Build/test for Mac M1/Silicon models

[philrz]

Brim has traditionally supported macOS, but most of that time has been in the era of Intel-based Macs. Apple has more recently introduced their Macs based on the M1 chip. Smoke tests have confirmed that the Mac releases we currently ship seem to run fine on them. However, when conditions allow we'd surely like to improve our coverage here. Two things come to mind:

1. GitHub Actions will need to provide runners based on M1 Macs (tracked by virtual-environments/2187) so we can run our CI on them and confirm that we don't have M1-specific bugs
2. We'd want to start building macOS artifacts that include the Electron with M1 support to deliver the best possible performance on these platforms

[mattnibs]

I love it. As far as I'm aware with electron 11 so this should be possible.

A couple of points:

• Not sure GitHub actions will have arm macOS runners anytime soon. That said I think we'll still be able to build on x86 for arm.
• We'll want to have run tests on the arm build. Could rely on manual tests in the meantime?
• Ideally would also have arm build of the accompanying binaries. ZQD will have to wait until go 1.16 is released. I have no knowledge of the feasibility of building zeek and suricata for arm. Luckily they should all be able to run w/ Rosetta 2.

[philrz]

Note this issue is linked to from the "Supported Platforms" article in the Brim wiki. If/when this issue is addressed, the article should be updated.

[Ondjultomte]

Any news on native M1 support?

[Ondjultomte]

Any news onthe m1 version ?

[jameskerr]

Last week we spent a little time researching this. It doesn't seem that difficult. We will keep this in mind during our next planning meeting.

[jameskerr]

First someone needs to gift me an M1 so I can test it 😛

[philrz]

@jameskerr: My recollection is @mattnibs does own an M1-based Mac laptop so could potentially be recruited for smoke testing. But as long as we're doing our builds on GitHub-hosted macOS Actions runners, it seems like their ability to offer the platform is what would limit our ability to do this on a continuous basis. Checking on the still-open issue actions/runner-images#2187 linked above, it looks like the subject has made its way to some "GitHub roadmap" item at github/roadmap#528. Per something echoed by other commenters in the original issue, it's not clear when it will actually be available for use, though. 🤔

[graelo]

Hi, with GH Self-Hosted runners, the effort to adapt the existing CI would be minimal. However, it means that the M1 laptop must have the runner configured and running during release builds. In my experience, it works smoothly.

Here are a couple resources:

• https://docs.github.com/en/actions/hosting-your-own-runners/managing-self-hosted-runners/about-self-hosted-runners
• https://betterprogramming.pub/run-github-actions-self-hosted-macos-runners-on-apple-m1-mac-b559acd6d783

I'm looking forward to it! Cheers

[schmurfy]

is there any news on this ?

[philrz]

@schmurfy: Yes, we've picked up the effort in the past few days and are making some solid progress. I'm optimistic that I'll have a build of Zui Insiders for Mac Silicon available in a few days for early testing, and if that works out a Silicon build would be part of the next GA Zui release in a few weeks. I'll update here when the Zui Insiders build is available.

[graelo]

Thanks!

[philrz]

Attn: @Ondjultomte @graelo @schmurfy and anyone else watching this issue...

I'm pleased to report an Apple Silicon build is available for the first time as part of Zui Insiders release v1.7.1-20. To take advantage, you will need to do a one-time manual install.

Since we've only offered Zui builds for Intel architecture up until now, following Zui's auto-update would cause you to stay on the Intel builds as they come out. It's fine if you want to do this, but if you've got a Mac with the modern chipset, you'll surely find the Apple Silicon builds perform better.

To get on to the Apple Silicon train, just:

1. Quit Zui
2. Download and manually install the Zui---Insiders-1.7.1-20-arm64.dmg (or whatever -arm64.dmg may be part the latest Insiders releases in the days ahead)
3. When prompted, click to Replace the existing Zui Insiders install (your existing settings and data in pools will be maintained)

Once you've done this, as other Zui Insiders releases (e.g., -21, -22, ...) are published, auto-update will keep you on Apple Silicon builds.

If you want to be confident you're running the Apple Silicon variant, check this "Kind" column in the Activity Monitor. On the classic builds you'd see "Intel", but on the Apple Silicon ones you'll see "Apple" like in this screenshot.

As Zui Insiders is our way of getting early beta-style test coverage on new features and functionality, your assistance with trying this out is much appreciated, since we'll feel better knowing this is solid before we offer it as part of the next GA Zui release. Please do report back here or in the #zui-insiders channel on community Slack with your experiences, whether positive or negative. Thanks!

[graelo]

Works great for me, many thanks.

By the way, here's another way to check the format of the app:

[philrz]

@graelo: Thanks for reporting back and for the tip! 👍