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--- services:labtest:start [2025/02/24 09:38] – jas
+++ services:labtest:start [2025/04/02 13:53] (current) – jas
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+eclass.yorku.ca/mod/quiz/autosave
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+eclass.yorku.ca/mod/quiz/view.php?id=ID
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 WARNING: Before you can re-use the same secureq directory for another test, at a minimum, you must move any existing “secureq/map” directory out of the way. This directory contains files which track which question each of your students received on the test, and on what machine. This will limit which question they can receive on your new test, and on what machine they can work
+====== Labtest and Containers ======
+It may be helpful to some courses to use containers from within labtest.  This section will provide an example of downloading the latest Ubuntu image, modifying the image, and pushing the image to labtest.
+Download an Ubuntu image:
+<code>
+% podman pull ubuntu:latest
+</code>
+**NOTE:** Your EECS home directory has limited storage space and is on network storage.  **This is not ideal for working with containers.**  Faculty who have their own research servers or personal workstations can use this equipment to generate images, the result of which can be used in labtest.  Failing this, faculty can use /tmp space for **temporary** container development.  For more information, consult with tech.  For information on using containers in EECS click [[services:podman|here]].
+Start up the container from the ubuntu:latest image, and call it my-ubuntu:
+<code>
+% podman run -it --name my-ubuntu ubuntu:latest bash
+</code>
+Make changes -- in this case, we'll just add an empty file named "file", but you could install additional packages, add users or groups, and configure the system in any way you like:
+<code>
+# cd
+# touch file
+# exit
+</code>
+Now let's stop the container:
+<code>
+% podman stop my-ubuntu
+</code>
+Commit the changes in my-ubuntu container to my-new-ubuntu image:
+<code>
+% podman commit my-ubuntu my-new-ubuntu
+</code>
+Save the image to a tar file:
+<code>
+% podman save -o my-new-ubuntu.tar my-new-ubuntu
+</code>
+Place my-new-ubuntu.tar into ltinit directory in the course labtest web directory:
+In ltinit/labtest.sh we can load the image, start the container, and open up a Terminal window connected to the container:
+<code>
+podman load -i $HOME/ltinit/my-new-ubuntu.tar
+podman run -dit --name labtest my-new-ubuntu
+gnome-terminal -- podman exec -it labtest bash
+</code>
+Now, when the user logs in, the image is unpacked and loaded. Podman run starts the container.  Note the following options:
+  * -d runs it in the background (detached).
+  * -i keeps stdin open.
+  * -t allocates a pseudo-tty.
+  * --name labtest names the container labtest.
+  * my-new-ubuntu is the image used to create the container
+**NOTE:** Large container downloads with large multi lab labtests could result in performance issues since all users will be downloading the container on login.  In this case, discuss with tech how we could instead add the container to the course labtest web directory, then include an alias in the users .cshrc file which will download the image with curl or wget, load the image, and start the container.  As users will be doing this manually, and will be doing this at different times, the chance of performance issue is much less.
 ====== Labtest File Synchronization (ltsave) ======