Starting and stopping the container

Container commands are not available from the Admin CLI. You must access the device shell in order to run Python applications from the command line. See Authentication groups for information about configuring authentication groups that include shell access.

Note Container support must be enabled in Digi Remote Manager. Contact your Digi sales representative for information.

Starting the container

There are two methods to start containers:

Non-persistent: Changes made to the container file system will be lost when the container is stopped.
Persistent: Changes made to the container file system when not be lost when the container is stopped.

Starting a container in non-persistent mode

To start the container in non-persistent mode:

Select a device in Remote Manager that is configured to allow shell access to the admin user, and click Actions > Open Console. Alternatively, log into the EX12 local command line as a user with shell access.
Depending on your device configuration, you may be presented with an Access selection menu. Type shell to access the device shell.
At the shell prompt, type:
```
# lxc container_name
lxc #
```
where container_name is the name of the container as configured on the device. For example:
```
# lxc test_lxc
lxc #
```

This will start the container by using /bin/sh -l, which runs the shell and loads the shell profile. The default shell profile includes an lxc # prompt.

Starting a container in persistent mode

To start the container in persistent mode, include the -p option at the command line. For example:

Select a device in Remote Manager that is configured to allow shell access to the admin user, and click Actions > Open Console. Alternatively, log into the EX12 local command line as a user with shell access.
Depending on your device configuration, you may be presented with an Access selection menu. Type shell to access the device shell.
At the shell prompt, type:
```
# lxc test_lxc -p
lxc #
```

This will start the container by using /bin/sh -l, which runs the shell and loads the shell profile. The default shell profile includes an lxc # prompt.

Starting a container by including an executable

You can supply an executable to run when you start the container, along with any parameters. If you don't supply a parameter, the default behavior is to run the executable by using /bin/sh -l, which runs the shell and loads the shell profile. This is useful when you use the Clone DAL option when uploading the container, which includes the device's system libraries. In this case, the command without any additional parameters will use the device's shell. See Upload a new LXC container for more information.

For example, to start a container and run a python script called my_python_script.py in the default shell, type:

# lxc test_lxc /usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/my_python_sctipt.py

This will run the script from /usr/bin inside the container. If you have /usr/bin/my_python_script.py on your device's native system, it will be ignored.

Stopping the container

Select a device in Remote Manager that is configured to allow shell access to the admin user, and click Actions > Open Console. Alternatively, log into the EX12 local command line as a user with shell access.
Depending on your device configuration, you may be presented with an Access selection menu. Type shell to access the device shell.
At the lxc shell prompt, type:
```
lxc # exit
#
```