL learning process, this side adventure was very valuable, as it helped me understand a little bit more about Docker and the NavContainerHelper build process.
