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Systemd service

The installer picks the right binary for the host, writes a config file, creates the user groups, and installs a systemd unit.

  1. Run the installer.

    curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/srl-labs/clab-api-server/main/install.sh | sudo bash -s -- install

    It creates:

    • /usr/local/bin/clab-api-server
    • /etc/clab-api-server/clab-api-server.env, with a random JWT_SECRET
    • /etc/systemd/system/clab-api-server.service
    • the groups clab_api and clab_admins, if missing

  2. Review the config. At least set API_SERVER_HOST to the name or address clients use to reach this host.

    sudoedit /etc/clab-api-server/clab-api-server.env

    All settings are listed in the configuration reference.

  3. Let users in.

    sudo usermod -aG clab_api alice      # own labs
sudo usermod -aG clab_admins bob     # every lab

  4. Start the service.

    sudo systemctl enable --now clab-api-server
sudo systemctl status clab-api-server

Tip

install --start enables and starts the service right away with the generated defaults. Restart it after you edit the config file.

The service runs as root: it controls the container runtime, network namespaces, Linux users, and lab files.

Behind a proxy

Export the proxy variables and keep them for the installer with sudo -E:

export HTTP_PROXY=http://proxy.example.com:8080
export HTTPS_PROXY=http://proxy.example.com:8080
export NO_PROXY=localhost,127.0.0.1
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/srl-labs/clab-api-server/main/install.sh | sudo -E bash -s -- install

The service needs them too: add HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY, and NO_PROXY to /etc/clab-api-server/clab-api-server.env and restart it.

Store labs outside home directories

By default each user's topologies live in ~/.clab/. To keep them elsewhere, set an absolute path:

CLAB_LABS_ROOT=/var/lib/containerlab/labs

Files then go to /var/lib/containerlab/labs/<username>/. ~ is not expanded, because the service runs as root on behalf of many users.