• Kubernetes cluster version > 1.21
  • All Kubernetes platform are supported like: Google Kubernetes Engine, Azure Kubernetes Service, Amazon EKS and Minikube.
• Crosser Control Center needs persistence and ingress support in the Kubernetes cluster
  

Initialize a Helm chart configuration file

Helm charts contain templates that can be rendered to the Kubernetes resources to be installed. A user of a Helm chart can override the chart’s default values to influence how the templates render.

In this step we will initialize a chart configuration file for you to adjust your installation of Crosser Control Cloud. We will name and refer to it as config.yaml going forward.

Introduction to YAML

If you haven’t worked with YAML before, investing some minutes learning about it will likely be worth your time.

As of version 1.0.0, you don’t need any configuration to get started so you can just create a config.yaml file with some helpful comments.

In case you are working from a terminal and are unsure how to create this file, you can try with vi config.yaml or try our simple config (see attachements).

  # This file can update the Crosser Cloud Helm chart's default configuration values.
  #
  # For reference see the configuration reference and default values, but make
  # sure to refer to the Helm chart version of interest to you!
  #
  # Introduction to YAML:     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdLNKUoMc6c
  # Chart config reference:   https://urltodocs/setup/configuration-reference/
  #

Install Crosser Control Center

1. Make Helm aware of the Crosser Control Center Helm chart repository so you can install the Crosser Control Center chart from it without having to use a long URL name.

   helm repo add --username <username> --password <password> crosser-cloud https://registry.crosser.io/chartrepo/cloud
   helm repo update
   

   where:

   • <username> and <password> refers to the chart credentials you will get from Crosser when you have an On-premise contract.

   This should show output like:

   Hang tight while we grab the latest from your chart repositories...
   ...Skip local chart repository
   ...Successfully got an update from the "stable" chart repository
   ...Successfully got an update from the "crosser-cloud" chart repository
   Update Complete. ⎈ Happy Helming!⎈
   

2. Now install the chart configured by your config.yaml by running this command from the directory that contains your config.yaml:

   helm upgrade --cleanup-on-fail \
     --install <helm-release-name> crosser-cloud/crosser-cloud \
     --namespace <k8s-namespace> \
     --create-namespace \
     --version=<chart-version> \
     --values config.yaml \
     --timeout 3600s
   

   where:

   • <helm-release-name> refers to a Helm release name, an identifier used to differentiate chart installations. You need it when you are changing or deleting the configuration of this chart installation. If your Kubernetes cluster will contain multiple Crosser Control Centers make sure to differentiate them. You can list your Helm releases with helm list.
   • <k8s-namespace> refers to a Kubernetes namespace, an identifier used to group Kubernetes resources, in this case all Kubernetes resources associated with the Crosser Cloud chart. You’ll need the namespace identifier for performing any commands with kubectl.
   • This step may take a moment, during which time there will be no output to your terminal. Crosser Control Center is being installed in the background.
   • If you get a release named <helm-release-name> already exists error, then you should delete the release by running helm delete <helm-release-name>. Then reinstall by repeating this step. If it persists, also do kubectl delete namespace <k8s-namespace> and try again.
   • In general, if something goes wrong with the install step, delete the Helm release by running helm delete <helm-release-name> before re-running the install command.
   • If you’re pulling from a large Docker image you may get a Error: timed out waiting for the condition error, add a --timeout=<number-of-minutes>m parameter to the helm command.
   • The --version parameter corresponds to the version of the Helm chart, not the version of Crosser Control Center. Each version of the Crosser Control Center Helm chart is paired with a specific version of Crosser Control Center. E.g., 0.11.1 of the Helm chart runs Crosser Control Center 1.3.0. For a list of which Crosser Control Center version is installed in each version of the Crosser Control Center Helm Chart, see the release notes.

