Anka Build

Anka Package Install and Configuration

Install

Install Anka package on the mac machines on which you want to execute build and test jobs. You can install Anka package on multiple mac machines. These mac machines will be nodes, when joined to the Management controller service.

Installing the Anka Hypervisor binary is remarkably simple, just download it from Anka Build Download page.
Run the anka.pkg installer. The Anka package includes the Core hypervisor, anka guest Add-ons and Controller node agent.

Note In order to create VMs with nested feature enabled, select nested virtualization checkbox in Customizations while installing Anka through the GUI method.
If using command line, use the following command sudo installer -applyChoiceChangesXML nanka.xml -pkg Ankaxx.pkg -target /.

After running the installer package, anka is found at /usr/local/bin/anka.

Verify the installation by running anka version command.

After install, if the users want to, they can change the location of this default Anka install location link manually.

Execute sudo mv /usr/local/bin/anka /to/any/other/location/.

Verify the installation by running anka version command.

View all settings for Anka installation on the host with anka config -l command.

anka config --help
Usage: anka config [OPTIONS] [PARAM]...

  Manage Anka configuration

Options:
  -l, --list   List value parameter(s)
  -r, --reset  Reset value of parameter(s)
  --help       Show this message and exit.

Activate with your license key.

sudo anka license activate <key>

Upgrade

  1. Download the latest version of Anka package (.pkg) and stop all running VMs.
  2. Before upgrading, you will also need to force stop any suspended VMs with the anka stop -f vmname command.

Note For major Anka releases, it maybe required to upgrade guest addons in existing Anka VMs. Check the release notes to identify if this step is required or not.

  1. Upgrade guest addons on the VM. Execute the following command to upgrade guest addons in existing VMs to the current release.
anka stop -f vmname
anka start -u vmname
Preparing update configuration
Installing updates
Suspending
update succeeded

If you are not able to upgrade the guest add-ons tool using the anka start -u vmname command, then you have a very old version of guest addon tools on your VM. You will first need to manually update them. Contact Veertu support. 4. Push your upgraded VMs to the Registry.

Uninstall

From the command line, execute the following command. Make sure all your VMs are stopped.

sudo /Library/Application\ Support/Veertu/Anka/tools/uninstall.sh

Controller/Registry Install and Configuration

Introduction

Registry and Controller services are required to configure an Anka Build private macOS cloud. Registry and controller are packaged in two flavors.

  1. Linux (CentOS 7) Docker container package - anka-controller-registry-XXX.tar.gz
  2. Mac Application package - AnkaControllerRegistry-XXX.pkg

Download the package that you want to install from Anka Build Download page

Ports Information

CI system calls the Anka Controller over http or https, default port is 80.

Anka Controller does not communicate with Anka Build nodes. Nodes communicate with controller through a Queue service(installed as part of controller).

The default port for Anka registry is 8089. All the default port and other configuration settings can be modified.

Controller/Registry Mac Application package

Install

Install the AnkaControllerRegistry-XXX.pkg on the mac machine on which you want to install controller and Registry.

Default settings

  1. Anka Controller listens on port 80
  2. Anka Registry is listening on port 8089
  3. Registry data is stored at /Library/Application Support/Veertu/Anka/registry

Start,Stop Controller

Use sudo anka-controller command to start/stop the controller.

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

Changing location of VM storage in the Registry

  1. Stop the controller service sudo anka-controller stop
  2. Change the default settings, including the location of registry storage by editing the /usr/local/bin/anka-controllerd.
  3. Start the controller service sudo anka-controller start

Go to the localhost:port in the browser on the mac where you installed the controller/registry package and you will see the controller dashboard.

Uninstall

From the command line, execute the following command.

sudo /Library/Application Support/Veertu/Anka/tools/controller/uninstall.sh

Controller/Registry Linux Application package

Install

Note You can run Controller/Registry docker containers on a linux instance. We don’t recommend that you run these containers on Mac hardware. If you want to run controller/registry on mac, then use the mac application package.

Move the anka-controller-registry-XXX.tar.gz tar file to a directory where you want the containers to run.

  1. Uncompress the tar package.
  2. Edit config.yml and enter values for the following : external_registry_address, data_mount_dir. Note default port settings - Controller on port 80 and registry on port 8089.
  3. Run ./ankaCloudConfig docker fromFile. This will update your docker-compose with configuration changes.
  4. Execute docker-compose up -d --build
  5. Execute docker ps -a to check if the anka controller and anka registry containers are up and running.
  6. Go to controllerIP in your web browser and check to make sure that you can access the controller portal dashboard.

Note If you want to change default port settings, don’t edit config.yml. Edit the advanced.yml.

  1. advanced.yml configuration settings to edit for custom ports - external_registry_address, listen_on, data_mount_dir.
  2. Run ./ankaCloudConfig docker fromFile -i advanced.yml
  3. Execute docker-compose up -d --build

Upgrade

First, Download the latest anka-controller-registry-XXX.tar.gz from Anka Build Download page.

Then, execute the following steps.

  1. Go to the controller/registry directory and execute docker-compose stop.

  2. Backup your existing config.yml and advanced.yml.

  3. Uncompress the new controller/registry tar package.

  4. Replace config.yml and/or advanced.yml with your backedup copies of these files.

  5. Execute ./ankaCloudConfig docker fromFile and/or ./ankaCloudConfig docker fromFile -i advanced.yml

  6. Execute docker-compose up -d --build

Uninstall

  1. Go to the controller/registry directory and execute docker-compose stop.
  2. Delete the controller/registry directory.

Adding/Removing Anka Nodes to the Controller

Adding/Joining Nodes

This step adds the mac hosts running Anka package to the Anka Build cloud cluster.

Execute this command on the mac hosts running Anka package with Build license - sudo ankacluster join -g <http://controllerIP:port>. You can also set other parameters like name(the name that shows up in controller dahsboard for this host), max-vm-count (number of concurrent VMs to run) etc. See the full list of flags available with this command.

