Josh Siviour
471e95dac2
* feat(ecsgw): on-VM SigV4 client for the ECS agent→gateway channel
Adds internal/ecsgw, the twin of internal/eksgw: a TLS + SigV4 (service "ecs")
client the ecs-agent will use to reach the AWS gateway over HTTPS instead of
connecting to host NATS directly. Calls are AWS JSON 1.1 with an X-Amz-Target
action; the gateway relays onto ecs.* host-side, keeping NATS cluster-internal.
* feat(ecs): SubmitTaskStateChange gateway action → recordTaskState
Wires the AWS-API SubmitTaskStateChange action end to end (gateway action →
ecs.SubmitTaskStateChange NATS → daemon → Service.SubmitTaskStateChange) so a
gateway-routed agent reports task state without touching the NATS bus. The
handler maps the SDK input onto the same bus.TaskState shape and converges on
recordTaskState; the account is authoritative from the SigV4 caller, so an
instance cannot report state for another account's task.
* feat(ecs): durable assign KV inbox + PollAssignments gateway action
Scheduler writes task assigns into a per-instance KV inbox
(clusters/{cluster}/assignments/{instance}/{task}) instead of a
fire-and-forget core-NATS publish, and a new PollAssignments gateway
action lets a gateway-routed agent drain its inbox over TLS+SigV4.
At-least-once: an unacked assign is re-delivered on the next poll;
the agent acks accepted assigns (AckTaskIDs) and STOPPED transitions
reclaim stale inbox entries. The Poll response carries bus.Assign with
an RFC3339 time, so it is encoded with encoding/json (RawJSONActions)
rather than the jsonutil epoch-second marshaler.
* feat(ecs-agent): rewire control-plane off NATS onto the AWS gateway
The agent no longer connects to NATS. It registers, heartbeats, reports
task state, and receives assignments entirely through the AWS gateway
over TLS+SigV4, using seeded IAM credentials — keeping the NATS bus
host-internal and closing the trust-boundary gap (a tenant container
instance must not hold a shared bus token).
- controlPlane seam over ecsgw.Client replaces the NATS publisher:
Register (RegisterContainerInstance), SubmitTaskState
(SubmitTaskStateChange), PollAssignments.
- Heartbeat folds into a periodic idempotent re-register (refreshes
LastSeen); bus.Heartbeat is dropped from the agent.
- subscribeAssign (NATS subscribe) becomes a poll loop: drain the
inbox, dispatch each assign once, ack accepted taskIDs on the next
poll (at-least-once).
- config: ECS_ACCESS_KEY / ECS_SECRET_KEY / ECS_POLL_INTERVAL added,
ECS_NATS_URL removed; cloud-init initd seeds the IAM creds.
Tests move from the NATS publisher fake to a controlPlane fake.
* feat(ecs): cloud-init cred-seed + ecs-node bring-up script
ECS container instances are plain EC2 booted from the spinifex-ecs-node
AMI (AWS-faithful: no ECS-specific launch API). This renders the
cloud-init user-data that seeds /etc/spinifex-ecs/agent.env (gateway
URL/CA/region/cluster + IAM creds) and the gateway CA, then runs the
instance. The agent registers, heartbeats, polls assignments, and
reports task state entirely through the AWS gateway over TLS+SigV4 —
never NATS.
The guest dials the customer-facing gateway address (network advertise
IP), not the mgmt bridge, mirroring the EKS GatewayURL/AddonGatewayURL
split. Seeds the system key for now; scoped per-instance creds are a
follow-up (4g task-role endpoint).
* fix(ecs): reconcile dev merge — restore #418 ENI release + netns wiring
The 'Merge branch dev' resolution dropped code where Sprint 4d (#418,
awsvpc ENI-per-task) and the gateway control-plane rewrite (#419) touch
the same paths:
- recordTaskState STOPPED branch: reclaimTaskENI was clobbered by
reclaimAssignInbox; both are needed (release the task ENI AND drain the
KV inbox). Restores TestRecordTaskState_Awsvpc_ReleasesENIOnStopOnce.
- ecs-agent Agent: the netns field, its init, and the setupTaskNetns/
teardownTaskNetns wrappers were lost when the controlPlane Agent struct
won the merge, leaving taskrun.go calling undefined methods.
- eni_test assign assertion read the assign over NATS; #419 delivers it via
the durable KV inbox, so it now polls via PollAssignments.
- taskrun_test netns cases used the removed historyPub fake; switched to
fakeCP to match the controlPlane seam.
* feat(ecs): service controller + ELBv2 target-group registration (Sprint 4f)
Land the ECS Service controller on top of the 4e scheduler/RunTask flow:
- CreateService/UpdateService/DeleteService/DescribeServices/ListServices.
