Custom Dockerfiles

Cerebrium supports deploying existing containerized apps — from standard Python apps to compiled Rust binaries — using a custom Dockerfile. This allows portable, locally reproducible deployment environments.

Building Dockerized Python Apps

A simple containerized FastAPI server:

from fastapi import FastAPI

app = FastAPI()

@app.post("/hello")
def hello():
    return {"message": "Hello Cerebrium!"}

@app.get("/health")
def health():
    return "OK"

@app.get("/ready")
def ready():
    return "OK"

The corresponding Dockerfile:

# Base image
FROM python:3.12-bookworm
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install dumb-init
RUN update-ca-certificates

# Source code
COPY . .

# Dependencies
RUN pip install -r requirements.txt

# Configuration
EXPOSE 8192
CMD ["python", "-m", "uvicorn", "main:app", "--host", "0.0.0.0", "--port", "8192"]

Dockerfiles for Cerebrium have three requirements:

Expose a port with the EXPOSE command. This port is referenced in cerebrium.toml
Include a CMD command to specify the container’s startup process (typically the server)
Set the working directory with WORKDIR to ensure correct file paths (defaults to root if not specified)

Update cerebrium.toml to include a custom runtime section with the dockerfile_path parameter:

[cerebrium.runtime.custom]
port = 8192
healthcheck_endpoint = "/health"
readycheck_endpoint = "/ready"
dockerfile_path = "./Dockerfile"

The configuration requires four key parameters:

port: The port the server listens on.
healthcheck_endpoint: The endpoint used to confirm instance health. If unspecified, defaults to a TCP ping on the configured port. If the health check registers a non-200 response, Cerebrium considers the instance unhealthy and restarts it if it does not recover in time.
readycheck_endpoint: The endpoint used to confirm if the instance is ready to receive. If unspecified, defaults to a TCP ping on the configured port. If the ready check registers a non-200 response, Cerebrium does not route requests to the instance.
dockerfile_path: The relative path to the Dockerfile used to build the app.

If the Dockerfile omits a CMD clause, specify the entrypoint parameter in cerebrium.toml:

[cerebrium.runtime.custom]
entrypoint = ["uvicorn", "main:app", "--host", "0.0.0.0", "--port", "8192"]
...

When specifying a dockerfile_path, all dependencies and necessary commands should be installed and executed within the Dockerfile. Dependencies listed under cerebrium.dependencies.*, as well as cerebrium.deployment.shell_commands and cerebrium.deployment.pre_build_commands, will be ignored.

Building Generic Dockerized Apps

Cerebrium supports non-Python apps as long as you provide a Dockerfile. The following example shows a Rust-based API server using the Axum framework:

use axum::{
    routing::{get, post},
    Json, Router,
};
use serde_json::json;

async fn hello() -> Json<serde_json::Value> {
    Json(json!({ "message": "Hello Cerebrium!" }))
}

async fn health() -> &'static str {
    "OK"
}


async fn ready() -> &'static str {
    "OK"
}

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() {
    let app = Router::new()
        .route("/hello", post(hello))
        .route("/health", get(health))
        .route("/ready", get(health));
    tracing::info!("Listening on port 8192");

    let listener = tokio::net::TcpListener::bind("0.0.0.0:8192").await.unwrap();
    axum::serve(listener, app).await.unwrap();
}

A multi-stage Dockerfile separates the build step from the runtime, producing a smaller and more secure image:

# Build stage
FROM rust:bookworm as build
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install dumb-init
RUN update-ca-certificates

# Project setup
RUN USER=root cargo new --bin rs_server
WORKDIR /rs_server

# Dependencies
COPY Cargo.lock ./Cargo.lock
COPY Cargo.toml ./Cargo.toml

# Cache dependencies
RUN cargo build --release
RUN rm src/*.rs

# Source code
COPY src/* src/

# Build
RUN rm ./target/release/deps/rs_server*
RUN cargo build --release

# Runtime stage
FROM gcr.io/distroless/base-debian12
WORKDIR /
COPY --from=build  /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt /etc/ssl/certs/
COPY --from=build /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1 /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1
COPY --from=build /rs_server/target/release/rs_server /rs_server
COPY --from=build /usr/bin/dumb-init /usr/bin/dumb-init
EXPOSE 8192
CMD ["dumb-init", "--", "/rs_server"]

Configure the application in cerebrium.toml the same way as the FastAPI example:

[cerebrium.runtime.custom]
port = 8192
healthcheck_endpoint = "/health"
readycheck_endpoint = "/ready"
dockerfile_path = "./Dockerfile"

Getting Started

Container Images

GPUs and Compute Resources

Performance

Scaling apps

Deployments

Endpoints

Networking

Storage

Partner Services

Integrations

Other concepts

Custom Dockerfiles

Building Dockerized Python Apps

Building Generic Dockerized Apps

​Building Dockerized Python Apps

​Building Generic Dockerized Apps

Building Dockerized Python Apps

Building Generic Dockerized Apps