Apple Silicon-Based Support

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Overview

Starting with Orka 2.0, it is now possible to deploy an Orka cluster of Apple silicon-based nodes (also known as Apple ARM-based nodes) and run your CI/CD workflows on them. The Apple silicon-based nodes can also be added to an existing cluster with Intel-based nodes. Then, it will have both Intel- and Apple silicon-based nodes. A prerequisite for that is to upgrade to Orka 2.0 before adding the new Apple silicon-based nodes.

Orka 2.0 enables performing all the basic VM operations necessary to run your CI/CD workflows on Apple silicon-based nodes. This includes deploy, delete and list VMs as well as connecting to a VM via SSH or Screenshare.

VMs based on ARM images are deployed on Apple silicon-based nodes. To use the latest ARM images, please check out MacStadium Image Repository.

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Deployment on Apple Silicon Worker Nodes

When a VM deploys on an Apple Silicon worker node, this is the first launch of the image, so deployment takes longer. Subsequent deployments of VMs using the same image on the same node happen almost immediately and take about 5 seconds.

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TIP

To keep deployment times fast, you might want to make sure you deploy a VM on all nodes every time you create a new image. Keep in mind though, that images are cached on the nodes. If you try to deploy a VM from an image that is not cached and there is not enough space on the node, the oldest cached image(s) will be deleted to free space for the new one.

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TIP

To keep deployment times fast, utilize the new Scheduled Cachingfeature on Orka 3.2.0.

Below is a full list of features included in the Apple silicon-based support:

Orka 3.0+:

• Enable custom pods (formerly, sandboxing)
• OCI-compatible images
• NAT IP
• Scheduled Caching

Orka 2.3:

• VMs - macOS Ventura support, VNC connectivity

Orka 2.2:

• VMs - VM metadata
• Images - resize
• Integration with TeamCity

Orka 2.1:

• VM port mappings
• VM Internet Isolation
• VM Network Isolation
• Images - copy, rename
• Storage - shared attached disk, secondary storage
• Integration with Tekton

Orka 2.0:

• VM configs - create, get, purge
• VMs - deploy, delete, list, check status, connect via SSH, connect via Screenshare
• Nodes - list, check status, list ports, dedicate
• Images - list, rename, list remote, pull, delete, commit, save
• Kube accounts - list, create, delete, regenerate, download kube-config
• Users - all operations
• Tokens - all operations
• Logs - all operations
• Environment checks - all operations
• Integration with Jenkins, Gitlab, Buildkite, Github Actions, Packer

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GPU Passthrough and IO Boost

With VMs based on Apple Silicon images, GPU Passthrough comes out of the box. Therefore, the corresponding option --gpuis not applicable to them and will be ignored.

Limitations

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IMPORTANT

You can deploy up to 2 VMs per Apple silicon-based node.

1. The Apple silicon-based Support includes all the features needed to run your CI/CD workflows on Apple silicon-based nodes. Below is a full list of the ones that are still not there and will be considered in future versions of Orka:

• VMs - stop, start, suspend, resume

Below is a list of the ones that do not apply to Apple silicon-based VMs:

• Images - generate empty storage
• ISOs - all operations
• Nested virtualization
• Bring your own macOS serial number feature

2. If you deploy a VM on an Apple silicon-based node and try to log in to your iCloud account, you might receive an error 'The action could not be completed. This is a limitation of the Apple Virtualization Framework. As a workaround, you can download the needed software via a web browser and install it manually.

3. There are reported cases from customers that some VMs may not be accessible via ScreenShare, but only via SSH. Further investigation shows that this is caused by a failed GPU module under the new Apple Silicon architecture. There are also some external bug reports related to the issue here and here.

4. VM revert is not supported due to limitations of the Apple Virtualization Framework.

5. Starting with Orka 2.4.0, shared VM storage is deprecated for Apple silicon-based VMs running macOS Monterey and will be removed in Orka 3.0.0+. To continue using shared VM storage with Orka 3.0.0 and later, you will need to upgrade your Apple Silicon-based Monterey VMs to macOS Ventura, OR switch to Intel-based Monterey VMs.

6. After resizing an Apple silicon-based VM and attempting to upgrade to a newer macOS version, the upgrade may fail, or you may experience other issues with your VM. This is a limitation of the current resize design and the Apple virtualization framework.
   Workaround: If possible, upgrade the image before resizing.