Note

When joining the nodes using ankacluster join, use sudo and -g. Anka is multi user environment like unix. When you join with sudo and -g, controller will start VMs with sudo. You can view them with sudo anka list and operate with these VMs using sudo with other anka commands.

sudo ankacluster join --help
Joins the current machine to Anka Cloud cluster

Usage:
  ankacluster join [controller_address] [flags]

Flags:
  -c, --cacert PATH              PATH to CA bundle file (PEM/X509) (optional)
  -C, --cert PATH                PATH client certificate file (PEM/X509) (optional)
  -K, --cert-key PATH            PATH client certificate key file (PEM/X509) (optional)
  -g, --global                   Install agent into system domain (optional)
  -G, --groups string            Specify group name (or names sepearated by ',') to add this node to (optional)
  -h, --help                     help for join
  -H, --host string              Specify host name or IP for this machine (optional)
  -k, --keystore PATH            PATH to certificate and keystore (PEM, PKCS12) (optional)
  -p, --keystore-pass PASSWORD   PASSWORD for certificate and keystore (optional)
  -m, --max-vm-count NUMBER      Maximum NUMBER of VMs this node is allowed to run (optional) (default 2)
  -n, --name NAME                Node NAME alias (optional)
  -r, --root-cert PATH           PATH to CA bundle file (PEM/X509) (optional)
      --skip-tls-verification    Skip TLS verification (optional)
  -t, --tls                      Use tls for communicating with the queue (optional)

Removing/Disjoining Nodes

This step will remove the node from the Anka Build cloud. Execute this when you want to do maintainence on the node etc. You don’t need to disjoin nodes to upgrade Anka on the node.

sudo ankacluster -g disjoin

Note Make sure Autologin and neversleep option are set on Anka mac nodes.

Create VM

Anka makes it very simple to manage your macOS CI infrastructure-as-a-code.

Use anka create command to create macOS VMs from the .app installer app.

anka create --ram-size 4G --cpu-count 2 --disk-size 80G --app /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app Hisierravm

Note For Catalina Anka VMs, --ram-size value should be 4G and --disk-size should be 80G.

By default anka create creates macOS VM with administrative user - anka and password - admin. You can change this default user by using these ENV variables with anka create command.

ANKA_DEFAULT_PASSWD=passwd ANKA_DEFAULT_USER=usrname anka create --ram-size 4G --cpu-count 2 --disk-size 60G -a /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app HiSierravm

anka create [OPTIONS] VMNAME

  Creates a VM

Options:
  -m, --ram-size TEXT      ram size in G  [default: 4G]
  -c, --cpu-count INTEGER  the number of cpu cores  [default: 2]
  -d, --disk-size TEXT     sets the disk size when creating a new disk, G/M suffix
                           needed  [default: 80G]
  -a, --app PATH           Path to Install macOS Application (downloadable from
                           AppStore)
  -p, --pkg PATH           Additional package to be installed
  -s, --postinstall PATH   Postinstall scripts (to run with root credentials at first
                           boot)
  --help                   Show this message and exit.

Note - While creating VM with anka create, make sure to specify enough --disk-size.

anka create --ram-size 4G --cpu-count 2 --disk-size 80G --app /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app build73sierra
Installing macOS 10.13...
Preparing target disk...
Copying addons...
Converting to ANKA format...
Waiting for installation to complete in the guest (about thirty minutes approx.)...
vm created successfully with uuid: 8f0e1111-a14b-11e7-aaa4-003ee1cbb8b4

The output of anka create command is a VM created and it’s in suspended state. anka start from suspended state bypasses the full boot and starts the Vm in 1-2 seconds.

Note VMs are created with SIP/Kext Consent disabled by default. It’s strongly advised to keep these settings for optimal Anka performance.

If you need to re-enable SIP/Kext Consent, then use this command anka modify VMNAME set custom-variable sys.csr-active-config 0.

Note VMs created are in suspended mode to enable fast boot/Instant Start.

Run VM

The VM can now be successfully started. The VM is preconfigured with a default administrative username anka and password admin. You will see the VM boot up and have to complete the macOS keypad setup steps.

anka start 133b387
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| uuid                  | 49b35a9c-1659-11e8-a71d-003ee1cde439 |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| name                  | 133b387 (20rel)                      |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| description           | nineteen                             |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| created               | Jul 01 07:24                         |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| cpu_cores             | 4                                    |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| ram                   | 8G                                   |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| display               | 1                                    |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| hard_drive            | 40Gi (43.8Gi on disk)                |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| addons_version        | 2.0.0.107 (update recommended)       |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| status                | running                              |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| vnc_connection_string | vnc://:admin@xxx.xxx.xx.xxx:5901     |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+

Validate by running the following command anka run VMNAME ls -l from the host. It should display ls -l contents of the host current directory. The VM is correctly created. You can manually work within the VM with anka view sierravm. This will open the VM window.

Do anka show vmname to view IP and other runtime details of the VM.

anka show 133b387
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| uuid                  | 49b35a9c-1659-11e8-a71d-003ee1cde439 |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| name                  | 133b387 (20rel)                      |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| description           | nineteen                             |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| created               | Jul 01 07:24                         |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| cpu_cores             | 4                                    |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| ram                   | 8G                                   |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| display               | 1                                    |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| hard_drive            | 40Gi (44.1Gi on disk)                |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| addons_version        | 2.0.0.107 (update recommended)       |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| status                | running                              |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| ip                    | 192.168.64.38                        |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| vnc_connection_string | vnc://:admin@xxx.xxx.xx.xxx:5901     |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+

port_forwarding

+--------------+------------+---------+-------------+-------------+-----------+
|   guest_port | protocol   | name    |   host_port |   time_sync | host_ip   |
+==============+============+=========+=============+=============+===========+
|           22 | tcp        | jenkins |       10000 |           0 | 0.0.0.0   |
+--------------+------------+---------+-------------+-------------+-----------+

Work inside the VM

There are multiple methods to install various software packages and work inside the VM.

Manual method

You can manually work within the VM with anka view sierravm. This will open the VM view window. anka view supports working in full screen and also retina mode. Retina mode is supported for Anka Vms running Mojave or later.

Automated methods

SSH to the VM and execute commands

SSH into the VM from the host where its running with the following command. ssh anka@ip, where ip is the Vm IP shown in anka show vmname command.

