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Install Kuadrant on an OpenShift cluster

Note

You must perform these steps on each OpenShift cluster that you want to use Kuadrant on.

In this document we use AWS route 53 as the example setup.

Warning

Kuadrant uses a number of labels to search and filter resources on the cluster. All required labels are formatted as kuadrant.io/*. Removal of any labels with the prefix may cause unexpected behaviour and degradation of the product.

Prerequisites

  • OpenShift Container Platform 4.16.x or later with community Operator catalog available.
  • AWS/Azure or GCP with DNS capabilities.
  • Accessible Redis instance.

Procedure

Step 1 - Set up your environment

We use env vars for convenience only here. If you know these values you can setup the required yaml files in anyway that suites your needs.

export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=xxxxxxx # Key ID from AWS with Route 53 access
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=xxxxxxx # Access key from AWS with Route 53 access
export REDIS_URL=redis://user:xxxxxx@some-redis.com:10340 # A Redis cluster URL

Step 2 - Install Gateway API v1

Before you can use Kuadrant, you must install Gateway API v1 as follows:

kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/gateway-api/releases/download/v1.0.0/standard-install.yaml

Step 3 - Install cert-manager

Before you can use Kuadrant, you must install cert-manager. Cert-Manager is used by kuadrant to manage TLS certificates for your gateways.

The minimum supported version of cert-manager is v1.14.0.

Install one of the different flavours of the Cert-Manager.

Install community version of the cert-manager

Consider installing cert-manager via OperatorHub, which you can do from the OpenShift web console.

More installation options at cert-manager.io

Install cert-manager Operator for Red Hat OpenShift

You can install the cert-manager Operator for Red Hat OpenShift by using the web console.

Note: Before using Kuadrant's TLSPolicy you will need to setup a certificate issuer refer to the cert-manager docs for more details

Step 4 - (Optional) Install and configure Istio with the Sail Operator

Note

Skip this step if planing to use Envoy Gateway as Gateway API provider

Kuadrant integrates with Istio as a Gateway API provider. You can set up an Istio-based Gateway API provider by using the Sail Operator.

Install Istio

To install the Istio Gateway provider, run the following commands:

kubectl create ns gateway-system
kubectl  apply -f - <<EOF
kind: OperatorGroup
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1
metadata:
  name: sail
  namespace: gateway-system
spec:
  upgradeStrategy: Default
---
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: Subscription
metadata:
  name: sailoperator
  namespace: gateway-system
spec:
  channel: 3.0-dp1
  installPlanApproval: Automatic
  name: sailoperator
  source: community-operators
  sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace
EOF

Check the status of the installation as follows:

kubectl get installplan -n gateway-system -o=jsonpath='{.items[0].status.phase}'

When ready, the status will change from installing to complete.

Configure Istio

To configure the Istio Gateway API provider, run the following command:

kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: operator.istio.io/v1alpha1
kind: Istio
metadata:
  name: default
spec:
  version: v1.21.0
  namespace: gateway-system
  # Disable autoscaling to reduce dev resources
  values:
    pilot:
      autoscaleEnabled: false
EOF

Wait for Istio to be ready as follows:

kubectl wait istio/default -n gateway-system --for="condition=Ready=true"

Step 5 - (Optional) Install Envoy Gateway as a Gateway API provider

Note

Skip this step if planing to use Istio as Gateway API provider

Note

There are several ways to install Envoy Gateway (via egctl, Helm chart or Kubernetes yaml) - this is just an example for starting from a bare Kubernetes cluster.

helm install eg oci://docker.io/envoyproxy/gateway-helm --version v1.1.0 -n envoy-gateway-system --create-namespace

Enable EnvoyPatchPolicy feature:

TMP=$(mktemp -d)
kubectl get configmap -n envoy-gateway-system envoy-gateway-config -o jsonpath='{.data.envoy-gateway\.yaml}' > ${TMP}/envoy-gateway.yaml
yq e '.extensionApis.enableEnvoyPatchPolicy = true' -i ${TMP}/envoy-gateway.yaml
kubectl create configmap -n envoy-gateway-system envoy-gateway-config --from-file=envoy-gateway.yaml=${TMP}/envoy-gateway.yaml -o yaml --dry-run=client | kubectl replace -f -
kubectl rollout restart deployment envoy-gateway -n envoy-gateway-system

Wait for Envoy Gateway to become available::

kubectl wait --timeout=5m -n envoy-gateway-system deployment/envoy-gateway --for=condition=Available

Step 6 - Optional: Configure observability and metrics

Kuadrant provides a set of example dashboards that use known metrics exported by Kuadrant and Gateway components to provide insight into different components of your APIs and Gateways. While not essential, it is best to set up an OpenShift monitoring stack. This section provides links to OpenShift and Thanos documentation on configuring monitoring and metrics storage.

You can set up user-facing monitoring by following the steps in the OpenShift documentation on configuring the monitoring stack.

If you have user workload monitoring enabled, it is best to configure remote writes to a central storage system such as Thanos:

The example dashboards and alerts for observing Kuadrant functionality use low-level CPU metrics and network metrics available from the user monitoring stack in OpenShift. They also use resource state metrics from Gateway API and Kuadrant resources.

