Installing the DSim Cloud CLI

Use the DSim Cloud CLI (mdc) to create and manage DSim Cloud Interactive workspaces as well as run simulations on the DSim Cloud platform.

Contents

• Prerequisites

  
  

• Installation

  
  

  • Installing on Windows

    
    

  • Installing on Linux

    
    

  • Installing on OSX

    
    

• Common Problems

  
  

• Next Steps

  
  

Prerequisites

• The installation requires approximately 100M disk space
• There must be a web browser installed and configured as system default (i.e. set to auto-launch)
• The user must have local administrator permissions, or specifically:
  • Root or sudo on Mac/Linux
  • Administrator on Windows
• An Internet connection is required
  • For networks behind a firewall, or for blocked port issues, refer to Network Port During Installation

Installation

If you have Visual Studio Code open, reload it after you have installed mdc.

Installing on Windows

1. Open a PowerShell terminal window.

NOTE: This can be done by entering "powershell" in the Windows Search box from the Taskbar.

2. Enter the following command in the PowerShell terminal window to perform the installation of the CLI:

Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://releasedist.blob.core.windows.net/dist-dev-releases/install_scripts/install_win.ps1'))

A progress indicator will be displayed during the download/installation.

3. Enter the following command in the terminal window to check that the installation succeeded, replacing <username> with your Windows user account name.

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\metrics-ca\mdc.exe --version

This should cause mdc to print the tool version to the screen.

4. After installation, the DSim Cloud CLI will be available at:

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\metrics-ca

In order to be able to use mdc without specifying the full path, you will need to add the DSim Cloud install directory (%LOCALAPPDATA%\metrics-ca) to the Windows User Path:

1. Open the Windows Search box from the Taskbar and type env

2. Select Edit environment variables for your account

3. Now select the Path row under User variables and click Edit...

4. Click New... and enter %LOCALAPPDATA%\metrics-ca

5. Click OK to confirm and close this window

6. In the same way, click OK to confirm and close all other windows that were opened in this process

7. The configuration is done, but it does not apply to existing windows. At this point, it is best to close all existing terminal windows

8. To confirm the change has been applied, open a new terminal window and try the following command:

mdc --version

NOTE: If you have a firewall, it may block the DSim Cloud CLI from accessing the internet. If so, please review these instructions.

Installing on Linux

1. Open a Terminal window.

2. Execute the following commands in the terminal window to perform the installation of the CLI:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://releasedist.blob.core.windows.net/dist-dev-releases/install_scripts/install_linux.sh)"

A progress indicator will be displayed during the download/installation.

NOTE: If installation fails because the installation directory /usr/local/bin/ does not exist on your system, follow these instructions.

3. Perform the following command in the terminal window to check that the installation succeeded

/usr/local/bin/mdc --version

This should cause mdc to print the tool version to the screen.

4. Check that the installation succeeded and DSim Cloud can be found by entering the following command in the terminal:

which mdc

This should show the DSim Cloud path /usr/local/bin/mdc

NOTE: If the response is mdc not found, follow these instructions.

Installing on OSX

1. Open a Terminal window.

2. Execute the following commands in the terminal window to perform the installation of the CLI:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://releasedist.blob.core.windows.net/dist-dev-releases/install_scripts/install_osx.sh)"

A progress indicator will be displayed during the download/installation.

NOTE: If installation fails because the installation directory /usr/local/bin/ does not exist on your system, follow these instructions.

3. Perform the following command in the terminal window to check that the installation succeeded

/usr/local/bin/mdc --version

This should cause mdc to print the tool version to the screen.

4. Check that the installation succeeded and DSim Cloud can be found by entering the following command in the terminal:

which mdc

This should show the DSim Cloud path /usr/local/bin/mdc

NOTE: If the response is mdc not found, follow these instructions.

Common Problems

DSim Cloud is blocked from reaching the internet in Windows

If you have a firewall, you will need to allow the DSim Cloud executable - C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\metrics\mdc.exe - to access the internet.

For Windows Defender Firewall, see Windows Defender Firewall blocks DSim Cloud. For other firewalls, please consult their documentation.

The installation directory does not exist in Linux or OSX

If the installation directory /usr/local/bin/ does not exist on your system, the installation will fail.

To create this directory use the command:

sudo mkdir /usr/local/bin/

The installation command should function correctly now.

DSim Cloud is not found in $PATH in Linux or OSX

If the installation directory /usr/local/bin/ is not found in the PATH environment variable, the command mdc will not be recognized unless the full path /usr/local/bin/mdc is provided.

If this is the case in your system, the response to the command:

which mdc

will be mdc not found.

To solve this issue, you will have to add the directory to your PATH environment variable. There are many ways to correct this issue, and the various options to do this depend on your shell. As an example, the following command can be added at the end of your shell setup script (typically ~/.bashrc for Linux, and ~/.zshrc for OS X):

export PATH="/usr/local/bin:$PATH"

After adding this line, open a new terminal and use the following command to check that $PATH is updated:

echo $PATH

Once PATH is updated correctly, the command:

which mdc

should succeed with:

/usr/local/bin/mdc

DSim Cloud is missing libssl (Linux)

An issue has been found with Ubuntu 22.04 whereby the DSim Cloud CLI will not operate after installation. Running the mdc --version command will return the following error:

%> mdc --version  
No usable version of libssl was found  
Aborted (core dumped)

To install libssl onto Ubuntu, please perform the following steps, which should clear the issue.

%> echo "deb [http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu](http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu) impish-security main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/impish-security.list  
%> sudo apt-get update
%> sudo apt-get install libssl1.1

Next Steps

Here are some helpful links as a next step after installing the CLI:

Tutorial: DSim Cloud

User Guide: DSim Cloud CLI