Ankordocs

Running nodes

Install a node

You install a node with one command on the host. Setup script describes what that command does. Each step below names the request that the controller sends. On ankor.sh, follow the quick start instead.

Prerequisites

Set up the node

  1. Prepare the host as its distribution needs, usually by installing curl and CA certificates.
  2. Add the node in the controller and copy its setup command and node token.
  3. Run the setup command on the host and paste the node token when it asks. Setup logs agent connected. and prints a summary. If the agent has not connected within a minute, setup warns that the agent keeps retrying. It still prints the summary. Follow the agent with docker logs -f ankor-agent. Setup script lists the options and unattended installs.
  4. Add the node’s slots in the controller, each with a game port, a GOTV port and a login token. The controller sends them with set_config. A node without slots connects and reports, but cannot run a server.
  5. Open each slot’s game port (UDP) in the firewall and router. Open its GOTV port as well if matches on the slot are to be watched.
  6. Install CS2 from the controller, with update_cs2. This is the large download that Capacity sizes. From then on CS2 updates itself.
  7. Launch a test server.

Distributions

Setup installs Docker with your distribution’s package manager. Each distribution therefore has its own packages and quirks. Before you run setup, install the packages listed for yours and read its notes.

Setup checks the architecture, distribution, init system and LXC nesting before it changes anything. If the host is not ready, setup stops and explains why.

Debian and Ubuntu

apt-get update && apt-get install -y curl ca-certificates
  • Docker comes from Docker’s repository for the release’s codename. Setup stops on a release for which Docker publishes no packages. Docker lists its supported releases.
  • Ubuntu derivatives such as Linux Mint and Pop!_OS use the Ubuntu release they track. Debian derivatives with their own codename, such as Kali, are not in Docker’s repository.
  • Remove Docker from the snap store first, with snap remove docker. Existing Docker explains why.

Fedora, RHEL, Rocky, AlmaLinux, CentOS Stream

dnf install -y curl ca-certificates
  • Setup refuses Fedora’s moby-engine, because it runs with SELinux labelling.
  • On RHEL and its rebuilds, setup first removes Podman, runc and any package that depends on them, as Docker’s guide prescribes. Fedora keeps Podman and loses only podman-docker.

Arch

pacman -Syu --needed curl ca-certificates
  • Setup runs a full pacman -Syu before it installs Docker, because Arch supports no partial upgrades.
  • Proxmox’s Arch template needs its keyring first: pacman-key --init && pacman-key --populate archlinux.
  • In LXC, pacman’s download sandbox fails with “Landlock is not supported by the kernel”. Turn it off: sed -i '/^\[options\]/a DisableSandbox' /etc/pacman.conf.

openSUSE

zypper install -y curl ca-certificates

Alpine

apk add bash curl ca-certificates
  • Docker comes from the community repository, which setup enables.
  • Alpine needs a VM, because in LXC OpenRC cannot hand the cgroup controllers to Docker.

Proxmox LXC

  • Enable nesting with pct set <vmid> --features nesting=1. keyctl is not needed.
  • Unprivileged containers work.
  • The node reports the container’s CPUs and memory, not the Proxmox host’s.

Existing Docker

Setup keeps a Docker Engine that runs as the system daemon on /var/run/docker.sock. It also enables that engine at boot. On any setting below, setup stops and names the setting at fault. By then it has installed the base packages and written agent.yml. Fix the setting and run setup again.

  • Docker Engine older than 25, because the agent needs Engine API 1.44.
  • Rootless Docker, because the agent container mounts the system daemon’s socket and the game servers share the host network.
  • userns-remap in /etc/docker/daemon.json, because it maps uid 1000 away from the owner of /srv/ankor and refuses host networking.
  • SELinux labelling (selinux-enabled), because SELinux then blocks the containers’ access to the Docker socket and to /srv/ankor.
  • Docker from the snap store, because its confinement cannot bind /srv/ankor.

Setup replaces Podman’s docker shim with Docker Engine.

Remove a node

A node exists in two places: on its host and as an entry in the controller. Deleting the entry only deauthorises the node. The agent stays installed but can no longer connect. The node therefore receives no new launches.

To remove the node from its host as well, stop its servers and run the commands below. They remove every Ankor container, image and volume. They also remove the node’s files, including events that it has not delivered. Docker stays installed. The node stops reporting to the controller, and you can then delete its entry.

docker rm -f $(docker ps -aq --filter label=ankor.role)
docker rmi $(docker images -q --filter label=ankor.image)
docker volume rm ankor_cs2_data
rm -rf /srv/ankor

To move a node to another host, or to start a host over, remove the node and set the host up as a new one. One host per node explains why.

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