3. While Step 2 is running, you can see the pods being created by entering in a different terminal:

   kubectl get pod --namespace <k8s-namespace>
   

   To remain sane we recommend that you enable autocompletion for kubectl (follow the kubectl installation instructions for your platform to find the shell autocompletion instructions)

   and set a default value for the --namespace flag:

   kubectl config set-context $(kubectl config current-context) --namespace <k8s-namespace>
   

4. Wait for the edgedirector pod to enter the Running state and jobs pod to enter the Done state.

   NAME                                                              READY   STATUS    RESTARTS        AGE
   analyzer-fb896ff8f-ppwbc                                          1/1     Running   0               40s
   edbridge-7f45cfc4dc-f67cq                                         1/1     Running   0               40s
   edgedirector-d8d685d9c-w8n6s                                      1/1     Running   0               39s
   iiot-54497456f9-6wsjj                                             1/1     Running   0               20s
   .........................
   

5. When Step 2 is done the output should show something like this.

   Release "<helm-release-name>" does not exist. Installing it now.
   NAME: <helm-release-name>
   LAST DEPLOYED: Wed Dec  10 23:49:21 2022
   NAMESPACE: <k8s-namespace>
   STATUS: deployed
   REVISION: 1
   TEST SUITE: None
   NOTES:
   The Crosser Cloud has been installed.
   
   Cloud:
       http://crossercloud.domain.tld
   
   Moduleregistry:
       http://crossercloud-module.domain.tld
   

6. Now you can use Crosser Control Center, enter the URL for the Cloud in to a browser. Crosser Control Center is running with a default admin user that you configured in your config.yaml

   Congratulations! Now that you have basic Crosser Control Center running.

   If you for example wants to run Crosser Control Center in High Availability you can read how in the Customization Guide section.
   

helm list --namespace <k8s-namespace>

helm upgrade --cleanup-on-fail \
   <helm-release-name> crosser-cloud/crosser-cloud \
   --version=<chart-version> \
   --values config.yaml \
   --namespace <k8s-namespace> \
   --timeout 3600s

helm upgrade --cleanup-on-fail \
  staging crosser-cloud/crosser-cloud \
  --version=1.0.1 \
  --values config.yaml \
  --namespace crosser-cloud
  --timeout 3600s

helm delete <helm-release-name> --namespace <k8s-namespace>

iiot:
  replicas: 3
ipa:
  replicas: 3
analyzer:
  replicas: 3

edgedirector:
  replicas: 3
  config:
    blobStorage:
      type: s3
      s3:
        accessKey: "<access-key>"
        accessKeyId: "<access-key-id>"
        region: "<region>"
        bucket: "<bucket>"
        serverURL: "<server-url>"

edgedirector:
  replicas: 3
  config:
    blobStorage:
      azure:
        serverURL: "<server-url>"
        sasQueryString: "<your-sas-querystring>"
        edgenodeContainer: "<storage-container-for-windows-node>"
        resourceContainer: "<storage-container-for-resources>"

edgedirector:
  replicas: 3
  config:
    blobStorage:
      type: local
      local:
        path: "resources"
        persistence:
          enabled: true
          persistentVolumeClaim:
            existingClaim: ""
            storageClass: ""
            subPath: ""
            accessMode: ReadWriteMany
            size: 10Gi

helm upgrade --cleanup-on-fail \
    --install <helm-release-name> crosser-cloud/crosser-cloud \
    --namespace <k8s-namespace> \
    --create-namespace \
    --version=<chart-version> \
    --values config.yaml \
    --timeout 3600s

Customizing External Services

This page contains instructions for common ways to use external services instead of internals for Crosser Control Center. For a list of all the configurable Helm chart options, see the Configuration Reference section below.