To scrape these additional metrics, you can install a kube-state-metrics instance, with a custom resource configuration as follows:

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Kuadrant/kuadrant-operator/main/config/observability/openshift/kube-state-metrics.yaml
kubectl apply -k https://github.com/Kuadrant/gateway-api-state-metrics?ref=main

To enable request metrics in Istio, you must create a telemetry resource as follows:

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Kuadrant/kuadrant-operator/main/config/observability/openshift/telemetry.yaml

If you have Grafana installed in your cluster, you can import the example dashboards and alerts.

For example installation details, see installing Grafana on OpenShift. When installed, you must add your Thanos instance as a data source to Grafana. Alternatively, if you are using only the user workload monitoring stack in your OpenShift cluster, and not writing metrics to an external Thanos instance, you can set up a data source to the thanos-querier route in the OpenShift cluster.

Step 7 - Setup the catalogsource

Before installing the Kuadrant Operator, you must enter the following commands to set up secrets that you will use later:

kubectl create ns kuadrant-system

Set up a CatalogSource as follows:

kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: CatalogSource
metadata:
  name: kuadrant-operator-catalog
  namespace: kuadrant-system
spec:
  sourceType: grpc
  image: quay.io/kuadrant/kuadrant-operator-catalog:v0.11.0
  displayName: Kuadrant Operators
  publisher: grpc
  updateStrategy:
    registryPoll:
      interval: 45m
EOF

Step 8 - Install the Kuadrant Operator

To install the Kuadrant Operator, enter the following command:

kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: Subscription
metadata:
  name: kuadrant-operator
  namespace: kuadrant-system
spec:
  channel: stable
  installPlanApproval: Automatic
  name: kuadrant-operator
  source: kuadrant-operator-catalog
  sourceNamespace: kuadrant-system
---
kind: OperatorGroup
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1
metadata:
  name: kuadrant
  namespace: kuadrant-system
spec:
  upgradeStrategy: Default
EOF

Wait for the Kuadrant Operators to be installed as follows:

kubectl get installplan -n kuadrant-system -o=jsonpath='{.items[0].status.phase}'

After some time, this command should return complete.

Set up a DNSProvider

The example here is for AWS Route 53. It is important the secret for the DNSProvider is setup in the same namespace as the gateway.

kubectl create ns ingress-gateway
kubectl -n ingress-gateway create secret generic aws-credentials \
  --type=kuadrant.io/aws \
  --from-literal=AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=$AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID \
  --from-literal=AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=$AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY

For more details on other providers take a look at DNS Providers

Step 9 - Install Kuadrant Components

To trigger your Kuadrant deployment, enter the following command:

kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: kuadrant.io/v1beta1
kind: Kuadrant
metadata:
  name: kuadrant
  namespace: kuadrant-system
EOF

Wait for Kuadrant to be ready as follows:

kubectl wait kuadrant/kuadrant --for="condition=Ready=true" -n kuadrant-system --timeout=300s

This will setup and configure a number of Kuadrant subcomponents. Some of these can also take additional configuration:

  • Authorino (Enforcement Component for AuthPolicy)
  • Learn More: (Authorino CRD)[https://docs.kuadrant.io/latest/authorino-operator/#the-authorino-custom-resource-definition-crd]
  • Limitador (Enforcement Component for RateLimitPolicy)
  • Learn More:(Limitador CRD)[https://docs.kuadrant.io/latest/limitador-operator/#features]
  • DNS Operator (Enforcement Component for DNSPOlicy)

Configuring Redis Storage for Limitador

Redis credentials for storage of rate limiting counters

In this installation we will show how to configure ratelimiting counters to be stored in redis. Before we go further we need to setup a redis secret to use later:

kubectl -n kuadrant-system create secret generic redis-config --from-literal="URL"=$REDIS_URL

Update limitador config

To configure redis storage for Limatador, we must update the Limitador custom resource to use the secret we created:

You can run a command like the one below to add this configuration:

kubectl patch limitador limitador --type=merge -n kuadrant-system -p '
spec:
  storage:
    redis:
      configSecretRef:
        name: redis-config
'

Check that limitador is back to ready:

kubectl wait limitador/limitador -n kuadrant-system --for="condition=Ready=true"

Kuadrant is now ready to use.

Step 10 - Configure the Kuadrant Console Plugin

When running on OpenShift, the Kuadrant Operator will automatically install and configure the Kuadrant dynamic console plugin.

Enable the Console Plugin

To enable the Kuadrant console plugin:

  1. Log in to OpenShift or OKD as an administrator.
  2. Switch to the Admin perspective.
  3. Navigate to Home > Overview.
  4. In the Dynamic Plugins section of the status box, click View all.
  5. In the Console plugins area, find the kuadrant-console plugin. It should be listed but disabled.
  6. Click the Disabled button next to the kuadrant-console plugin.
  7. Select the Enabled radio button, and then click Save.
  8. Wait for the plugin status to change to Loaded.

Once the plugin is loaded, refresh the console. You should see a new Kuadrant section in the navigation sidebar.

Next steps