How to Build Docker Flower Images Locally

Flower provides pre-made docker images on Docker Hub that include all necessary dependencies for running the SuperLink, SuperNode or ServerApp. You can also build your own custom docker images from scratch with a different version of Python or Linux distribution (Ubuntu/Alpine) if that is what you need. In this guide, we will explain what images exist and how to build them locally.

Before we can start, we need to meet a few prerequisites in our local development environment.

  1. Clone the flower repository.

    $ git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/adap/flower.git && cd flower

  2. Verify the Docker daemon is running.

    The build instructions that assemble the images are located in the respective Dockerfiles. You can find them in the subdirectories of src/docker.

    Flower Docker images are configured via build arguments. Through build arguments, we can make the creation of images more flexible. For example, in the base image, we can specify the version of Python to install using the PYTHON_VERSION build argument. Some of the build arguments have default values, others must be specified when building the image. All available build arguments for each image are listed in one of the tables below.

Building the Base Image

Build argument

Description

Required

Example

DISTRO

The Linux distribution to use as the base image.

No

ubuntu

DISTRO_VERSION

Version of the Linux distribution.

No

24.04

PYTHON_VERSION

Version of python to be installed.

No

3.11 or 3.11.1

PIP_VERSION

Version of pip to be installed.

Yes

24.1.2

SETUPTOOLS_VERSION

Version of setuptools to be installed.

Yes

70.3.0

FLWR_VERSION

Version of Flower to be installed.

Yes

1.12.0

FLWR_PACKAGE

The Flower package to be installed.

No

flwr or flwr-nightly

FLWR_VERSION_REF

A direct reference without the @ specifier. If both FLWR_VERSION and FLWR_VERSION_REF are specified, the FLWR_VERSION_REF has precedence.

No

Direct Reference Examples

The following example creates a base Ubuntu/Alpine image with Python 3.11.0, pip 24.1.2, setuptools 70.3.0 and Flower 1.12.0:

$ cd src/docker/base/<ubuntu|alpine>
$ docker build \
  --build-arg PYTHON_VERSION=3.11.0 \
  --build-arg FLWR_VERSION=1.12.0 \
  --build-arg PIP_VERSION=24.1.2 \
  --build-arg SETUPTOOLS_VERSION=70.3.0 \
  -t flwr_base:0.1.0 .

In this example, we specify our image name as flwr_base and the tag as 0.1.0. Remember that the build arguments as well as the name and tag can be adapted to your needs. These values serve as examples only.

Building a Flower Binary Image

Build argument

Description

Required

Example

BASE_REPOSITORY

The repository name of the base image.

No

flwr/base

BASE_IMAGE

The Tag of the Flower base image.

Yes

1.12.0-py3.11-ubuntu24.04

For example, to build a SuperLink image with the latest Flower version, Python 3.11 and Ubuntu 22.04, run the following:

$ cd src/docker/superlink
$ docker build \
  --build-arg BASE_IMAGE=1.12.0-py3.11-ubuntu22.04 \
  -t flwr_superlink:0.1.0 .

If you want to use your own base image instead of the official Flower base image, all you need to do is set the BASE_REPOSITORY build argument to flwr_base (as we’ve specified above).

$ cd src/docker/superlink/
$ docker build \
  --build-arg BASE_REPOSITORY=flwr_base \
  --build-arg BASE_IMAGE=0.1.0
  -t flwr_superlink:0.1.0 .

After creating the image, we can test whether the image is working:

$ docker run --rm flwr_superlink:0.1.0 --help

Direct Reference Examples

# main branch
git+https://github.com/adap/flower.git@main

# commit hash
git+https://github.com/adap/flower.git@1187c707f1894924bfa693d99611cf6f93431835

# tag
git+https://github.com/adap/flower.git@1.12.0

# artifact store
https://artifact.flower.ai/py/main/latest/flwr-1.12.0-py3-none-any.whl