Kubernetes cluster setup

• 1: Set up a Minikube cluster
• 2: Set up a KiND cluster
• 3: Set up an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster
• 4: Set up a Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) cluster
• 5: Set up an Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) cluster

1 - Set up a Minikube cluster

Prerequisites

• Install:
  • Docker
  • kubectl
  • Minikube
• For Windows:
  • Enable Virtualization in BIOS
  • Install Hyper-V

Start the Minikube cluster

1. If applicable for your project, set the default VM.

   minikube config set vm-driver [driver_name]
   

2. Start the cluster. If necessary, specify version 1.13.x or newer of Kubernetes with --kubernetes-version

   minikube start --cpus=4 --memory=4096
   

3. Enable the Minikube dashboard and ingress add-ons.

   # Enable dashboard
   minikube addons enable dashboard
   
   # Enable ingress
   minikube addons enable ingress
   

Install Helm v3 (optional)

If you are using Helm, install the Helm v3 client.

Troubleshooting

The external IP address of load balancer is not shown from kubectl get svc.

In Minikube, EXTERNAL-IP in kubectl get svc shows <pending> state for your service. In this case, you can run minikube service [service_name] to open your service without external IP address.

$ kubectl get svc
NAME                        TYPE           CLUSTER-IP       EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)            AGE
...
calculator-front-end        LoadBalancer   10.103.98.37     <pending>     80:30534/TCP       25h
calculator-front-end-dapr   ClusterIP      10.107.128.226   <none>        80/TCP,50001/TCP   25h
...

$ minikube service calculator-front-end
|-----------|----------------------|-------------|---------------------------|
| NAMESPACE |         NAME         | TARGET PORT |            URL            |
|-----------|----------------------|-------------|---------------------------|
| default   | calculator-front-end |             | http://192.168.64.7:30534 |
|-----------|----------------------|-------------|---------------------------|
🎉  Opening kubernetes service  default/calculator-front-end in default browser...

Related links

• Try out a Dapr quickstart
• Learn how to deploy Dapr on your cluster
• Upgrade Dapr on Kubernetes
• Kubernetes production guidelines

2 - Set up a KiND cluster

Prerequisites

• Install:
  • Docker
  • kubectl
• For Windows:
  • Enable Virtualization in BIOS
  • Install Hyper-V

Install and configure KiND

Refer to the KiND documentation to install.

If you are using Docker Desktop, verify that you have the recommended settings.

Configure and create the KiND cluster

1. Create a file named kind-cluster-config.yaml, and paste the following:

   kind: Cluster
   apiVersion: kind.x-k8s.io/v1alpha4
   nodes:
   - role: control-plane
     kubeadmConfigPatches:
     - |
       kind: InitConfiguration
       nodeRegistration:
         kubeletExtraArgs:
           node-labels: "ingress-ready=true"
     extraPortMappings:
     - containerPort: 80
       hostPort: 8081
       protocol: TCP
     - containerPort: 443
       hostPort: 8443
       protocol: TCP
   - role: worker
   - role: worker
   

   This cluster configuration:

   • Requests KiND to spin up a Kubernetes cluster comprised of a control plane and two worker nodes.
   • Allows for future setup of ingresses.
   • Exposes container ports to the host machine.

2. Run the kind create cluster command, providing the cluster configuration file:

   kind create cluster --config kind-cluster-config.yaml
   

   Expected output

   Creating cluster "kind" ...
    ✓ Ensuring node image (kindest/node:v1.21.1) 🖼
    ✓ Preparing nodes 📦 📦 📦
    ✓ Writing configuration 📜
    ✓ Starting control-plane 🕹️
    ✓ Installing CNI 🔌
    ✓ Installing StorageClass 💾
    ✓ Joining worker nodes 🚜
   Set kubectl context to "kind-kind"
   You can now use your cluster with:
   
   kubectl cluster-info --context kind-kind
   
   Thanks for using kind! 😊
   

Initialize and run Dapr

1. Initialize Dapr in Kubernetes.

   dapr init --kubernetes
   

   Once Dapr finishes initializing, you can use its core components on the cluster.

