Setting up on Linux using Docker

Set up your Anka Build Cloud on Linux using Docker

Welcome! This tutorial guides you through setting up your Anka Build Cloud on Linux using Docker and Docker-Compose.

Necessary Hardware

  1. A machine running Linux to install the Anka Controller & Registry.
  2. A Mac to install Anka CLI as a Node.

While it's possible to run Docker on mac, it's not recommended. An Anka Controller & Registry package exists.

Necessary Software

  1. Docker
  2. Docker-Compose – Be sure to follow the Post Installation setup in order to run docker-compose without using sudo.

What we are doing in this tutorial

  1. Install the Anka CLI + Create your first VM Template
  2. Install the Anka Build Cloud Controller & Registry
  3. Link the Anka CLI Node to the Controller
  4. Start a VM instance using the Controller UI

Step 1: Get familiar with Anka Virtualization

Install the Anka Virtualization package

Download and install with your terminal

terminal installation

FULL_FILE_NAME="$(curl -Ls -r 0-1 -o /dev/null -w %{url_effective} https://veertu.com/downloads/anka-virtualization-latest | cut -d/ -f5)"
curl -S -L -o ./$FULL_FILE_NAME https://veertu.com/downloads/anka-virtualization-latest
sudo installer -pkg $FULL_FILE_NAME -tgt /

Verify the installation

❯ anka version
Anka version 2.X.X (build XXX)

For Anka CLI commands and options, see the Command Reference.

Obtain the macOS installer

There are multiple ways to obtain the installer .app file for Mac OSX that we'll detail for you below:

  1. If you have a pending upgrade to the next minor or patch version of Mac OS:
    • Within Preferences -> Software Update -> Advanced, make sure Download new updates when available is checked but Install macOS updates is not. While you're still within Software Update, click Update Now but do not install the next version (Restart) until after you've created the Anka VM or the Install .app under /Applications will be deleted.
    • You can also use the App Store to download the installer.
  2. On Catalina, you can use softwareupdate: sudo softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 10.15.6
  3. Have your local IT department provide a network volume or download links.
  4. Use our Getting Started script, but run it with ./create-vm-template.bash --no-anka-create

Create the VM Template

Using the Anka UI

Using the Anka CLI

sudo anka create --ram-size 8G --cpu-count 4 --disk-size 80G \
--app /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Catalina.app 10.15.6

You can find detailed instructions for anka create here.

You can continue on to Step 2 while you wait for this to finish.

Step 2: Install the Anka Build Cloud Controller & Registry

Perform the following steps on the machine intended to run the Controller & Registry.

Download and extract the Controller & Registry

FULL_FILE_NAME=$(echo $(curl -Ls -r 0-1 -o /dev/null -w %{url_effective} https://veertu.com/downloads/ankacontroller-registry-docker-latest) | cut -d/ -f5)
PARTIAL_FILE_NAME=$(echo $FULL_FILE_NAME | awk -F'.tar.gz' '{print $1}')
mkdir -p $PARTIAL_FILE_NAME
cd $PARTIAL_FILE_NAME
curl -Ls https://veertu.com/downloads/ankacontroller-registry-docker-latest -o $FULL_FILE_NAME
tar -xzvf $FULL_FILE_NAME

You can also manually download the file called “Cloud Controller & Registry (Run on Linux Instance)” from the Anka Build Download page.

Configuration

We'll need to do two things:

  1. Set the external registry address – This address is passed to the Nodes so they can pull VM Templates from the Registry.
  2. Mount a volume for the Registry data – The directory containing VM disk images and configuration files.

First, edit the docker-compose.yml.

  1. Under anka-controller > environment, find the variable ANKA_REGISTRY_ADDR.

  2. Next to it, replace ***EDIT_ME*** with the URL of your Registry:

          . . .

      anka-controller:
        build:
          context: .
          dockerfile: anka-controller.docker
        ports:
          - "80:80"
        # To change the port, change the above line: - "CUSTOM_PORT:80"
        ######   EDIT HERE FOR TLS  ########
        # volumes:
          # Path to ssl certificates directory 
          # - ****EDIT_ME****:/mnt/cert
        depends_on:
          - etcd
          #  - beanstalk
          - anka-registry
        restart: always
        environment:

          # Address of anka registry. this address will be passed to your build nodes
          ANKA_REGISTRY_ADDR: ****EDIT_ME****               
          
          # Local Anka registry address
          # This address is used by the Controller. 

      . . .

    It should look like:

    ANKA_REGISTRY_ADDR: http://<ip>:8089

  3. Under anka-registry > volumes, find the line that says # - ****EDIT_ME****:/mnt/vol.

  4. First, uncomment this line by removing the # sign from the head of the line. Then replace ****EDIT_ME**** with the path on your machine where you want the Registry files to be saved:

          . . .

      anka-registry:
      build:
          context: .
          dockerfile: anka-registry.docker
      ports:
          - "8089:8089"
      # To change the port change the above line: - "CUSTOM_PORT:8089"
      restart: always
      volumes:
          ######   EDIT HERE  ########
          # Path to registry data folder.
          # VM data files and logs will be saved in this folder
          # - ****EDIT_ME****:/mnt/vol

          # Path to ssl certificates directory 
          # - ****EDIT_ME****:/mnt/cert

      . . .

    It should look like:

    - /var/registry:/mnt/vol

If you're running these containers on mac, you need to also change volume source from /var/etcd-data and /var/registry to a writable location on your mac.

Start the containers

Ensure you're in the same directory as the docker-compose.yml.

docker-compose up -d

This command builds your containers and runs the services defined as a daemon.

