# Deploy Qualcomm IM SDK as a container
Source: [https://docs.qualcomm.com/doc/80-70020-50/topic/application-deployment-within-container-api-gstd.html](https://docs.qualcomm.com/doc/80-70020-50/topic/application-deployment-within-container-api-gstd.html)
Build Qualcomm IM SDK within a [Docker container](https://docs.docker.com/) and prepare the final device Docker image,
which you deploy to the Qualcomm Linux enabled Edge device. This allows you to use the AI
workflow microservices to build various types of AI pipelines using Qualcomm IM
SDK.
Figure : Qualcomm IM SDK within a container - architecture
Note: This section isn't applicable for the Ubuntu
Server.
The following table lists the components that are required to build the
Qualcomm IM SDK Docker container from the source code:
Table : Components for Qualcomm IM SDK Docker container
| Component | Description |
| :--- | :--- |
| Platform eSDK |
Provides the platform dependencies for Qualcomm IM SDK.
Contains platform libraries and header files.
|
| Qualcomm IM SDK source code | Contains the source code of the plugins and recipe files, which build and define the compile time dependencies. |
| solutions-microservices | Provides the AI pipelines that are required for microservices. |
| sdk-tools |
Provides the Docker files and a set of helper scripts to generate the Qualcomm IM SDK device Docker container.
Provides the run commands for the reference Docker, and the YAML compose files to run the Docker containers.
Maps all the required platform devices and libraries to provide hardware acceleration inside the Docker container.
|
- **[Build a Qualcomm IM SDK Docker image](https://docs.qualcomm.com/doc/80-70020-50/topic/build-and-run-qualcomm-im-sdk-docker-image.html)**
- **[Load and run the Docker image](https://docs.qualcomm.com/doc/80-70020-50/topic/load-and-run-docker.html)**
- **[Run a Docker image for multimedia/AI use cases](https://docs.qualcomm.com/doc/80-70020-50/topic/container-use-cases-for-camera.html)**
- **[Run camera use cases within a QIM container](https://docs.qualcomm.com/doc/80-70020-50/topic/container-use-cases-camera.html)**
- **[Run docker image for GStD](https://docs.qualcomm.com/doc/80-70020-50/topic/container-use-cases-for-video-encode-and-ai-pipelines.html)**
Install GStD in the existing Qualcomm IM SDK container, and then perform port mapping to enable the client to communicate with GStD from the host and from within the container.
Last Published: Jan 30, 2026
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