2. Verify the status of the Dapr components:

   dapr status -k
   

   Expected output

     NAME                   NAMESPACE    HEALTHY  STATUS   REPLICAS  VERSION  AGE  CREATED
     dapr-sentry            dapr-system  True     Running  1         1.5.1    53s  2021-12-10 09:27.17
     dapr-operator          dapr-system  True     Running  1         1.5.1    53s  2021-12-10 09:27.17
     dapr-sidecar-injector  dapr-system  True     Running  1         1.5.1    53s  2021-12-10 09:27.17
     dapr-dashboard         dapr-system  True     Running  1         0.9.0    53s  2021-12-10 09:27.17
     dapr-placement-server  dapr-system  True     Running  1         1.5.1    52s  2021-12-10 09:27.18
   

3. Forward a port to Dapr dashboard:

   dapr dashboard -k -p 9999
   

4. Navigate to http://localhost:9999 to validate a successful setup.

Install metrics-server on the Kind Kubernetes Cluster

1. Get metrics-server manifests

   wget https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/metrics-server/releases/latest/download/components.yaml
   

2. Add insecure TLS parameter to the components.yaml file

   metadata:
      labels:
        k8s-app: metrics-server
    spec:
      containers:
      - args:
        - --cert-dir=/tmp
        - --secure-port=4443
        - --kubelet-preferred-address-types=InternalIP,ExternalIP,Hostname
        - --kubelet-use-node-status-port
        - --kubelet-insecure-tls   <==== Add this
        - --metric-resolution=15s
        image: k8s.gcr.io/metrics-server/metrics-server:v0.6.2
        imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
        livenessProbe:
          failureThreshold: 3
          httpGet:
            path: /livez
   

3. Apply modified manifest

   kubectl apply -f components.yaml
   

Related links

• Try out a Dapr quickstart
• Learn how to deploy Dapr on your cluster
• Upgrade Dapr on Kubernetes
• Kubernetes production guidelines

3 - Set up an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster

This guide walks you through installing an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster. If you need more information, refer to Quickstart: Deploy an AKS cluster using the Azure CLI

Prerequisites

• Install:
  • Docker
  • kubectl
  • Azure CLI

Deploy an AKS cluster

1. In the terminal, log into Azure.

   az login
   

2. Set your default subscription:

   az account set -s [your_subscription_id]
   

3. Create a resource group.

   az group create --name [your_resource_group] --location [region]
   

4. Create an AKS cluster. To use a specific version of Kubernetes, use --kubernetes-version (1.13.x or newer version required).

   az aks create --resource-group [your_resource_group] --name [your_aks_cluster_name] --location [region] --node-count 2 --enable-app-routing --generate-ssh-keys
   

5. Get the access credentials for the AKS cluster.

   az aks get-credentials -n [your_aks_cluster_name] -g [your_resource_group]
   

AKS Edge Essentials

To create a single-machine K8s/K3s Linux-only cluster using Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Edge Essentials, you can follow the quickstart guide available at AKS Edge Essentials quickstart guide.

Related links

• Learn more about the Dapr extension for AKS
  • Install the Dapr extension for AKS
  • Configure the Dapr extension for AKS
  • Deploy and run workflows with the Dapr extension for AKS

4 - Set up a Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) cluster

Prerequisites

• Install:
  • kubectl
  • Google Cloud SDK

Create a new cluster

Create a GKE cluster by running the following:

$ gcloud services enable container.googleapis.com && \
  gcloud container clusters create $CLUSTER_NAME \
  --zone $ZONE \
  --project $PROJECT_ID

For more options:

• Refer to the Google Cloud SDK docs.
• Create a cluster through the Cloud Console for a more interactive experience.

Sidecar injection for private GKE clusters

Sidecar injection for private clusters requires extra steps.

In private GKE clusters, an automatically created firewall rule for master access doesn’t open port 4000, which Dapr needs for sidecar injection.

