Getting started

First steps with the slopscale CLI: reach the server's socket, create and list users, and register a node through the browser or a pre-auth key.

This page helps you get started with slopscale and provides a few usage examples for the slopscale command line tool slopscale. Everything below can also be done from the admin console at /console/, once an identity provider is configured: its Add machine button hands over the join command for each platform with a QR code carrying the same line, and its Machines and Users pages approve what is waiting when approval is on.

Getting help

The slopscale command line tool provides built-in help. To show available commands along with their arguments and options, run:

# Show help
slopscale help

# Show help for a specific command
slopscale <COMMAND> --help

# Show help
docker exec -it slopscale \
  slopscale help

# Show help for a specific command
docker exec -it slopscale \
  slopscale <COMMAND> --help

Manage slopscale from another local user

By default only the user slopscale or root will have the necessary permissions to access the unix socket (/var/run/slopscale/slopscale.sock) that is used to communicate with the service. In order to be able to communicate with the slopscale service you have to make sure the unix socket is accessible by the user that runs the commands. In general you can achieve this by any of the following methods:

using sudo
run the commands as user slopscale
add your user to the slopscale group

To verify you can run the following command using your preferred method:

slopscale users list

Manage slopscale users

In slopscale, a node (also known as machine or device) is typically assigned to a slopscale user. Such a slopscale user¹ may have many nodes assigned to them and can be managed with the slopscale users command. Invoke the built-in help for more information: slopscale users --help.

Create a slopscale user

slopscale users create <USER>

docker exec -it slopscale \
  slopscale users create <USER>

List existing slopscale users

slopscale users list

docker exec -it slopscale \
  slopscale users list

Register a node

One has to register a node first to use slopscale as coordination server with Tailscale. The following examples work for the Tailscale client on Linux/BSD operating systems. Alternatively, follow the instructions to connect Android, Apple or Windows devices. Read registration methods for an overview of available registration methods.

Web authentication

On a client machine, run the tailscale up command and provide the FQDN of your slopscale instance as argument:

tailscale up --login-server <YOUR_SLOPSCALE_URL>

Usually, a browser window with further instructions is opened. This page explains how to complete the registration on your slopscale server and it also prints the Auth ID required to approve the node:

slopscale auth register --user <USER> --auth-id <AUTH_ID>

docker exec -it slopscale \
  slopscale auth register --user <USER> --auth-id <AUTH_ID>

Pre authenticated key

It is also possible to generate a preauthkey and register a node non-interactively. First, generate a preauthkey on the slopscale instance. By default, the key is valid for one hour and can only be used once (see slopscale preauthkeys --help for other options):

slopscale preauthkeys create --user <USER>

docker exec -it slopscale \
  slopscale preauthkeys create --user <USER>

The command returns the preauthkey on success which is used to connect a node to the slopscale instance via the tailscale up command:

tailscale up --login-server <YOUR_SLOPSCALE_URL> --authkey <YOUR_AUTH_KEY>

Ensure that the Slopscale username does not end with @. ↩