REPLICA only; DAEMON and serviceRegistries rejected in v1 (Q15).
- StartTask (explicit placement) and StopTask.
- Leader-driven replica reconciliation: a 10s scheduler tick converges each
service's running task count on desiredCount, launching the shortfall via
RunTask (tasks tagged group=service:{name}) and force-stopping the surplus.
- ELBv2 target-group registration: the scheduler registers a task's awsvpc ENI
IP on the RUNNING transition and deregisters on STOPPED via the existing
elbv2.RegisterTargets/DeregisterTargets NATS handlers (Q8, single-writer).
- forceStopTask consolidates the control-plane stop (STOPPED state, capacity +
ENI release, inbox drain, TG deregister); reused by StopTask, scale-in, and
the heartbeat reaper (the reaper now deregisters targets per Q13).
- Wire the 7 new actions through the gateway action map, NATS adapter, and
daemon subscriptions; add ServiceNotFoundException.
* fix(ecs-agent): anonymous pull for non-ECR images + normalize image refs
The agent minted an ECR authorization token via IMDS for every image, so
public docker.io refs failed with 'IMDS returned empty role name' on hosts
without an instance role. Gate ECR auth on .dkr.ecr. refs and pull all other
registries anonymously.
Bare image strings (nginx:alpine) were handed to containerd unmodified, which
parsed them as dummy://nginx:alpine and rejected the pull. Normalize refs to
their fully-qualified form (docker.io/library/nginx:alpine, :latest default)
before Pull and GetImage.
Adds StartTask/StopTask service-controller coverage.
* fix: address ECS 4f live-verification findings
ecs-node-bringup.sh defaulted GATEWAY_IP to the mgmt bridge (10.15.8.1), which
a VPC guest cannot route to — the agent could not reach the gateway. Default to
the host's WAN-bridge IP, which guests reach by NATing out through the WAN.
A target group not forwarded to by any listener reported its targets stuck in
'initial' forever (no health checker advances a detached TG). DescribeTargetHealth
now reports such targets as 'unused' with reason Target.NotInUse, matching AWS.
What is Spinifex? · Platform · Components · Architecture · Installation · Docs
Spinifex: An Open Source AWS-Compatible Stack for Bare-Metal, Edge, and On-Prem Deployments
Spinifex developed by Mulga Defense Corporation is an open source infrastructure platform that brings the core services of AWS—like EC2, VPC, EBS, and S3—to environments where running in the cloud isn't an option. Whether you're deploying to edge sites, private data-centers, or need to operate in low-connectivity or highly contested environments, Spinifex gives you AWS-style workflows on your own hardware.
What is Spinifex?
Spinifex replicates essential AWS primitives—virtual machines, block volumes, and object storage—using lightweight, self-contained components that are easy to deploy and integrate.
It's designed for developers and operators who need:
- Cloud-like infrastructure without the cloud
- Minimal dependencies, full control
- Drop-in compatibility with tools like the AWS CLI, SDKs, and Terraform
- A secure cloud environment you control and own the entire hardware, network and software stack
You can run Spinifex on a few servers in a rack, a field site, or anywhere centralized cloud services aren't feasible.
The Platform
From commodity hardware up to unmodified AWS tooling, every layer is replaceable and yours to own.
Core Components
Spinifex (Compute Service – EC2 Alternative)
Spinifex is a minimal VM orchestration layer built on top of QEMU, exposing APIs similar to EC2. It manages lifecycle operations like start, stop, and terminate, using QEMU's QMP interface. Designed to be straightforward and scriptable, Spinifex lets you launch VMs using the AWS CLI, SDKs, or Terraform—without needing Kubernetes or heavyweight orchestrators. Keep in mind, you can also setup a Kubernetes environment using Spinifex with underlying instances.
- EC2-like VM management on bare metal
- Launches with cloud-init metadata support
- Works with standard AWS tooling
Viperblock (Block Storage – EBS Alternative)
Viperblock is a high-performance, WAL-backed block storage service that replicates volumes across multiple nodes. It's built for reliability and speed, with support for snapshots, recovery, and direct connection to QEMU instances using NBD or virtio-blk.
- Fast, durable virtual disks
- Replication for resilience
- Exposed over NBD or embedded in VMs
- Supports high performance WAL logs using local NVMe drives to reduce IO traffic to S3.
- In memory read/write block cache for blazing performance.
Predastore (Object Storage – S3-Compatible)
Predastore is a fully S3-compatible object storage system. It supports the AWS S3 API, including Signature V4 authentication, multipart uploads, and Terraform provisioning. Data is chunked and distributed across nodes using Reed-Solomon erasure coding, making it fault-tolerant and ideal for large-scale or low-bandwidth scenarios.
