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title description category tags badge resources
Installing Spinifex Install Spinifex on a single server using the binary installer. Getting Started
install
single node
quickstart
quickstart
title url
Spinifex Repository https://github.com/mulgadc/spinifex
title url
Predastore (S3) https://github.com/mulgadc/predastore
title url
Viperblock (EBS) https://github.com/mulgadc/viperblock

Installing Spinifex

Install Spinifex on a single server using the binary installer.

Table of Contents


Overview

Spinifex is an open-source infrastructure platform that brings core AWS services — EC2, VPC, EBS, and S3 — to bare-metal, edge, and on-prem environments.

This guide installs Spinifex on a single server using the binary installer. For multi-server clusters, see Multi-Node Installation. To build from source, see Source Install.

Supported Operating Systems:

  • Ubuntu 22.04 / 24.04 / 25.10
  • Debian 12 / 13

What gets installed:

  • Spinifex daemon and CLI
  • QEMU/KVM for virtual machine management
  • OVN/Open vSwitch for VPC networking
  • Predastore (S3-compatible object storage)
  • Viperblock (EBS-compatible block storage)
  • AWS CLI v2

Instructions

Step 1. Install Spinifex

curl https://install.mulgadc.com | bash

The installer downloads the Spinifex binary and bootstraps all dependencies (QEMU, OVN/OVS, AWS CLI).

Step 2. Initialize

spx admin init --region ap-southeast-2 --az ap-southeast-2a --node node1 --nodes 1

This auto-detects your network topology and configures external networking. Save the admin credentials printed during init — they will not be shown again.

Step 3. Trust the CA certificate

sudo cp ~/spinifex/config/ca.pem /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/spinifex-ca.crt
sudo update-ca-certificates

Step 4. Setup OVN networking

sudo /usr/local/share/spinifex/setup-ovn.sh --management --external-bridge --external-iface=enp0s3 --dhcp

Replace enp0s3 with your WAN interface.

Step 5. Start services

sudo systemctl start spinifex.target
export AWS_PROFILE=spinifex

Step 6. Verify

aws ec2 describe-instance-types

If this returns a list of available instance types, your installation is working.

Congratulations! Spinifex is installed.

Continue to Setting Up Your Cluster to import an AMI, create a VPC, and launch your first instance.


Troubleshooting

spx command not found

export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin

CA certificate not trusted

sudo cp ~/spinifex/config/ca.pem /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/spinifex-ca.crt
sudo update-ca-certificates

OVN services not starting

sudo systemctl is-active ovn-controller
journalctl -u ovn-controller --no-pager -n 20