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Installing with the KOTS CLI

This topic describes how to install an application with Replicated KOTS in an existing cluster using the KOTS CLI.

Overview​

You can use the KOTS CLI to install an application with Replicated KOTS. A common use case for installing from the command line is to automate installation, such as performing headless installations as part of CI/CD pipelines.

To install with the KOTS CLI, you provide all the necessary installation assets, such as the license file and the application config values, with the installation command rather than through the Admin Console UI. Any preflight checks defined for the application run automatically from the CLI rather than being displayed in the Admin Console.

The following shows an example of the output from the kots install command:

• Deploying Admin Console
  • Creating namespace ✓
  • Waiting for datastore to be ready ✓
• Waiting for Admin Console to be ready ✓
• Waiting for installation to complete ✓
• Waiting for preflight checks to complete ✓

• Press Ctrl+C to exit
• Go to http://localhost:8800 to access the Admin Console

• Go to http://localhost:8888 to access the application

Prerequisite​

Create a ConfigValues YAML file to define the configuration values for the application release. The ConfigValues file allows you to pass the configuration values for an application from the command line with the install command, rather than through the Admin Console UI. For air-gapped environments, ensure that the ConfigValues file can be accessed from the installation environment.

The KOTS ConfigValues file includes the fields that are defined in the KOTS Config custom resource for an application release, along with the user-supplied and default values for each field, as shown in the example below:

apiVersion: kots.io/v1beta1
kind: ConfigValues
spec:
  values:
    text_config_field_name:
      default: Example default value
      value: Example user-provided value
    boolean_config_field_name:
      value: "1"
    password_config_field_name:
      valuePlaintext: examplePassword

During installation, KOTS automatically generates a ConfigValues file and saves the file in a directory called upstream. After installation, you can view the generated ConfigValues file in the Admin Console View files tab or from the command line by running the kubectl kots get config command.

To get the ConfigValues file from an installed application instance:

  1. Install the target release in a development environment. You can either install the release with Replicated Embedded Cluster or install in an existing cluster with KOTS. For more information, see Online Installation with Embedded Cluster or Online Installation in Existing Clusters with KOTS.

  2. Depending on the installer that you used, do one of the following to get the ConfigValues for the installed instance:

    • For Embedded Cluster installations: In the Admin Console, go to the View files tab. In the filetree, go to upstream > userdata and open config.yaml, as shown in the image below:

      ConfigValues file in the Admin Console View Files tab

      View a larger version of this image

    • For KOTS installations in an existing cluster: Run the kubectl kots get config command to view the generated ConfigValues file:

      kubectl kots get config --namespace APP_NAMESPACE --decrypt

      Where:

      • APP_NAMESPACE is the cluster namespace where KOTS is running.
      • The --decrypt flag decrypts all configuration fields with type: password. In the downloaded ConfigValues file, the decrypted value is stored in a valuePlaintext field.

      The output of the kots get config command shows the contents of the ConfigValues file. For more information about the kots get config command, including additional flags, see kots get config.

Online (Internet-Connected) Installation​

To install with KOTS in an online existing cluster:

  1. Install the KOTS CLI:

    curl https://kots.io/install | bash

    For more installation options, see Installing the KOTS CLI.

  2. Install the application:

    kubectl kots install APP_NAME \
      --shared-password PASSWORD \
      --license-file PATH_TO_LICENSE \
      --config-values PATH_TO_CONFIGVALUES \
      --namespace NAMESPACE \
      --no-port-forward

    Replace:

    • APP_NAME with a name for the application. This is the unique name that KOTS will use to refer to the application that you install.

    • PASSWORD with a shared password for accessing the Admin Console.

    • PATH_TO_LICENSE with the path to your license file. See Downloading Customer Licenses. For information about how to download licenses with the Vendor API v3, see Download a customer license file as YAML in the Vendor API v3 documentation.

    • PATH_TO_CONFIGVALUES with the path to the ConfigValues file.

    • NAMESPACE with the namespace where you want to install both the application and KOTS.

