Install Console

Lightbend Console installs as a Helm chart with many configurable parameters. We provide a script that simplifies Console installation in development and production environments. The script verifies the environment before and after the install to help troubleshoot any issues. It is also possible to install using Helm directly, that might be useful in cases where the install script can’t be used. We also provide an experimental Operator installation.

Prerequisites

Prior to installing the Console, you should have already:

• Started a cluster in a distributed or local environment
• Set up Helm
• Set up Storage
• Set up Credentials
• Python 2.x available in your path

Windows support

The install script can be used on Windows 10 with OpenShift client. Running on local clusters like Minikube or Minishift is not supported.

To use the install script on Windows, make sure you have these programs available in your PATH:

• Python 2.7
• OpenShift client
• kubectl
• Helm

Both PowerShell and Command Prompt shells can be used. Be aware that the example commands in the rest of this document need to be slightly altered by removing the leading ./ characters, so on Windows instead of:

./lbc.py <commands>

Write this:

lbc.py <commands>

Download the Install Script

Download the script and make it executable.

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lightbend/console-charts/master/enterprise-suite/scripts/lbc.py
chmod u+x lbc.py

The script checks your environment for platform dependencies and their versions, installs Lightbend Console into your cluster, can verify existing Console installations, and help with debugging problems by gathering logs and diagnostic data. The script uses Helm, allowing you to pass in chart values and offers other install configuration options.

Performing the install

You need a namespace to install Lightbend Console into. For the purposes of these instructions, lightbend will be assumed.

Create the namespace with:

CONSOLE_NAMESPACE=lightbend
kubectl create namespace "${CONSOLE_NAMESPACE}"

In some Kubernetes environments, you can simply run the install subcommand and specify the Console version:

./lbc.py install --namespace="${CONSOLE_NAMESPACE}" --version=1.2.8

We recommend always specifying a version when using install subcommand. If version argument is not provided, Helm will try to get the newest Lightbend Console version, including release candidates. The current version is 1.2.8.

helm install enterprise-suite es-repo/enterprise-suite --namespace lightbend --version 1.2.8 --values /var/folders/_l/q8t5_1gj5yx49v31fk6mr1p40000gn/T/tmpZ8X0d1
Error: unable to build kubernetes objects from release manifest: unable to recognize "": no matches for kind "Deployment" in version "apps/v1beta2"

It can take a few minutes for all components to initialize. Once that is done, you can verify that Lightbend Console is running:

./lbc.py verify --namespace="${CONSOLE_NAMESPACE}"

The following platforms require more specific install commands:

• Minikube
• Minishift
• Kubernetes 1.6 / OpenShift 3.6

Setting chart values and Helm arguments

Any arguments you provide to lbc.py after -- are passed directly to Helm.

Chart values can be set in a YAML file and passed to Helm with the --values <values.yaml> parameter:

usePersistentVolumes: true
defaultStorageClass: gp2

It is also possible to pass ad-hoc values on the command line with --set setting=value, but it is strongly recommended to use a values.yaml file to preserve your settings for upgrades.

The following table describes the available chart values and lists their defaults.

Install configuration

The install subcommand itself has several options which affect how it calls Helm. Pass the --help option to view them all:

./lbc.py install --help

Available arguments are:

In addition to commandline arguments, the install subcommand supports the following environment variables:

Platform Details

This section provides install tips for specific platforms.

Minikube

Run the script and in addition to specifying the version, make sure to include the --set exposeServices=NodePort argument to enable external access.

./lbc.py install --namespace="${CONSOLE_NAMESPACE}" --version=1.2.8 --set exposeServices=NodePort

You should now be able to open the Console in your browser by running:

minikube service expose-es-console --namespace="${CONSOLE_NAMESPACE}"

Minishift

Unlike Minikube, Minishift doesn’t provide a StorageClass. Disable persistent volumes when installing Console:

./lbc.py install --namespace="${CONSOLE_NAMESPACE}" --version=1.2.8 --set usePersistentVolumes=false

Kubernetes 1.6 / OpenShift 3.6

To install Lightbend Console on older Kubernetes versions (1.6 and earlier, or Openshift 3.6 and earlier), you may need to specify the older Kubernetes API versions of our resources.

