Edge Microvisor Toolkit is a downstream of Azure Linux. It is composed of multiple modules to
facilitate creating rpm based OS images supporting a variety of different image formats.
The toolkit has an imageconfig construct in the JSON format that defines the characteristics
of the resulting image, such as:
- Type and size of partitioning table.
- Partitions, their types (such as EFI, rootfs, etc.), settings, file system, and size.
- Reference to
packagelistswhich defines what packages (i.e.rpms) should be included in the image. - Additional configuration files that should be embedded in the image (e.g. network-, systemd configurations).
- Any required post-installation scripts that should be executed once the image has been generated.
- Kernel and command line options.
- Final configuration properties that should be applied (e.g. enable full disc encryption, immutable image, second stage bootloader provider, purge documentation etc.).
Before you can build OS images you need to build the toolchain and make sure to install pre-requisites (Ubuntu).
Note: Use the stable tag instead of latest for building the OS images with prebuilt packages. This is the recommended approach, as building the entire toolchain may take a lot of time. Adding the
REBUILD_TOOLCHAIN=yparameter to themakecommand rebuilds the entire toolchain.
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Clone the stable branch of the Edge Microvisor Toolkit repository.
Check the tags for the
<stable_tag_name>.git clone https://github.com/open-edge-platform/edge-microvisor-toolkit --branch=<stable_tag_name>
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Navigate to the
toolkitsubdirectory.cd edge-microvisor-toolkit/toolkit -
Build the tools.
cd ./toolkit sudo make toolchain REBUILD_TOOLS=y
Multiple image configurations are located in the imageconfigs folder:
microvisor/
├── docs/
├── LICENSES-AND-NOTICES/
├── SPECS/
├── SPECS-EXTENDED/
├── SPECS-SIGNED/
└── toolkit/
├── docs/
└── imageconfigs/
├── edge-image-dev.json
├── edge-image-rt-dev.json
├── edge-image-rt.json
├── edge-image.json
...
└──
...To build the default microvisor image based on its imageconfig file, run the following
command:
sudo make image -j8 REBUILD_TOOLS=y REBUILD_PACKAGES=n CONFIG_FILE=./imageconfigs/edge-image.jsonTo add packages to the default image, you can define your own packagelist.json file,
pointing to rpms that should be included in the image. The edge-image.json file points to
multiple packagelist files, located under imageconfigs/packagelists. The same rpms may
be included in an imageconfig file through the packagelist files.
The resulting image will include the set of all rpms specified within the array of
packagelist files from the imageconfig.
Note that you can only add the packages for which SPEC files exist. To add nano as an
alternative text editor to the image:
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Define a new JSON file.
# Create a new packagelist called utilities.json cat <<EOF > ./imageconfigs/packagelists/utilities.json { "packages": [ "nano" ] } EOF
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Include it in an existing
imageconfigJSON file, for exampleedge-image.json. You can also create a new file and add it to theimageconfigsfolder.# Edit the edge-image.json file. Add the custom packagelist and default login account for testing. ... "PackageLists": [ "packagelists/core-packages-image-systemd-boot.json", "packagelists/ssh-server.json", "packagelists/virtualization-host-packages.json", "packagelists/agents-packages.json", "packagelists/tools-tinker.json", "packagelists/persistent-mount-package.json", "packagelists/fde-verity-package.json", "packagelists/selinux-full.json", "packagelists/intel-gpu-base.json", "packagelists/os-ab-update.json", "packagelists/utilities.json" ], "Users": [ { "Name": "user", "Password": "user" } ], ...
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Rebuild the image:
sudo make image -j8 REBUILD_TOOLS=y REBUILD_PACKAGES=n CONFIG_FILE=./imageconfigs/edge-image.json
To add a new package you need to generate a SPEC file for the package which
contains all required information for the build infrastructure to generate the
SRPM and RPM for the package. There are a few steps involved in creating
a new package for Edge Microvisor Toolkit.
- Create a folder, define the SPEC file and add it into the
/SPECSdirectory. - Create the source archive and generate the sha256sum for the package.
- Update the
cgmanifest.jsonfile. - Build an image with the package included and test locally.
- Upload the tar.gz package to the source package repository after is has been tested locally.
Prerequisites
Make sure you have the required build tools for rpm.
On Fedora, you can simply install the required packages with:
sudo dnf install rpm-build rpmdevtools
rpmdev-setuptreewhere rpmdev-setuptree creates the necessary directories.
On Ubuntu, use the following command:
sudo apt-get install rpmThen, manually create the necessary directories:
mkdir -p ~/rpmbuild/{BUILD,RPMS,SOURCES,SPECS,SRPMS}
echo '%_topdir %(echo $HOME)/rpmbuild' > ~/.rpmmacrosPreparing the files
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Navigate to user home directory.
cd -
Define the SPEC file, using the example below.