To stop the docker containers, run: docker-compose down

Verify the containers are running

docker ps

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE                 COMMAND                  CREATED              STATUS              PORTS                    NAMES
aa1de7c150e7        test_anka-controller   "/bin/bash -c 'anka-…"   About a minute ago   Up About a minute   0.0.0.0:80->80/tcp       test_anka-controller_1
0ac3a6f8b0a1        test_anka-registry     "/bin/bash -c 'anka-…"   About a minute ago   Up About a minute   0.0.0.0:8089->8089/tcp   test_anka-registry_1
03787d28d3a3        test_etcd              "/usr/bin/etcd --dat…"   About a minute ago   Up About a minute                            test_etcd_1

Anka Controller should be listening on port 80 (HTTP). Try pointing your browser to the machine's IP or hostname. You can use localhost or 127.0.0.1 if you're on the Controller machine.

Your new dashboard should look like the picture below

How your new dashboard looks like

Orientation

Let's take a look at what is now running on your machine:

  1. Anka Controller is serving web UI and REST API on port 80.
  2. Anka Registry is serving REST API on port 8089.
  3. ETCD database server serving on ports 2379 and 2380 (used by Anka Controller).

Configuration and scripts

Make configurations by editing docker-compose.yml. Most of the stuff you can configure is listed there but commented out.

Check out the variables under the environment section of each service. A full reference is available.

Logging

Containers are writing logs to STDOUT+ERR, making them available to Docker.

To see the Controller's logs:

docker logs --tail 100 -f test_anka-controller_1

To see the Registry's logs:

docker logs --tail 100 -f test_anka-registry_1

By default, no log-rotation is performed. As a result, log-files stored by the default json-file logging driver logging driver can cause a significant amount of disk space to be used for containers that generate much output, which can lead to disk space exhaustion.

The log level can be modified from the default 0 value. The higher the number, the more verbose the logging. (reference)

Great! Now that we have our Anka Controller & Registry up and running, let's add Nodes!

Perform the following steps on the Node where you created your first VM Template.

Add the Registry

We now need to configure the Registry on this machine so we can push/upload the local VM Template we created earlier. Uploading the Template to the Registry makes it possible to download and run it from other nodes.

Assuming you haven't changed the default port configuration, your Registry is serving requests on port 8089.

sudo anka registry add <registry name here> http://<ip>:8089

Verify the configuration:

sudo anka registry list-repos
++
++

<registry name you set> (default)

+--------+------------------+
| host   | <the ip you set> |
+--------+------------------+
| scheme | http             |
+--------+------------------+
| port   | 8089             |
+--------+------------------+

Then, confirm the registry list command doesn't throw any failures:

sudo anka registry list

Push the VM to the Registry

sudo anka registry push 10.15.X -t base

After the push completes, you should see your new Template in the “Templates” section of the controller UI.

Your first template

Join to the Controller & Registry

sudo ankacluster join http://<ip>
Password:
Testing connection to controller...: Ok
Testing connection to the registry...: Ok
Ok
Cluster join success
  • Replace <ip> with the IP of the machine hosting your controller:
  • If you changed the default port for the controller from 80, you'll need to use the new port at the end of the IP. Otherwise, leave it off.

The command may hang for a few moments and then display Cluster join success. Please report any errors you find to support@veertu.com.

Step 4: Start a VM instance using the Controller UI

  1. Go to your Controller dashboard and click on the Instances tab:

    your instances view

  2. Click on Create Instance(s), and the Create New Instances view displays:

    new instances view

  3. Select the VM Template and click Start. The Create New Instances view closes and returns you to the Instances view. You should now see the Instance in a Scheduling or Pulling State: a scheduling instance

  4. After the Scheduling and Pulling finishes, the VM starts on one of the Nodes and shows a Started State in the Controller UI:

    a started instance

You can now confirm the Instance is running from inside the Node:

  • JSON output is available for scripting/automation using anka --machine-readable
sudo anka --machine-readable list | jq
{
  "status": "OK",
  "body": [
    {
      "status": "suspended",
      "name": "catalina",
      "stop_date": "2020-04-01T21:30:59.798697Z",
      "creation_date": "2020-04-01T00:00:13.656296Z",
      "version": "base",
      "uuid": "10c720eb-dcce-46f7-baa3-28bacef0ec0f"
    },
    {
      "status": "running",
      "name": "mgmtManaged-catalina-1585776660490226000",
      "stop_date": "2020-04-01T21:36:11.742662Z",
      "creation_date": "2020-04-01T21:31:01.055250Z",
      "version": "",
      "uuid": "dcbeb319-421a-4d30-8466-194eb7fa5f75"
    }
  ],
  "message": ""
}

Timestamp format: https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3339.txt

Orientation

Anka Controller Docker container

  • Default Ports: 80
  • Binaries and scripts: /usr/bin/anka-controller
  • Configuration files: Configuration is done through docker-compose file or through environment variables.
  • Logs will be written to: /var/log/anka-controller. It's also possible to get the logs through docker logs command.
  • Data Storage: No data is saved on the container.

Anka Registry Docker container

  • Default Ports: 8089
  • Binaries and scripts: /usr/bin/anka-registry
  • Configuration files: Configuration is done through docker-compose file or through environment variables.
  • Logs will be written to: /var/log/anka-registry. It's also possible to get the logs through docker logs command.
  • Registry data will be written to: /mnt/vol

What next?


Last modified August 4, 2021 : mentioned log rotation in docker (ef7f0a9) by Nathan Pierce