Codefresh On-premise Installation

Use the Kubernetes Codefresh Installer to install the Codefresh platform on-premises

Introduction

This manual will guide you through the installation of the Codefresh platform on your On-prem environment. This manual is intended to cover all aspects of installation, upgrading, and maintenance. Please read this manual carefully before installing Codefresh.

kcfi (the Kubernetes Codefresh Installer) is a one-stop-shop for this purpose. Even though Codefresh offers multiple tools to install components, kcfi aggregates all of them into a single tool.

Survey – What Codefresh Needs to Know

The following information needs to be provided to Codefresh before the installation to make sure your on-prem environment is ready for deployment:

Please fill out this survey.

Supported Operating Systems and Git Providers

The kcfi tool supports the following operating systems:

• Windows 10/7
• Linux
• OSX

Codefresh supports the following Git providers:

• GitHub: SaaS and on-premise versions
• Bitbucket: SaaS and Bitbucket server (on-premise) 5.4.0 version and above
• GitLab: SaaS and on-premise versions (API v4 only)

Prerequisites

• Kubernetes cluster (v1.9+)
  • Minimum node sizes:
    • Single node: 8 CPU core and 16GB RAM
    • Multi node: master(s) + 3 nodes with 4 CPU core and 8GB RAM (24 GB in total)
• Service Account file (provided by Codefresh)
• Default app credentials (provided by Codefresh)
• Storage size allocated for Codefresh persisted services - described in the storage section

Codefresh will need outbound connection to the Internet for the following services:

• GCR - pulling platform images
• Dockerhub - pulling pipeline images

Security Constraints

Codefresh has some security assumptions about the Kubernetes cluster it is installed on.

RBAC for Codefresh

The Codefresh installer should be run with a Kubernetes RBAC role that allows object creation in a single namespace. If, by corporate policy, you do not allow the creation of service accounts or roles, a Kubernetes administrator will need to create the role, serviceAccount, and binding as shown below. Users with the codefresh-app role do not have the ability to create other roles or roleBindings.

codefresh-app-service-account.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: codefresh-app
  namespace: codefresh

codefresh-app-role.yaml

apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: Role
metadata:
  name: codefresh-app
  namespace: codefresh
rules:
- apiGroups:
  - ""
  - apps
  - codefresh.io
  - autoscaling
  - extensions
  - batch
  resources:
  - '*'
  verbs:
  - '*'
- apiGroups:
  - networking.k8s.io
  - route.openshift.io
  - policy
  resources:
  - routes
  - ingresses
  - poddisruptionbudgets
  verbs:
  - '*'

codefresh-app-roleBinding.yaml

apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: RoleBinding
metadata:
  labels:
    app: codefresh
  name: codefresh-app-binding
  namespace: codefresh
roleRef:
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: Role
  name: codefresh-app
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
  name: codefresh-app

To apply these changes, run:

kubectl apply -f [file]

Operator CRD

If, due to security rules you are not allowed to create a CRD for a client running kcfi, have an Administrator create the RBAC (as instructed above) and the CRD as follows:

codefresh-crd.yaml

apiVersion: apiextensions.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: CustomResourceDefinition
metadata:
  name: codefreshes.codefresh.io
  labels:
    app: cf-onprem-operator
spec:
  group: codefresh.io
  names:
    kind: Codefresh
    listKind: CodefreshList
    plural: codefreshes
    singular: codefresh
  scope: Namespaced
  subresources:
    status: {}
  versions:
  - name: v1alpha1
    served: true
    storage: true

To apply these changes, run:

kubectl apply -f codefresh-crd.yaml

You will also need to modify the config.yaml for kcfi by setting skipCRD: true and serviceAccountName: codefresh-app:

config.yaml

    operator:
      #dockerRegistry: gcr.io/codefresh-enterprise
      #image: codefresh/cf-onprem-operator
      #imageTag:
      serviceAccountName: codefresh-app
      skipCRD: true

Download and Install kcfi

kcfi is a single binary and doesn’t have any dependencies.

Download the binary from GitHub.

Note: Darwin is for OSX

Extract the file you just downloaded.

