bmi-example-python-grpc4bmi

Set up a grpc4bmi server to run a containerized version of the Basic Model Interface (BMI) Python example.

Build

Build the server image locally with:

docker build --tag bmi-example-python-grpc4bmi .

The image is built on the csdms/grpc4bmi base image, which is built on the condaforge/miniforge3 base image. The OS is Linux/Ubuntu. The grpc4bmi Python server, as well as the Python BMI mappings and example (consisting of the Heat model and a BMI implementation, BmiHeat) are installed in CONDA_DIR=/opt/conda.

Run

Use the grpc4bmi Docker client to access the BMI methods of the containerized model.

Install grpc4bmi with pip:

pip install grpc4bmi

Then, in a Python session, access the Heat model in the image built above with:

from grpc4bmi.bmi_client_docker import BmiClientDocker

IMAGE_NAME = "bmi-example-python-grpc4bmi"
m = BmiClientDocker(image=IMAGE_NAME, image_port=55555, work_dir=".")
m.get_component_name()

del m  # stop container cleanly

If the image isn't found locally, it's pulled from Docker Hub (e.g., try substituting IMAGE_NAME="csdms/bmi-example-python-grpc4bmi" above).

For more in-depth examples of running the Heat model from grpc4bmi, see the examples directory.

Developer notes

A versioned, multiplatform image built from this repository is hosted on Docker Hub at csdms/bmi-example-python-grpc4bmi. When this repository is tagged, an image is automatically built and pushed to Docker Hub by the release CI workflow. To manually build and push an update, run:

docker buildx build --platform linux/amd64,linux/arm64 -t csdms/bmi-example-python-grpc4bmi:latest --push .

A user can pull this image from Docker Hub with:

docker pull csdms/bmi-example-python-grpc4bmi

optionally with the latest tag or with a version tag.

What are the Basic Model Interface and grpc4bmi?

The Basic Model Interface (BMI) is a set of functions for querying, modifying, running, and coupling models. Learn more at https://bmi.csdms.io/.

grpc4bmi is a gRPC wrapper for a model with a BMI. Learn more at https://grpc4bmi.readthedocs.io/.

Acknowledgment

This work is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under Award No. 2103878, Frameworks: Collaborative Research: Integrative Cyberinfrastructure for Next-Generation Modeling Science.