Configuring Skupper sites using YAML

These instructions use a declarative YAML-based deployment. See Getting Started for CLI based instructions for the same hello world use case.

Overview

To show Skupper in action, we need an application to work with. This guide uses an HTTP Hello World application with a frontend service and a backend service. The frontend uses the backend to process requests. In this scenario, the frontend is deployed in the west namespace, and the backend is deployed in the east namespace.

While these instructions use this particular application for demonstration purposes, the steps are the same for any Skupper deployment.

Prerequisites

You must have access to at least two Kubernetes namespaces. In the steps below, replace west and east with your chosen namespaces.

Each namespace can reside on any cluster you choose, and you are not limited to two. You can have one on your laptop, another on Amazon, another on Google, and so on. For convenience, you can have them all on one cluster.

Skupper works with any flavor of Kubernetes. Here are some of your options for setting up Kubernetes clusters:

• Minikube
• Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service
• Azure Kubernetes Service
• Google Kubernetes Engine
• IBM Kubernetes Service
• Red Hat OpenShift or OKD
• More providers

These instructions require kubectl version 1.15 or later. See the kubectl installation guide for more information.

Step 1: Configure access to multiple namespaces

Skupper is designed for use with multiple namespaces, typically on different clusters. The skupper command uses your kubeconfig and current context to select the namespace where it operates.

To avoid getting your wires crossed, you must use a distinct kubeconfig or context for each namespace. The easiest way is to use separate console sessions.

Configure separate console sessions

Start a console session for each of your namespaces. Set the KUBECONFIG environment variable to a different path in each session.

export KUBECONFIG=$HOME/.kube/config-west

export KUBECONFIG=$HOME/.kube/config-east

Log in to your clusters

The methods for logging in vary by Kubernetes provider. Find the instructions for your chosen provider or providers and use them to authenticate and establish access for each console session.

$ <login-command-for-your-provider>

$ <login-command-for-your-provider>

See the following links for more information:

• Minikube
• Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service
• Azure Kubernetes Service
• Google Kubernetes Engine
• Red Hat OpenShift or OKD

Set the current namespaces

Use kubectl create namespace to create the namespaces you wish to use. Use kubectl config set-context to set the current namespace for each session.

kubectl create namespace west
kubectl config set-context --current --namespace west

kubectl create namespace east
kubectl config set-context --current --namespace east

Step 2: Create a Skupper site in each namespace

Deploy the site controller

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/skupperproject/skupper/0.3/cmd/site-controller/deploy-watch-current-ns.yaml

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/skupperproject/skupper/0.3/cmd/site-controller/deploy-watch-current-ns.yaml

NOTE: To configure Skupper for all namespaces in a cluster, enter the following as a cluster administrator:

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/skupperproject/skupper/master/cmd/site-controller/deploy-watch-all-ns.yaml

Create a Skupper site in the east namespace

Create a file named east-site.yml:

apiVersion: v1
data:
  cluster-local: "false"
  console: "true"
  console-authentication: internal
  console-password: "rubble"
  console-user: "barney"
  edge: "true"
  name: east-site
  router-console: "true"
  service-controller: "true"
  service-sync: "true"
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: skupper-site

Note that the data.name value of east-site and setting data.edge to true in East disables network ingress at the Skupper router layer. In our scenario, East needs to establish one outbound connection to West. It does not need to accept any incoming connections. As a result, no network ingress is required in East.

To apply the ConfigMap:

kubectl apply -f ~/east-site.yml

For more information about each parameter, see the Site Controller README.

After completion, you should see deployments named skupper-service-controller and skupper-router.

Create a Skupper site in the west Project

Create a file named west-site.yml:

apiVersion: v1
data:
  cluster-local: "false"
  console: "true"
  console-authentication: internal
  console-password: "rubble"
  console-user: "barney"
  edge: "false"
  name: west-site
  router-console: "true"
  service-controller: "true"
  service-sync: "true"
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: skupper-site

Note that the data.name value of west-site.

To apply the ConfigMap:

kubectl apply -f ~/west-site.yml

For more information about each parameter, see the Site Controller README.

After completion, you should see deployments named skupper-service-controller and skupper-router.

Check the installation

If you completed the Getting Started using the CLI you can check the status of each namespace, use the skupper status command.

$ skupper status
Skupper is enabled for namespace 'west' in interior mode. It is not connected to any other sites. It has no exposed services.

$ skupper status
Skupper is enabled for namespace 'east' in edge mode. It is not connected to any other sites. It has no exposed services.

Step 3: Connect your namespaces

After installation, you have the infrastructure you need, but your namespaces are not connected. Creating a connection requires use of a connection-token.

In this step you generate a secret token that signifies permission to connect. The token also carries the connection details. When you connect Skupper sites, Skupper uses the connection token to establish a connection to the namespace that generated it.

Note: The connection token is truly a secret. Anyone who has the token can connect to your namespace. Make sure that only those you trust have access to it.