External PostgreSQL

• https://github.com/bitnami/charts/tree/master/bitnami/postgresql-ha
• https://operatorhub.io/operator/postgresql

Add this to your config.yaml file and fill in your settings:

# External Database server (PostgreSQL)
#
database:
  config:
    # Enable connection pooling
    poolingEnabled: true
    # The maximum number of connections in the idle connection pool.
    maxPoolSize: 30
  external: # +doc-gen:break
    host: ""
    port: "5432"
    username: ""
    password: ""
    database:
      cloud: "edgedirector"
      moduleregistry: "baget"
    # "disable" - No SSL
    # "require" - Always SSL (skip verification)
    # "verify" - Always SSL (verify that the certificate presented by the
    # server was signed by a trusted CA)
    sslMode: "disable"

External Redis

• https://github.com/bitnami/charts/tree/master/bitnami/redis-cluster
• https://operatorhub.io/operator/redis-operator

Add this to your config.yaml file and fill in your settings:

# External Redis Configuration
#
redis:
  external:
    addr: ""
    password: ""
    sslMode: true
    abortConnect: false

External InfluxDB

• https://github.com/bitnami/charts/tree/master/bitnami/influxdb
• https://artifacthub.io/packages/helm/influxdata/influxdb

Add this to your config.yaml file and fill in your settings:

# External Influx Configuration
#
influx:
  external:
    addr: "http://localdomain.tld:8086"
    username: "edgedirector"
    password: ""
    database: "edgedirector"

Configuration Reference

The Crosser Control Center Helm chart is configurable by values in your config.yaml. In this way, you can customize your installation.

Below is a description of many but not all of the configurable values for the Helm chart. To see all configurable options, inspect their default values defined here.

For more guided information about some specific things you can do with modifications to the helm chart, see the Customization Guide.

Configuration parameters

The following table lists the configurable parameters of the crosser-cloud chart and their default values.

Sample config.yaml file

### Crosser Cloud config that runs all services internally and fully disconnected but without High-Availability
### You can enable more replicas on the following applications.
# edgedirector:
#   replicas: 3
# iiot:
#   replicas: 3
# ipa:
#   replicas: 3
# analyzer:
#   replicas: 3
# admin:
#   replicas: 3
## Used for non-production environments.
global:
  imagePullSecrets:
    enabled: true
    registry: registry.crosser.io
    username: <your-username>
    password: <your-password>
    email: <your-email>
  disconnected: true
edgedirector:
  config:
    organization:
      email: "admin@example.com"
      orgName: "Crosser"
      password: "changeit"
    email:
      server: ""
      port: 587
      useSSL: true
      username: ""
      password: ""
      senderMail: ""
      senderName: "Crosser Cloud"
    blobStorage:
      type: local
      local:
        persistence:
          enabled: true
          persistentVolumeClaim:
            existingClaim: ""
            storageClass: ""
            subPath: ""
            accessMode: ReadWriteOnce
            size: 10Gi
database:
  type: internal
  internal:
    password: "changeit"
    persistence:
      enabled: true
      persistentVolumeClaim:
        existingClaim: ""
        storageClass: ""
        subPath: ""
        accessMode: ReadWriteOnce
        size: 10Gi
redis:
  type: internal
  internal:
    persistence:
      enabled: true
      persistentVolumeClaim:
        existingClaim: ""
        storageClass: ""
        subPath: ""
        accessMode: ReadWriteOnce
        size: 1Gi
influx:
  type: internal
  internal:
    password: "changeit"
    persistence:
      enabled: true
      persistentVolumeClaim:
        existingClaim: ""
        storageClass: ""
        subPath: ""
        accessMode: ReadWriteOnce
        size: 5Gi
moduleregistry:
  persistence:
    enabled: true
    persistentVolumeClaim:
      existingClaim: ""
      storageClass: ""
      subPath: ""
      accessMode: ReadWriteOnce
      size: 200Gi
ingress:
  cloud:
    enabled: true
    host: crosser-cloud.domain.tld
    tls:
      enabled: false
  module:
    enabled: true
    host: crosser-module-registry.domain.tld
    tls:
      enabled: false