To SSH into the VM from another host, first enable ssh port forwarding. Use anka modify command.

anka modify vmname add port-forwarding --host-port 0 --guest-port 22 ssh
rule added successfully

When the port forwarding rule is successfully added, you will see the following in the anka show vmname output.

port_forwarding

+--------------+------------+---------+-------------+-------------+-----------+
|   guest_port | protocol   | name    |   host_port |   time_sync | host_ip   |
+==============+============+=========+=============+=============+===========+
|           22 | tcp        | ssh     |       10000 |           1 | 0.0.0.0   |
+--------------+------------+---------+-------------+-------------+-----------+

Access it with ssh anka@hotsip -p host_port

Use anka run and execute commands Anka command line contains anka run command (similar to docker run) to execute commands inside the VM directly from the host.

Example

anka run -n -N vmname ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
anka run -n vmname sudo gem install xcode-install

#saving user/pass of app store
echo FASTLANE_USER=user >> appstore_login
echo FASTLANE_PASSWORD=password >> appstore_passwd

anka run -f appstore_login -nE vmname xcversion install 10.1

Go to Execute operation inside Vm from the host with RUN for more details on how to use anka run command.

Using an ISO file to create Anka VM - Yosemite & ElCapitan VMs

Use create_macos_install_image.sh included in the Anka package to first create an .iso from your Yosemite and ElCapitan .app installer. If you already have .iso file, you don’t need to execute this step.

/Library/Application\ Support/Veertu/Anka/tools/create_macos_install_image.sh
Usage: create_macos_install_image.sh install_macos.app [OPTIONS]...

Options:
--g,--guest-addons       Embed Anka guest addons in the installer
--o,--output output.iso       Specify output image file, if not specified the image will be created in working directory                  
--p,--pkg path/to/pkg Specify additional packages to include into the installer

For example:

/Library/Application\ Support/Veertu/Anka/tools/create_macos_install_image.sh /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app

To create a VM from .iso, you will use anka create command as you typically would. It will create an empty VM. Note - > While creating VM with anka create, make sure to specify enough --disk-size parameter. Currently, it’s not possible to change the disk size for an existing VM.

anka create --ram-size 2G --cpu-count 2 --disk-size 60G sierravm
vm created successfully with uuid: dfaa97c5-2154-11e8-881d-acbc32ad1d59

Then, start the VM with the sierra ISO attached.

anka start -v -o sierra.iso sierravm
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| uuid                  | dfaa97c5-2154-11e8-881d-acbc32ad1d59 |
| name                  | sierravm                             |
| cpu_cores             | 2                                    |
| ram                   | 2G                                   |
| hard_drive            | 60 GB (11.2 MB on disk)              |
| addons_version        | not found                            |
| status                | running                              |
| vnc_connection_string | vnc://:admin@10.0.1.12:5900          |
| view_vm_display       | anka view sierravm                   |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+

Complete the macOS setup inside the VM. Then, stop the VM.

Start the VM again with guest addons ISO installed.

anka start -v -o /Library/Application\ Support/Veertu/Anka/guestaddons/anka-addons-mac.iso sierravm

Complete the guest addons installation inside the VM. Shutdown the VM with anka stop VMNAME.

Validate by running the following command anka run VMNAME ls -l from the host. It should display ls -l contents of the VM. The VM is correctly created.

Anka Guest Add-ons also create a default user - anka, passwd - admin for the VM.

=======

Enable Port forwarding for the VM

If you want to enable ssh based access to the VM from your CI tools, then enable port forwarding.

Use anka modify command.

anka modify vmname add port-forwarding --host-port 0 --guest-port 22 ssh
rule added successfully

When the port forwarding rule is successfully added, you will see the following in the anka show vmname output.

port_forwarding

+--------------+------------+---------+-------------+-------------+-----------+
|   guest_port | protocol   | name    |   host_port |   time_sync | host_ip   |
+==============+============+=========+=============+=============+===========+
|           22 | tcp        | ssh     |       10000 |           1 | 0.0.0.0   |
+--------------+------------+---------+-------------+-------------+-----------+

In some scenarios due to network specific settings within an enterprise, You may need to cange the default starting range for port forwrding from 10000 to something else. This can be done by executing the following command on the host machine where the VM will run.

anka config portfwd_base 40000

If this node/host is connected to the controller execute this command in system domain, since controller operates in system domain.

sudo anka config portfwd_base 40000

*Note Make sure to execute this on all the nodes/hosts.

Manage VM Templates in Registry

Anka registry provides an easy way to store, version, and distribute macOS VMs that are used for CI and development. Once you’ve completed creation and setup of your VMs, use anka registry command to work with the registry.

Store your build and test VM templates in the registry.
Then, you can pull them, modify them and push them again with a different tag to the Registry. This way you can maintain versions. Pull specific VM template and tag to a different machine running Anka package.

Registry Operations

View all of the available registry commands by running anka registry --help.

anka registry --help
Usage: anka registry [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

  VMs registry

Options:
  -r, --remote TEXT           Use repository name instead of 'default'
  -a, --registry-path TEXT    Use repository URL instead of 'default'
  -c, -i, --cert, --pem PATH  Client certificate if required
  -k, --key PATH              Private key, if the client certificate doesn't contain one
  --cacert, --root-cert PATH  Alternate ca_bundle
  --insecure                  Skip TLS verification
  --help                      Show this message and exit.

Commands:
  add                  Add repository
  check-download-size  Returns size of the data to be downloaded
  delete               Forget repository
  describe             Shows VM description
  list                 List VMs in repository
  list-repos           List registry repositories
  pull                 Pull certain VM
  push                 Push VM version (tag) to repository
  set                  Set default registry

Add registry to a Node/machine running Anka - anka registry add <givesomename> <registryURLwithport>

You can add/define multiple registries to a node. The last one added is treated as current. To change current use the set command.

Set Current registry - anka registry set <previouslydefiniedname>

Push VM to the Registry - anka registry push -d <description> -t <tag> vmname

Pull VM from the Registry - anka registry pull -t <tag> vmname

Pull VM from the Registry with Shrink - anka registry pull -s -t <tag> vmname. For example, let’s say you have V1, V2 tags in the Registry for a VM. You pull V2. Then, you pull V1 with -s flag. It will optimize the local disk space usage by deleting all V2 related tag/version files.

