Configure Language Understanding Docker containers

The Language Understanding (LUIS) container runtime environment is configured using the docker run command arguments. LUIS has several required settings, along with a few optional settings. Several examples of the command are available. The container-specific settings are the input mount settings and the billing settings.

Configuration settings

This container has the following configuration settings:

Required	Setting	Purpose
Yes	ApiKey	Used to track billing information.
No	ApplicationInsights	Allows you to add Azure Application Insights telemetry support to your container.
Yes	Billing	Specifies the endpoint URI of the service resource on Azure.
Yes	Eula	Indicates that you've accepted the license for the container.
No	Fluentd	Write log and, optionally, metric data to a Fluentd server.
No	Http Proxy	Configure an HTTP proxy for making outbound requests.
No	Logging	Provides ASP.NET Core logging support for your container.
Yes	Mounts	Read and write data from host computer to container and from container back to host computer.

ApiKey setting

The ApiKey setting specifies the Azure resource key used to track billing information for the container. You must specify a value for the ApiKey and the value must be a valid key for the Azure AI services resource specified for the Billing configuration setting.

This setting can be found in the following places:

• Azure portal: Azure AI services Resource Management, under Keys
• LUIS portal: Keys and Endpoint settings page.

Do not use the starter key or the authoring key.

ApplicationInsights setting

The ApplicationInsights setting allows you to add Azure Application Insights telemetry support to your container. Application Insights provides in-depth monitoring of your container. You can easily monitor your container for availability, performance, and usage. You can also quickly identify and diagnose errors in your container.

The following table describes the configuration settings supported under the ApplicationInsights section.

Required	Name	Data type	Description
No	InstrumentationKey	String	The instrumentation key of the Application Insights instance to which telemetry data for the container is sent. For more information, see Application Insights for ASP.NET Core. Example: InstrumentationKey=123456789

Billing setting

The Billing setting specifies the endpoint URI of the Azure AI services resource on Azure used to meter billing information for the container. You must specify a value for this configuration setting, and the value must be a valid endpoint URI for an Azure AI services resource on Azure. The container reports usage about every 10 to 15 minutes.

This setting can be found in the following places:

• Azure portal: Azure AI services Overview, labeled Endpoint
• LUIS portal: Keys and Endpoint settings page, as part of the endpoint URI.

Required	Name	Data type	Description
Yes	Billing	string	Billing endpoint URI. For more information on obtaining the billing URI, see gather required parameters. For more information and a complete list of regional endpoints, see Custom subdomain names for Azure AI services.

Eula setting

The Eula setting indicates that you've accepted the license for the container. You must specify a value for this configuration setting, and the value must be set to accept.

Required	Name	Data type	Description
Yes	Eula	String	License acceptance Example: Eula=accept

Azure AI services containers are licensed under your agreement governing your use of Azure. If you do not have an existing agreement governing your use of Azure, you agree that your agreement governing use of Azure is the Azure Online Subscription Agreement, which incorporates the Online Services Terms. By using the container you agree to these terms.

Fluentd settings

Fluentd is an open-source data collector for unified logging. The Fluentd settings manage the container's connection to a Fluentd server. The container includes a Fluentd logging provider, which allows your container to write logs and, optionally, metric data to a Fluentd server.

The following table describes the configuration settings supported under the Fluentd section.

Name	Data type	Description
Host	String	The IP address or DNS host name of the Fluentd server.
Port	Integer	The port of the Fluentd server. The default value is 24224.
HeartbeatMs	Integer	The heartbeat interval, in milliseconds. If no event traffic has been sent before this interval expires, a heartbeat is sent to the Fluentd server. The default value is 60000 milliseconds (1 minute).
SendBufferSize	Integer	The network buffer space, in bytes, allocated for send operations. The default value is 32768 bytes (32 kilobytes).
TlsConnectionEstablishmentTimeoutMs	Integer	The timeout, in milliseconds, to establish a SSL/TLS connection with the Fluentd server. The default value is 10000 milliseconds (10 seconds). If UseTLS is set to false, this value is ignored.
UseTLS	Boolean	Indicates whether the container should use SSL/TLS for communicating with the Fluentd server. The default value is false.

HTTP proxy credentials settings

If you need to configure an HTTP proxy for making outbound requests, use these two arguments:

Name	Data type	Description
HTTP_PROXY	string	The proxy to use, for example, http://proxy:8888 <proxy-url>
HTTP_PROXY_CREDS	string	Any credentials needed to authenticate against the proxy, for example, username:password. This value must be in lower-case.
<proxy-user>	string	The user for the proxy.
<proxy-password>	string	The password associated with <proxy-user> for the proxy.

docker run --rm -it -p 5000:5000 \
--memory 2g --cpus 1 \
--mount type=bind,src=/home/azureuser/output,target=/output \
<registry-location>/<image-name> \
Eula=accept \
Billing=<endpoint> \
ApiKey=<api-key> \
HTTP_PROXY=<proxy-url> \
HTTP_PROXY_CREDS=<proxy-user>:<proxy-password> \

Logging settings

The Logging settings manage ASP.NET Core logging support for your container. You can use the same configuration settings and values for your container that you use for an ASP.NET Core application.

