[Feature-Request] Ability to choose root path for ax installation

[RogueSMG]

Hey there,

Since using axiom, though not directly related to ax itself, there's one issue I consistently ended up facing - My storage getting ramped up way too quickly!

There have been multiple instances where I lost my Controller VPS because I ran out of space mid Scans 🤡
Surely enough the main reason being me not able to realize both:

• the speed at which the distributed scans might run
• as well as the extent to which the data might be fetched/generated

I use Ax on a DigitalOcean VPS. With DO droplets, you get pretty limited storage even if you go with a costlier Droplet. I think it's the same for other providers but I'm not sure about that.

Comparatively, attaching a mounted Volume is significantly cheaper.

Hence, using mounted storage as the ax installation makes much more sense:

• More Storage, Cheaper
• Better FailSafe - Even if something fails/crashes or the storage gets filled up unexpectedly, the Droplet stays unaffected

So if I didn't miss it somehow, we don't have any option to choose an installation location for axiom as of now. I have installed it on my mounted storage but had to make changes to quite a lot of files and it's a bit of a hassle.

I think an option to choose the Installation Location by default would make ax much more reliable 😄

Kind Regards

[0xtavian]

Hey @RogueSMG!

Great question. Yes, heavy use of ax scan can require a lot of disk space for the controller (specifically logs files of previous scans).

While there isn’t an option to specify a custom installation directory for axiom directly, you do have a few options.

Option one: using one of the following ax scan flags to reduce the amount of logs ultimately saved (to the controller and the instances) at the end of the scan.

--rm-logs   delete remote and local logs after scan completes, except for the unmered output files in ~/.axiom/logs/$module+$timestamp/output
 
--no-logs   do not store any logs at all, do not tail terminal output. Delete all logs even the unmerged output files in ~/.axiom/logs/$module+$timestamp/output

Option two: create a new disk like you did using the cloud console and attach it to your controller and mount the disk to $HOME/.axiom.

If you don’t want to set up axiom from scratch after mounting the new disk, you probably need to copy your existing $HOME/.axiom to another directory, mount the additional disk to $HOME/.axiom and copy the contents back.

Everything should work fine after that! Let me know if you run into any issues!

Edit: will also add this guidance to our FAQ over the weekend! https://ax.attacksurge.com/overview/installation-guide#faq

[RogueSMG]

Hey @0xtavian

Ah, I missed --no-logs. Also mounting directly to $HOME/.axiom makes sense.

I think that should solve the problem, Thank You!

Kind Regards