Add hosts

How to add virtual machines and containers to sandboxes.

Overview

Sandboxes support VMs and containers natively. Use the following points to determine if you should use one or the other.

You should use VMs if...

• You need control how many CPUs the host gets

• The host needs to be externally accessible (see networking documentation)

You should use containers if...

• You want to make loading times as short as possible (they are generally faster to deploy)

• You have a lightweight application with minimal resource requirements

Add VMs to sandboxes

You can use the web UI or Instruqt CLI to add VMs to a sandbox.

🌐 Web UI

1. Select a track.

2. In the Sandbox section, click Edit.

3. In the Your hosts section, click + Add a host.

4. Select Virtual machine.

5. Enter a hostname.

6. Select Preset image or Choose your own.

   • If you select Preset image, select the preset you wish to use.

   • If you select Choose your own, provide a GCP image and machine type (see docs).

7. Define any additional settings you need.

   • Shell

   • External ingress

   • SSL certificate

   • Nested virtualization

8. Click Save host.

💻 Instruqt CLI

Within a track's config.yml file, VM hosts are defined like so:

virtualmachines:
- name: <hostname>
  image: <gcp_project>/<image_name>
  machine_type: <machine_size>

Add containers to sandboxes

You can use the web UI or Instruqt CLI to add containers to a sandbox.

🌐 Web UI

1. Select a track.

2. In the Sandbox section, click Edit.

3. In the Your hosts section, click + Add a host.

4. Select Container.

5. Enter a hostname.

6. Select Preset image or Choose your own.

   • If you select Preset image, select the preset you wish to use.

   • If you select Choose your own, provide a custom image (see docs).
7. Define any additional settings you need.

   • Entrypoint

   • Cmd

   • Ports

   • Shell

8. Click Save host.

💻 Instruqt CLI

Within a track's config.yml file, container hosts are defined like so:

containers:
- name: <hostname>
  image: <container_image>
  memory: <memory_ammount_mb>

Each sandbox is subject to a limit of 15 containers and website services combined at any given time. This limitation helps ensure optimal performance and resource allocation for all users.