Launching lab

Enable simulation mode

By default, the simulation mode is on to avoid accidentally connecting to the actual devices. You can set the environment variable SIM_MODE_FLAG to FALSE to disable the simulation mode.

export SIM_MODE_FLAG=TRUE  # this is the default value

Danger

Run export SIM_MODE_FLAG=FALSE only when you are on the production server.

Note

As in this tutorial, we will always run the code with the simulation mode on.

Config file location

By default, there should be a config file in the root dir of the project. If you want to use a different config file, you can set the environment variable CONFIG_FILE to the path of the config file before running the commands afterwards.

export ALABOS_CONFIG_PATH=/path/to/config.toml

Set up / clean up the lab

Before starting the lab, alabos needs to scan the definition folders to register all the available devices and sample positions

alabos setup

To clean up the lab, run the following command:

alabos clean

If you would like to clean up the set up and start from scratch, you can run the following command:

alabos clean -a

A prompt will ask you to confirm the action.

Start the lab and the worker

To start the lab, run the following command

alabos launch

# you can also specify the host and port
# alabos launch --host localhost --port 8895

Now you will see the alabos dashboard at http://localhost:8895 in your browser. However, to let the tasks run, you need to start the worker as well.

alabos launch_worker

# you can also specify the number of processes and threads for the worker
# for higher parallelism
# alabos launch_worker --processes 4 --threads 16

Summary

After setting up the lab with command alabos setup, you can start the lab and the worker with the commands alabos launch and alabos launch_worker.

##############
# Terminal 1 #
##############

alabos launch


##############
# Terminal 2 #
##############

alabos launch_worker