Kubernetes Deployment

This page describes how to deploy KX Dashboards on Kubernetes.

A Helm chart has been provided for deploying KX Dashboards to a Kubernetes cluster.

Prerequisites

To run within Kubernetes there are a number of pre-requisites:

  • helm must be installed

  • kubectl must be installed

  • Valid KX license (kdb+ or Insights SDK, depending on target environment). You need the source path to your license for this step.

Deploy using Kubernetes quick start

To deploy KX Dashboards, complete the following steps:

  1. Create a k8s secret for the kdb license

  2. Generate a KX Downloads Portal bearer token

  3. Add a Helm Chart repository

  4. Create a k8s Secret for repo authentication

  5. Configure a Helm chart file

  6. Install KX Dashboards

  7. Access KX Dashboards

Create a k8s secret for the KX license

A valid license is required. The type of license you need depends on whether you are going to integrate KX Dashboards with kdb+ or kdb Insights SDK.

bash

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kubectl create secret generic kxi-license --from-file=license=path/to/*.lic                  
  • kubectl create secret generic - Creates a generic Kubernetes secret.

  • kxi-license - The name of the secret. This is used in the Helm chart file described in this step.

  • --from-file=license=path/to/*.lic - The path to your license file .

Generate a KX Downloads Portal bearer token

The following steps explain how to obtain the KX Downloads Portal credentials required to login to the KX Downloads Portal to download the necessary images:

  1. Navigate to the KX Downloads Portal.

  2. Click Login and enter your email address and click Sign In.

  3. Check your email for a message from noreply@kx.com to complete your login to https://portal.dl.kx.com. You can either:

    • Click the Login link provided in the email, or
    • Copy the verification code from the email and paste it into the login page.

  4. Once you are logged in, navigate to Token Management, https://portal.dl.kx.com/auth/token.

  5. Click Add New Token.

  6. Copy and securely save the Bearer token, it is only shown once.

Information

If you have completed the trial download process on the KX website, use the bearer token provided in your email.

If you do not have credentials to access the KX Downloads Portal , please contact sales@kx.com

This bearer token is used in the next step to provide credentials when adding the Helm rep.

Add a Helm Chart repository

In this step you add a Helm chart repository to enable you to access to the official charts needed to deploy, configure, and manage KX Dashboards consistently across environments.

  1. Enter the following command

    bash

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    helm repo add kxi-repo https://portal.dl.kx.com/assets/helm --username <username> --password <password> 

                        

    • helm repo add - The helm command used to add the repo.

    • username and password - The username and bearer token from the previous step.

    • kxi-repo - The local name/alias you assign to this repo. You’ll use it when installing charts.

    • https://portal.dl.kx.com/repository/kx-insights-charts/ - The URL of the KX Downloads Portal repository.

    The following output is displayed, "kxi-repo" has been added to your repositories.

  2. Update your Helm local cache:

    bash

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    helm repo update

    The following output is displayed Hang tight while we grab the latest from your chart repositories...

    ...Successfully got an update from the "kx-insights-kxidev" chart repository

    Update Complete. ⎈Happy Helming!⎈

Create k8s secret for repo authentication

In this step you create a k8s secret and add it to your Kubernetes cluster. The Kubernetes secret is used to securely store sensitive data (like passwords, keys, or certificates). This lets your pods use them at runtime without exposing values directly in configs.

bash

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kubectl create secret docker-registry kx-repo-access --docker-username=<username> --docker-password=<password> --docker-server=portal.dl.kx.com

 

  • kubectl create secret docker-registry - The command to create a docker-registry secret to store authentication credentials.

  • kx-repo-access - The name of the secret being created. This is referenced under imagePullSecrets in the dash-web-devval.yaml created in the next step.

  • --docker-username=<username> - The username you use to login to the KX Downloads Portal.

  • --docker-password=<password> - The bearer token generated here, to login to the KX Downloads Portal.