Air Gap Installation​

To install with KOTS in an air-gapped existing cluster:

  1. Install the KOTS CLI. See Manually Download and Install in Installing the KOTS CLI.

  2. Download the kotsadm.tar.gz air gap bundle from the Releases page in the kots repository in GitHub. Ensure that you can access the downloaded bundle from the environment where you will install the application.

    note

    The version of the kotsadm.tar.gz air gap bundle used must be compatible with the version of the .airgap bundle for the given application release.

    note

    The versions of the KOTS CLI and the kotsadm.tar.gz bundle must match. You can check the version of the KOTS CLI with kubectl kots version.

  3. Extract the KOTS Admin Console container images from the kotsadm.tar.gz bundle and push the images to your private registry:

    kubectl kots admin-console push-images ./kotsadm.tar.gz REGISTRY_HOST \
      --registry-username RW_USERNAME \
      --registry-password RW_PASSWORD

    Replace:

    • REGISTRY_HOST with the hostname for the private registry. For example, private.registry.host or my-registry.example.com/my-namespace.

    • RW_USERNAME and RW_PASSWORD with the username and password for an account that has read and write access to the private registry.

      note

      KOTS does not store or reuse these read-write credentials.

  4. Install the application:

    kubectl kots install APP_NAME \
      --shared-password PASSWORD \
      --license-file PATH_TO_LICENSE \
      --config-values PATH_TO_CONFIGVALUES \
      --airgap-bundle PATH_TO_AIRGAP_BUNDLE \
      --namespace NAMESPACE \
      --kotsadm-registry REGISTRY_HOST \
      --registry-username RO_USERNAME \
      --registry-password RO_PASSWORD \
      --no-port-forward

    Replace:

    • APP_NAME with a name for the application. This is the unique name that KOTS will use to refer to the application that you install.

    • PASSWORD with a shared password for accessing the Admin Console.

    • PATH_TO_LICENSE with the path to your license file. See Downloading Customer Licenses. For information about how to download licenses with the Vendor API v3, see Download a customer license file as YAML in the Vendor API v3 documentation.

    • PATH_TO_CONFIGVALUES with the path to the ConfigValues file.

    • NAMESPACE with the namespace where you want to install both the application and KOTS.

    • REGISTRY_HOST with the same hostname for the private registry where you pushed the Admin Console images.

    • RO_USERNAME and RO_PASSWORD with the username and password for an account that has read-only access to the private registry.

      note

      KOTS stores these read-only credentials in a Kubernetes secret in the same namespace where the Admin Console is installed.

      KOTS uses these credentials to pull the images. To allow KOTS to pull images, the credentials are automatically created as an imagePullSecret on all of the Admin Console Pods.

(Optional) Access the Admin Console​

By default, during installation, KOTS automatically opens localhost port 8800 to provide access to the Admin Console. Using the --no-port-forward flag with the kots install command prevents KOTS from creating a port forward to the Admin Console.

After you install with the --no-port-forward flag, you can optionally create a port forward so that you can log in to the Admin Console in a browser window.

To access the Admin Console:

  1. If you installed in a VM where you cannot open a browser window, forward a port on your local machine to localhost:8800 on the remote VM using the SSH client:

    ssh -L LOCAL_PORT:localhost:8800 USERNAME@IP_ADDRESS

    Replace:

    • LOCAL_PORT with the port on your local machine to forward. For example, 9900 or 8800.
    • USERNAME with your username for the VM.
    • IP_ADDRESS with the IP address for the VM.

    Example:

    The following example shows using the SSH client to forward port 8800 on your local machine to localhost:8800 on the remote VM.

    ssh -L 8800:localhost:8800 user@ip-addr

  2. Run the following KOTS CLI command to open localhost port 8800, which forwards to the Admin Console service:

    kubectl kots admin-console --namespace NAMESPACE

    Replace NAMESPACE with the namespace where the Admin Console was installed.

    For more information about the kots admin-console command, see admin-console in the KOTS CLI documentation.

  3. Open a browser window and go to https://localhost:8800.

  4. Log in to the Admin Console using the password that you created as part of the kots install command.