Copy the file to your $PATH, i.e. cp /path/to/kcfi /usr/local/bin

Install the Codefresh Platform

Step 1 – Set the Current Context

Make sure you have a kubeconfig file with the correct context set.

i.e.,

kubectl config get-contexts                  # display list of contexts
kubectl config use-context my-cluster-name   # set the default context to my-cluster-name
kubectl config current-context               # verify the current-context`

Step 2 – Prepare the Codefresh Platform installation

Run the following:

kcfi init codefresh [-d /path/to/stage-dir]

Running the init command will create a directory containing a config.yaml file, which will be uses to configure our installation, along with other files and directories required for the installation.

Edit the configuration in config.yaml and deploy to Kubernetes. The config.yaml is very descriptive and it contains an explanation for every parameter.

Installation Methods (Helm or Codefresh CRD)

You have the option to install by either the Codefresh CRD Definition (as described above), or by using Helm, which will install/upgrade the chart from the client. Define either operator or helm as your preferred installation method in the config.yaml:

  installer:
    # type: 
    #   "operator" - apply codefresh crd definition
    #   "helm" - install/upgrade helm chart from client

If you install Codefresh on the air-gapped environment (without access to public Docker Hub or codefresh-enterprise registry) you will have to copy the images to your organization container registry (Kubernetes will pull the images from it as part of the installation). This can be done by uncommenting and setting the proper values in the config.yaml file:

images:
  codefreshRegistrySa: sa.json
  # usePrivateRegistry: false
  # privateRegistry:
  #   address:
  #   username:
  #   password:
  lists:
  - images/images-list

Set usePrivateRegistry: true, and set privateRegistry address, username and password.

Then, execute the following:

kcfi images push  [-c|--config /path/to/config.yaml] 

Or, to push a single image, execute the following:

kcfi images push [-c|--config /path/to/config.yaml] [options] repo/image:tag [repo/image:tag]

You can find a full list of options by running kcfi images --help.

Even if you are running a Kubernetes cluster that has outgoing access to the public Internet, note that Codefresh platform images are not public and can be obtained by using sa.json file provided by Codefresh support personnel.

Use the flag --codefresh-registry-secret to pass the path to the file sa.json.

Step 3 – TLS Certificates (Optional)

It is highly recommended to use TLS certificates for a secured installation. In the config.yaml file set tls.selfSigned=false and place both ssl.crt and private.key into certs/ directory.

Note: Any valid TLS certificate will work, i.e. certificates from lets-encrypt or a Corporate Signed certificate.

Step 4 – Deploy

Deploy the Codefresh Platform by running:

kcfi deploy [ -c config.yaml ] [ --kube-context <kube-context-name> ] [ --atomic ] [ --debug ] [ helm upgrade parameters ]

Step 5 – Install the Codefresh Kubernetes Agent

The cf-k8s-agent is responsible for accessing Kubernetes resources (pods, deployments, services, etc.) behind the firewall in order to display them in the Codefresh UI. It can be installed in a separate cluster from the installer, or in a separate namespace in the same cluster.

The agent streams updates from cluster resources and then sends information updates to the k8s-monitor service.

Execute the following:

kcfi init k8s-agent

A staging directory will be created named k8s-agent with a config.yaml. Edit k8s-agent/config.yaml and run:

kcfi deploy [ -c config.yaml ] [-n namespace]

Additional Configurations

After you install Codefresh, these are some day-2 operations that you should follow.

Setup Git Integration (Optional)

Codefresh supports out-of-the-box Git logins using your local username and password, or logins using your git provider (per the list and instructions of providers below). You can also configure login to supported SSO providers post-install as described in the Codefresh documentation.

If you’d like to set up a login to Codefresh using your Git provider, first login using the default credentials (username: AdminCF, password: AdminCF and add your Git provider OAuth integration details in our admin console:

Admin Management > IDPs tab

To get the Client ID and Client Secret for each of the supported Git providers, follow the instructions according to your VCS provider.

GitHub Enterprise

Navigate to your GitHub organization settings: https://github.com/organizations/your_org_name/settings.

On the left-hand side, under Developer settings, select OAuth Apps, and click Register an Application.