List VMs in the Registry - anka registry list

Registry REST APIs

To list all VM templates stored in the registry

url= "/api/v1/registry/vm"
method="GET"
body=none
Returns: Operation result, List of registry VM UUIDs and names

To show information on a specific VM template from the registry

url= "/api/v1/registry/vm?id={vm_id}"
method="GET"
body=none
Returns: Operation result, VM UUID, name and tag list

To delete a specific VM template and all associated tags from the registry

url= "/api/v1/registry/vm?id={vm_id}"
method="DELETE"
body=none
Returns: Operation result

To delete a specific VM template-tag and all later tags from the registry. For this call use the IP:port of the registry.

Url: "/registry/revert?id={vm_id}&tag_name={tobedeletedtag}"
Method: DELETE
Arguments:
vm_id - must
Version - the version number to delete, all newer versions will be deleted as well
Tag_name - specify tag name instead of numeric value
If neither version or tag_name is supplied the latest version will be deleted
Return:
{“status”: “OK”} / {“status”: “error”}

To distribute a specific VM template to all build nodes

Group_id is only available if you are running Enterprise tier of Anka Build.

url= "/api/v1/registry/vm/distribute"
method="POST"
body="VM Uuid,  tag, version, group id" 
group_id (optional) distributes the image to a specific group
Example Body: {"template_id":"226d946b-2467-11e7-84b7-a860b60fd826", “tage”=”v1”}
Returns: Operation result, request id

To get distribution status

url= "/api/v1/registry/distribute?id={request_id}"
method="GET"
body=none 
Returns: Operation result, map of node id -> (distribution status, template id, tag, version, time)

Provision VMs from Controller

Anka Controller is the central management system of Anka Build and provides a simple and extensible interface for provisioning and managing on-demand macOS VMs on a cluster of mac hardware (Anka Build nodes). If you use CI tools like Jenkins, Teamcity. GitLab CI, BuidKite, integrate them with Anka controller using plugins or controller REST APIs to provision macOS VMs on-demand for CI job requests.

You can work with controller through the web portal interface, REST APIs or plugins.

Controller Portal

Access it by going to your controller IP - http://<controllerIP>:port.

You can view the status of your Anka Build macOS cloud from this UI and also perform basic management operations.

Dashboard View

This view displays the total active build nodes, running VM instances, instance run capacity utilization, registry storage consumption, average cpu and ram utilization across the entire cloud.

image1

Nodes View

Click on nodes to go to node list view.

You can view all active build nodes, instances running on them, their cpu and ram utilization. From this view, you can modify the concurrent VM capacity for each node.

image2

Templates View

Click on templates to look at all VMs stored in the registry.

image3

Click on an individual template to view all versions/tags for that template.

image4

Click on distribute to all nodes or select specific Nodes to pre-load the most frequently used Vm templates for your build/test jobs on all build nodes. This will reduce the time for first time job execution on Anka Build cloud. Controller manages disk space on the Build Nodes and deletes VM templates that are not used for CI build and test jobs.

Note - Once a job executes on a build node in a specific VM, the original VM template used for this job is cached on the node. Hence, any subesequent job executions don’t download VM from the registry. The VM template is only downloaded when there is a brand new VM template or a new tag to an existing VM template. Download of a VM template with a new tag is only incremental.

image5

Distribution to nodes is complete.

image6

Instances View

Click on Instances to get a list of all running instances on the cloud.

image7

Manually starting instances

Click on create instance to manually start instances using a specific VM template/tag on the cloud.

image8

Accessing Error logs

Starting from Controller release version 1.0.12, logs will be available for download from the Controller Management portal for error scenarios during VM provisioning.

image9

image10

Controller REST APIs

Use the REST APIs to integrate Anka Build cloud with your CI system(If there is no plugin/integration available).

To provision and start VMs (Start VM instance will start N count of instances of a particular type across the node cluster) Note - Group_id, priority and USB_device is only available if you are running Enterprise and higher tier of Anka Build.

url= "/api/v1/vm", 
method="POST"
body="VM UUID, tag, version, count, node_id, startup_script, group_id, priority, usb_device"  
(node_id, count, tag, version, startup_script, group_id, priority, usb_device are optional. If tag is not provided, the latest version will be used, otherwise whatever tag is specified will be pulled on the nodes. By default count is 1. If node_id is not specified the VM could be scheduled on any node)
startup_script is base64 encoded string of the script to be executed after the instance is started
Group_id lets you choose on which group the vm will run on
Priority lets you give the vm priority over other vms, most urgent priority is 1 and the default priority is 1000
Returns: Operation Result, Array of instance UUIDs
Example Body: {"vmid":"226d946b-2467-11e7-84b7-a860b60fd826", “count”=10, startup_script=”IyEvYmluL2Jhc2gNCmV4cG9ydCBBPSJhYWEiDQoNCg==”}

To terminate VM

url= "/api/v1/vm", 
method="DELETE"
body=Instance ID
Example Body:  {"id":"7ed72625-ee2e-4195-606a-dd04a274b9c3"}
Returns: Operation result

To list the instances

url= "/api/v1/vm"
method="GET"
body=none
Returns: Operation result, List of initiated VM instance UUIDs

To show information for an instance

url= "/api/v1/vm?id={instance_id}"
method="GET"
body=none
Returns: Operation result, State, VM and connectivity info

To list all build nodes joined to the controller

url= "/api/v1/node"
method="GET"
body=none
Returns: Operation result, List of nodes IDs

To show information for a build node

url= "/api/v1/node?id={node_id}"
method="GET"
body=none
Returns: Operation result, State and Info of the node and available USB devices

To delete/remove a build node from controller database/portal. This doesnot remove the node from the cluster. Use ankacluster disjoin on the node to disjoin the node from the cluster. Then, execute delete/remove node API call to remove it permanently from the controller database.

url= "/api/v1/node"
method="DELETE"
body=node_id ID
Example Body:  {"node_id":"7ed72625-ee2e-4195-606a-dd04a274b9c3"}
Returns: Operation result

Note - Group and USB management APIs are only available in Enterprise and higher Anka Build Tier.

