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How to install an edge cluster agent and register with the All-in-1 Management Hub

This guide is for installing a MicroK8s or K3s cluster agent and registering the agent with a previously installed All-in-1 Management Hub. For more information on installing the Hub, see the guide here. This guide assumes the Management Hub is already running, and was configured to use SSL transport and is listening on an external IP that can be reached outside of the local network.

Install and configure a K3s edge cluster

Note: If you already have a K3s cluster installed, skip to the next section: Installing the Cluster Agent.

This content provides a summary of how to install K3s, a lightweight and small Kubernetes cluster, on Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS . For more information, see the K3s documentation .

Note:: If installed, uninstall kubectl before completing the following steps.

  1. Either login as root or elevate to root with sudo -i

  2. The full hostname of your machine must contain at least two dots. Check the full hostname:

    hostname
    

    If you need to update it (for example, from k3s to k.3.s), use the following pattern:

    hostnamectl hostname k.3.s
    
  3. Install K3s:

    curl -sfL https://get.k3s.io | sh -
    
  4. Choose the image registry types: remote image registry or edge cluster local registry. Image registry is the place that will hold the agent image and agent cronjob image.

Remote image registry

Set USE_EDGE_CLUSTER_REGISTRY environment variable to false to instruct agent-install.sh script to use remote image registry. The following environment variables need to be set if use remote image registry:

export USE_EDGE_CLUSTER_REGISTRY=false
export EDGE_CLUSTER_REGISTRY_USERNAME=<remote-image-registry-username>
export EDGE_CLUSTER_REGISTRY_TOKEN=<remote-image-registry-password>
export IMAGE_ON_EDGE_CLUSTER_REGISTRY=<remote-image-registry-host>/<repository-name>/amd64_anax_k8s
or
export IMAGE_ON_EDGE_CLUSTER_REGISTRY=<remote-image-registry-host>/<repository-name>/s390x_anax_k8s

Setup edge cluster local image registry for K3s

Note: Skip this section if using remote image registry

  1. Create the K3s image registry service:

    a. set USE_EDGE_CLUSTER_REGISTRY environment variable to true. This env indicates agent-install.sh script to use local image registry

       export USE_EDGE_CLUSTER_REGISTRY=true
    

    b. Create a file called k3s-persistent-claim.yml with this content:

       apiVersion: v1
       kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
       metadata:
       name: docker-registry-pvc
       spec:
       storageClassName: "local-path"
       accessModes:
          - ReadWriteOnce
       resources:
          requests:
             storage: 10Gi
    

    or download it from the server:

       curl -sSLO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/open-horizon/open-horizon.github.io/master/docs/installing/k3s-persistent-claim.yaml
    

    c. Create the persistent volume claim:

       kubectl apply -f k3s-persistent-claim.yml
    

    d. Verify that the persistent volume claim was created and it is in β€œPending” status

       kubectl get pvc
    

    e. Create a file called k3s-registry-deployment.yml with this content:

       apiVersion: apps/v1
       kind: Deployment
       metadata:
       name: docker-registry
       labels:
          app: docker-registry
       spec:
       replicas: 1
       selector:
          matchLabels:
             app: docker-registry
       template:
          metadata:
             labels:
             app: docker-registry
          spec:
             volumes:
             - name: registry-pvc-storage
             persistentVolumeClaim:
                claimName: docker-registry-pvc
             containers:
             - name: docker-registry
             image: registry
             ports:
             - containerPort: 5000
             volumeMounts:
             - name: registry-pvc-storage
                mountPath: /var/lib/registry
       ---
       apiVersion: v1
       kind: Service
       metadata:
       name: docker-registry-service
       spec:
       selector:
          app: docker-registry
       type: NodePort
       ports:
          - protocol: TCP
             port: 5000
    

    or download it from the server:

       curl -sSLO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/open-horizon/open-horizon.github.io/master/docs/installing/k3s-registry-deployment.yaml
    

    f. Create the registry deployment and service:

       kubectl apply -f k3s-registry-deployment.yml
    

    g. Verify that the service was created:

       kubectl get deployment
       kubectl get service
    

    h. Define the registry endpoint:

       export REGISTRY_ENDPOINT=$(kubectl get service docker-registry-service | grep docker-registry-service | awk '{print $3;}'):5000
       cat << EOF >> /etc/rancher/k3s/registries.yaml
       mirrors:
       "$REGISTRY_ENDPOINT":
          endpoint:
             - "http://$REGISTRY_ENDPOINT"
       EOF
    

    i. Restart K3s to pick up the change to /etc/rancher/k3s/registries.yaml:

       systemctl restart k3s
    
  2. Define this registry to Docker as an insecure registry:

    a. Install Docker (if not already installed, docker --version to check):

       curl -fsSL get.docker.com | sh
    

    b. Create or add to /etc/docker/daemon.json (replacing <registry-endpoint> with the value of the $REGISTRY_ENDPOINT environment variable you obtained in a previous step).

       {
          "insecure-registries": [ "<registry-endpoint>" ]
       }
    

    c. Restart Docker to pick up the change:

       systemctl restart docker
    

    d. Install jq:

    apt-get -y install jq
    

Install and configure a MicroK8s edge cluster

Note: If you already have a MicroK8s cluster installed, skip to the next section: Installing the Cluster Agent.

This content provides a summary of how to install MicroK8s, a lightweight and small Kubernetes cluster, on Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS. (For more information, see the MicroK8s documentation.)

Note: This type of edge cluster is meant for development and test because a single worker node Kubernetes cluster does not provide scalability or high availability.