Complete the OAuth application registration as follows:

• Application name: codefresh-on-prem (or a significant name)
• Homepage URL: https://your-codefresh-onprem-domain
• Authorization callback URL: https://your-codefresh-onprem-domain/api/auth/github/callback

After registration, note down the created Client ID and Client Secret. They will be required for the settings in Codefresh Admin->IDPs

GitLab

Navigate to your Applications menu in GitLab User Settings: https://gitlab.com/profile/applications

Complete the application creation form as follows:

• Name: codefresh-onprem (or a significant name)
• Redirect URI: https://your-codefresh-onprem-domain/api/auth/gitlab/callback
• Scopes (permissions):
  • API
  • read_user
  • read_registry

Click Save application.

After app creation, note down the created Application ID and Client Secret. They will be required for the settings in Codefresh Admin->IDPs.

Note: When configuring the default IDP (for GitHub, GitLab, etc), do not modify the Client Name field. Please keep them as GitHub, GitLab, BitBucket, etc. Otherwise, the signup and login views won’t work.

Proxy Configuration

If your environment resides behind HTTP proxies, you need to uncomment the following section in config.yaml:

global:
  env:
    HTTP_PROXY: "http://myproxy.domain.com:8080"
    http_proxy: "http://myproxy.domain.com:8080"
    HTTPS_PROXY: "http://myproxy.domain.com:8080"
    https_proxy: "http://myproxy.domain.com:8080"
    NO_PROXY: "127.0.0.1,localhost,kubernetes.default.svc,.codefresh.svc,100.64.0.1,169.254.169.254,cf-builder,cf-cfapi,cf-cfui,cf-chartmuseum,cf-charts-manager,cf-cluster-providers,cf-consul,cf-consul-ui,cf-context-manager,cf-cronus,cf-helm-repo-manager,cf-hermes,cf-ingress-controller,cf-ingress-http-backend,cf-kube-integration,cf-mongodb,cf-nats,cf-nomios,cf-pipeline-manager,cf-postgresql,cf-rabbitmq,cf-redis,cf-registry,cf-runner,cf-runtime-environment-manager,cf-store"
    no_proxy: "127.0.0.1,localhost,kubernetes.default.svc,.codefresh.svc,100.64.0.1,169.254.169.254,cf-builder,cf-cfapi,cf-cfui,cf-chartmuseum,cf-charts-manager,cf-cluster-providers,cf-consul,cf-consul-ui,cf-context-manager,cf-cronus,cf-helm-repo-manager,cf-hermes,cf-ingress-controller,cf-ingress-http-backend,cf-kube-integration,cf-mongodb,cf-nats,cf-nomios,cf-pipeline-manager,cf-postgresql,cf-rabbitmq,cf-redis,cf-registry,cf-runner,cf-runtime-environment-manager,cf-store"

In addition to this, you should also add your Kubernetes API IP address (kubectl get svc kubernetes) to both: NO_PROXY and no_proxy.

Storage

Codefresh is using both cluster storage (volumes) as well as external storage.

Databases

The following table displays the list of databases created as part of the installation:

Volumes

These are the volumes required for Codefresh on-premise:

(*) Possibility to use external service

(**) Running on netfs (nfs, cifs) is not recommended by product admin guide

(***) Docker daemon can be run on block device only

StatefulSets (cf-builder and cf-runner) process their data on separate physical volumes (PVs) and can be claimed using Persistent Volume Claims (PVCs) with default initial sizes of 100Gi. Also, those StatefulSets have the ability to connect to existing pre-defined PVCs.

The default initial volume size (100 Gi) can be overridden in the custom config.yaml file. Values descriptions are in the config.yaml file. The registry’s initial volume size is 100Gi. It also can be overridden in a custom config.yaml file. There is a possibility to use a customer-defined registry configuration file (config.yaml) that allows using different registry storage back-ends (S3, Azure Blob, GCS, etc.) and other parameters. More details can be found in the Docker documentation.

Depending on the customer’s Kubernetes version we can assist with PV resizing. Details are can be found in this Kubernetes blog post.