To get a list of all groups definied

List Groups
url= "/api/v1/group"
method=”GET"
body=none 
Returns: Operation result, List of groups

To create a new Group

url= "/api/v1/group"
method="POST"
body="Name, Description" 
Example Body: {"name": "My awesome group", "description": "my favorite nodes"}
Returns: Operation result, The new group

To update a Group

url= "/api/v1/group?id={group_id}"
method=”PUT"
body=”Name, Description”
 Example Body: {"name": "My other awesome group", "description": "my second favorite nodes"}
Returns: Operation result

To delete a Group

url= "/api/v1/group?id={group_id}"
method=”DELETE"
body=none 
Returns: Operation result

To add nodes to a Group

Add Nodes To Groups 
url= "/api/v1/node/group"
method="POST"
body="Groupd Ids,  Node Ids" 
Example Body: {"group_ids": ["a2a833a1-e44c-4247-57d1-6cd06b0fd040", "47f0a57e-9b14-4d80-4f5c-3284f2c85e0d"], "node_ids": ["c6493f47-7106-4cb9-88be-1f5cf2af7a72"]}
Returns: Operation result

To remove nodes from a group

url= "/api/v1/node/group"
method="DELETE"
body="Groupd Ids,  Node Ids" 
Example Body: {"group_ids": ["a2a833a1-e44c-4247-57d1-6cd06b0fd040", "47f0a57e-9b14-4d80-4f5c-3284f2c85e0d"], "node_ids": ["c6493f47-7106-4cb9-88be-1f5cf2af7a72"]}
Returns: Operation result

To get a list of all USB devices attached to the cloud

List all USB devices
url= "/api/v1/usb"
method=”GET"
body=none 
Returns: Operation result, List of all USB devices attached across all the nodes

Integrate Jenkins with Controller

The Anka Jenkins plugin provides a quick way to integrate Anka Build Cloud with Jenkins for iOS/macOS CI workflows. This enables Jenkins jobs to dynamically provision specific macOS VM instances(based on label used) on Anka Build Cloud for job execution. The VMs are deleted after every successfull job execution. New job request starts a brand new VM instance on the Anka Build Cloud.

Anka Jenkins plugin supports both Pipeline and Freeform Jenkins jobs.

Preparing the VM Environment

  1. Install JDK 8 in your macOS VMs.
  2. Create jenkins User(required for ssh based connectivity from Jenkins to Anka VMs). Make sure remotelogin is enabled for this user. You can also use default anka user.
  3. Enable port forwarding (required for ssh based connectivity from Jenkins to Anka VMs).
  4. Suspend the VM.
  5. Push it to anka registry.

SSH or JNLP based Connection from Jenkins to Anka VMs

Anka Build Jenkins plugin supports both JNLP and SSH based connections to Anka VMs.

JNLP - For JNLP, configure for JNLP in the Anka Build plugin in Jenkins.

image5

SSH

  1. Create a dedicated (Jenkins) user and enable remote login for this user in the VM template. Make sure to enable auto login for the administrative user of the VM as well.
  2. Configure port forwarding

Configure the Anka Cloud Plugin

  1. Install the Anka Build Cloud Plugin - Browse to Manage Jenkins > Manage Plugins.

  2. Click on Available. Search for Anka and you can install it from jenkins Plugin center or click on the Advanced tab. Use the instructions under the Upload Plugin section to upload the anka-ci.hpi plugin file to your Jenkins master server.

  3. Go to Manage Jenkins > Configure System and find the section called Cloud. Enter a name for your Anka Cloud in the Anka Build Cloud field, as well as an IP address and port number for the controller in the Build Controller URL field(http://xx.xxx.xxx.xxx:portno). Default port is 80.

  4. Click Show Templates and configure Jenkins slave templates for your jobs.

  5. Select the VM from the Templates. This will show the list of all VMs from the registry.

  6. Select the tag/version from Template Version Tag dropdown. Leave it to Latest if you want to always access the latest tag/version of the VM.

  7. Leave # of Executors to 1.

  8. Enter the Jenkins user home path in Remote FS Root.

  9. Enter a value for Labels that you will refer to in your jobs.

  10. Select SSH or JNLP method for connection between jenkins and Anka VMs.

  11. Enter value for Slave name template. Vms provisioned for this slave template definition will have this value.

  12. You can also pass Environment Variables.

  13. Select a Node Group if you want Vms for this definition provisioned on a specific group definied in your Anka Build Cloud (Avaialble only in Enterprise and Enterprise Plus Tiers).

  14. Enter Priority for Vm provisioning (Available only in Enterprise and Enterprise Plus tiers).

  15. Apply and Save the settings.

Note You can save multiple slave VM template profiles with a unique label name corresponding to different VM template types/tags. Then, your jobs can refer to these labels.

Jenkins Slave template Builder Plugin(Optional)

Use this plugin (veertu-ci-xx.zip) to populate the VM templates with build cache.

Note Before starting setup of this plugin, make sure that a VM template is available in the Anka Registry.

This plugin is not available through the Jenkins plugin center. Download it from Anka Build Download page - Anka Build Jenkins Template Builder Plugin.

  1. Upload “Anka Slave template Prepare” plugin hpi file (veertu-ci-xx) to the Jenkins master server

  2. Click on Create Cloud. Select Anka Slave template Prepare Plugin.

  3. Pick a mac machine to use as the host for Slave template prepare plugin and install Anka.pkg on it and activate license. It’s advisable to remove this host/machine from the Anka Build cloud cluster, as it can cause conflicts.

  4. Connect the host from step 3 to Anka registry using the following command anka registry add.

  5. Create a ssh user on the host Jenkins to connect.

  6. Configure following settings in the ‘Anka Slave Template Prepare Plugin’ settings.

  7. For Cloud Name - Enter a name for Anka slave template prepare cloud.

  8. For Anka Host name or IP - Enter the IP of the host from step 3.

  9. for Credentials - Enter ssh user credentials from step 5.

  10. Under Slave Template settings, for Template, select the VM template from the list.

  11. For Template version tag, select a specific tag or leave to latest. Latest is the last pushed version.

  12. For Clone user - jenkins user credentials for the VM template. Make sure that Remote Login and Auto Login is enabled for this user inside the VM.

  13. For Remote FS root - Jenkins user root directory in tVM template.

  14. For Labels - Specify the label for this slave that will be used in the job.

  15. Jenkins job configuration, specify the label from step 14 slave template setting. Also, include post build step Action in the job to save the prepared VM template back to the registry.