The following logging providers are supported by the container:

Provider	Purpose
Console	The ASP.NET Core Console logging provider. All of the ASP.NET Core configuration settings and default values for this logging provider are supported.
Debug	The ASP.NET Core Debug logging provider. All of the ASP.NET Core configuration settings and default values for this logging provider are supported.
Disk	The JSON logging provider. This logging provider writes log data to the output mount.

This container command stores logging information in the JSON format to the output mount:

docker run --rm -it -p 5000:5000 \
--memory 2g --cpus 1 \
--mount type=bind,src=/home/azureuser/output,target=/output \
<registry-location>/<image-name> \
Eula=accept \
Billing=<endpoint> \
ApiKey=<api-key> \
Logging:Disk:Format=json \
Mounts:Output=/output

This container command shows debugging information, prefixed with dbug, while the container is running:

docker run --rm -it -p 5000:5000 \
--memory 2g --cpus 1 \
<registry-location>/<image-name> \
Eula=accept \
Billing=<endpoint> \
ApiKey=<api-key> \
Logging:Console:LogLevel:Default=Debug

Disk logging

The Disk logging provider supports the following configuration settings:

Name	Data type	Description
Format	String	The output format for log files. Note: This value must be set to json to enable the logging provider. If this value is specified without also specifying an output mount while instantiating a container, an error occurs.
MaxFileSize	Integer	The maximum size, in megabytes (MB), of a log file. When the size of the current log file meets or exceeds this value, a new log file is started by the logging provider. If -1 is specified, the size of the log file is limited only by the maximum file size, if any, for the output mount. The default value is 1.

For more information about configuring ASP.NET Core logging support, see Settings file configuration.

Mount settings

Use bind mounts to read and write data to and from the container. You can specify an input mount or output mount by specifying the --mount option in the docker run command.

The LUIS container doesn't use input or output mounts to store training or service data.

The exact syntax of the host mount location varies depending on the host operating system. Additionally, the host computer's mount location may not be accessible due to a conflict between permissions used by the docker service account and the host mount location permissions.

The following table describes the settings supported.

Required	Name	Data type	Description
Yes	Input	String	The target of the input mount. The default value is /input. This is the location of the LUIS package files. Example: --mount type=bind,src=c:\input,target=/input
No	Output	String	The target of the output mount. The default value is /output. This is the location of the logs. This includes LUIS query logs and container logs. Example: --mount type=bind,src=c:\output,target=/output

Example docker run commands

The following examples use the configuration settings to illustrate how to write and use docker run commands. Once running, the container continues to run until you stop it.

• These examples use the directory off the C: drive to avoid any permission conflicts on Windows. If you need to use a specific directory as the input directory, you may need to grant the docker service permission.
• Do not change the order of the arguments unless you are very familiar with docker containers.
• If you are using a different operating system, use the correct console/terminal, folder syntax for mounts, and line continuation character for your system. These examples assume a Windows console with a line continuation character ^. Because the container is a Linux operating system, the target mount uses a Linux-style folder syntax.

Replace {argument_name} with your own values:

Placeholder	Value	Format or example
{API_KEY}	The endpoint key of the LUIS resource on the Azure LUIS Keys page.	xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
{ENDPOINT_URI}	The billing endpoint value is available on the Azure LUIS Overview page.	See gather required parameters for explicit examples.

Basic example

The following example has the fewest arguments possible to run the container:

docker run --rm -it -p 5000:5000 --memory 4g --cpus 2 ^
--mount type=bind,src=c:\input,target=/input ^
--mount type=bind,src=c:\output,target=/output ^
mcr.microsoft.com/azure-cognitive-services/luis:latest ^
Eula=accept ^
Billing={ENDPOINT_URL} ^
ApiKey={API_KEY}

ApplicationInsights example

The following example sets the ApplicationInsights argument to send telemetry to Application Insights while the container is running:

docker run --rm -it -p 5000:5000 --memory 6g --cpus 2 ^
--mount type=bind,src=c:\input,target=/input ^
--mount type=bind,src=c:\output,target=/output ^
mcr.microsoft.com/azure-cognitive-services/luis:latest ^
Eula=accept ^
Billing={ENDPOINT_URL} ^
ApiKey={API_KEY} ^
InstrumentationKey={INSTRUMENTATION_KEY}

Logging example

The following command sets the logging level, Logging:Console:LogLevel, to configure the logging level to Information.

docker run --rm -it -p 5000:5000 --memory 6g --cpus 2 ^
--mount type=bind,src=c:\input,target=/input ^
--mount type=bind,src=c:\output,target=/output ^
mcr.microsoft.com/azure-cognitive-services/luis:latest ^
Eula=accept ^
Billing={ENDPOINT_URL} ^
ApiKey={API_KEY} ^
Logging:Console:LogLevel:Default=Information

Next steps

• Review How to install and run containers
• Refer to Troubleshooting to resolve issues related to LUIS functionality.
• Use more Azure AI containers