Automatic Volume Provisioning

Codefresh installation supports automatic storage provisioning based on the standard Kubernetes dynamic provisioner Storage Classes and Persistent Volume Claims. All required installation volumes will be provisioned automatically using the default Storage Class or custom Storage Class that can be specified as a parameter in config.yaml under storageClass: my-storage-class.

Managing Codefresh backups

Codefresh on-premise backups can be automated by installing a specific service as an addon to your Codefresh on-premise installation. It is based on the mgob open source project and can run scheduled backups with retention, S3 & SFTP upload, notifications, instrumentation with Prometheus and more.

Configuring and Installing the Backup Manager

Backup manager is installed as an addon and therefore it needs an existing Codefresh on-premise installation. Before installing it, please make sure you have selected a proper kube config pointing to the cluster, where you have Codefresh installed on.

To configure backup manager, please go to the staging directory of your Codefresh installation and find a specific config file: your-CF-stage-dir/addons/backup-manager/config.yaml.

There you will find a few configuration parameters, which you might want to change:

• metadada - various CF-installer-specific parameters, which should not be changed in this case
• kubernetes - here you can specify a kube context, kube config file and a namespace for the backup manager
• storage- storage class, storage size and read modes for persistent volumes to store backups locally within your cluster
• Backup plan configuration parameters under jobConfigs.cfBackupPlan:
  • target.uri - target mongo URI. It is recommended to leave the mongo uri value blank - it will be taken automatically from the Codefresh release installed in your cluster
  • scheduler - here you can specify cron expression for your backups schedule, backups retention and timeout values

For more advanced backup plan settings, like specifying various remote cloud-based storage providers for your backups, configuring notifications and other, please refer to this page

To deploy the backup manager service, please select a correct kube context, where you have Codefresh on-premise installed and deploy backup-manager with the following command:

kcfi deploy -c `your-CF-stage-dir/addons/backup-manager/config.yaml`

On-demand/ad-hoc backup

kubectl port-forward cf-backup-manager-0 8090
curl -X POST http://localhost:8090/backup/cfBackupPlan

Restore from backup

kubectl exec -it cf-backup-manager-0 bash
mongorestore --gzip --archive=/storage/cfBackupPlan/backup-archive-name.gz --uri mongodb://root:[email protected]:27017 --drop

Configuring AWS Load Balancers

By default Codefresh deploys the nginx-controller and Classic Loab Balancer as a controller service.

NLB

To use a Network Load Balancer - deploy a regular Codefresh installation, and add to the cf-ingress-controller controller service the service.beta.kubernetes.io/aws-load-balancer-type: nlb annotation. This annotation will create a new Load Balancer - Network Load Balancer, which you should use in the Codefresh UI DNS record. Update the DNS record according to the new service.

ALB

To use the Application Load Balancer the ALB Ingress Controller should be deployed to the cluster.

To support ALB:

• First disable Nginx controller in the Codefresh init config file - config.yaml:

ingress:
  enabled: false

• deploy the ALB controller;
• create a new ingress resource:

apiVersion: extensions/v1beta1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  annotations:
    alb.ingress.kubernetes.io/listen-ports: '[{"HTTP": 80}, {"HTTPS":443}]'
    alb.ingress.kubernetes.io/scheme: internet-facing
    alb.ingress.kubernetes.io/target-type: ip
    kubernetes.io/ingress.class: alb
    meta.helm.sh/release-name: cf
    meta.helm.sh/release-namespace: codefresh
  labels:
    app: cf-codefresh
    release: cf
  name: cf-codefresh-ingress
  namespace: codefresh
spec:
  backend:
    serviceName: cf-cfui
    servicePort: 80
  rules:
  - host: nosovets.cf-op.com
    http:
      paths:
      - backend:
          serviceName: cf-cfapi
          servicePort: 80
        path: /api/*
      - backend:
          serviceName: cf-cfapi
          servicePort: 80
        path: /ws/*
      - backend:
          serviceName: cf-cfui
          servicePort: 80
        path: /

SSL termination

When a Classic Load Balancer is used, some Codefresh features that are turned on (for example OfflineLogging), will use a websocket to connect with Codefresh API and they will require secure TCP (SSL) protocol enabled on the Load Balancer listener instead of HTTPS.