Review the relevant firewall rule:

$ gcloud compute firewall-rules list --filter="name~gke-${CLUSTER_NAME}-[0-9a-z]*-master"

Replace the existing rule and allow Kubernetes master access to port 4000:

$ gcloud compute firewall-rules update <firewall-rule-name> --allow tcp:10250,tcp:443,tcp:4000

Retrieve your credentials for kubectl

Run the following command to retrieve your credentials:

$ gcloud container clusters get-credentials $CLUSTER_NAME \
    --zone $ZONE \
    --project $PROJECT_ID

Install Helm v3 (optional)

If you are using Helm, install the Helm v3 client.

Troubleshooting

Kubernetes dashboard permissions

Let’s say you receive an error message similar to the following:

configmaps is forbidden: User "system:serviceaccount:kube-system:kubernetes-dashboard" cannot list configmaps in the namespace "default"

Execute this command:

kubectl create clusterrolebinding kubernetes-dashboard -n kube-system --clusterrole=cluster-admin --serviceaccount=kube-system:kubernetes-dashboard

Related links

• Learn more about GKE clusters
• Try out a Dapr quickstart
• Learn how to deploy Dapr on your cluster
• Upgrade Dapr on Kubernetes
• Kubernetes production guidelines

5 - Set up an Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) cluster

This guide walks you through installing an Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) cluster. If you need more information, refer to Create an Amazon EKS cluster

Prerequisites

• Install:
  • kubectl
  • AWS CLI
  • eksctl
  • An existing VPC and subnets
  • Dapr CLI

Deploy an EKS cluster

1. In the terminal, log into AWS.

   aws configure
   

2. Create a new file called cluster-config.yaml and add the content below to it, replacing [your_cluster_name], [your_cluster_region], and [your_k8s_version] with the appropriate values:

   apiVersion: eksctl.io/v1alpha5
   kind: ClusterConfig
   
   metadata:
     name: [your_cluster_name]
     region: [your_cluster_region]
     version: [your_k8s_version]
     tags:
       karpenter.sh/discovery: [your_cluster_name]
   
   iam:
     withOIDC: true
   
   managedNodeGroups:
     - name: mng-od-4vcpu-8gb
       desiredCapacity: 2
       minSize: 1
       maxSize: 5
       instanceType: c5.xlarge
       privateNetworking: true
   
   addons:
     - name: vpc-cni 
       attachPolicyARNs:
         - arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonEKS_CNI_Policy
     - name: coredns
       version: latest 
     - name: kube-proxy
       version: latest
     - name: aws-ebs-csi-driver
       wellKnownPolicies: 
         ebsCSIController: true
   

3. Create the cluster by running the following command:

   eksctl create cluster -f cluster-config.yaml
   

4. Verify the kubectl context:

   kubectl config current-context
   

Add Dapr requirements for sidecar access and default storage class:

1. Update the security group rule to allow the EKS cluster to communicate with the Dapr Sidecar by creating an inbound rule for port 4000.

   aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress --region [your_aws_region] \
   --group-id [your_security_group] \
   --protocol tcp \
   --port 4000 \
   --source-group [your_security_group]
   

2. Add a default storage class if you don’t have one:

kubectl patch storageclass gp2 -p '{"metadata": {"annotations":{"storageclass.kubernetes.io/is-default-class":"true"}}}'

Install Dapr

Install Dapr on your cluster by running:

dapr init -k

You should see the following response:

⌛  Making the jump to hyperspace...
ℹ️  Note: To install Dapr using Helm, see here: https://docs.dapr.io/getting-started/install-dapr-kubernetes/#install-with-helm-advanced

ℹ️  Container images will be pulled from Docker Hub
✅  Deploying the Dapr control plane with latest version to your cluster...
✅  Deploying the Dapr dashboard with latest version to your cluster...
✅  Success! Dapr has been installed to namespace dapr-system. To verify, run `dapr status -k' in your terminal. To get started, go here: https://docs.dapr.io/getting-started

Troubleshooting

Access permissions

If you face any access permissions, make sure you are using the same AWS profile that was used to create the cluster. If needed, update the kubectl configuration with the correct profile. More information here:

aws eks --region [your_aws_region] update-kubeconfig --name [your_eks_cluster_name] --profile [your_profile_name]

Related links

• Learn more about EKS clusters
• Learn more about eksctl
• Try out a Dapr quickstart
• Learn how to deploy Dapr on your cluster
• Kubernetes production guidelines