Execute the following command to install Lighbend Console on Kubernetes 1.6 / OpenShift 3.6:

Create a values.yaml file:

rbacApiVersion: authorization.openshift.io/v1
deploymentApiVersion: apps/v1beta1
daemonSetApiVersion: extensions/v1beta1
apiGroupVersion: authorization.openshift.io/v1

Then install Console:

./lbc.py install --namespace="${CONSOLE_NAMESPACE}" --version=1.2.8 -- --values=values.yaml

Upgrading the console version

The install subcommand will automatically upgrade the chart if it detects it is already installed.

Make sure to read the release notes in case any actions are required.

As Helm doesn’t remember the parameters you used for the initial install, you need to pass the same set of values you originally used.

Specify a new version and the values.yaml file you used for the initial install:

./lbc.py install --namespace="${CONSOLE_NAMESPACE}" --version=1.2.8 -- --values=values.yaml

If the upgrade fails, you can do a force install to purge the previous install:

./lbc.py install --namespace="${CONSOLE_NAMESPACE}" --version=1.2.8 --force-install -- --values=values.yaml

Installing without Helm Tiller

By default, lbc.py uses Helm client commands, some of which require the Helm Tiller server component to be installed. There are situations where this may not be appropriate. For example:

• You do not or cannot run Tiller on your cluster.
• You want to manage the Kubernetes resource yaml yourself.
• You are attempting to install the product on a non-supported platform.

You can use the lbc.py script to generate the yaml and deploy directly.

Generating YAML From lbc.py

The lbc.py script can be used to export the resource yaml definitions that Helm would use. You can use these definitions to manage the installation of the Console into your Kubernetes infrastructure as you see fit. This still requires you to have Helm installed in your local environment, because it uses Helm to render chart templates into Kubernetes resources. Tiller, however, does not need to be installed in your cluster.

The --export-yaml commandline flag enables the yaml export.

First export the Lightbend commercial credentials as a Secret resource:

./lbc.py install --namespace="${CONSOLE_NAMESPACE}" --version=1.2.8 --export-yaml=creds | \
    kubectl --namespace="${CONSOLE_NAMESPACE}" apply -f -

Then export all the resources that make up an install:

./lbc.py install --namespace="${CONSOLE_NAMESPACE}" --version=1.2.8 --export-yaml=console > console.yaml
kubectl --namespace="${CONSOLE_NAMESPACE}" apply -f console.yaml

Backwards compatibility and further customization

We provide backwards compatibility of the chart parameters based on the semantic version. For example, 1.x.x releases should not change existing parameter names.

While https://github.com/lightbend/console-charts is public, we provide no guarantee of maintaining its structure.

If you need further customization beyond what the Helm parameters provide, it is recommended to create a support ticket for Lightbend to add it. This gives you the greatest guarantee of compatibility across versions.

Verifying an install

The verify subcommand can be used to check if an existing Lightbend Console installation is running fine:

./lbc.py verify --namespace="${CONSOLE_NAMESPACE}"

Available arguments are:

Uninstalling

To remove the Console from you cluster, you can use uninstall subcommand:

./lbc.py uninstall --namespace="${CONSOLE_NAMESPACE}"

In order to avoid losing your data, this will warn and stop if it detects that the the uninstall would risk the loss of Persistent Volumes containing your monitors and other data.

Available arguments are:

Debug data for diagnostics

To help diagnosing any problems in Lightbend Console, there is debug-dump subcommand:

./lbc.py debug-dump --namespace="${CONSOLE_NAMESPACE}"

When no other arguments are given, it will look for an existing Lightbend Console installation, gather Kubernetes descriptions of the Console namespace as well as logs for all the containers running there. It will not gather any other data from outside of the Console namespace (lightbend by default). Everything is placed into a zip file in the working directory with a name like console-diagnostics-2018-11-12-11-32-15.zip.

Supported arguments are:

Installing without lbc.py

It is possible to install Lightbend Console into your cluster without using the lbc.py script. We advise that you use the install script if at all possible, but there may be reasons why you can’t. Manual installation consists of two steps, setting up credentials and then using Helm to install the Console chart. The instructions below assume that you have a Kubernetes cluster up and running and have the Helm client installed.

