Running Virtual Accelerator

Virtual accelerators are available as Apptainer containers. Instructions for how to install and run Apptainer on different OS are available here. The instructions for how to run a specific virtual accelerator are available in the examples folder.

Linux

Installation instructions are available at https://apptainer.org/docs/admin/main/installation.html#installation-on-linux.

Try to first install using the pre-build packages for your Linux distribution.

If that doesn’t work (for example if it requires root permissions which you don’t have), do an unprivileged installation instead.

You should then be able to run Apptainer in a terminal.

Windows

For Windows you need to install and run in Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). Follow the instructions at https://apptainer.org/docs/admin/main/installation.html#windows.

You can then start the Ubuntu app which opens a Linux terminal where you can run Apptainer.

Mac

For Mac you need to use Lima. Instructions are available at https://apptainer.org/docs/admin/main/installation.html#mac but more detailed instructions are below since some additonal steps are required.

For ARM-based MacOS server:

brew install qemu lima

limactl start –rosetta –vm-type=vz –network=vzNAT template://apptainer

For Intel-based MacOS server:

brew install lima

limactl start –vm-type=vz –network=vzNAT template://apptainer

To run the container you need to first do:

limactl shell apptainer

before you can run Apptainer.

To stop the container you need to do:

limactl stop apptainer

limactl delete apptainer