Overview

This guide describes how to build and use Docker containers to deploy Zixi Broadcaster and Zixi Edge Compute. Note that Zixi Edge Compute uses the same installer and executable code as Zixi Broadcaster and is only differentiated from a Broadcaster by the license that is applied. Zixi Edge Compute is available for no fee to be used with Zixi Broadcasters or AWS MediaConnect and can be downloaded and licensed from the Zixi Customer Portal. For the remainder of this document, any time Zixi Broadcaster is mentioned the same is true for Zixi Edge Compute.

Docker is an open platform for developing, shipping, and running applications. Docker enables you to separate your applications from your infrastructure so you can deliver software quickly. Docker provides the ability to package and run an application in a loosely isolated environment called a container. The isolation and security allow you to run many containers simultaneously on a given host.

Containers are lightweight because they don’t need the extra load of a hypervisor, but run directly within the host machine’s kernel. This means you can run more containers on a given hardware combination than if you were using virtual machines. You can even run Docker containers within host machines that are themselves virtual machines!

For containers running software that makes heavy use of ports for web UIs or data transfer, you do need to consider your port mapping or IP routing strategies so that all containers on the host are accessible from the outside world.

For more information on Docker, please refer to What is Docker? .

This document assumes you have a basic understanding of the Docker ecosystem and have Docker already installed on a host. Also, this document assumes you are using a Linux host for Docker although that is not necessarily required.

Configuration and license persistency

This document and the Docker image built by the included example Dockerfile demonstrates how to build and run a Zixi Broadcaster on an X86_64 system. The Docker container launched from this example does not keep the Broadcaster configuration and license persistent if the Docker container is stopped and then started again. A similar document demonstrates building and running a Zixi Broadcaster on an ARM64 system and the example Dockerfile and docker run procedure described in that document does demonstrate having the configuration and licensing of the Zixi Broadcaster remain persistent when the container is removed and a new container is started.