- S3-compatible API and auth
- Multipart uploads, streaming reads/writes
- Data redundancy with Reed-Solomon encoding
Architecture at a Glance
Every AWS API call is authenticated at the gateway, published to a NATS subject, and answered by whichever daemon claims it. Daemons are stateless — scale horizontally by starting more. No etcd, no Kubernetes, no external control plane. Deep dive: docs/DESIGN.md.
Key Features
AWS-Compatible Interfaces – Provision infrastructure with awscli, Terraform, or SDKs you already use.
- Designed for Control – Run on your own terms, whether that's in a datacenter, remote site, or sensitive environment.
- Minimal Dependencies – Each service is standalone and avoids complex orchestration layers.
- Works Offline – No reliance on centralized cloud services or external networks.
- Open Source – Licensed under AGPL 3.0. Fork it, extend it, or deploy it as-is.
Installation
Installation requires an Ubuntu / Debian system. See the detailed documentation at docs.mulgadc.com for maintaining and installing Spinifex.
Bare Metal ISO
The recommended installation is a bootable x86 installer for bare-metal hardware.
curl -fLO https://iso.mulgadc.com/spinifex.iso
Follow the USB install guide to write the ISO to USB and install on your hardware. The install guide walks through the full process.
Single Node Install
The installation is straightforward to set up and running on a single node for testing purposes. Debian 13 is currently supported, additional Linux distributions are on the immediate roadmap.
Prerequisite: Linux bridge for networking.
Spinifex requires a Linux bridge configured on the host for VM networking. See the single-node install guide prerequisites for setup details.
curl -fsSL https://install.mulgadc.com | bash
sudo /usr/local/share/spinifex/setup-ovn.sh --management
sudo spx admin init --node node1 --nodes 1
sudo systemctl start spinifex.target
export AWS_PROFILE=spinifex
aws ec2 describe-instance-types
Development Setup
For a complete development environment see the Source Install documentation
Component Repositories
Spinifex coordinates these independent components:
- Predastore - S3-compatible object storage
- Viperblock - EBS-compatible block storage
Each component can be developed independently. See component-specific documentation for focused development guides.
Spinifex UI
Spinifex ships with a built-in web console — an optional alternative to the AWS CLI, SDKs, and Terraform. If you're familiar with the AWS Management Console, the Spinifex UI fills the same role: a browser-based view of your instances, volumes, buckets, VPCs, and IAM resources, without leaving your own network.
The console is served by each node on port 3000 over TLS, and becomes available as soon as spinifex.target is up:
open https://YOUR_NODE_IP:3000
- Same API, different surface. Every action in the UI is the same AWS SigV4 call the CLI makes — so RBAC, audit trails, and IAM policies apply uniformly.
- Single sign-on against your AWS credentials. Log in with the access keys from
~/.aws/credentialson the node where Spinifex is installed — no separate user database. - Self-hosted, works offline. The UI is embedded in the Spinifex binary and served from the node itself. No external CDN, no analytics calls, no cloud dependency.
For the full walkthrough — first-time TLS certificate trust, login, and feature tour — see Launching the Web UI in the cluster setup guide.
Development Philosophy
Built by Engineers, For Engineers
Spinifex is developed by experienced infrastructure engineers with deep AWS expertise, including former AWS team members who understand the intricacies of building production-grade cloud services. Our team brings decades of combined experience from AWS, enterprise infrastructure, and edge computing environments.
Real-World Experience:
- Production AWS service development and operations
- Large-scale infrastructure deployment and management
- Edge computing and resource-constrained environments
- Enterprise security and compliance requirements
AI-Assisted Development
While Spinifex is architected and implemented by experienced engineers, we leverage Claude Code (Anthropic's AI coding assistant) to accelerate certain development tasks. This approach combines human expertise with AI efficiency:
How We Use Claude Code:
- Code Generation: Boilerplate AWS API structures and handlers
- Documentation: Comprehensive development guides and API documentation
- Testing: Test case generation and validation scenarios
- Refactoring: Large-scale code restructuring and optimization
What Remains Human-Driven:
- Architecture Decisions: Core system design and scalability choices
- Security Implementation: Authentication, encryption, and threat modeling
- Performance Optimization: Real-world performance tuning and benchmarking
- Production Operations: Deployment strategies and operational procedures
This hybrid approach ensures Spinifex benefits from both proven engineering expertise and modern development acceleration, while maintaining the quality and reliability standards required for production infrastructure.
License
Spinifex is open source under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0. You're free to use, modify, and deploy it anywhere you need reliable infrastructure without depending on centralized cloud platforms.