It will create a simple hello world RPM package, which will include a bash script that prints "Hello, world!".
Name: helloworld Version: 1.0 Release: 1%{?dist} Summary: Simple Hello World script License: MIT URL: https://example.com/helloworld Source0: helloworld-1.0.tar.gz BuildArch: noarch %description A very basic "Hello, world!" script packaged as an RPM. %prep %setup -q %build # Nothing to build for a shell script %install mkdir -p %{buildroot}/usr/bin install -m 0755 helloworld.sh %{buildroot}/usr/bin/helloworld mkdir -p %{buildroot}/usr/share/helloworld install -m 0644 helloworld.signature.json %{buildroot}/usr/share/helloworld/ %files /usr/bin/helloworld /usr/share/helloworld/helloworld.signature.json %changelog * Wed May 01 2025 Your Name <you@example.com> - 1.0-1 - Initial package -
Create the simple script and make it executable.
mkdir -p ./helloworld-1.0 cat > ./helloworld-1.0/helloworld.sh <<'EOF' #!/bin/bash echo "Hello, world!" EOF chmod +x ./helloworld-1.0/helloworld.sh
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Compute its SHA-256 and generate the JSON signature for it.
sum=$(sha256sum ./helloworld-1.0/helloworld.sh | awk '{print $1}') cat > ./helloworld-1.0/helloworld.signature.json <<EOF { "file": "helloworld.sh", "sha256": "$sum" } EOF
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Create the tarball archive and generate its JSON signature.
tar -czf helloworld-1.0.tar.gz ./helloworld-1.0 sum=$(sha256sum helloworld-1.0.tar.gz | awk '{print $1}') cat > helloworld-1.0.tar.gz.signature.json <<EOF { "file": "helloworld-1.0.tar.gz", "sha256": "$sum" } EOF
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Copy the RPM package files to the building directories and build it.
cp helloworld-1.0.tar.gz ./rpmbuild/SOURCES cp helloworld.spec ./rpmbuild/SPECS rpmbuild -ba ./rpmbuild/SPECS/helloworld.spec
Adding the package
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Create the
helloworldfolder in theedge-microvisor-toolkit/SPECSdirectory.mkdir ./edge-microvisor-toolkit/SPECS/helloworld
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Copy the
helloworld.specandhelloworld.signature.jsonfiles to thehelloworldfolder.cp ./helloworld.spec ./edge-microvisor-toolkit/SPECS/helloworld cp ./helloworld-1.0/helloworld.signature.json ./edge-microvisor-toolkit/SPECS/helloworld
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Finally, update the
cgmanifestby using the providedpythonscript.cd ./edge-microvisor-toolkit/toolkit python3 -m pip install -r ./scripts/requirements.txt python3 ./scripts/update_cgmanifest.py first ../cgmanifest.json ../SPECS/helloworld.spec
Local Build and Testing
If testing is complete and you are ready to contribute this package, please raise a PR and work with a code owner to upload the source tarball to package source mirror.
make build-packages # to rebuild the packagesFollow the steps under Customizing an image to create an image with your new package.
Uploading the archive
Intel will upload the tar.gz archive to the mirror.
To add or update an existing BMA (Bare metal agent) from the Edge Management Framework, follow these steps.
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If a new package has to be released, follow these steps to ensure the package is available in the artifactory:
a. Checkout the tag for your agent which has to be released. b. cd into your agent's directory. c. Invoke
make tarball. d. Upload tarball frombuild/artifactsto the tarball repository. -
Update the respective .spec file in SPECS/
packagedirectory. Example:SPECS/node-agent. -
Bump the release number declared in the top section of the .spec file if on the same version. Otherwise, update the release version and set the number to 1.
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Update
env_wrapper.shand the .spec file if there are installation changes or new configurations to be added. -
Update the changelog to ensure the version and release number are mentioned correctly as well. Example:
* Tue Mar 25 2025 Andrea Campanella <andrea.campanella@intel.com> - 1.5.11-2 - Move from RSTYPE to RS_TYPE in wrapper for node-agent
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Generate sha256sum of all files that have been updated. Example :
sha256sum ./SPECS/node-agent/env_wrapper.sh -
Update the signature file name
<agent-name>.signatures.json. Example:node-agent.signatures.json. -
Update
cgmanifest.json. You can use a script to do it, if you have an RPM environment. Otherwise, update the version and download the URL manually. Example commands to update using a manifest:python3 -m pip install -r ./toolkit/scripts/requirements.txt python3 ./toolkit/scripts/update_cgmanifest.py first cgmanifest.json ./SPECS/node-agent/node-agent.spec
- Learn how to Enable Secure Boot for Edge Microvisor Toolkit.
- See the detailed description of how to create a full build and customize it.