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Introduction and Setup

This topic provides a summary of the goals and outcomes for the tutorial and also lists the prerequisites to set up your environment before you begin.

Summary​

This tutorial introduces you to installing an application on a Linux virtual machine (VM) using Replicated Embedded Cluster. Embedded Cluster allows you to distribute a Kubernetes cluster and your application together as a single appliance, making it easy for enterprise users to install, update, and manage the application and the cluster in tandem.

In this tutorial, you use a sample application to learn how to:

  • Add the Embedded Cluster Config to a release
  • Use Embedded Cluster to install the application on a Linux VM

Set Up the Environment​

Before you begin, ensure that you have access to a VM that meets the requirements for Embedded Cluster:

  • Linux operating system

  • x86-64 architecture

  • systemd

  • At least 2GB of memory and 2 CPU cores

  • The disk on the host must have a maximum P99 write latency of 10 ms. This supports etcd performance and stability. For more information about the disk write latency requirements for etcd, see Disks in Hardware recommendations and What does the etcd warning “failed to send out heartbeat on time” mean? in the etcd documentation.

  • The filesystem at /var/lib/embedded-cluster has 40Gi or more of total space and must be less than 80% full

    note

    The directory used for data storage can be changed by passing the --data-dir flag with the Embedded Cluster install command. For more information, see Embedded Cluster Install Command Options.

    Note that in addition to the primary /var/lib/embedded-cluster directory, Embedded Cluster creates directories and files in the following locations:

    • /etc/cni
    • /etc/k0s
    • /opt/cni
    • /opt/containerd
    • /run/calico
    • /run/containerd
    • /run/k0s
    • /sys/fs/cgroup/kubepods
    • /sys/fs/cgroup/system.slice/containerd.service
    • /sys/fs/cgroup/system.slice/k0scontroller.service
    • /usr/libexec/k0s
    • /var/lib/calico
    • /var/lib/cni
    • /var/lib/containers
    • /var/lib/kubelet
    • /var/log/calico
    • /var/log/containers
    • /var/log/pods
    • /usr/local/bin/k0s

  • (Online installations only) Access to replicated.app and proxy.replicated.com or your custom domain for each

  • Embedded Cluster is based on k0s, so all k0s system requirements and external runtime dependencies apply. See System requirements and External runtime dependencies in the k0s documentation.

Next Step​

Install the Replicated CLI and create an application in the Replicated Vendor Portal. See Step 1: Create an Application.