  16. In the post build action, enter the following information.

    1. Tag name - It’s recommended to leave it empty and the plugin will self-generate a tag with the current date or specify a specific tag name for the VM that is available after the build job and will be pushed as VM template to the registry.

    2. Delete latest tag - In order to optimize disk space in the registry. You can select this option. When a new version of Vm template is pushed to the registry, the previous tag will be deleted.

    3. Tag description - text description for the tag/version.

Integrate TeamCity with Controller

The Anka TeamCity plugin provides a quick way to integrate Anka Build Cloud with TeamCity for iOS/macOS CI workflows. This enables TeamCity jobs to dynamically provision specific macOS VM instances on Anka Build Cloud for job execution. The VMs are deleted after every successfull job execution. New job request starts a brand new VM instance on the Anka Build Cloud.

Changes to VM template for TeamCity

  1. Install JDK 8 in your macOS VMs.
  2. Create Teamcity User(required for ssh based connectivity from Teamcity to Anka VMs). Make sure remotelogin is enabled for this user. You can also use default anka user.
  3. Enable port forwarding (required for ssh based connectivity from Teamcity to Anka VMs).
  4. Download TeamCity agent executable in the Vm under the newly created TeamCity user.
  5. Go to BuildAgent/conf/buildagent.properties under Teamcity user in the VM and check all the settings. Make sure that serverurl pointing to your Teamcity server IP as serverUrl=http://xx.xxx.xx.xxx is correct.
  6. Start the Teamcity agent service inside the VM with sh BuildAgent/bin/mac.launchd.sh load.
  7. Connect to this VM from Teamcity, wait for few minutes for Teamcity to connect and authorize the VM agent instance. It will show up under the connected tab in Agents in TeamCity.
  8. Suspend the VM with anka suspend VMName.
  9. Push it to anka registry.

TeamCity plugin configuration

  1. Install the Anka Build Cloud Plugin - Browse to Administration > Plugins List. Upload the anka-build-tc-XX.zip.

  2. Create Cloud profile for the project and select Anka Build Cloud for Cloud Type.

  3. Edit the Cloud profile to complete configuration.

  4. For Additional terminate conditions, select after first build.

  5. For Controller URL, enter Anka Build Cloud controller IP and port. Default port is 80.

  6. Image Name will show all VM templates from the Registry. Select the one you want to use for build/test for this project.

  7. Image Tag will show all tags for the selected VM template in the Image Name field. Select the one you want to use for your build/test. Leave it to latest to always select the latest one.

  8. For Group (optional), if you want Vms for this definition provisioned on a specific group definied in your Anka Build Cloud (Avaialble only in Enterprise and Enterprise Plus Tiers).

  9. SSH User and SSH Password are the VM Teamcity user ssh credentials.

  10. Agent Path Select is the path to TeamCity agent location in the VM.

  11. Select a Node Group if you want Vms for this definition provisioned on a specific group definied in your Anka Build Cloud (Avaialble only in Enterprise and Enterprise Plus Tiers).

  12. Enter Priority for Vm provisioning (Available only in Enterprise and Enterprise Plus tiers).

  13. Save the settings.

Integrate GitLab CI with Controller

Veertu provides and maintains a Gitlab CI Runner for Anka Build. Teams who are using GitLab CI to execute their iOS CI pipelines can dynamically provision macOS Vms on their Anka Build cloud.

Get more details at Anka Build GitLab CI Integration Download page.

Integrate Buildkite CI with Controller

Teams who are using BuikdKite to execute their iOS CI pipelines can dynamically provision macOS Vms on their Anka Build cloud with the BuildKite integration.

Get more details at Anka Build Buildkite Integration Download page.

Anka CLI Operations

Anka package provides an complete set of CLI interface to manage macOS infrastructure as a cloud for CI purposes.

Execute anka help to see a complete list CLI commands available.

anka --help
Usage: anka [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

Options:
  --machine-readable              JSON output format
  --log-level [debug|info|error]
  --debug
  -l, --login TEXT                Specify the vm policy user (if configured)
  --help                          Show this message and exit.

Commands:
  clone     Clones a VM
  config    Manage Anka configuration
  create    Creates a VM
  delete    Deletes a VM (or list of vms)
  describe  Shows VM configuration
  license   licensing commands
  list      List VM library contents
  modify    Modifies a VM settings
  mount     Mounts local folder into VM
  reboot    Restarts a VM(s)
  registry  VMs registry
  run       Run commands inside VM environment
  show      Shows VM runtime properties
  start     Starts or resumes paused VM
  stop      Shuts down a vm
  suspend   Suspends a VM(s)
  unmount   Unmount shared folder (filesystem...
  usb       Do actions on USB devices
  version   prints out version
  view      Open VM display viewer

machine readable output from Anka CLI Commands - Use --machine-readable flag. Example anka --machine-readable clone VMname Vmname2.

Debugging Anka CLI Commands - Use --debug flag. Example anka --debug clone VMname Vmname2.

Create VM - Use anka create command. Go to Create VM section.

Clone VM - Use anka clone command. -c flag consolidates/shrinks all the snapshots and creates an independent copy.

anka clone --help
Usage: anka clone [OPTIONS] VM_ID NEW_VM_NAME

  Clones a VM

Options:
  -c, --copy  Create independent copy instead of clone
  --help      Show this message and exit.

Manage VM configuration - Use anka config command to manage VM configuration.

anka config --help
Usage: anka config [OPTIONS] [PARAM]...

  Manage Anka configuration

Options:
  -l, --list   List value parameter(s)
  -r, --reset  Reset value of parameter(s)
  --help       Show this message and exit.

Delete VM - Use anka delete command to delete one, multiple or all VMs in the local VM directory.

anka delete [OPTIONS] [VMID]...

  Deletes a VM (or list of vms)

Options:
  --yes      flag. don't ask - just delete
  -a, --all  Delete all vms in library
  --help     Show this message and exit.

Show VM configuration - Use anka describe command to view Vm configuration.

anka describe --help
Usage: anka describe [OPTIONS] VM_ID

  Shows VM configuration

Options:
  --help  Show this message and exit.

Manage anka license - Use anka license command to activate, remove and execute other licesing related operations for the host.

anka license --help
Usage: anka license [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

  licensing commands

Options:
  --help  Show this message and exit.

