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Sharing a Release

This topic describes how to share a release with your customers. It includes information about accessing the Replicated download portal, downloading license files and air gap bundles, and retrieving the installation commands from the Replicated vendor portal.

About Sharing Releases​

After you promote a release to a channel in the vendor portal, you can share the release with your customers. Your customers require the following assets to install your application for the first time with Replicated KOTS:

  • A license file
  • The installation command available in the vendor portal
  • (Air Gap Only) The .airgap bundle for the release

Additionally, to support automated installations with the Replicated kots CLI, you must provide a template of the ConfigValues file for the release. For more information, see Sharing a ConfigValues File.

You can either share these files and installation commands directly with a customer, or you can provide the customer with a link to the Replicated download portal. See (Optional) Share Files through the Download Portal below.

(Optional) Share Files through the Download Portal​

To share a license file and air gap bundles with a customer, you can send the customer their unique link and password for the download portal. Users can log in to the download portal to access their license file and air gap bundles, if applicable.

For information about using a custom domain for the download portal, see Configure Download Portal Domains in Using Custom Domains (Beta)

To share license files and air gap bundles through the download portal:

  1. In the vendor portal, on the Customers page, click on the name of the customer.
  2. In the Download portal section, click Generate new password.
  3. Save the password that appears in the pop-up window. Your customer uses this password to log in to the download portal.
  4. Click Copy URL to copy the URL to the download portal to your clipboard. This is the URL where your customer can access the download portal.
  5. (Optional) Click Visit download portal to log in to the download portal and preview your customer's experience.
  6. Send the URL and password for the download portal to your customer.

Download the Customer License​

To install your application, your customer must provide a valid license file. This section describes how to download a license file for online or air gap installations so that you can share it with your customer.

Download Online Licenses​

To download a license file for online installations:

  1. In the vendor portal, open the Customers page.
  2. Click the download license icon on the right side of a customer row.

Download Air Gap Licenses​

The air gap license option lets you install the .airgap bundle. Without this enabled, you cannot use the .airgap bundle.

To enable the air gap entitlement and download the updated license:

  1. In the vendor portal, click [App Name] > Customer > [Customer Name].

    Airgap Customers

  2. Click License options > Airgap Download Enabled, and Save Changes. This lets KOTS use the .airgap bundle.

    Airgap Download License

  3. Click Download license to download the updated air gapped enabled YAML license.

Get Installation Commands​

Your customers install your application using an installation command that you share. The installation command is unique to the channel and the installation method for the application.

You can also share installation commands for specific versions of the application. This is useful when a customer needs to install a particular version or when you need to install and troubleshoot a version. Typically you do not need to share a specific version for air gap installations because the customer can select the application version in the download portal, and the correct assets are available automatically. For more information, see (Optional) Share Files through the Download Portal.

To get the installation commands:

  1. In the vendor portal, on the Channels page, find the channel to which the customer is assigned.

  2. Do one of the following:

    • Share the latest release version: Under Install, click either Existing Cluster or Embedded Cluster to view and copy the desired installation command.

    • Share a specific release version:

      1. Click Release history.

      2. Click Install Commands for a specific version. Then, click either Existing Cluster or Embedded Cluster to view and copy the desired installation command.

        Existing Cluster Command

Download Bundles for Air Gap Installations​

To support air gap installations, you must share an air gap bundle in addition to the customer license.

For air gap installations in embedded clusters provisioned by Replicated kURL, you must also share the kURL air gap bundle. The kURL bundle provides the open source components to run the cluster: Docker, Kubernetes, the admin console, Weave, Contour, Rook, Registry and a number of other add-ons.

The kURL bundle is kept separate from the .airgap app bundle for the following reasons:

  • The kURL bundle can get quite large, so this method lets you update your application with a smaller bundle size.

  • The release cadence of the .airgap bundle is generally higher in comparison to the kURL components, which only needs to be updated when the underlying cluster components or add-ons need to be updated.

Build and Download the Air Gap Bundle​

The airgap bundle contains application-specific files, such as Kubernetes YAML and Docker images. You can view its contents with tar -zxvf.

To download the .airgap bundle:

  1. From the Replicated vendor portal, click [App Name] > Channels > [Channel Name] > Release History.

    Airgap Channels

  2. Click Build to build the .airgap bundle.

    note

    By default, the Stable and Beta channels automatically build .airgap bundles on new releases. To edit this functionality on any channel, enable or disable the Automatically create airgap builds for all releases in this channel toggle in the channel settings.

    Airgap Download Bundle

  3. Click Download Bundle to download the .airgap bundle. Keep this file on your local laptop to access the Replicated admin console in later steps.

Download the kURL Bundle​

For embedded cluster installations, customers must provide a kURL air gap bundle in addition to the .airgap bundle and license file.

The kURL bundle is specific to the channel. Run the following commands to download the kURL bundle for the Stable channel or other channels.

Download the kURL bundle for the Stable channel

export REPLICATED_APP=YOUR_APP_SLUG
curl -LS https://k8s.kurl.sh/bundle/$REPLICATED_APP.tar.gz -o $REPLICATED_APP.tar.gz

Replace YOUR_APP_SLUG with the application slug. You can find the slug on the Application Settings page in the vendor portal.

Download the kURL bundle for other channels

To download the kURL bundle for channels other than Stable:

  1. Install the replicated CLI. See Installing the replicated CLI.

  2. Run the following command to get the air gap URL:

    replicated channel inspect CHANNEL_NAME

    Replace CHANNEL_NAME with the exact name of the channel, which can include uppercase letters or special characters, such as Unstable or my-custom-channel.

    The output shows valid URLs for all three installation types. Copy the curl command with the air gap URL.