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Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

This tutorial demonstrates how to deploy the Open AMT Cloud Toolkit on a Kubernetes cluster using AKS. Alternatively, you can also perform a simpler, test deployment using a single-node cluster locally. See Kubernetes (K8s).

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) offers serverless Kubernetes, an integrated continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) experience, and enterprise-grade security and governance. Learn more about AKS here.

Prerequisites

Get the Toolkit

  1. Clone the Open AMT Cloud Toolkit.

    git clone --recursive https://github.com/open-amt-cloud-toolkit/open-amt-cloud-toolkit --branch v2.0.0

Create SSH Key

This key is required by Azure to create VMs that use SSH keys for authentication. For more details, see Detailed steps: Create and manage SSH keys.

  1. Create a new ssh key.

    ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 2048

  2. Take note of the location it was saved at. You will need the public key (.pub file) in a following step.

Deploy AKS

  1. Login to Azure. 

    az login

  2. Provide a name and region to create a new resource group.

    az group create --name <your-resource-group-name> --location <region>

  3. Provide the name of your new resource group from the last step and start a deployment at that resource group based on aks.json in the ./open-amt-cloud-toolkit directory.

    az deployment group create --resource-group <your-resource-group-name> --template-file aks.json

  4. After running the previous command, you will be prompted for 3 different strings. After the final prompt, it will take about 5 minutes to finish running.

    • Provide a name for the AKS Cluster.
    • Provide a name (e.g. your name) for the linux user admin name.
    • Provide the string of the ssh key from the .pub file.

  5. Take note of the fqdnSuffix in the outputs section of the JSON response (e.g. eastus.cloudapp.azure.com)

    "outputs": {
  "controlPlaneFQDN": {
    "type": "String",
    "value": "bwcluster-9c68035a.hcp.westus.azmk8s.io"
  },
  "fqdnSuffix": {
    "type": "String",
    "value": "eastus.cloudapp.azure.com"
  }
},

Connect to AKS Instance

Ensure your kubectl is connected to the Kubernetes cluster you wish to deploy/manage.

  1. Provide your resource group name and cluster name, respectively.

    az aks get-credentials --resource-group <your-resource-group-name> --name <your-cluster-name>

Create Secrets

1. Private Docker Registry Credentials

If you are using a private docker registry, you'll need to provide your credentials to K8S. 

kubectl create secret docker-registry registrycredentials --docker-server=<your-registry-server> --docker-username=<your-username> --docker-password=<your-password>

Where:

  • <your-registry-server> is your Private Docker Registry FQDN.
  • <your-username> is your Docker username.
  • <your-password> is your Docker password.

2. MPS/KONG JWT

This is the secret used for generating and verifying JWTs. 

kubectl create secret generic open-amt-admin-jwt --from-literal=kongCredType=jwt --from-literal=key="admin-issuer" --from-literal=algorithm=HS256 --from-literal=secret="<your-secret>"

Where:

  • <your-secret> is your chosen strong secret.

3. KONG ACL for JWT

This configures KONG with an Access Control List (ACL) to allow an admin user open-amt-admin to access endpoints using the JWT retrieved when logging in. 

kubectl create secret generic open-amt-admin-acl --from-literal=kongCredType=acl --from-literal=group=open-amt-admin

4. MPS Web Username and Password

This is the username and password that is used for requesting a JWT. These credentials are also used for logging into the Sample Web UI. 

kubectl create secret generic mpsweb --from-literal=user=<your-username> --from-literal=password=<your-password>

Where:

  • <your-username> is a username of your choice.

  • <your-password> is a strong password of your choice.

    Important - Using Strong Passwords

    The password must meet standard, strong password requirements:

    • 8 to 32 characters
    • One uppercase, one lowercase, one numerical digit, one special character

5. Azure Storage Account Key

Currently, we leverage Azure Storage Accounts for persistent storage of MPS certificates that can be shared by multiple instances of MPS. This creates the secret to access the provisioned Azure Storage account for use in a persistent volume (PV).

Note

This will likely change in a future release

kubectl create secret generic azure-secret --from-literal=azurestorageaccountname=<your-cluster-name>stg --from-literal=azurestorageaccountkey=<your-storage-key>

Where:

  • <your-cluster-name> is the cluster name chosen in Deploy AKS.