Setting up credentials

Your Lightbend credentials are used to pull the Console Docker images that are only available to authenticated users. Credentials come in the form of username and password, usually kept in the ~/.lightbend/commercial.credentials file. When installing manually, you will have to create a credentials.yaml file, which has your username and password, and pass the location of the file as a parameter to Helm. The yaml file should look like the following:

imageCredentials:
    username: johndoe
    password: password123

Installing the Helm chart

After you have prepared your credentials, add the Lightbend Helm charts repository and update the list of known charts:

helm repo add es-repo https://repo.lightbend.com/helm-charts
helm repo update

When the repository is updated, install the Console as follows:

helm install enterprise-console es-repo/enterprise-suite --namespace "${CONSOLE_NAMESPACE}" --version 1.2.8 --values credentials.yaml

The previous command has quite a few parameters. Here they are explained in order:

• install es-repos/enterprise-suite - Specifies the Lightbend Console Helm chart name, do not change this value.
• --name enterprise-console - name of the Helm release (a local name given to the installed chart). Can be any name you like.
• --namespace "${CONSOLE_NAMESPACE}" - Kubernetes namespace where the resources are installed. Can be an existing or new namespace.
• --version 1.2.8 - version of the Console.
• --values credentials.yaml - a file where your Lightbend credentials are stored in yaml format.

For more information on how to use Helm and its install command, please refer to the official Helm docs.

Operator Installation

An Operator install works by installing the Console operator, then creating a Console custom resource.

After creating a Console custom resource (CR), the operator will install Console using configuration provided in the CR. If you update values in the CR, the operator will update the Console installation accordingly, and if you delete the CR, Console will be uninstalled. Currently, the operator doesn’t support upgrading between Console versions. In order to upgrade you have to completely uninstall the Console and its operator, then do a fresh install using a new operator version. This should be addressed in future versions of the operator.

Prerequisites

We provide a kustomization.yaml to make the install simpler, and also to better integrate with existing tooling. In order to use it, you need kubectl version 1.14 or newer. You can also use the standalone kustomize CLI tool. Alternatively you can apply the Kubernetes resources manually.

Install Operator

First, download the latest version of console-charts from the releases page, unarchive it, and switch to the operator directory:

curl -LO https://github.com/lightbend/console-charts/archive/v1.2.8.tar.gz
tar xzvf v1.2.8.tar.gz
cd console-charts-1.2.8/operator/manifests/

Edit the kustomization.yaml file to your liking (such as specifying the namespace the operator should be installed in). Then, install the operator:

kubectl apply -k .

Install Console

Create a console.yaml with a Console resource:

apiVersion: app.lightbend.com/v1alpha1
kind: Console
metadata:
  name: console
spec:
  imageCredentials:
    username: johndoe
    password: password123
  exposeServices: NodePort

Then apply it to the same namespace you created the operator in:

kubectl apply --namespace="${CONSOLE_NAMESPACE}" --filename=console.yaml

The operator will see this resource and create an instance of Lightbend Console for you in the the same namespace. If you are using Minikube, you should be able to access it at port 30080 of the minikube ip, e.g. https://192.168.99.100:30080.

See the console-charts repository for a full example of the Console resource.

Opt-in namespaces to scrape

By default, Lightbend Console scrapes all namespaces. In order to limit the namespaces that are scraped, leverage the install parameter kubeStateMetricsScrapeNamespaces. For example, if we only want to scrape namespace1 and namespace2, this can be accomplished in the following two ways.

Method1: set it in values.yaml (Suggested)

Step1: create a file values.yaml with content

kubeStateMetricsScrapeNamespaces: "namespace1,namespace2"

Step2: pass values.yaml to installer

./lbc.py install --namespace="${CONSOLE_NAMESPACE}" --version=1.2.8 -- --values=values.yaml

Method2: set it in install parameter

The drawback is that you need to tweak the escape character, and notice that you need to put --set after --, which means that it is passed directly to Helm.

./lbc.py install --namespace="${CONSOLE_NAMESPACE}" --version=1.2.8 -- --set kubeStateMetricsScrapeNamespaces=\"namespace1\\,namespace2\"