Generate a connection token

Requesting tokens requires the following format YAML file:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  labels:
    skupper.io/type: connection-token-request
  name: west-secret

Save as token-request.yaml.

kubectl apply -f token-request.yaml

To verify this step and download the token:

kubectl get secret  --export -o yaml west-secret > ~/west-secret.yaml

Use the token to form a connection

With the token in hand, you are ready to connect. Pass the token from West to East.

Apply the token:

kubectl apply -f ~/west-secret.yaml

Check the connection

If you completed the Getting Started using the CLI you can use the skupper status command again to see if things have changed. If the connection is made, you should see the following output:

$ skupper status
Skupper enabled for namespace 'west'. It is connected to 1 other site.

$ skupper status
Skupper enabled for namespace 'east'. It is connected to 1 other site.

Step 4: Expose your services

You now have a Skupper network capable of multi-cluster communication, but no services are attached to it. This step uses deployment annotations to make a Kubernetes deployment on one namespace available on all the connected namespaces.

In the examples below, we use the Hello World application to demonstrate service exposure. The same steps apply for your own application.

Deploy the frontend and backend services

Use kubectl create deployment to start the frontend in West.

kubectl create deployment hello-world-frontend --image quay.io/skupper/hello-world-frontend

Likewise, use kubectl create deployment to start the backend in East.

kubectl create deployment hello-world-backend --image quay.io/skupper/hello-world-backend

Expose the backend service

At this point, we have the frontend and backend services running, but the frontend has no way to contact the backend. The frontend and backend are in different namespaces (and perhaps different clusters), and the backend has no public ingress.

Create annotations of the deployment in East to make hello-world-backend available in West.

kubectl annotate deployment/hello-world-backend skupper.io/proxy="http"
kubectl annotate deployment/hello-world-backend skupper.io/port="8080"

If you check the services in the OpenShift console of the west project, you should now see hello-world-backend.

Check the backend service

Use kubectl get services in West to make sure the hello-world-backend service from East is represented. You should see output like this (along with some other services):

$ kubectl get services
NAME                   TYPE           CLUSTER-IP      EXTERNAL-IP     PORT(S)       AGE
hello-world-backend    ClusterIP      10.96.175.18    <none>          8080/TCP      1m30s

Test your application

To test our Hello World, we need external access to the frontend (not the backend). Use kubectl expose with --type LoadBalancer to make the frontend accessible using a conventional Kubernetes ingress.

kubectl expose deployment hello-world-frontend --port 8080 --type LoadBalancer

It takes a moment for the external IP to become available. If you are using Minikube, you need to run minikube tunnel for this to work.

Now use curl to see it in action. The embedded kubectl get command below looks up the IP address for the frontend service and generates a URL for use with curl.

curl $(kubectl get service hello-world-frontend -o jsonpath='http://{.status.loadBalancer.ingress[0].ip}:8080/')

Note: If the embedded kubectl get command fails to get the IP, you can find it manually by running kubectl get services and looking up the external IP of the hello-world-frontend service.

You should see output like this:

I am the frontend.  The backend says 'Hello from hello-world-backend-869cd94f69-wh6zt (1)'.

Summary

Our simple HTTP application has two services. We deployed each service to a different Kubernetes cluster.

Ordinarily, a multi-cluster deployment of this sort means that the services have no way to communicate unless they are exposed to the public internet.

By introducing Skupper into each namespace, we were able to create a virtual application network that connects the services across cluster boundaries.

See the Hello World example for more detail.

The condensed version

export KUBECONFIG=~/.kube/config-west
<provider-login-command>
kubectl create namespace west
kubectl config set-context --current --namespace west
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/skupperproject/skupper/0.3/cmd/site-controller/deploy-watch-current-ns.yaml
kubectl apply -f ~/west-site.yml
kubectl apply -f token-request.yaml
kubectl get secret  --export -o yaml west-secret > ~/west-secret.yaml
kubectl create deployment hello-world-frontend --image quay.io/skupper/hello-world-frontend
kubectl expose deployment hello-world-frontend --port 8080 --type LoadBalancer

export KUBECONFIG=~/.kube/config-east
<provider-login-command>
kubectl create namespace east
kubectl config set-context --current --namespace east
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/skupperproject/skupper/0.3/cmd/site-controller/deploy-watch-current-ns.yaml
kubectl apply -f ~/east-site.yml
kubectl apply -f ~/west-secret.yaml
kubectl create deployment hello-world-backend --image quay.io/skupper/hello-world-backend
kubectl annotate deployment/hello-world-backend skupper.io/proxy="http"
kubectl annotate deployment/hello-world-backend skupper.io/port="8080"

curl $(kubectl get service hello-world-frontend -o jsonpath='http://{.status.loadBalancer.ingress[0].ip}:8080/')

Cleaning up

To remove Skupper and the other resources from this exercise, use the following commands:

kubectl delete configmap/skupper-site
kubectl delete service/hello-world-frontend
kubectl delete deployment/hello-world-frontend

kubectl delete configmap/skupper-site
kubectl delete deployment/hello-world-backend

Next steps

Now that you know how to connect services running on multiple clusters, here are a few more things to look at:

• Check out the HTTP Hello World example in more detail
• See how you can connect any TCP-based service
• Explore the examples