Overview

LabLink Platform Overview

The LabLink Platform enables dynamic VM allocation and management through a centralized Flask-based allocator server deployed on AWS EC2. It is designed for simplicity, extensibility, and automation using Terraform and GitHub Actions.

Key Components

• Allocator Server

  • Flask web server hosted on EC2
  • Serves a user form to request VM instances
  • Deployed via Terraform + GitHub Actions

• Client VMs

  • Spawned dynamically by the allocator
  • Run containers preconfigured for specific tasks
  • Use Docker with GPU/NVIDIA setup as needed

• Infrastructure as Code

  • EC2, Security Groups, Elastic IPs, and SSH Keys are all provisioned via Terraform
  • Supports environments: dev, test, and prod

Deployment Workflow

• Terraform provisions the allocator server and its networking (SG, EIP, Key Pair)
• GitHub Actions:
  • Triggers on main, test, or workflow_dispatch
  • Determines environment and initializes Terraform accordingly
  • Automatically saves the generated .pem key for SSH

SSH Key Management

• Each environment has its own key: lablink-key-${resource_suffix}
• Key pairs are created via Terraform and stored as outputs for GitHub to save
• Ensure .pem file is saved securely and used with correct file permissions (chmod 600)