Appendix A - workstation setup¶

While not a part of the chapters for an LXD Server, this procedure will help those who want to have a lab environment, or semi-permanent OS and application, running on a Rocky Linux workstation or notebook.

Prerequisites¶

comfortable at the command line
able to use a command line editor, such as vi or nano fluently
willing to install snapd to install LXD
a need for a stable testing environment used every day or as needed
able to become root or have sudo privileges

Installation¶

From the command line, install the EPEL repository:


sudo dnf install epel-release

When installation finishes, do an upgrade:


sudo dnf upgrade

Install snapd


sudo dnf install snapd

Enable the snapd service


sudo systemctl enable snapd

Reboot your notebook or workstation

Install the snap for LXD:


sudo snap install lxd

LXD initialization¶

If you have looked through the production server chapters, this is nearly the same as the production server init procedure.


sudo lxd init

This will start a question and answer dialog.

Here are the questions and our answers for the script, with a little explanation where warranted:


Would you like to use LXD clustering? (yes/no) [default=no]:

If you have interest in clustering, do some additional research on that at Linux containers here.


Do you want to configure a new storage pool? (yes/no) [default=yes]:
Name of the new storage pool [default=default]: storage

Optionally, you can accept the default.


Name of the storage backend to use (btrfs, dir, lvm, ceph) [default=btrfs]: dir

Note that dir is somewhat slower than btrfs. If you have the foresight to leave a disk empty, you can use that device (example: /dev/sdb) for the btrfs device and then select btrfs, but only if your host computer has an operating system that supports btrfs. Rocky Linux and any RHEL clone will not support btrfs - not yet, anyway. dir will work fine for a lab environment.


Would you like to connect to a MAAS server? (yes/no) [default=no]:

Metal As A Service (MAAS) is outside the scope of this document.


Would you like to create a new local network bridge? (yes/no) [default=yes]:
What should the new bridge be called? [default=lxdbr0]: 
What IPv4 address should be used? (CIDR subnet notation, “auto” or “none”) [default=auto]:
What IPv6 address should be used? (CIDR subnet notation, “auto” or “none”) [default=auto]: none

If you want to use IPv6 on your LXD containers, you can turn on this option. That is up to you.


Would you like the LXD server to be available over the network? (yes/no) [default=no]: yes

This is necessary to snapshot the workstation. Answer "yes" here.


Address to bind LXD to (not including port) [default=all]:
Port to bind LXD to [default=8443]:
Trust password for new clients:
Again:

This trust password is how you will connect to the snapshot server or back from the snapshot server. Set this with something that makes sense in your environment. Save this entry to a secure location, such as a password manager.


Would you like stale cached images to be updated automatically? (yes/no) [default=yes]
Would you like a YAML "lxd init" preseed to be printed? (yes/no) [default=no]:

User privileges¶

The next thing you need to do is to add your user to the lxd group. Again, you will need to use sudo or be root for this:


sudo usermod -a -G lxd [username]

where [username] is your user on the system.

At this point, you have made a bunch of changes. Before you go any further, reboot your machine.

Verifying the install¶

To ensure that lxd started and that your user has privileges, from the shell prompt do:


lxc list

Note you have not used sudo here. Your user has the ability to enter these commands. You will see something like this:


+------------+---------+----------------------+------+-----------+-----------+
|    NAME    |  STATE  |         IPV4         | IPV6 |   TYPE    | SNAPSHOTS |
+------------+---------+----------------------+------+-----------+-----------+

If you do, you are looking good!

The rest of it¶

From this point, you can use the chapters from our "LXD Production Server" to continue on. There are some things on a workstation setup though that you need to pay less attention to. Here are the recommended chapters to get you going:

Conclusion¶

LXD is a powerful tool that you can use on workstations or servers for increased productivity. On a workstation, it is great for lab testing, but can also keep semi-permanent instances of operating systems and applications available in their own private space.

Author: Steven Spencer

Contributors: Ganna Zhyrnova