  • <your-storage-key> is one of the generated access keys of the storage account.

    Important - Finding Access Keys

    An access key can be found by either:

    • Run az storage account keys list --account-name <your-cluster-name>stg to view access keys.

    • Navigate to Home > Storage accounts > cluster-name > Access keys using Microsoft Azure via online.

6. Database connection strings

  1. Configure the database connection strings used by MPS, RPS, and MPS Router.

    Where:

    • <USERNAME> is the full username for the Postgres database (Ex: <postgres-username>@<your-cluster-name>-sql).
    • <PASSWORD> is the password for the Postgres database.
    • <SERVERURL> is the url for the Azure-hosted Postgres database (Ex: <your-cluster-name>-sql.postgres.database.azure.com).

  2. Create RPS connection string secret.

    kubectl create secret generic rps --from-literal=connectionString=postgresql://<USERNAME>:<PASSWORD>@<SERVERURL>:5432/rpsdb?sslmode=no-verify

  3. Create MPS Router connection string secret.

    kubectl create secret generic mpsrouter --from-literal=connectionString=postgresql://<USERNAME>:<PASSWORD>@<SERVERURL>:5432/mpsdb?sslmode=no-verify

  4. Create MPS connection string secret. 

    kubectl create secret generic mps --from-literal=connectionString=postgresql://<USERNAME>:<PASSWORD>@<SERVERURL>:5432/mpsdb?sslmode=disable

Update Configuration

Edit values.yaml

  1. Open the values.yaml file in ./open-amt-cloud-toolkit/kubernetes/charts/.

  2. Update the service.beta.kubernetes.io/azure-dns-label-name key in the kong section with the desired subdomain name for your URL you would like for your cluster (i.e. myopenamtk8s).

    kong:
  proxy:
    annotations:
      service.beta.kubernetes.io/azure-dns-label-name: "<your-subdomain-name>"

  3. Update the mps, rps, webui, and mpsrouter keys to point to your own container registries.

    images:
    mps: "vprodemo.azurecr.io/mps:latest"
    rps: "vprodemo.azurecr.io/rps:latest"
    webui: "vprodemo.azurecr.io/webui:latest"
    mpsrouter: "vprodemo.azurecr.io/mpsrouter:latest"

  4. Update the following keys in the mps section.

    Key Name Update to Description
    commonName FQDN for your cluster For AKS, the format is <your-subdomain-name>.<location>.cloudapp.azure.com. This is the fqdnSuffix provided in the outputs section when you Deploy AKS.
    storageAccessMode ReadWriteMany Must set to ReadWriteMany to scale. The default access mode for storage (storageAccessMode) is set to ReadWriteOnce. This only works with a one node cluster. 
    mps:
    commonName: "<your-subdomain-name>.<location>.cloudapp.azure.com"
    # storageClassName: ""
    storageAccessMode: "ReadWriteOnce" #Change to ReadWriteMany
    replicaCount: 1
    logLevel: "silly"
    jwtExpiration: 1440

  5. Save and close the file.

Apply Volumes

  1. Provide a PersistentVolume that can match the PersisentVolumeClaim for MPS. For an AKS deployment, you can use the following example YAML. It is provided in ./kubernetes/charts/volumes/azure.yaml.

    Note

    Changing storageAccessMode will update the PersistentVolumeClaim to request ReadWriteMany, this means you'll need to provide a PersistentVolume that can match that claim. The Azure deployment performed in Deploy AKS creates a Storage Account that can be used. Use the following yaml to provision the volume for the cluster.

    Provided azure.yaml Example

    apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolume
metadata:
  name: mps-certs
spec:
  capacity:
    storage: 1Gi
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteMany
  azureFile:
    secretName: azure-secret
    secretNamespace: default
    shareName: mps-certs
    readOnly: false
  mountOptions:
  - dir_mode=0755
  - file_mode=0755
  - uid=1000
  - gid=1000
  - mfsymlinks
  - nobrl

  2. Apply it to your cluster. 

    kubectl apply -f ./kubernetes/charts/volumes/azure.yaml

Create Databases and Schema

Enable Access to Database

  1. Navigate to Home > Resource Groups > Resource Group Name using Microsoft Azure via online.

  2. Select the Postgres DB. It will have a Type of Azure Database for PostgreSQL Server.

  3. Under Settings in the left-hand menu, select Connection Security.

  4. Under Firewall rules, select Add current client IP address.

  5. Select Save.

  6. Under the Overview tab, take note of the 'Server name' and 'Admin username'. They will be needed in the next steps.

    Note

    Remember to delete this firewall rule when finished.

