Option to not apply default user apps

[eric-c-wood]

It is desired to have an option to skip the application of the default user apps. The recently added external node attribute will allow the default user apps to be skipped but the external nodes will not be managed by Phenix/Minimega. We need a method that allows the default user apps to be skipped for VMs that will still be managed by Phenix/Minimega.

[activeshadow]

Hi @eric-c-wood. Would you like to see this at the per-VM level or at the experiment level?

[eric-c-wood]

@activeshadow We would like to see this at the per-VM level.

[activeshadow]

This could be done pretty easily with node annotations added to the topology config.

Disabling them via the UI could just add the annotation to the topology, and could be added as part of the UI in the future if this is needed soon.

[eric-c-wood]

@activeshadow Adding node annotations to a topology sounds like a plan. While I like the idea of using the UI to automatically disable default user apps by adding a designated annotation to a topology, the UI component is not essential for us. Having the annotation that allows us to skip the default apps will satisfy our immediate needs. We look forward to using the annotation that gets designated.