Configuring for Local Provider

Prerequisites

The local provider enables you to run Juju on a single system like your local computer or a single server. This way you can simply evaluate the software or service configurations, develop your own charms or run a single server system.

If you're not already using the stable release PPA you can make sure you've added it:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:juju/stable
sudo apt-get update

Then you can install the local provider, the commands depend on the Juju version you are using:

For Ubuntu versions newer than 12.04:

sudo apt-get install juju-local

For 12.04 LTS users only:

Due to needing newer versions of LXC the local provider does require a newer kernel than the released version of 12.04. Therefore we install Linux 3.8 from the LTS Hardware Enablement Stack:

sudo apt-get install juju-local linux-image-generic-lts-raring linux-headers-generic-lts-raring

You will need to reboot into the new kernel in order to use Juju with the local provider.

If you're not running Ubuntu please consult your operating system distribution's documentation for instructions on installing the LXC userspace tools and the MongoDB server. Juju requires a MongoDB server built with SSL support.

Configuration

You should start by generating a generic configuration file for Juju and then switching to the local provider by using the command:

juju generate-config
juju switch local

This will generate a file, environments.yaml (if it doesn't already exist), which will live in your ~/.juju/ directory (and will create the directory if it doesn't already exist).

Note: If you have an existing configuration, you can use juju generate-config --show to output the new config file, then copy and paste relevant areas in a text editor etc.

The generic configuration sections generated for the local provider will look something like this, though Juju will generate this automatically you usually don't need to edit it:

## https://juju.ubuntu.com/get-started/local/
local:
    type: local
    admin-secret: 772b9471131c6b5883475e3908156d32
    # Override the directory that is used for the storage files and database.
    # The default location is $JUJU_HOME.
    # $JUJU_HOME defaults to ~/.juju
    # root-dir: ~/.juju/local
    # Override the storage port if you have multiple local providers, or if the
    # default port is used by another program.
    # storage-port: 8040
    # Override the shared storage port if you have multiple local providers,
    # or if the default port is used by another program.
    # shared-storage-port: 8041

Running Juju with this configuration the storage files and the database will be located in the directory specified by the environment variable $JUJU_HOME, which defaults to ~/.juju/. By uncommenting and setting root-dir this location can be changed as well as the ports of the storage and the shared storage. This may be useful in the case of multiple parallel running local providers or conflicts with other programs on your system.

Note: If you are using encrypted home directories you have to set $JUJU_HOME or root-dir to point to a location outside your home directory.

Bootstrapping and Destroying

The usage of LXC Linux Containers enforces that bootstrapping and destroying of an environment are done as root. All other operations can be executed as non-root. E.g.

sudo juju bootstrap
juju deploy mysql
...
sudo juju destroy-environment

Note: If you are running a firewall such as ufw, it may interfere with the correct operation of Juju using LXC containers and might need to be halted.

Caveats

There are several special circumstances tied to the local provider, given it's development focused nature. These are outlined below.

juju debug-log

There is currently a bug which prevents juju debug-log from working as expected. However, the logs for juju are still available for review outside of juju debug-log. First, find out what the name of your environment is by running juju switch. If you're using the default environments.yaml you'll find this be local. All log files for the local provider are stored in ~/.juju/<environment>/log, as such you can duplicate the functionality of juju debug-log using the following (assuming your current environment is "local"):

tail -f ~/.juju/local/log/unit-*.log

juju ssh

While juju ssh does work if you supply it a unit (eg: mysql/0) the command does not work with machine numbers at this time (juju ssh 1). To access a unit via ssh make sure to use it's corrosponding unit name not the machine number.

Juju documentation