Vary Course

Install and Start Via Server

Prepare an Ubuntu host, confirm Vary and Via are installed, install Via prerequisites, initialize the control plane, and verify the Via systemd services.

Install

Verify Vary and Via commands

Confirm the host already has the Vary compiler and Via server CLI on PATH.

# Confirm the Vary compiler is installed and available on PATH.
command -v vary
vary --version

# Confirm the Via server CLI is installed and available on PATH.
command -v via
via --version

Run: via --version

Expected output:

(?m)^Via\s+.+$

Install host prerequisites

Install Ubuntu packages for Git, Docker, Caddy, and the Via Docker network.

# Install Git, Docker, Caddy, and the Via Docker network.
via install --print-prereq-script | sudo bash

# Create Via users, directories, systemd units, and admin group access.
via install

Run: via install

Expected output:

(?m)^\s*Installed changes applied$|^\s*Installed no changes \(already installed\)$

Initialize the control plane

Write server config, create the database, and mint signing keys.

# Write config, create the database, mint keys, and start Via services.
via init --domain vary.example.com

# Confirm the host layout, services, Docker, Git, and proxy are healthy.
via doctor

Run: via doctor

Expected output:

(?m)^.*PASS.*$

Verify

Verify Via services

Confirm the control plane, builder, runner, config server, test runner, and managed Caddy service are active.

# Show every Via service and whether it is active.
via status

# Re-run the full host and runtime health checks after startup.
via doctor

Run: via status

Expected output:

(?m)\bactive\b