Create Databases

  1. Use the database schema files to initialize the hosted Postgres DB in the following steps.

    Note

    The following commands will prompt for the database password you chose here.

    Where:

    • <HOST> is the location of the Postgres database (Ex: <your-cluster-name>-sql.postgres.database.azure.com).
    • <USERNAME> is the admin username for the Postgres database (Ex: <postgres-username>@<your-cluster-name>-sql).

  2. Create the RPS database.

    psql -h <HOST> -p 5432 -d postgres -U <USERNAME> -W -c "CREATE DATABASE rpsdb"

  3. Create tables for the new 'rpsdb'.

    psql -h <HOST> -p 5432 -d rpsdb -U <USERNAME> -W -f ./open-amt-cloud-toolkit/data/init.sql

  4. Create the MPS database.

    psql -h <HOST> -p 5432 -d postgres -U <USERNAME> -W -f ./open-amt-cloud-toolkit/data/initMPS.sql

Deploy Open AMT Cloud Toolkit using Helm

  1. Deploy using Helm. 

    helm install openamtstack ./kubernetes/charts

    Success

    NAME: openamtstack
LAST DEPLOYED: Thu Jul 15 11:17:38 2021
NAMESPACE: default
STATUS: deployed
REVISION: 1
TEST SUITE: None

  2. View the pods. You might notice mps, rps, and openamtstack-vault-0 are not ready. This will change after we initialize and unseal Vault. All others should be Ready and Running.

    kubectl get pods

    Success

    NAME                                                 READY   STATUS                       RESTARTS   AGE
mps-69786bfb47-92mpc                                 0/1     Pending                      0          2m6s
mpsrouter-9b9bc499b-2tkb2                            1/1     Running                      0          2m6s
openamtstack-kong-68d6c84bcc-fp8dl                   2/2     Running                      0          2m6s
openamtstack-vault-0                                 0/1     Running                      0          2m6s
openamtstack-vault-agent-injector-6b564845db-zss78   1/1     Running                      0          2m6s
rps-79877bf5c5-dsg5p                                 0/1     CreateContainerConfigError   0          2m6s
webui-6cc48f4d68-6r8b5                               1/1     Running                      0          2m6s

Initialize and Unseal Vault

Danger - Download and Save Vault Keys

Make sure to download your Vault credentials and save them in a secure location when unsealing Vault. If the keys are lost, a new Vault will need to be started and any stored data will be lost.

Tip - Finding the Vault UI External IP Address

The external IP of your Vault UI service can be found by running:

kubectl get services openamtstack-vault-ui

  1. Please refer to HashiCorp documentation on how to Initialize and unseal Vault. Stop and return here after signing in to Vault with the root_token.

  2. After initializing and unsealing the vault, you need to enable the Key Value engine.

  3. Click Enable New Engine +.

  4. Choose KV.

  5. Click Next.

  6. Leave the default path and choose version 2 from the drop down.

  7. Click Enable Engine.

Vault Token Secret

  1. Add the root token as a secret to the AKS cluster so that the services can access Vault.

    kubectl create secret generic vault --from-literal=vaultKey=<your-root-token>

    Where:

    • <your-root-token> is your root_token generated by Vault.

  2. View the pods. All pods should now be Ready and Running.

    kubectl get pods

    Success

    NAME                                                 READY   STATUS      RESTARTS   AGE
mps-69786bfb47-92mpc                                 1/1     Running     0          4m5s
mpsrouter-9b9bc499b-2tkb2                            1/1     Running     0          4m5s
openamtstack-kong-68d6c84bcc-fp8dl                   2/2     Running     0          4m5s
openamtstack-vault-0                                 1/1     Running     0          4m5s
openamtstack-vault-agent-injector-6b564845db-zss78   1/1     Running     0          4m5s
rps-79877bf5c5-dsg5p                                 1/1     Running     0          4m5s
webui-6cc48f4d68-6r8b5                               1/1     Running     0          4m5s

Next Steps

Visit the Sample Web UI using the FQDN name and Continue from the Get Started steps

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