Commands:
  accept-eula  accept EULA (root privileges)
  activate     activate license key (root privileges)
  remove       removes the current license (root privileges)
  show         show license information
  validate     validates the current license

list of all VMs - Use anka list command to view all the VMs available in the local VM directory with their status and other properties.

anka list --help
Usage: anka list [OPTIONS] [VMID]...

  List VM library contents

Options:
  -r, --running  show only running vms
  -s, --stopped  show only stopped vms
  --help         Show this message and exit.

Modify VM properties - Use anka modify command to change VM properties like port-forwarding, vCPU, ram, etc. You can set, add and delete properties.

SET Operations

anka modify vmname/ID set --help
Usage: anka modify set [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

Options:
  --help  Show this message and exit.

Commands:
  cpu              set number of cpu cores and frequency
  custom-variable  configure variables
  description      set textual description of the VM
  display          configure displays
  hard-drive       modify hard drive settings
  name             set new name for the VM
  nested           enable nested virtualization
  network-card     modify network card settings
  policy           Enable VM access management (available in Anka Secure license)
  ram              set RAM size and parameters

Changing hardware properties for a VM

Use anka modify set custom-variable command. You can set the following custom varibales.

  • boot-args - control the corresponding NVRAM variable
  • hw.uuid - specifies the Hardware UUID
  • hw.serial - specifies the Serial Number (system)
  • hw.manufacturer - SMBIOS parameter (Reserved)
  • hw.product - SMBIOS parameter (Reserved)
  • hw.family - SMBIOS parameter (Reserved)
  • hw.board - SMBIOS parameter (Reserved)
anka modify VM set custom-variable hw.UUID "GUID"
anka modify VM set custom-variable hw.serial 'MySerial'

ADD Operations

sudo anka modify vmname/ID add --help
Usage: anka modify add [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

Options:
  --help  Show this message and exit.

Commands:
  hard-drive
  network-card
  optical-drive
  port-forwarding
  usb-device (available in enterprise and enterprise plus tiers)

DELETE Operations

sudo anka modify vmname/ID delete --help
Usage: anka modify delete [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

Options:
  --help  Show this message and exit.

Commands:
  custom-variable
  hard-drive
  network-card
  optical-drive
  policy
  port-forwarding
  usb-device (available in enterprise and enterprise plus tiers)

Mount local file system into the VM - Use the anka mount command to mount current local folder from the host inside the VM. Returns 231 on timeout.

anka mount --help
Usage: anka mount [OPTIONS] VM_NAME [DIRS]...

  Mounts local folder into VM

Options:
  --help  Show this message and exit.

Unmount mounted folder - Use the anka unmount to Unmount the locally folder mounting. Returns 231 on timeout.

anka unmount --help
Usage: anka unmount [OPTIONS] VM_NAME FSID

  Unmount shared folder (filesystem pass-through)

Options:
  --help  Show this message and exit.

Reboot VM - Use the anka reboot to reboot one, multiple or all Vms in the VM local directory.

anka reboot --help
Usage: anka reboot [OPTIONS] [VMID]...

  Restarts a VM(s)

Options:
  -f, --force  flag. restarts the vm process
  -a, --all    reboot all running vms
  --help       Show this message and exit.

Work with registry - Use the anka registry command for access, push, pull Vms from the registry. See the Manage VM Templates in Registry Manage VM Templates in Registry documentation.

Start VM - Use the anka start coammnd to start VM. use the -u flag to update the guest addons inside the VM. This maybe be required for upgrading Vms for major Anka releases.

anka start --help
Usage: anka start [OPTIONS] VM_ID

  Starts or resumes paused VM

Options:
  -u, --update-addons, --update  Run guest addons update procedure, previous version of the addons should be already
                                 installed
  -f, --force                    Start VM with minimum checks
  -v, --view                     Open display window
  -o, --optical-drive TEXT       Path to ISO file or device
  -d, --usb TEXT                 USB device ID/Location (should be claimed)
  --help                         Show this message and exit.

Stop VM - Use the anka stop command to stop VM.

anka stop --help
Usage: anka stop [OPTIONS] [VMID]...

  Shuts down a vm

Options:
  -f, --force  force the vm process to shut down
  -a, --all    Shutdown all running vms
  --help       Show this message and exit.

Suspend VM - Use anka suspend command to put Vm in Instant Boot state. It’s recommended to suspend VMs before pushing them to the Registry for use in CI.

anka suspend --help
Usage: anka suspend [OPTIONS] [VMID]...

  Suspends a VM(s)

Options:
  -a, --all  suspend all running vms
  --help     Show this message and exit.

Open Vm Window/viewer - Use anka view command to open running VM window. anka viewer supports Retina support for Mojave VMs.

anka view --help
Usage: anka view [OPTIONS] VM_ID

  Open VM display viewer

Options:
  -d, --display INTEGER  Specify the displays to view
  -s, --screenshot       Make png screenshot
  --help                 Show this message and exit.

View Anka version - Use anka version command to view current anka version.

anka version
Anka Build Enterprise version 2.0 (build 108)

Show running VM properties - Use anka show command to view VM properties of running VM.

anka show --help
Usage: anka show [OPTIONS] VM_ID [PROPERTY]...

  Shows VM runtime properties

Options:
  --help  Show this message and exit.

Attach and Detach USB devices to VM - Use anka USB device to attach and work with USB devices inside the VM. The USb devices should be connected to the host. See working with real devices documentation.

Execute operation inside Vm from the host with RUN - Use anka run coammnd, similar to docker run to execute operation inside the Vm from the host where it’s running. Returns 125 on timeout.

anka run --help
Usage: anka run [OPTIONS] VM_NAME COMMAND [ARGS]...

  Run commands inside VM environment

Options:
  -w, --workdir PATH              Working directory inside the VM
  -v, --volumes-from, --volume PATH
                                  Mount host directory (current directory by default) into VM . '--volumes-from' is
                                  deprecated form
  -n, --no-volumes-from, --no-volume
                                  Use this flag to prevent implicit mounting of current folder (see --volume
                                  option). '--no-volumes-from' is deprecated form
  -E, -e, --env                   Inherit environment variables. '-e' is deprecated form
  -f, --env-file PATH             Provide environment variables from file
  -N, --wait-network              Wait till guest network interface up
  -T, --wait-time                 Wait for guest time sync
  --help                          Show this message and exit.

