Create and Deploy Managed K8s

• Log into Console.

• Click Cloud and Edge Sites.

• Click Manage > Manage K8s > K8s Clusters.

• Click Add K8s Cluster.

• In the Metadata section, enter a name.

• Optionally, set labels and add a description.

• In the Access section, select the Enable Site Local API Access option from the Site Local Access menu. This enables local access to K8s cluster.

• In the Local Domain field, enter a local domain name for the K8s cluster in the <sitename>.<localdomain> format. The local K8s API server will become accessible via this domain name.

• From the Port for K8s API Server menu, select Custom K8s Port and enter a port value in the Custom K8s Port field. This example uses the default option Default k8s Port.

• From the VoltConsole Access menu, select the Enable VoltConsole API Access option.

Note: You can download the global kubeconfig for the managed K8s cluster only when you enable VoltConsole API access. Also, if you do not enable the API access, monitoring of the cluster is done via metrics.

The security configuration is enabled with default settings for pod security policies, K8s cluster roles, and K8s cluster role bindings. Optionally, you can enable custom settings for these fields.

Step 3.1: Configure custom pod security policies.

• In the Security section, select the Custom Pod Security Policies option from the Pod Security Policies menu.

• Use the Pod Security Policy List drop-down menu to select a K8s pod security policy from the list of displayed options or create a new policy and attach. This example shows creating a new policy.

Note: Using default pod security policy allows all of your workloads. If you configure a custom policy, then everything is disabled, and you must explicitly configure the pod security policy rules to allow workloads.

Create a new policy per the following guidelines:

• Click in the Pod Security Policy List field, and then click Add Item to open a new policy form.

• In the Metadata section, enter a name.

• Optionally, set labels and add a description.

• Under the Pod Security Policy Specification field, click View Configuration and perform the following:

Step 3.1.1: Optionally, configure the privileges and capabilities.

In the Privilege and Capabilities section, configure the options per the following guidelines:

• Enable the Privileged, Allow Privilege Escalation, and Default Allow Privilege Escalation options.

• From the Change Default Capabilities menu, select the Custom Default Capabilities option.

• In the Capability List field, select the See Common Values option from the Enter drop-down menu. Select an option from the list. You can add more choices using the Add item option.

• From the Allowed Add Capabilities menu, select the Allowed Add Capabilities option.

• In the Capability List field, select the See Common Values option from the Enter drop-down menu. Select an option from the list. You can add more choices using the Add item option.

• From the Drop from K8s Default Capabilities menu, select the Drop Capabilities option.

• In the List of Capability List field, select the See Common Values option from the Enter drop-down menu. Select an option from the list. You can add more choices using the Add item option.

Step 3.1.2: Optionally, configure the volumes and mounts.

Configure the Volumes and Mounts section per the following guidelines:

• Click Add item under Volume, Allowed Flex Volumes, Host Path Prefix, and Allowed Proc Mounts fields. Enter the values for those fields. You can add multiple entries using the Add item option for each of these fields.

Note: Leaving an empty value for Volumes disables any volumes. For the rest of the fields, the default values are applied. In case of Host Path Prefix, you can turn on the Read Only slider to mount a read-only volume.

• Enable the Read Only Root Filesystem option so that containers run with read-only root file system.

Step 3.1.3: Optionally, configure host access and sysctl.

Configure the Host Access and Sysctl section per the following guidelines:

• Enable the Host Network, Host IPC, and Host PID options to allow the use of host network, host IPC, and host PID in the pod spec.

• Enter port ranges in the Host Ports Ranges field to expose those host ports.

Step 3.1.4: Optionally, configure security context.

Configure the Security Context section per the following guidelines:

• From the Select Runs As User menu, select Run As User.

• From the Select Runs As Group menu, select Run As Group.

• From the Select Supplemental Groups menu, select Supplemental Groups Allowed.

• From the Select FS Groups menu, select FS Groups Allowed.

• For each of the fields above, enter the following configuration:

  • Click Add item and enter ID values in the Starting ID and Ending ID fields. You can add more ranges using the Add item option.

  • From the Rule menu, select the See Common Values option to expand the choices.

  • Select one option only from MustRunAs, MayRunAs, or RunAsAny.

• Click Apply.

• Click Continue to create and apply the pod security policy to the K8s cluster.

Note: You can add more pod security policies using the Add item option.

The default option is set to No Cluster Wide Applications.

• To configure this option, select Add Cluster Wide Applications from the K8s Cluster Wide Applications menu.

• Click Configure.

• Click Add Item.

• From the Select Cluster Wide Application, select an option.

• If you select Argo CD, click Configure and complete the settings and click Apply.

• After you finish, click Add Item.

