guides/clusters/laptops.md

---
title: Personal laptops
version: EN
---

<img style={{ borderRadius: '0.5rem' }}
  src="/images/clusters/laptops/1_mac.png"
/>

Integrating your Mac or Linux machine to VESSL allows you to use your personal machines as a Kubernetes-backed single-node cluster and optimize your laptop for ML.

* Launch training jobs in seconds on VESSL's easy-to-use web interface or CLI, without writing YAML or scrappy scripts.
* Build a baseline model on your laptop and transition seamlessly to VESSL Cloud to scale your model.
* Keep track of your hardware and runtime environments together with `vessl.log`.

VESSL Clusters' single-line CLI command automatically checks, installs, and configures all dependencies such as Kubernetes, and connects your laptop to VESSL.

## Step-by-step Guide

<Warning>There is an ongoing [🔗 issue related to Kubernetes hostname](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/71140#issue-381687745) containing capital letters. Please make sure your machine's hostname is in lowercase.&#x20;</Warning>

### (1) Prerequisites

You should first have **Docker**, **Helm**, and **VESSL SDK** installed on your machine.&#x20;

#### Install Docker and Helm

Install Docker and Helm. If you are on Mac and have Homebrew installed, the easiest way is to `brew install`. Check out the [🔗 Docker](https://docs.docker.com/get-docker/) and [🔗 Helm](https://helm.sh/docs/intro/install/) installation guides for more details.&#x20;

```bash
brew install docker
```

```bash
brew install helm
```

<Note>You should have Docker running in the background with your [account](https://hub.docker.com/signup) logged in while using your laptop with VESSL Clusters.&#x20;</Note>

#### **Set up the VESSL environment**

Set up a VESSL environment on your laptop and grant access. Refer to our docs on  VESSL Client for more detailed setup guides.

```bash
pip install vessl
```

```bash
vessl configure
```
<img style={{ borderRadius: '0.5rem' }}
  src="/images/clusters/laptops/2_token.png"
/>

### (2) VESSL integration

The following single-line command connects your Mac.&#x20;

```
vessl cluster create --name '[CLUSTER_NAME_HERE]' --mode single
```

The most common flags used with `vessl cluster create` commands are as follows. Check out our docs on VESSL CLI for additional flags.

* `--name` — Define your cluster name
* `--mode single` — Specifies that are installing a single-node cluster. &#x20;
* `--help` — See additional command options.&#x20;

The command will automatically check dependencies and ask you to install Kubernetes. This process will take a few minutes. Proceed by entering `y`.&#x20;

<img style={{ borderRadius: '0.5rem' }}
  src="/images/clusters/laptops/3_create.png"
/>

If you have Kubernetes installed on your machine, the command will then ask you to install VESSL agent on the Kubernetes cluster. Enter `y` and proceed.

<img style={{ borderRadius: '0.5rem' }}
  src="/images/clusters/laptops/4_install.png"
/>

By this point, you have successfully completed the integration.

### (3) Confirm integration

Confirm your integration using the `list` command which returns all the clusters available in your Organization.&#x20;

```bash
vessl cluster list
```

<img style={{ borderRadius: '0.5rem' }}
  src="/images/clusters/laptops/5_list.png"
/>

Finally, try running a training job on your laptop. Your first run may take a few minutes to get the Docker images installed on your device.

<iframe>
	src="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUa-EVd25hA"
</iframe>

<Note>Windows support for single-node cluster integration is currently in beta. Cluster usage and status monitoring may be limited for Windows machines.&#x20;</Note>