What is Anka?
All about Veertu’s Anka Software
Veertu’s Anka and Build Cloud is a suite of software tools built for small or enterprise level macOS virtualization needs. It enables the creation, storage, and management of macOS virtual machines (VMs), offering a user experience similar to what Docker and Docker Hub provide for container management, but with an added orchestrator component. Anka is specifically designed for DevOps, CI/CD, and Automation teams that need to build and test macOS or iOS applications.
Anka is a mature and battle-tested solution for small or large-scale macOS virtualization. Leveraging a combination of custom and Apple hypervisor/virtualization technology, Anka offers enhanced performance and security. It provides a simple CLI for generating Anka macOS VMs as well as tools like Packer. You can then manage the VMs as Templates/Tags in the Anka Registry (part of the Anka Build Cloud) and push/pull to and from hosts in your macOS cluster.
Alongside of the Anka Virtualization CLI is the Anka Build Cloud which serves as a unified management interface for Anka Build Nodes, VM Templates/Tags, VM instances, and logs. It features intelligent queueing and load balancing for handling numerous concurrent CI/CD job macOS VM requests. Additionally, it integrates with widely-used automation platforms and tools such as Jenkins, Github Actions, Buildkite, TeamCity, GitLab, and provides an API for custom integrations.
Anka is a robust and adaptable macOS virtualization platform that can enhance your DevOps and iOS CI/CD/Automation. It is straightforward to use and customize, and offers a broad array of features and capabilities.
DevOps teams implementing Anka can expect flexibility, allowing them to install onto existing infrastructure and automation – whether it’s cloud providers like AWS or on-premises! The Anka Virtualization package can be installed onto any macOS hosts. The Anka Build Cloud Controller & Registry can be ran as standalone binaries, a docker-compose package and also with our Build Cloud Controller & Registry Helm Chart for Kubernetes users.
You can find several CI/CD plugins or integrations we maintain for our users that abstract the lower level work of pulling and starting VMs for your jobs. Whether it’s on-demand/ephemeral, long-running, and single-use macOS VMs for your developers, iOS, or native app building/testing/CI/CD, Anka will be a good fit for you.
Anka also enables a docker-like experience for teams to create and store project specific VM templates (a.k.a “images”) and tags, including commands to interact with the VM like start, stop, clone, suspend, modify the VM configuration (like cpu or ram), and execution of VM level shell commands.
There are many ways in which our customers utilize the Anka Virtualization CLI to automate the VM creation and preparation process:
anka create
command on the host machine:❯ anka create 13.1 13.1-arm
anka run
and also directly inside the VM with anka cp
& anka run
.Accompanying the Anka Virtualization package which runs on macOS hardware, we provide the Build Cloud Controller & Registry. Below are two of the most popular examples of how our customers set up Anka Virtualization with the Build Cloud.
This setup requires:
anka
CLI commands to prepare and use the Anka VM. For example, install the github actions runner and then use our action.This setup requires:
All about Veertu’s Anka Software
Up and running fast, with Anka and Amazon (AWS) EC2 Macs
A limited but free version of our Anka Virtualization software available for developers using laptops
Anka Flow enables the developers to create and work inside Anka macOS VMs on their local machines
Detailed information on Anka Licensing
Glossary of Terms
Frequently Asked Questions