Running inside a VM

Installing Vagrant and VirtualBox

If you choose to run a SCIONLab virtual machine, you need to install Vagrant and VirtualBox. These are available for most platforms, including Linux, Windows and macOS.

On recent Debian-based systems you can install both using the following command

sudo apt-get install vagrant virtualbox

For other platforms, please consult the official installation instructions:

Using Vagrant to run the VM

After creating your AS in the SCIONLab coordination website, you will be able to download a tarfile containing a Vagrantfile which allows you to easily build your SCIONLab VM.

note

All the commands below need to be executed from the directory containing the Vagrantfile.

To start your VM, run

vagrant up

When running your VM for the first time, the base Ubuntu OS will be installed together with the SCIONLab packages and their dependencies. After the installation, SCIONLab services should already be up and running.

Once the vagrant up command returns the prompt, you can connect to your VM to start exploring:

vagrant ssh

The directory containing the Vagrant file is synced with the VM, in which the files will appear in the /vagrant/ directory. This is a convenient way to share files between your host machine and your VM, and enables moving data both ways.

note

You can use following Vagrant commands to perform various operations with your VM

vagrant halt - stops the VM
vagrant destroy - restores VM to its initial state

More information about vagrant commands can be found at https://www.vagrantup.com/docs/cli

Configuration

As indicated above, the initial version of the configuration will automatically be provisioned. To update the configuration in an existing VM, the workflow is the same as when running an installation from packages – connect to your running VM (vagrant ssh) and execute

sudo scionlab-config

Running SCION

The SCION services are automatically started when the VM boots up.

To interact with the SCION services, you can use the same tools as when running an installation from packages – connect to your running VM (vagrant ssh) and use systemd to start and stop the services

sudo systemctl start scionlab.target              # Start all SCION services
sudo systemctl list-dependencies scionlab.target  # Check the status
sudo systemctl stop scionlab.target               # Stop