Air-Gapped Installation

advanced

Deploy Hive in environments without internet connectivity. Covers offline package caching, USB deployment, and package verification.

installair-gappedoffline

Overview Instructions Troubleshooting

Overview

In air-gapped or disconnected environments, Hive can be deployed without internet access. This guide covers preparing offline packages on a connected machine, creating USB deployment media, and installing on the target server with package verification.

Deployment methods:

apt-cacher-ng — Local APT cache for Debian/Ubuntu packages
Go module cache — Pre-downloaded Go dependencies
USB deployment — Portable installation media with all dependencies
GPG verification — Cryptographic package integrity checks

Instructions

Step 1. Prepare packages (on a connected machine)

Set up a local APT cache to collect all required packages:

bash

sudo apt install apt-cacher-ng
sudo systemctl enable --now apt-cacher-ng

Pre-download all Hive dependencies:

bash

sudo apt install --download-only nbdkit nbdkit-plugin-dev pkg-config \
  qemu-system qemu-utils qemu-kvm libvirt-daemon-system \
  libvirt-clients libvirt-dev make gcc unzip xz-utils file \
  ovn-central ovn-host openvswitch-switch

Step 2. Create USB deployment media

bash

mkdir -p /media/hive-deploy/{apt-packages,go-cache,hive-source}
cp /var/cache/apt/archives/*.deb /media/hive-deploy/apt-packages/
cp -r ~/go/pkg/mod/cache/ /media/hive-deploy/go-cache/
cp -r ~/Development/mulga/hive /media/hive-deploy/hive-source/

Step 3. Verify package integrity

Sign and verify packages before transferring to the target:

bash

gpg --import /media/hive-deploy/mulga-signing-key.asc
gpg --verify hive-v1.0.tar.gz.sig hive-v1.0.tar.gz
sha256sum -c /media/hive-deploy/checksums.sha256

Step 4. Install on the target server

Mount the USB and install:

bash

sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb
sudo dpkg -i /mnt/usb/apt-packages/*.deb
cp -r /mnt/usb/hive-source ~/Development/mulga/hive
cd ~/Development/mulga/hive && make build

Then follow the Source Install guide from Step 3 (Setup OVN) onwards.

Troubleshooting

Missing dependencies after dpkg install

Some packages may have unresolved dependencies. Fix with:

bash

sudo dpkg -i /mnt/usb/apt-packages/*.deb
sudo apt-get install -f

The -f flag tells apt to fix broken dependencies using what's available locally.

GPG verification fails

The signing key may not match or the download was corrupted. Re-import the key and verify:

bash

gpg --import /media/hive-deploy/mulga-signing-key.asc
gpg --verify hive-v1.0.tar.gz.sig hive-v1.0.tar.gz

If verification still fails, re-download the package on the connected machine and compare checksums:

bash

sha256sum hive-v1.0.tar.gz

Go module cache errors

The Go module cache may have been incompletely copied. On the connected machine, re-export the full cache:

bash

cp -r ~/go/pkg/mod/cache/ /media/hive-deploy/go-cache/

On the target, restore it:

bash

mkdir -p ~/go/pkg/mod/
cp -r /mnt/usb/go-cache ~/go/pkg/mod/cache