To support this scenario, update the existing configuration:

• update the cf-ingress-controller service with new annotations:

metadata:
  annotations:
    service.beta.kubernetes.io/aws-load-balancer-backend-protocol: tcp
    service.beta.kubernetes.io/aws-load-balancer-ssl-ports: "443"

• update your AWS Load Balancer listener for port 443 from HTTPS protocol to SSL.

TLS termination on AWS

To use either a certificate from a third party issuer that was uploaded to IAM or a certificate requested within AWS Certificate Manager:

• copy a certificate ARN;
• set the tls.selfSigned: true in the Codefresh’s init config - config.yaml;
• deploy a new installation;
• update ingress service

kubectl edit service cf-ingress-controller

and add the following annotations:

metadata:
  annotations:
    service.beta.kubernetes.io/aws-load-balancer-backend-protocol: http
    service.beta.kubernetes.io/aws-load-balancer-ssl-cert: < CERTIFICATE ARN >
    service.beta.kubernetes.io/aws-load-balancer-ssl-ports: "443"
spec:
  ports:
  - name: http
    nodePort: 30908
    port: 80
    protocol: TCP
    targetPort: 80
  - name: https
    nodePort: 31088
    port: 443
    protocol: TCP
    targetPort: 80

Both http and https target port should be set to 80.

Using existing external services for data storage/messaging

Normally the Codefresh installer, is taking care of all needed dependencies internally by deploying the respective services (mongo, redis etc) on its own.

You might want however to use your own existing options if you already have those services up and running externally.

Configuring an external Postgres database

It is possible to configure Codefresh to work with your existing Postgres database service, if you don’t want to use the default one as provided by the Codefresh installer.

Configuration steps

All the configuration comes down to putting a set of correct values into your Codefresh configuration file config.yaml, which is present in your/stage-dir/codefresh directory. During the installation, Codefresh will run a seed job, using the values described in the following steps:

1. Specify a user name global.postgresSeedJob.user and password global.postgresSeedJob.password for a seed job. This must be a privileged user allowed to create databases and roles. It will be used only by the seed job to create the needed database and a user.
2. Specify a user name global.postgresUser and password global.postgresPassword to be used by Codefresh installation. A user with the name and password will be created by the seed job and granted with required privileges to access the created database.
3. Specify a database name global.postgresDatabase to be created by the seed job and used by Codefresh installation.
4. Specify global.postgresHostname and optionally global.postgresPort (5432 is a default value).
5. Disable the postgres subchart installation with the postgresql.enabled: false value, because it is not needed in this case.

Below is an example of the relevant piece of config.yaml:

global:
  postgresSeedJob:
    user: postgres
    password: zDyGp79XyZEqLq7V
  postgresUser: cf_user
  postgresPassword: fJTFJMGV7sg5E4Bj
  postgresDatabase: codefresh
  postgresHostname: my-postgres.ccjog7pqzunf.us-west-2.rds.amazonaws.com
  postgresPort: 5432

postgresql:
  enabled: false

Running the seed job manually

If you would prefer running the seed job manually, you can do it by using a script present in your/stage-dir/codefresh/addons/seed-scripts directory named postgres-seed.sh. The script takes the following set of variables that you need to have set before running it:

POSTGRES_SEED_USER="postgres"
POSTGRES_SEED_PASSWORD="zDyGp79XyZEqLq7V"
POSTGRES_USER="cf_user"
POSTGRES_PASSWORD="fJTFJMGV7sg5E4Bj"
POSTGRES_DATABASE="codefresh"
POSTGRES_HOST="my-postgres.ccjog7pqzunf.us-west-2.rds.amazonaws.com"
POSTGRES_PORT="5432"

The variables have the same meaning as the configuration values described in the previous section about Postgres.