• Click Apply.

Click Save and Exit to complete creating the K8s cluster object.

• Log into Console.

• Click Cloud and Edge Sites.

• Click Manage > Site Management > App Stack Sites.

• Click Add App Stack Site.

• In the Advanced Configuration section, enable the Show Advanced Fields option.

• From the Site Local K8s API access menu, select Enable Site Local K8s API access.

• Click on the Enable Site Local K8s API access field and select the K8s cluster created in the previous section.

• Install nodes and complete registration for the App Stack site. For more information, see Perform Registration chapter of the Create App Stack Site document.

• Click Save and Exit to complete creating the App Stack site.

• Navigate to Managed K8s > Overview.

• Click ... for your App Stack site enabled with managed K8s and perform one of the following:

  • Select Download Local Kubeconfig for managing your cluster locally, when the cluster is on an isolated network.

  • Select Download Global Kubeconfig for managing your cluster remotely from anywhere.

Note: The Download Global Kubeconfig option is enabled only when you enable Console API access.

• Save the kubeconfig file to your local machine.

You can use this kubeconfig file for performing operations on local K8s. This is similar to the regular K8s operations using tools like kubectl.

Note: You may have to manage name resolution for your domain for K8s API access. Local kubeconfig will expire in 15 days regardless of your credential expiration policy. You will need to get a new Kubeconfig after that.

Prepare a deployment manifest for your application and deploy using the kubeconfig file downloaded in the previous step.

• Type kubectl apply -f k8s-app-manifest.yaml --kubeconfig k8s-kubecfg.yaml.

kubectl apply -f k8s-app-manifest.yaml --kubeconfig k8s-kubecfg.yaml

• To verify deployment status, type kubectl get pods --kubeconfig k8s-kubecfg.yaml.

kubectl get pods --kubeconfig k8s-kubecfg.yaml

Note: In case you are using the local kubeconfig to manage the cluster, ensure that you resolve the domain name of the cluster to the IP address of the cluster. You can obtain the domain name from the kubeconfig file.

• Log into Console.

• Select the Cloud and Edge Sites service.

• Click Managed K8s > Overview and find your K8s cluster.

• Click ... under the Actions column for your cluster to download its kubeconfig. You can download the local or global kubeconfig file.

Below is a sample VM configuration. For this example, the YAML manifest is named vm-sample.yaml.

apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1
kind: VirtualMachine
metadata:
  name: testvm
spec:
  running: true
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        kubevirt.io/size: small
        kubevirt.io/domain: testvm
    spec:
      domain:
        devices:
          disks:
            - name: containerdisk
              disk:
                bus: virtio
            - name: cloudinitdisk
              disk:
                bus: virtio
          interfaces:
          - name: default
            masquerade: {}
        resources:
          requests:
            memory: 64M
      networks:
      - name: default
        pod: {}
      volumes:
        - name: containerdisk
          containerDisk:
            image: quay.io/kubevirt/cirros-container-disk-demo
        - name: cloudinitdisk
          cloudInitNoCloud:
            userDataBase64: SGkuXG4=

• Switch to a command line-interface (CLI).

• Create the VM using the following command:

kubectl apply -f vm-sample.yaml --kubeconfig ves_system_pk8s4422_kubeconfig_global.yaml`

Note: This example uses the --kubeconfig option to be more explicit. You can leave this option out if you 1) name your kubeconfig file config and place it in your $HOMT/.kube directory, or 2) use the KUBECONFIG environment variable.

Once the VM is applied to the K8s Cluster, you can interact with it using an F5 Distributed Cloud CLI tool called virtctl. You can use virtctl to control the VM with a number of commands:

• start

• stop

• pause

• restart

• console

• To get virtctl, download the binary using one of the following commands (get the darwin version for macOS or the linux version for a Linux system):

curl -LO "https://downloads.volterra.io/releases/virtctl/$(curl -s https://downloads.volterra.io/releases/virtctl/latest.txt)/virtctl.darwin-amd64" 

curl -LO "https://downloads.volterra.io/releases/virtctl/$(curl -s https://downloads.volterra.io/releases/virtctl/latest.txt)/virtctl.linux-amd64"

• Make the binary executable.

chmod +x virtctl.darwin-amd64 

• Interact with your VM with commands, such as the following:

./virtctl.darwin-amd64 pause <vm-name> --kubeconfig <path-to-kubeconfig>

Note: You can run virtctl with no parameters to see the full list of available commands. Console also provides some controls for your VM. See Monitor your Managed K8s.

You can delete (destroy) the VM using the following command:

kubectl delete -f vm-sample.yaml --kubeconfig ves_system_pk8s4422_kubeconfig_global.yaml`

• Navigate to Manage > Manage K8s > K8s Clusters.

