AVH¶

The AVH device type in LAVA refers to Arm Virtual Hardware.

AVH for third-party boards provides cloud-based functionally accurate virtual models of popular IoT development kits, simulating CPU, peripherals, sensors and board components. It allows developers to execute the same binaries as on the real hardware and so leverage the board SDKs and software code examples.

AVH integration in LAVA enables efficient CI workflows for modern agile software development.

LAVA worker setup¶

LAVA uses the avh-api Python library to communicate with AVH's REST API for managing virtual devices. If you are a LAVA Docker worker user, the library is already pre-installed in the LAVA dispatcher Docker image. If your LAVA worker is installed via APT, you will need to install the avh-api library manually using the following commands. This is mainly because the library isn't available via APT installation yet.

apt-get install --no-install-recommends --yes python3-pip
python3 -m pip install avh-api==1.0.5 --break-system-packages

AVH API authentication¶

The following steps are required to authorize LAVA for API access to AVH.

Generate an AVH API token.

Log in to AVH with your account at https://app.avh.corellium.com. Navigate to your profile by clicking on your name in the top right corner. Change to the API tab, then click the GENERATE button to generate your AVH API token.
Add a LAVA remote artifact token.

Log in to the LAVA server. Click on your name in the top right corner, and then click Profile. On the profile page, click the Create button in the Remote artifact tokens section and input avh_api_token as the Token name and the above AVH API token as the Token string. Save the token.
Define secrets block in LAVA job definition.
```
secrets:
    avh_api_token: avh_api_token
```
The secrets block should include the avh_api_token key. LAVA dispatcher needs it for AVH API authentication. The key value should be the name of the above LAVA remote artifact token. At run time, the token name will be replaced with the token string by the LAVA server. This is mainly for hiding the real token in a public LAVA job.

AVH platform limitations¶

Concurrent uploads of AVH firmware images can only be 5 at a time. The limitation is per AVH project. After 5 images are uploaded to the same project, when another one is uploaded it overrides the first. Trying to run more than 5 AVH LAVA jobs using the same AVH project may encounter an instance creation error as the image uploaded could be overridden by another one at any time.

Multiple projects are possible but only in enterprise/domain accounts so far. For these accounts, a lab administrator can extend the base AVH device type by setting the avh_project_name variable to a different AVH project name to create another device type. The variable defaults to Default Project. The number of devices for these device types should always be equal to or less than 5.

LAVA users can also overwrite the AVH project name in the device dictionary or in the job definition using the deploy.options.project_name key.

Creating device type¶

Create the device type using the name avh.

Creating device¶

Add the device using the following settings:
- Device Type: avh
- Hostname: A unique name (e.g., avh-01)
Add the device configuration.

For a minimal configuration, simply extend the base template:
```
{% extends "avh.jinja2" %}
```
To set or override the default settings, define the additional variables below:
```
{% set avh_model = <value> %}
{% set avh_api_end_point = <value> %}
{% set avh_project_name = <value> %}
```

Sample job definition¶

device_type: avh
job_name: avh-rpi4b-health-check

timeouts:
  job:
    minutes: 60

priority: medium
visibility: public

secrets:
  avh_api_token: avh_api_token

actions:
- deploy:
    to: avh
    options:
      model: rpi4b
    timeout:
      minutes: 30
    images:
      rootfs:
        url: https://example.com/rpi4b/nand
        format: ext4
        root_partition: 1
      kernel:
        url: https://example.com/rpi4b/kernel
      dtb:
        url: https://example.com/rpi4b/devicetree

- boot:
    method: avh
    timeout:
      minutes: 20
    prompts:
    - "pi@raspberrypi:"
    - "root@raspberrypi:"
    auto_login:
      login_prompt: "login:"
      username: pi
      password_prompt: 'Password:'
      password: raspberry
      login_commands:
      - sudo su

- test:
    timeout:
      minutes: 10
    definitions:
    - from: inline
      repository:
        metadata:
          format: Lava-Test Test Definition 1.0
          name: health checks
        run:
          steps:
          - lava-test-case kernel-info --shell uname -a
          - lava-test-case network-info --shell ip a
      name: health-checks
      path: inline/health-checks.yaml