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Installing with the Kubernetes Installer

This topic explains how to install an application on a cluster provisioned by the Replicated Kubernetes installer.

The Kubernetes installer is based on the open source kURL project, which is maintained by Replicated. For more information about installing with kURL, including advanced installation options, see the kURL documentation.

Prerequisites

Complete the following before you perform this task:

  • Meet the system requirements. See Kubernetes Installer Cluster Requirements in Installation Requirements.

  • If you are installing in high availability mode:

    • (Optional) If you are going to use the internal load balancer, you can preconfigure it by passing | sudo bash -s ha ekco-enable-internal-load-balancer.
    • For an external load balancer, ensure that your load balancer is:
      • A TCP forwarding external load balancer.
      • Configured to distribute traffic to all healthy control plane nodes in its target list.
      • (Optional) Preconfigured by passing the load-balancer-address=HOST:PORT flag.

Install in an Online Environment

To install an application in an online environment:

Run the installation command provided by the application vendor to provision the cluster and install the kots CLI, the Replicated admin console, and the application on the cluster:

  • Install the latest version of the application:

    curl -sSL https://k8s.kurl.sh/APP_SLUG | sudo bash

    Replace APP_SLUG with the unique slug for the application. The application slug is included in the installation command provided by the vendor.

  • (App manager v1.67.0 and later) Install a specific version of the application: With the app manager v1.67.0 and later, you can install a specific version of the application. Use the app-version-label flag and the version label for a particular version of your vendor's application.

    curl https://k8s.kurl.sh/APP_SLUG | sudo bash -s app-version-label=VERSION_LABEL

    Replace:

    • APP_SLUG with the unique slug for the application.
    • VERSION_LABEL with the label for the version of the application to install. For example, --app-version-label=3.0.1.

After the installation command finishes, note the Kotsadm and Login with password (will not be shown again) fields in the output of the installation command. Then, log in to the admin console to complete the application setup, run preflight checks, and deploy. See Completing Application Setup and Deploying.

Install in an Air Gapped Environment

To install an application in an air gapped environment:

  1. Run the following commands:

    curl -LO https://k8s.kurl.sh/bundle/FILENAME.tar.gz
    tar -xvzf FILENAME.tar.gz
    cat install.sh | sudo bash -s airgap

    Replace FILENAME with the name of the kURL air gap .tar.gz file.

    After the installation command finishes, note the Kotsadm and Login with password (will not be shown again) fields in the output of the installation command. You can use these in the next step to log in to the admin console and install the application.

    note

    You can construct the URL for the air gap bundle by prefixing the URL path for online installations with /bundle and adding .tar.gz to the end. For more information, see Install in an Online Environment.

  2. Install the application using one of the following methods:

    • Admin console: Use the kotsadm and password from the previous step to log into the admin console. For information about using the admin console, see Completing Application Setup and Deploying.

    • kots CLI:

      1. Install the kots CLI. See Install without Root Access in the Installing the kots CLI reference section.

      2. Use the following command to install the application .airgap bundle. For more information about the kots install command, see install in the kots CLI documentation.

          kubectl kots install APP_NAME \
          --airgap-bundle PATH_TO_AIRGAP_BUNDLE \
          --license-file PATH_TO_LICENSE_FILE \
            --config-values PATH_TO_CONFIG_VALUES \
            --namespace default \
            --shared-password PASSWORD

        Replace:

        • APP_NAME with the name for the application.
        • PATH_TO_AIRGAP_BUNDLE with the path to the .airgap bundle file.
        • PATH_TO_LICENSE_FILE with the path to the license file.
        • PATH_TO_CONFIG_VALUES with the path to the ConfigValues manifest file.
        • PASSWORD with a shared password.

Installing with High Availability Mode

Both online and air gap installations can be installed in high availability (HA) mode with the Kubernetes installer.

A load balancer is required for high availability mode. If your vendor has chosen to use the internal load balancer with the EKCO add-on, you do not need to provide your own external load balancer. An external load balancer can be preferred when clients outside the cluster need access to the cluster's Kubernetes API.

If you decide to use an external load balancer, the external load balancer must be a TCP forwarding load balancer. For more information, see Prerequisites.

The health check for an apiserver is a TCP check on the port that the kube-apiserver listens on. The default value is :6443. For more information about the kube-apiserver external load balancer, see Create load balancer for kube-apiserver in the Kubernetes documentation.

Install with HA in Online Environments

To install with high availability in an online environment:

  1. Run the installation command with the -s ha flag to install the admin console:

    curl -sSL https://k8s.kurl.sh/APP_SLUG | sudo bash -s ha

    Replace APP_SLUG with the unique slug for the application. The application slug is included in the installation script provided by the vendor.

  2. If you did not preconfigure a load balancer, you are prompted during the installation. Do one of the following:

    • If you are using the internal load balancer, leave the prompt blank and proceed with the installation.

    • If you are using an external load balancer, pass the load balancer address.

After the installation command finishes, note the Kotsadm and Login with password (will not be shown again) fields in the output of the installation command. Then, log in to the admin console to complete the application setup, run preflight checks, and deploy. See Completing Application Setup and Deploying.

Install with HA in Air Gapped Environments

To install with high availability in an air gapped environment:

  1. Run the following commands:

    curl -LO https://k8s.kurl.sh/bundle/FILENAME.tar.gz
    tar xvzf FILENAME.tar.gz
    cat install.sh | sudo bash -s airgap ha

    Replace FILENAME with the name of the kURL air gap .tar.gz file.

    After the installation command finishes, note the Kotsadm and Login with password (will not be shown again) fields in the output of the installation command. You can use these in a later step to log in to the admin console and install the application.

    note

    You can construct the URL for the air gap bundle by prefixing the URL path for online installations with /bundle and adding .tar.gz to the end. For more information, see Install in an Online Environment.

  2. If you did not preconfigure a load balancer, you are prompted during the installation. Do one of the following:

    • If you are using the internal load balancer, leave the prompt blank and proceed with the installation.

    • If you are using an external load balancer, pass the load balancer address.

  3. Install the application using one of the following methods:

    • Admin console: Use the kotsadm and password from the previous step to log into the admin console. For information about using the admin console, see Completing Application Setup and Deploying.

    • kots CLI: Use the following command to install the application .airgap bundle. For more information about the kots install command, see install in the kots CLI documentation.

        kubectl kots install APP_NAME \
        --airgap-bundle PATH_TO_AIRGAP_BUNDLE \
        --license-file PATH_TO_LICENSE_FILE \
          --config-values PATH_TO_CONFIG_VALUES \
          --namespace default \
          --shared-password PASSWORD

      Replace:

      • APP_NAME with the name for the application.
      • PATH_TO_AIRGAP_BUNDLE with the path to the .airgap bundle file.
      • PATH_TO_LICENSE_FILE with the path to the license file.
      • PATH_TO_CONFIG_VALUES with the path to the ConfigValues manifest file.
      • PASSWORD with a shared password.