• Click Add K8s Cluster.

• Enter a name in the Metadata section.

• In the Access section, select the Enable Site Local API Access option from the Site Local Access menu.

• In the Local Domain field, enter a local domain name for the K8s cluster in the <sitename>.<localdomain> format.

• From the VoltConsole Access menu, select the Enable VoltConsole API Access option.

First create a role with policy rules to set full permissions to all resources. Afterward, create role binding for this role to your service account.

Step 2.1: Create K8s cluster role.

• From the K8s Cluster Roles menu in the Security section, select the Custom K8s Cluster Roles option.

• Click in the Cluster Role List field and then click Add Item to create and attach a role. Configure the cluster role object per the following guidelines:

  • Enter a name for your cluster role object in the Metadata section.

  • In the Cluster Role section, select Policy Rule List in the Rule Type menu.

  • Click Add Item.

  • Set policy rules in the cluster role sections allowing access to all resources.

• Click Apply at the bottom of the form to save the policy rule.

• Click Continue at the bottom of the form to save the cluster role.

Step 2.2: Create role binding.

• Create a role binding and then attach your role to the role binding for the service account specified in the system:serviceaccount:$RUNNER_NAMESPACE:default format. This example uses the test namespace.

• Select the Custom K8s Cluster Role Bindings option from the K8s Cluster Role Bindings menu.

• Click in the Cluster Role Bindings List field, and then click Add Item to create and attach it:

  • Enter a name in the Metadata section.

  • From the K8s Cluster Role menu, select the role you created in the previous step.

  • In the Subjects section, click Add Item.

  • In the Subjects section, click Add Item.

  • From the Select Subject menu, select Service Account.

• Enter a namespace and service account name in the Namespace and Name fields, respectively. This example sets test namespace and system:serviceaccount:test:default as the service account name.

• Click Apply.

• Click Continue to create and assign the K8s cluster role binding.

Verify that the K8s cluster role and role binding are applied to the cluster configuration and click Save and Exit.

• Click Manage > Site Management > App Stack Sites.

• Click Add App Stack Site to start creating an App Stack Site.

• Configure your App Stack site per the guidelines provided in the Create App Stack Site guide.

• In the Advanced Configuration section, enable the Show Advanced Fields option.

• Select Enable Site Local K8s API access from the Site Local K8s API access menu.

• Click on the Enable Site Local K8s API access field and select the cluster you created in the previous step from the list of clusters displayed.

• Click Save and Exit.

Deploy a site matching the name and hardware device you defined in the App Stack site.

• Click Manage > Site Management > Registrations and approve your App Stack site registration.

• Check that your site shows up in the Sites > Site List view.

• Click Managed K8s > Overview and find your K8s cluster.

• Click ... under the Actions column for your cluster to download its kubeconfig. You can download the local or global kubeconfig file.

• Ensure that the domain name you specified in the K8s cluster is resolved.

Note: For example, you can add an entry in the /etc/hosts file for your domain with the VIP of the K8s cluster object. You can obtain the FQDN and IP address from the kubeconfig file and Console (node IP address from your App Stack site Nodes view), respectively. However, it is recommended that you manage DNS resolution for your domains.

• Download the GitLab runner reference values file. See GitLab Runner Helm Chart for more information.

curl https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/charts/gitlab-runner/-/raw/master/values.yaml > values.yaml

• Enter your GitLab URL and runner registration token to the values.yaml file.

echo "gitlabUrl: https://gitlab.com/" >> values.yaml

echo "runnerRegistrationToken: foobar" >> values.yaml

Note: Replace foobar with your registration token.

• Set the KUBECONFIG environment variable to the downloaded kubeconfig file.

export KUBECONFIG=<PK8S-Kubeconfig>

• Deploy GitLab runners onto your K8s cluster using the kubeconfig file and the values.yaml file. The commands depend on the Helm version.

For Helm 2:

helm install --namespace <PK8_NAMESPACE> --name gitlab-runner -f values.yaml gitlab/gitlab-runner

For Helm 3:

helm install --namespace <PK8_NAMESPACE> gitlab-runner -f values.yaml gitlab/gitlab-runner

Note: You can create a namespace in your K8s cluster using kubectl.

Check that the pods are started in Console.

• Click Managed K8s > Overview.

• Click the name of your App Stack site.

• Select the Pods tab to check that the runner pods are started.

• Go to your GitLab CI/CD page and verify that the same runners are created there.

• Go to your project in GitLab and navigate to Settings > CI/CD.

• Click Expand in the Runners section.

• Check that your runners appear under Available Specific Runners.

Note: The names of the runners are the same as the runner pod names in Console.