Examples of anka run usage

anka run sierrav40c1 xcodebuild -sdk iphonesimulator -scheme Kickstarter-iOS build will mount the default directory from the host into the sierrav40c1 Vm and execute build.

anka run -w /Applications VMNAME ls -l will pipe the results of ls -l from the VM’s /Applications directory.

anka run -v . VMNAME ls will mount the host current directory inside the VM, execute ls, pipe the results and unmount.

anka run -v . VMNAME xcodebuild ... will mount the current directory from the developer machine(host) to the VM and execute an xcodebuild command and pipe the results back.

anka run sudo ... executes commands inside the VM with sudo privileges. For instance:

anka run VMNAME cp -R simpledir /Users/anka will copy the current host directory to the VM at /Users/anka location

anka run -n sierrav40c1 xcodebuild -sdk iphonesimulator -scheme Kickstarter-iOS build will not mount the curent host directory and execute build in the VM current directory

$ anka run VMNAME sudo whoami
root

It’s also possible to explicitly specify mount directory inside VM, using this syntax -v /host/forlder:/mnt/path, e.g:

anka run -v $PWD:/tmp/mountpoint_1 VMNAME pwd

Currently only single volume could be specified in the run command. If you need more than one folder shared between host and the VM, please use anka mount/unmount commands.

anka mount VMNAME ~/Library/MobileDevice/Provisioning\ Profiles/ /Users/anka/Library/MobileDevice/Provisioning\ Profiles/
anka run VMNAME xcodebuild -exportOptionsPlist exportInfo.plist archive

Please note, VM should be running for mount command. If you need more configuration changes to the VM, before anka run execution, you could start the VM with corresponding parameters, or write the parameters to VM configuration with anka modify command.

Working with environment variables using anka run

anka run command doesn’t use .profile, .bash_profile by itself. To configure the environment variables, you can pass it with anka run -f environment.txt, where environment.txt is a text file in the form VARIABLE=VALUE, one variable per line.

To inherit entire host’s environment, use anka run -E command, but in this case existing guests variables will not be overridden by host’s variables.

In order to use environment variables from VMs .bash_profile, execute the following command via intermediate bash.

anka run ios-temp bash -c 'source ~/.bash_profile; ./iPhone/make_build -b dev -c 1 -d ./build -e Mobile -z'

Few things to note

anka run doesn’t support TTY mode, but you could easily use POSIX streams as with regular bash tool.

anka run -n VNMANE whoami > /dev/null

cat file.txt | anka run -n VMNAME md5

anka run, when run in default mode with no flags, mounts the current folder from the host into the VM and executes commands on this mount point as current directory.

Accessing the host from within Anka VM

The host from Anka VM has fixed IP address of 192.168.64.1 (or 192.168.128.1 in host-only mode).

Tier Datasheet

** ** Basic Enterprise Enterprise Plus
Core based licensing Yes Yes Yes
Cloud Controller with REST APIs Yes(Single instance of Anka controller included) Yes(Single instance of Anka controller included) Yes
Central Registry Yes(Single instance Anka Registry included) Yes(Single instance Anka Registry included) Yes
Jenkins Anka Cloud plugin Yes Yes Yes
TeamCity Plugin Yes Yes Yes
Gitlab Ci Plugin Yes Yes Yes
BuildKite Plugin Support Yes Yes Yes
HA for Controller configuration setup Yes (Additional controller/registry instances needed) Yes (Additional controller/registry instances needed) Yes
Priority scheduling of VMs through controller Yes Yes
Clustering (Grouping) of Nodes Yes Yes
USB support (to connect real devices to the VM) Yes Yes
Basic controller authentication, also includes REST APIs (Superlogin user) Yes Yes
Multi-user authorization support through SSO support Yes
Controller API activity logging Yes
VM full disk encryption for Build VMs Yes
Control VM runtime (Networking, Access to host) and functional properties with policies Yes

Enterprise Features

Anka Build Enterprise License tier enables additional features on top of Build Basic Tier.

Clustering(Grouping) - Enterprise and Enterprise Plus This feature enables users to group Anka Build nodes into clusters/groups. These clusters can then be specified selectively to provision VMs. When nodes are put in groups, the level of separation is provided at the controller level for VM provisioning requests initiated from the controller.

For example, you can create group A, group B. Then, as required some CI job requested VMs can only be provisioned on Group A or Group B.

A fallback group can be defined for any group. The fallback group will pick up the VM provisioning request if the primary group is running at its capacity.

Managing group definitions - Can be done through controller Portal UI or Controller REST APIs.

Joining Anka Build nodes to the group - Can be done at the time of joining the node, through Controller REST APIs, Controller REST APIs.

Jenkins and TeamCity Anka Plugins expose grouping feature.

Priority Scheduling - Enterprise and Enterprise Plus Priority parameter is exposed through “Create VM” Controller REST API and also through the controller portal UI. This parameter enables priority provisioning of the VM, when there are multiple requests in the controller queue.

Range - 1 - 1000. 1 - Indicates the most urgent. 1000 - Default for all

USB support - Enterprise and Enterprise Plus Attach one or multiple devices (through the host USB interface) to dynamically provisioned VMs for testing. Exposed through controller REST APIs and command line interface.

Basic controller authentication also includes REST APIs (Superlogin user) (Available from Controller 1.1 release) - Enterprise and Enterprise Plus

Authentication support includes Root token authentication access to the Controller Dashboard and certificate authentication for following clients - Build nodes, plugins, API access, anka command line access to the registry.

Enterprise Plus Features

Anka Build Enterprise Plus License tier enables additional features on top of Build Basic and Enterprise Tiers.

Authentication and Authorization support for multi-users through SSO (Available from Controller 1.1 release) - Enterprise Plus Multi-user access authentication and authorized based access to Controller portal dashboard and REST API operations is provided through OpenID and LDAP SSO based integration.

VM encryption of Build VMs at REST - Enterprise Plus Encrypt the build VM template at the time of VM creation, store it in the Anka Registry in an encrypted state. When this VM is used to build on the Anka Build nodes, it will be decrypted.

VM Control through Policy - Enterprise Plus Manage the Build VMs access to local and remote resources through policies. This includes the ability to control VM access to host shared folders, USB, disk access, networking, external networking.