  1. Install MicroK8s:

     sudo snap install microk8s --classic --channel=stable
    
  2. If you are not running as root, add your user to the MicroK8s group:

     sudo usermod -a -G microk8s $USER
     sudo chown -f -R $USER ~/.kube
     su - $USER
    
  3. Enable dns and storage modules in MicroK8s:

     microk8s.enable dns
     microk8s.enable hostpath-storage
    

    Note: MicroK8s uses 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 as upstream name servers by default. If these name servers cannot resolve the management hub hostname, you must change the name servers that MicroK8s is using:

    a. Retrieve the list of upstream name servers in /etc/resolv.conf or /run/system/resolve/resolv.conf

    b. Edit coredns configmap in the kube-system namespace. Set the upstream nameservers in the forward section

     microk8s.kubectl edit -n kube-system cm/coredns
    
  4. Check the status:

     microk8s.status --wait-ready
    
  5. The MicroK8s kubectl command is called microk8s.kubectl to prevent conflicts with an already install kubectl command. Assuming that kubectl is not installed, add this alias for microk8s.kubectl:

     echo 'alias kubectl=microk8s.kubectl' >> ~/.bash_aliases
     source ~/.bash_aliases
    
  6. Choose the image registry types: remote image registry or edge cluster local registry. Image registry is the place that will hold the agent image and agent cronjob image.

Setup edge cluster local image registry for MicroK8s

Note: Skip this section if using remote image registry. Enable the container registry and configure Docker to tolerate the insecure registry:

  1. Enable the container registry
  microk8s.enable registry
  export REGISTRY_ENDPOINT=localhost:32000
  export REGISTRY_IP_ENDPOINT=$(kubectl get service registry -n container-registry | grep registry | awk '{print $3;}'):5000
  1. Install Docker (if not already installed, docker --version to check):

       curl -fsSL get.docker.com | sh
    
  2. Install jq (if not already installed):

  apt-get -y install jq
  1. Define this registry as insecure to Docker. Create or add to /etc/docker/daemon.json.
  echo "{
      \"insecure-registries\": [ \"$REGISTRY_ENDPOINT\", \"$REGISTRY_IP_ENDPOINT\" ]
  }" >> /etc/docker/daemon.json
  1. Restart Docker to pick up the change:
  systemctl restart docker

Install Agent on Edge Cluster

This content describes how to install the Open Horizon agent on K3s or MicroK8s - lightweight and small Kubernetes cluster solutions.

Note: These instructions assume that the Hub was configured to listen on an external IP using SSL transport. For more information about setting up an All-in-1 Management Hub see here

  1. Log in to your edge cluster as root

  2. Export your Hub exchange credentials if not already done:

     export HZN_EXCHANGE_USER_AUTH=<your-exchange-username>:<your-exchange-password>
     export HZN_ORG_ID=<your-exchange-organization>
    
  3. Export the HZN_EXCHANGE_URL, HZN_FSS_CSSURL and HZN_AGBOT_URL environment variables needed to configure the agent to be able to talk to the Hub resources.

    Note: Running hzn env on the machine running the Management Hub will reveal the IP address as well as the variable values to use above

     export HZN_EXCHANGE_URL=https://<your-external-ip>:3090/v1
     export HZN_FSS_CSSURL=https://<your-external-ip>:9443/
     export HZN_AGBOT_URL=https://<your-external-ip>:3111/
    
  4. Download the latest agent-install.sh script to your new edge cluster

     curl -sSLO https://github.com/open-horizon/anax/releases/latest/download/agent-install.sh
     chmod +x agent-install.sh
    
  5. Instruct agent-install.sh to use the default storage class:

    On K3s:

     export EDGE_CLUSTER_STORAGE_CLASS=local-path
    

    On MicroK8s:

     export EDGE_CLUSTER_STORAGE_CLASS=microk8s-hostpath
    

    If the cluster agent will use other storageclass than the above, please find the storage class satisfy these attributes

  6. Run agent-install.sh to get the necessary files from Github, install and configure the Horizon agent, and register your edge cluster with policy.

    Note: You should be logged in as root or elevated to root. If you are not, preface the agent-install.sh script command below with sudo -s -E.

    Set AGENT_NAMESPACE to the namespace that will install the cluster agent. If not set, the agent will be installed to openhorizon-agent default namespace.

     AGENT_NAMESPACE=<namespace-to-install-agent>
    

    If you are not using https as the transport, you need to create an empty installation certificate file in the current directory:

     touch agent-install.crt
    

    To install a cluster-scoped agent:

     ./agent-install.sh -D cluster -i anax: -c css: -k css: --namespace $AGENT_NAMESPACE
    

    To install a namespace-scoped agent:

     ./agent-install.sh -D cluster -i anax: -c css: -k css: --namespace $AGENT_NAMESPACE --namespace-scoped
    
  7. Verify that the agent pod is running:

     kubectl get namespaces
     kubectl -n $AGENT_NAMESPACE get pods
    

    Note: See here for more information about agent in multi-namespace.

  8. Use the following command to connect to a bash instance on the agent pod to execute hzn commands

     kubectl exec -it $(kubectl get pod -l app=agent -n $AGENT_NAMESPACE | grep "agent-" | cut -d " " -f1) -n $AGENT_NAMESPACE -- bash
    
  9. As a test, execute the following hzn command on the agent pod:

     hzn node ls
    
  10. The Open Horizon cluster agent is now successfully installed and ready to deploy services

StorageClass attribute

A PersistentVolumeClaim will be created during the agent install process. It will be used by agent to store data for agent and cronjob. The storageclass must satisfy the following requirements:

  • supports both read and write
  • can be made available immediately
  • supports ReadWriteMany mode if agent is running in multi-node cluster