Anka Build Cloud on Mac OS

Set up your Anka Build Cloud on Mac OS.

Welcome! This tutorial will guide you through setting up your Anka Build Cloud.

Necessary Hardware

A Mac to install the Anka Controller & Registry.
A second Mac to install the Anka CLI (the “Node”).

You can complete this tutorial with only one machine running Mac OS, but it's not recommended.

What we are doing in this tutorial

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

Step 1: Get familiar with the Anka CLI

Install the Anka CLI

Perform the following steps on the machines you intend to be Nodes. “Nodes” are the host machines you want to run the Anka VMs. You can use any Apple hardware for this.

You can find the various Anka Build packages on the Anka Build download page. You can use the guided installer by launching the .pkg, or install from your terminal.

Download the latest Anka PKG

curl -L -o Anka.pkg https://veertu.com/downloads/ankabuild-latest

Install the Anka PKG

sudo installer -pkg Anka.pkg -tgt /

Or, if you need nested virtualization to run Docker inside of the VM:

You can find Nested Virtualization inside of the Custom Install section of the guided installer. You can get there using the Customize button on the Installation Type stage.

We currently only support Docker within Nested Virtualization

sudo installer -applyChoiceChangesXML nanka.xml -pkg Ankaxx.pkg -target /

You'll need modify your Anka VM Template and Tags with anka modify name set nested 1

Verify the installation

anka version

The output should be similar to Anka Build Basic version 2.1.2 (build 112).

Activate your Anka license

sudo anka license activate <key>

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

Create your first VM Template

Obtain the macOS installer

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

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.
- Or on Catalina from the terminal, run sudo softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 10.15.4 to download the installer.
- You can also use the App Store to download the installer.

On any Mac OS version you can use the installinstallmacos.py script (requires python):

Download and run the script:

curl --fail --silent -L -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/munki/macadmin-scripts/master/installinstallmacos.py
sudo chmod +x installinstallmacos.py
sudo ./installinstallmacos.py --raw

The script downloads an image to the location of the .py script, so further steps are necessary to create an Anka VM:

mkdir -p /tmp/app
hdiutil attach "<installinstallmacos.py image path>" -mountpoint /tmp/app
cp -r "/tmp/app/Applications/Install Mac OS Mojave.app" /Applications/
hdiutil detach /tmp/app -force
rm -f "<installinstallmacos.py image path>"

Have your local IT department provide a network volume or download links.

Generate the Template

sudo anka create --app /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Catalina.app/ 10.15.4

We recommend adding a version to the Template name so it's clear what version of OSX it is.

The VM creation should take around 30 minutes.

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 the Controller & Registry PKG

Download the file called “Cloud Controller & Registry (Run on Mac)” from Anka Build Download page. If you are more comfortable with the command line, you can download the file with curl:

curl -S -L -o ~/Downloads/AnkaControllerRegistry.pkg https://veertu.com/downloads/ankacontroller-registry-mac-latest

Install the Controller & Registry PKG

Double click on the .pkg to start the UI install process.

Or, you can install the package using the command line:

sudo installer -pkg ~/Downloads/AnkaControllerRegistry.pkg -target /

Verify your installation

Two methods are available:

Use the CLI status command:
```
sudo anka-controller status
```
Use curl:
```
curl http://<ip>:8080/api/v1/status
```

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:

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

Configuration and scripts (reference)

The Anka Controller AND Registry command is installed into /usr/local/bin/anka-controller. To see what functions it has, execute the script with root privileges:

sudo anka-controller
usage: /usr/local/bin/anka-controller [start|stop|restart|status|logs]

When sudo anka-controller start is executed, the script will use launchd to load the daemon: /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.veertu.anka.controller.plist.

The Anka Controller & Registry run script is /usr/local/bin/anka-controllerd. This file acts as a run script and configuration file. You can modify it to change the default ports used by adding the proper option or ENV. For example, if you want to run the Registry on a different port and use 127.0.0.1, you would add the following above the "$CONTROLLER_BIN" line (reference):
```
export ANKA_ANKA_REGISTRY="http://127.0.0.1:8081"
export ANKA_REGISTRY_LISTEN_ADDRESS=":8081" 
```

Logging

Logs are written to /Library/Logs/Veertu/AnkaController by default:

/Library/Logs/Veertu/AnkaController/anka-controller.INFO
/Library/Logs/Veertu/AnkaController/anka-controller.WARNING
/Library/Logs/Veertu/AnkaController/anka-controller.ERROR

You can modify the destination in the /usr/local/bin/anka-controllerd file (reference).

You can also watch the logs live (similar to tail -f):

sudo anka-controller logs

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

Step 3: Link the Anka CLI Node to the Controller

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 catalina -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

Go to your Controller dashboard and click on the Instances tab:
Click on Create Instance(s), and the Create New Instances view displays:
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:
After the Scheduling and Pulling finishes, the VM starts on one of the Nodes and shows a Started State in the Controller UI:

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": ""
}

What next?

Browse the Anka CLI Command Reference.
Connect the cloud to your CI software.
Find out how to use the Controller REST API.
Learn how to work with USB devices

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Last modified July 2, 2020 : various improvements to setup guides (9bc9081) by Nathan Pierce