Install LAVA

Two installation methods are currently supported:

• docker
• debian

We advise to use docker image for a first test of LAVA.

For a production instance, both methods would be suitable.

Docker

In order to install LAVA using the official docker images, we advise to use the provided docker-compose file.

Dependencies

Install the dependencies: docker and docker-compose:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install docker-compose

The ports needed by the lava services must be available on the host. You can check if they are occupied with the below command. Stop the programs that using the port if any.

sudo ss -tulpn | grep -E ':(69|80|111|2049|3079|5500|7101|8001|35543)\s'

Install

1. Get the docker-compose files from gitlab.

   git clone https://gitlab.com/lava/pkg/docker-compose
   cd docker-compose/
   

2. Configure the .env file to set LAVA admin username and password. You will need them for using and managing your LAVA instance.

   DC_LAVA_ADMIN_USERNAME=<your_user_name>
   DC_LAVA_ADMIN_PASSWORD=<your_user_password>
   

3. Start the services

   docker-compose pull
   docker-compose build
   docker-compose up
   

   Tip

   If /dev/kvm is unavailable on your host, comment out the - /dev/kvm line in the docker-compose.yaml.

The newly created instance is now available at localhost.

Debian

In order to install LAVA using the Debian packages, we advice to use the repositories that we manage to get the latest version.

Supported Debian versions

LAVA is supported on Debian 13 Trixie and upcoming 14 Forky.

Dependencies

In order to follow this tutorial, you would have to install some dependencies:

apt install ca-certificates gnupg2 wget

Repository

Add the lavasoftware debian repository:

=== Debian 13 "Trixie"

install -d -m 0755 /etc/apt/keyrings
wget -O /etc/apt/keyrings/lavasoftware.asc https://apt.lavasoftware.org/lavasoftware.key.asc
chmod 0644 /etc/apt/keyrings/lavasoftware.asc
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/lavasoftware.asc] https://apt.lavasoftware.org/release trixie main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/lava.list
echo "deb http://deb.debian.org/debian trixie-backports main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/backports.list

=== Debian 14 "Forky"

install -d -m 0755 /etc/apt/keyrings
wget -O /etc/apt/keyrings/lavasoftware.asc https://apt.lavasoftware.org/lavasoftware.key.asc
chmod 0644 /etc/apt/keyrings/lavasoftware.asc
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/lavasoftware.asc] https://apt.lavasoftware.org/release forky main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/lava.list

Install

Install postgresql and lava debian packages:

=== Debian 13 "Trixie"

apt-get update
apt-get install postgresql
pg_ctlcluster 17 main start
apt-get install lava-server lava-dispatcher

=== Debian 14 "Forky"

apt-get update
apt-get install postgresql
pg_ctlcluster 18 main start
apt-get install lava-server lava-dispatcher

Starting

Enable default LAVA server Apache configuration:

a2dissite 000-default
a2enmod proxy
a2enmod proxy_http
a2enmod rewrite
a2enmod headers
a2ensite lava-server.conf
systemctl restart apache2

Apache serves /static/ directly. This needs the headers module, which carries the caching and content-type policy, and rewrite, which selects the precompressed .gz files shipped alongside the static assets. Without headers, LAVA serves those files itself.

If you have customised lava-server.conf, merge its /static/ section into your copy when dpkg prompts for it on upgrade.

You can start the different services:

systemctl start apache2
systemctl start postgresql
systemctl start lava-server-gunicorn
systemctl start lava-publisher
systemctl start lava-scheduler
systemctl start lava-worker

The newly created instance is now available at localhost.