Install on Linux

Works on amd64 and arm64 with any distro that runs Docker Engine. On Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, the RHEL family, Amazon Linux, Arch and Alpine, labctl init installs Docker for you.

What you need#

• Docker Engine. labctl init installs it from Docker's repository for your distro if it is missing (this is the one step that uses sudo).
• 2 CPUs and 4 GB of free memory. Docker runs on your machine directly, so the lab uses the host's memory; close memory-hungry programs if you are short (Resources).
• About 10 GB of free disk.
• git (sudo apt install git or your distro's equivalent).

Install and build the lab#

Clone the latest release wherever you keep projects, then install the matching labctl and build the lab:

git clone --branch stable https://github.com/sagar2395/snowopslabs.git
cd snowopslabs
./install.sh
labctl init

install.sh puts labctl in ~/.local/bin and records your clone, so labctl works from any directory.

init downloads kubectl, helm and k3d into ~/.local/bin (no sudo; a tool you already have at a new enough version is left alone) and prints the line to add to your shell profile if that directory is not on your PATH.

The docker group#

If init installs Docker, it adds you to the docker group so you can use it without sudo. Group membership only applies to new login sessions, so init stops and asks you to log out and back in (or run newgrp docker), then run labctl init again. The same message appears if Docker refuses you for this reason later.

Rootless Docker#

Rootless Docker cannot bind ports below 1024, so the lab's ingress moves to 8080/8443. Every URL labctl prints, and every check, follows it.

inotify limits#

The lab raises fs.inotify.max_user_instances to 512 so log shippers can run. On Linux the cluster's nodes share your kernel, so this changes the setting for your whole machine until the next reboot.

After a reboot#

Docker usually starts on boot. Run labctl init to restart the cluster in order and wait until it is healthy; your apps and scenarios are kept.

Uninstall#

labctl teardown
labctl hosts remove                  # only if you added hosts entries for an older lab
rm -rf ~/.snowops ~/.local/bin/labctl   # and your clone, when you no longer need it