Bluemix: service bound to container does not appear in VCAP_SERVICES - ssh

Question

I'm trying to use IBM Containers for Bluemix to deploy a container and bind it to a Bluemix service.
I start with an existing Bluemix app, which is bound to the MongoDB service I want. I verify that its VCAP_SERVICES environment variable is correctly populated:
$ cf env mamacdon-app
Getting env variables for app mamacdon-app in org mamacdon#ca.ibm.com / space dev as mamacdon#ca.ibm.com...
OK
System-Provided:
{
"VCAP_SERVICES": {
"mongodb-2.4": [
{
"credentials": { /*private data hidden*/ },
"label": "mongodb-2.4",
"name": "mongodb-1a",
"plan": "100",
"tags": [ "nosql", "document", "mongodb" ]
}
]
}
...
Then I run my image in Bluemix using the ice command, with the --bind mamacdon-app argument to bind it to my CF app:
$ ice run --name sshparty \
--bind mamacdon-app \
--ssh "$(cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub)" \ # For SSH access
--publish 22 \ # For SSH access
registry-ice.ng.bluemix.net/ibmliberty:latest
As the name suggests, the image is a trivial example based on the IBM Websphere Liberty docker image -- just enough to let me SSH in and poke around.
At this point, the Containers dashboard tells me that the service has been bound to my container:
But when I finally ssh into the container, the environment does not contain the VCAP_SERVICES variable:
$ ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa root#129.41.232.212
root#instance-000123e2:~# env
TERM=xterm
SHELL=/bin/bash
SSH_CLIENT=[private data hidden]
SSH_TTY=/dev/pts/0
USER=root
LS_COLORS=[omitted]
MAIL=/var/mail/root
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
PWD=/root
LANG=en_CA.UTF-8
SHLVL=1
HOME=/root
LOGNAME=root
SSH_CONNECTION=[private data hidden]
LESSOPEN=| /usr/bin/lesspipe %s
LESSCLOSE=/usr/bin/lesspipe %s %s
_=/usr/bin/env
root#instance-000123e2:~#
I expected the VCAP_SERVICES variable to be injected. What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

I think there is an issue with the way the ssh daemon is getting launched where it does not have visibility to the VCAP_SERVICES environment variable.
However, you can confirm that the container's command will see the variable with following test:
ice run registry-ice.ng.bluemix.net/ibmliberty --bind mamacdon-app --name vcap_services_party printenv; sleep 60
Then, confirm it in the printenv output with ice logs vcap_services_party

Answer 2

Could you give the following a try:
ice run registry-ice.ng.bluemix.net/lintest/tradelite --bind yourappname --name yournewcontainer name
Once the image comes up run the following.
# echo $VCAP_SERVICES
For more info check out the Containers Docs.