However you still need to specify a set of values in the Codefresh config file as described in the section above, but with the whole postgresSeedJob section omitted, like this:

global:
  postgresUser: <POSTGRES USER>
  postgresPassword: <POSTGRES PASSWORD>
  postgresDatabase: codefresh
  postgresHostname: <POSTGRES HOST>
  postgresPort: 5432

postgresql:
  enabled: false

Configuring an external MongoDB

Codefresh recommends to use the Bitnami MongoDB chart as a Mongo database. The supported version of Mongo is 3.6.x

To configure Codefresh on-premises to use an external Mongo service one needs to provide the following values in config.yaml:

• mongo connection string - mongoURI. This string will be used by all of the services to communicate with mongo. Codefresh will automatically create and add a user with “ReadWrite” permissions to all of the created databases with the username and password from the URI. Optionally, automatic user addition can be disabled - mongoSkipUserCreation, in order to use already existing user. In such a case the existing user must have ReadWrite permissions to all of newly created databases Codefresh does not support DNS Seedlist Connection Format at the moment, use the Standard Connection Format instead.
• mongo root user name and password - mongodbRootUser, mongodbRootPassword. The privileged user will be used by Codefresh only during installation for seed jobs and for automatic user addition. After installation, credentials from the provided mongo URI will be used. Mongo root user must have permissions to create users.

See the Mongo required Access for more details.

Here is an example of all the related values:

global:
  mongodbRootUser: <MONGO ROOT USER>
  mongodbRootPassword: <MONGO ROOT PASSWORD>
  mongoURI: <MONGO URI>
  mongoSkipUserCreation: true
  mongoDeploy: false   # disables deployment of internal mongo service

mongo:
  enabled: false

Configure an external Redis service

Codefresh recommends to use the Bitnami Redis chart as a Redis store.

Limitations

Codefresh does not support secure connection to Redis (TLS) and AUTH username extension.

Configuration

Codefresh requires two Redis databases:

• the main - cf-redis, to store sessions, cache, etc;
• cf-store, to store triggers;

At the time of writing only the first one can be replaced by external Redis service, the cf-store DB is used as a local storage for triggers and should run along with the installation.

To configure Codefresh to use an external Redis service, add the following parameters to your config.yaml:

redis:
  enabled: false
  redisPassword: <MY REDIS PASS>

global:
  redisUrl: <MY REDIS HOST>
  runtimeRedisHost: <MY REDIS HOST>
  runtimeRedisPassword: <MY REDIS PASS>
  runtimeRedisDb: 2

Where redis* - are for the main Redis storage, and runtimeRedis* - for storage is used to store pipeline logs in case of OfflineLogging feature is turned on. In most cases the host value is the same for these two values.

Configuring an external RabbitMQ service

Codefresh recommends to use the Bitnami RabbitMQ chart as a RabbitMQ service.

To use an external RabbitMQ service instead of the local helm chart, add the following values to the config.yaml:

rabbitmq:
  enabled: false
  rabbitmqUsername: <RABBITMQ USER>
  rabbitmqPassword: <RABBITMQ PASSWORD> 

global:
  rabbitmqHostname: <RABBITMQ HOST>

Configuring an external Consul service

Notice that at the moment Codefresh supports only the deprecated Consul API (image consul:1.0.0), and does not support connection via HTTPS and any authentication. The Consul host must expose port 8500.

In general, we don’t recommend to take the Consul service outside the cluster.

To configure Codefresh to use your external Consul service, add the following values to the config.yaml:

global:
  consulHost: <MY CONSUL HOST>

consul:
  enabled: false

Common Problems, Solutions, and Dependencies

Dependencies

Mongo

All services using the MongoDB are dependent on the mongo pod being up and running. If the mongo pod is down, the following dependencies will not work:

• runtime-environment-manager
• pipeline-manager
• cf-api
• cf-broadcaster
• context-manager
• nomios
• cronius
• cluster-promoters
• k8s-monitor
• charts-manager
• tasker-kubernetes

Logs

There is a dependency between the cf-broadcaster pod and the cf-api pod. If your pipeline runs, but does not show any logs, try restarting the broadcaster pod.

Problems and Solutions

Problem: installer fails because codefresh database does not exist.

Solution: If you are using an external PostgresSQL database (instead of the internal one that the installer provides), you will first need to manually create a new database named codefresh inside your PostgresSQL database before running the installer.