(Most of these commands can also be found at: https://ankadoc.bitbucket.io/)
First, grab the Anka installer here: https://veertu.com/download-anka-run/ Install it, and get a 30-day trial key from: https://veertu.com/anka-run-trial/
mbp~ dave$ sudo anka license activate 2093-7122-6646-6940
Password:
License activated
mbp:~ dave$ anka license show
+---------------------+---------------------+
| license_type | com.veertu.anka.run |
+---------------------+---------------------+
| status | valid |
+---------------------+---------------------+
| expires | 28-oct-2017 |
+---------------------+---------------------+
| max_number_of_cores | 32 |
+---------------------+---------------------+
You'll need to download a macOS installer to use as the VM base. This method will automatically install/include the needed paravirtual drivers, unlike the AutoDMG and ISO method (which requires manual intervention after).
When creating the first VM on a High Sierra host, you'll get a few warnings about blocked extensions. Go to "Security & Privacy" as usual and unblock them as needed.
mbp:~ dave$ anka create --ram-size 3G --cpu-count 4 --disk-size 20G --app /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app highsierra
Installing macOS 10.13...
Copying addons... 100.%
Converting to ANKA format...
20480+0 records in
Preformatting hard drive
vm created successfully with uuid: 4c4c7b33-a452-11e7-821e-7a008970c401
For High Sierra guests, a few more commands are needed on the first boot.
mbp:~ dave$ anka start highsierra
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| uuid | 4c4c7b33-a452-11e7-821e-7a008970c401 |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| ram | 3G |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| name | highsierra |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| cpu_cores | 4 |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| hard_drive | 20 GB (9493893120 bytes on disk) |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| status | running |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| vnc_connection_string | vnc://:[email protected]:5900 |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| view_vm_display | anka view highsierra |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
mbp:~ dave$ anka run highsierra sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel
KernelCache ID: 7B35CF37ACB0190023E5D78FEAC2684C
mbp:~ dave$ anka stop highsierra
VM highsierra is shutting down
Now, here's my one negative comment: VNC is listening on 0.0.0.0 by default.. There's two ways to fix that:
mbp:~ dave$ # Option 1: Bind VNC to 127.0.0.1.
mbp:~ dave$ \
UUID=$(anka --machine-readable list | python -c 'import json,sys;obj=json.load(sys.stdin); print obj["body"][0]["uuid"];') && sed -i '' 's/vnc_ip: 0.0.0.0/vnc_ip: 127.0.0.1/' "$(anka config -l vm_lib_dir)"/${UUID}/${UUID}.yaml && UUID=""
mbp:~ dave$ anka modify highsierra set vnc 0 # Option 2, disable VNC completely
the following properties were set successfully:
vnc set to 0
You can now start up the VM and connect to it.
The syntax is similar to Docker and is self-explanatory.
mbp:~ dave$ anka run highsierra uname -a
Darwin Mac-mini.local 17.0.0 Darwin Kernel Version 17.0.0: Thu Aug 24 21:48:19 PDT 2017; root:xnu-4570.1.46~2/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64
Positives:
- Extremely simple and intuitive command line interface (takes <15 minutes from install to a fully working VM).
- Guest VM install process is completely automated.
- Supports real USB devices (will test in a future blog post).
- Feels much faster than VMware Fusion (will test and confirm in a future blog post).
- Optional Anka Registry for maintaining macOS images (will test in a future blog post).
- Requires a paid monthly license (it's in a similar price range to VMware Workstation Pro for a single developer).
- Anka Flow's license does not allow installing on a Mac Mini (only the following devices are allowed: MacBook Pro, MacBook, MacBook Air, iMac & iMac Pro). You need to buy an Anka Build license.
