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Multi cluster

System setup

This guide will show how to use Kratix on two Kubernetes clusters. Install the prerequisites listed below if they aren't already on your system. If you are using pre-existing clusters or want to use a different tool to provision your clusters, skip requirements 1 and 2.

  1. kind CLI / Kubernetes-in-Docker (KinD): Used to create and manage local Kubernetes clusters in Docker. See the quick start guide to install.
  2. docker CLI / Docker: Used to orchestrate containers. kind (above) requires that you have Docker installed and configured. See Get Docker to install.
  3. kubectl / Kubernetes command-line tool: The CLI for Kubernetes — allows you to run commands against Kubernetes clusters. See the install guide.
tip

To get setup locally quickly with KinD clusters you can use the ./scripts/quick-start.sh from the root of the Kratix repository. This provisions an in-cluster MinIO to use as the backing State Store. Alternatively you can provide the --git flag to create it with an in-cluster Gitea instance instead.

Set up platform cluster

If you are not using a pre-existing cluster, create your platform cluster locally using KinD:

kind create cluster --image kindest/node:v1.27.3 --name platform
# set PLATFORM to point to the platform cluster context
export PLATFORM="kind-platform"

Install cert-manager

Kratix requires cert-manager to be installed in the Platform cluster. If you already have it installed, skip to the next section.

To install it, run:

kubectl --context $PLATFORM apply --filename https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/releases/download/v1.12.0/cert-manager.yaml

Make sure that cert-manager is ready before installing Kratix:

$ kubectl --context $PLATFORM get pods --namespace cert-manager
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
cert-manager-7476c8fcf4-r8cnd 1/1 Running 0 19s
cert-manager-cainjector-bdd866bd4-7d8zp 1/1 Running 0 19s
cert-manager-webhook-5655dcfb4b-54r49 1/1 Running 0 19s

Install Kratix

If your are using your own pre-existing cluster, set the PLATFORM environment variable to the name of the kubectl context used to communicate to it. Install Kratix on the platform cluster.

# Install Kratix
kubectl apply --context $PLATFORM --filename https://github.com/syntasso/kratix/releases/latest/download/kratix.yaml

You can also install and configure Kratix with Helm. For more information, see the Helm Chart documentation.

Set up State Store

Kratix uses GitOps to provision resources on the worker clusters. You can configure Kratix with multiple different GitOps repositories by creating State Stores. Kratix supports Bucket State Store and Git State Store.

If your are using local KinD clusters you can install MinIO or Gitea as an in-cluster State Store

# Install MinIO and register it as a BucketStateStore
kubectl apply --context $PLATFORM --filename https://raw.githubusercontent.com/syntasso/kratix/main/config/samples/minio-install.yaml
kubectl apply --context $PLATFORM --filename https://raw.githubusercontent.com/syntasso/kratix/main/config/samples/platform_v1alpha1_bucketstatestore.yaml

Set up a worker cluster

Create worker cluster

If you are not using a pre-existing cluster, create your platform cluster locally using KinD:

kind create cluster --image kindest/node:v1.27.3 --name worker

# set WORKER to point to the worker cluster context
export WORKER="kind-worker"

If you are using your own pre-existing cluster, set the WORKER environment variable to the name of the kubectl context used to communicate to it.

Install Flux

Install Flux. Flux will be used to pull down resources to the cluster from the State Store

# Install flux on the worker
kubectl apply --context $WORKER --filename https://raw.githubusercontent.com/syntasso/kratix/main/hack/destination/gitops-tk-install.yaml

Configure Flux

Now that Flux is installed, we need to configure it to pull down from the Kratix State Store. Follow the steps below that match the State Store you created previously:

# Configure Flux to pull down from MinIO
kubectl apply --context $WORKER --filename https://raw.githubusercontent.com/syntasso/kratix/main/hack/destination/gitops-tk-resources.yaml

Register cluster as a Destination with Kratix

The final step is to tell Kratix that the cluster is ready to receive workloads. Follow the steps below that match the State Store you created previously:

# Configure Flux to pull down from MinIO
kubectl apply --context $PLATFORM --filename https://raw.githubusercontent.com/syntasso/kratix/main/config/samples/platform_v1alpha1_worker.yaml

Flux will eventually reconcile the clusters state, making the worker cluster ready to receive workloads. You can verify its readiness by observing the kratix-worker-system namespace appearing in the worker cluster:

$ kubectl --context $WORKER get namespaces
NAME STATUS AGE
...
kratix-worker-system Active 1m
...

🎉 Congratulations! Kratix is now installed! Jump to Installing and using a Promise to spin up your first as-a-service offering.