exe.dev

An exe.dev VM is a persistent Linux machine you create and reach over SSH. Its disk belongs to that one VM. Mount an Archil disk in your VMs and they can all read and write the same files, which your other machines and the Archil SDK can reach too. exe.dev VMs support FUSE and run systemd, so the disk mounts as a regular directory. Mount it with a systemd service, which mounts the disk when the VM boots and unmounts it when the VM shuts down.

Prerequisites

An exe.dev account with a plan, and your SSH key added to it. ssh exe.dev whoami should print your account.
jq on your machine.
An Archil disk in the Archil region of your choice.

Set your Archil API key and region:

export ARCHIL_API_KEY=key-...
export ARCHIL_REGION=aws-us-west-2

Create the disk with the disk CLI. The output includes the disk ID and a one-time mount token, which grants access to this disk only:

npx disk create exe-data

Export both for the steps below:

export ARCHIL_DISK_ID=dsk-...
export ARCHIL_MOUNT_TOKEN=adt_...

Mount the disk in a VM

Save this unit on your machine as archil.service. It mounts the disk at /mnt/archil, gives the exedev user ownership of it, and unmounts it when the service stops:

archil.service

[Unit]
Description=Mount Archil disk at /mnt/archil
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=yes
EnvironmentFile=/etc/archil/disk.env
ExecStartPre=mkdir -p /mnt/archil
ExecStart=archil mount ${ARCHIL_DISK_ID} /mnt/archil --region ${ARCHIL_REGION} --conditional
ExecStartPost=chown exedev:exedev /mnt/archil
ExecStop=archil unmount /mnt/archil

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Create a VM and install the archil client in it. Answer yes if SSH asks to trust the new VM’s host key:

export VM=$(ssh exe.dev new --json | jq -r .ssh_dest)
ssh "$VM" 'curl -fsSL https://archil.com/install | sh'

Write the disk ID, region, and token to a file only root can read, then install and start the service:

printf 'ARCHIL_DISK_ID=%s\nARCHIL_REGION=%s\nARCHIL_MOUNT_TOKEN=%s\n' "$ARCHIL_DISK_ID" "$ARCHIL_REGION" "$ARCHIL_MOUNT_TOKEN" \
  | ssh "$VM" 'sudo install -D -m 600 /dev/stdin /etc/archil/disk.env'
ssh "$VM" 'sudo install -m 644 /dev/stdin /etc/systemd/system/archil.service && sudo systemctl enable --now archil' < archil.service

Write a file to the disk:

ssh "$VM" 'echo "Hello from $(hostname)" >> /mnt/archil/visits.log && cat /mnt/archil/visits.log'

Hello from orange-and-halfopen

Create a second VM and repeat the same steps:

export VM2=$(ssh exe.dev new --json | jq -r .ssh_dest)
ssh "$VM2" 'curl -fsSL https://archil.com/install | sh'
printf 'ARCHIL_DISK_ID=%s\nARCHIL_REGION=%s\nARCHIL_MOUNT_TOKEN=%s\n' "$ARCHIL_DISK_ID" "$ARCHIL_REGION" "$ARCHIL_MOUNT_TOKEN" \
  | ssh "$VM2" 'sudo install -D -m 600 /dev/stdin /etc/archil/disk.env'
ssh "$VM2" 'sudo install -m 644 /dev/stdin /etc/systemd/system/archil.service && sudo systemctl enable --now archil' < archil.service
ssh "$VM2" 'echo "Hello from $(hostname)" >> /mnt/archil/visits.log && cat /mnt/archil/visits.log'

Both VMs have the disk mounted at the same time, and the second one finds the line the first one wrote:

Hello from orange-and-halfopen
Hello from nightstand-delta

How the disk behaves in a VM

The mount uses conditional mode. With --conditional, every VM can read and write anywhere on the disk at the same time, and none of them holds a lock that another VM has to wait for. See Sharing disks. Restarts need no special handling. When the VM shuts down, systemd stops the service, which unmounts the disk and sends every buffered write to it. When the VM boots, systemd mounts the disk again. Stop the service to unmount. sudo systemctl stop archil unmounts the disk until you run sudo systemctl start archil. To stop mounting it at boot, run sudo systemctl disable --now archil.

Clean up

Delete the VMs and the disk once you no longer need them:

ssh exe.dev rm "${VM%%.*}" "${VM2%%.*}"
npx disk delete "$ARCHIL_DISK_ID"

Next steps

TypeScript SDK: read, write, and search the disk without mounting it.
Sharing disks: how conditional mode and checkouts work.
archil CLI reference: every archil mount option.

Agents

Analytics

Training

Apps & databases

Use Archil on other platforms

Prerequisites

Mount the disk in a VM

How the disk behaves in a VM

Clean up

Next steps

​Prerequisites

​Mount the disk in a VM

​Share the disk between VMs

​How the disk behaves in a VM

​Clean up

​Next steps

Prerequisites

Mount the disk in a VM

Share the disk between VMs

How the disk behaves in a VM

Clean up

Next steps