Aleph-VM

The Aleph-VM project allows you to run programs on Aleph.im.

Aleph-VM is optimized to run programs on demand in a "function-as-as-service", as a response to HTTP requests.

Programs can be written in any language as long as they can run a web server. They benefit from running in their own, customizable Linux virtual environment.

Writing programs in Python using ASGI compatible frameworks ( FastAPI, Django, ...) allows developers to use advanced functionnalities not yet available for other languages.

1. Creating and running an Aleph Program

Have a look at tutorials/README.md for a tutorial on how to program VMs as a user.

The rest of this document focuses on how to run an Aleph-VM node that hosts and executes the programs.

2. Installing Aleph-VM on a server

0. Requirements

• A supported Linux server
• A public domain name from a trusted registar and domain.

In order to run an Aleph.im Compute Resource Node, you will also need the following resources:

• CPU (2 options):
  • Min. 8 cores / 16 threads, 3.0 ghz+ CPU (gaming CPU for fast boot-up of microVMs)
  • Min. 12 core / 24 threads, 2.4ghz+ CPU (datacenter CPU for multiple concurrent loads)
• RAM: 64GB
• STORAGE: 1TB (Nvme SSD prefered, datacenter fast HDD possible under conditions, you’ll want a big and fast cache)
• BANDWIDTH: Minimum of 500 MB/s

You will need a public domain name with access to add TXT and wildcard records.

This documentation will use the invalid vm.example.org domain name. Replace it when needed.

1. Quick install

To quickly install Aleph-VM on a supported Linux system for production purposes, run the following commands as root:

apt update
apt upgrade
apt install -y docker.io
docker run -d -p 127.0.0.1:4021:4021/tcp --restart=always --name vm-connector alephim/vm-connector:alpha

On Debian 11:

wget -P /opt https://github.com/aleph-im/aleph-vm/releases/download/0.1.9/aleph-vm.debian-11.deb
apt install /opt/aleph-vm.debian-0.1.9.deb

On Ubuntu 20.04:

wget -P /opt https://github.com/aleph-im/aleph-vm/releases/download/0.1.9/aleph-vm.ubuntu-20.04.deb
apt install /opt/aleph-vm.ubuntu-20.04.deb

Configuration

Update the configuration in /etc/aleph-vm/supervisor.env.

You will want to insert your domain name in the for of:

ALEPH_VM_DOMAIN_NAME=vm.example.org

On Ubuntu, the default network interface is not eth0 and you will want to configure the default interface. Due to the DNS being handled by systemd-resolved on Ubuntu, you should also configure the DNS to use resolvectl.

ALEPH_VM_NETWORK_INTERFACE=enp0s1
ALEPH_VM_DNS_RESOLUTION=resolvectl

(don't forget to replace enp0s1 with the name of your default network interface).

Finally, restart the service:

systemctl restart aleph-vm-supervisor

Reverse Proxy

We document how to use Caddy as a reverse proxy since it does automatic HTTPS certificates.

First, create a domain name that points to the server on IPv4 and IPv6.

This is a simple configuration. For more options, check CONFIGURE_CADDY.md.

Again, run these commands as root after replacing the domain vm.example.org with your own:

sudo apt install -y debian-keyring debian-archive-keyring apt-transport-https
curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/gpg.key' | sudo apt-key add -
curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/debian.deb.txt' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/caddy-stable.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install caddy

sudo cat >/etc/caddy/Caddyfile <<EOL
{
    https_port 443
    on_demand_tls {
        interval 60s
        burst    5
    }
}
vm.example.org:443, *:443 {
    tls {
        on_demand
    }
    reverse_proxy http://127.0.0.1:4020 {
        # Forward Host header to the backend
        header_up Host {host}
    }
} 
EOL

systemctl restart caddy

Test

Open https://[YOUR DOMAIN] in a web browser, wait for diagnostic to complete and look for

3. Architecture

VM Supervisor

Actually runs the programs in a secure environment on virtualization enabled systems.

See vm_supervisor/README.md.

VM Connector

Assist with operations related to the Aleph network.

See vm_connector/README.md.

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