  • --docker-server=portal.dl.kx.com - The name of the docker registry. In this case it is the KX Downloads Portal.

 

The following output is displayed, secret/kx-repo-access created.

Configure a Helm Chart file

The configuration file specifies the license and repo access secret defined above. This file enables a LoadBalancer, which assigns an IP address so that KX Dashboards can be accessed externally.

Note

If you only want local access you can remove LoadBalancing by deleting service.type: LoadBalancer lines from the .yaml configuration below. In this case, to access KX Dashboards you must use port forwarding for local access; see Accessing the Dashboards Locally

  1. Copy the following configuration file and save it as dash-web-devval.yaml.

    yaml

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    dash-web-devval.yaml
    global:
      image:
        repository: portal.dl.kx.com/
      imagePullSecrets:
        - name: kx-repo-access
      license:
        secretName: kxi-license
        #onDemand=true  # uncomment to use kc.lic
        #type: "k4"     # uncomment to use k4.lic
        asFile: true
    # for port forwarding icto-
      encryption:
        enabled: false
    # set LoadBalancer for all components if required
    service:
      type: LoadBalancer

    # Set 
    # dash-web:
    #   service:
    #     type: LoadBalancer

                        
    • imagePullSecreats = kx-repo-access (this is the k8s secreted created in this step).

    • license:secretName:= This is the k8s secret created in a step previously.

    • Set the license type as either:

      • onDemand:true for kc.lic

      • type =”k4” for k4.lic

Install KX Dashboards

Use the Helm repo that was added above to install the dash-web client into your Kubernetes cluster.

bash

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$ helm install dash kxi-repo/dash-web --version="{version}" -f path/to/dash-web-devval.yaml
  • helm install - The Helm CLI command to install a new release of a chart.

  • dash - The release name. This is how Helm identifies this installation.

  • kxi-repo/dash-web

    • kxi-repo - The alias for the Helm repository added earlier.
    • dash-web - The chart name inside that rep.
  • --version = - The version of KX Dashboards you want to install. For example 2.12.0 (Major.Minor.Patch).
  • -f path/to/dash-web-devval.yaml -The path to a Helm chart values file that overrides the default chart configuration.

Access KX Dashboards

Accessing Dashboards is possible using the EXTERNAL-IP address and port 8080, separated by a colon; that is EXTERNAL-IP:8080

To get the IP address use Kubernetes command:

bash

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kubectl get services/dash-web
                    

Output includes the Name, Type, Cluster-IP, External-IP and Port information.

Accessing KX Dashboards locally

To access Dashboards locally, use port forwarding of the pod running KX Dashboards.

  1. Get the pod names by running this command to return a list of services.

    bash

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    kubectl get svc                   
  2. To expose the service port, run the port-forward command using the [deployment]-dash-web service name.

    bash

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    kubectl port-forward svc/dash-dash-web 9090:8080                   
    • kubectl port-forward - Sets up a tunnel between your local machine an a Kubernetes resource, forwarding traffic from a local port to a port on that resource.

    • svc/dash-dash-web - This means that your are forwarding to a service called dash-dash-web.

    • 9090:8080 - Sets up the port mapping. 9090 is the local port and 8080 is the target port on the Kubernetes service (dash-dash-web).

  3. Navigate to http://localhost:9090to Open KX Dashboards.

Install from local source code

You can deploy KX Dashboards (dash-web) into your Kubernetes cluster using a local copy of the Helm chart instead of pulling it from a remote repository by running the following command. This may be required for testing or in air-gapped environments.

bash

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helm install dash ./helm/dash-web -f dash-web-devval.yaml                 
  • helm install dash - Instructs Helm to deploy a new chart as dash in Kubernetes.

  • ./helm/dash-web - Points to the chart location on your local filesytem (not from a remote Helm repository, such as KX Downloads Portal).

  • -f dash-web-devval.yaml- -f - Specifies the values file dash-web-devval.yaml.

Next Steps