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Kubernetes

This page describes how to run a self-managed instance of R2Devops on Kubernetes.

💻 Requirements​

  • GitLab instance version >=17.7
  • A Redis instance version >= 6
  • A PostgreSQL instance version >= 13
  • A Kubernetes cluster with:
    • One ingress controller(ex: Nginx or Traefik)
    • A certificate manager with a ACME provider: cert-manager
    • Only if you run external services (PostgreSQL and Redis) in Kubernetes: the ability to provision persistent volumes in your cluster
  • Your local environment with CLI to interact with Kubernetes API:
  • Write access to the DNS zone of the domain to use with R2Devops
  • A user account on the GitLab instance

🛠️ Installation​

The Helm chart used in this documentation allows installing all these services embedded in the chart as dependencies or to use external PostgreSQL and/or Redis. Both alternatives are detailed below.

📥 Initialize your cluster​

  1. Create the namespace for R2Devops 
    kubectl create ns r2devops
  2. Add R2Devops repo 
    helm repo add r2devops https://charts.r2devops.io/

📄 Domain name​

info

You need a domain to run R2Devops. For example, if you have the domain name mydomain.com:

  • R2Devops URL will be https://r2devops.mydomain.com

  1. Create DNS record

    • Name: <r2devops_domain_name>
    • Type: A
    • Content: <your-cluster-public-ip>

🦊 GitLab OIDC​

R2Devops uses GitLab as an OAuth2 provider to authenticate users. Let's see how to connect it to your GitLab instance.

  1. Choose a group on your GitLab instance to create an application. It can be any group. Open the chosen group in GitLab interface and navigate through Settings > Applications:

    Profile_Menu

  2. Then, create an application with the following information

    • Name: R2Devops self-managed
    • Redirect URI : https://<r2devops_domain_name>/api/auth/gitlab/callback
    • Confidential: true (let the box checked)
    • Scopes: api

  3. Click on Save Application and you should see the following screen:

    Application

  4. Store Application ID and Secret somewhere safe, we will need to use them in next step

⚙️ Configure your values​

This section describes how to configure your custom values file. The default values.yaml is available here. An example is available at the end of this documentation.

note

For the following sections, we assume that your custom value file will be located in your current directory and be named custom_values.yaml

🔐 Secrets​

This section is optional. You need to follow this section only if you want to store secrets values as kubernetes secrets instead of writing them in your custom value file.

  1. R2Devops secret

    Replace all occurrences of REDACTED by your R2Devops secrets encoded in base64 and create following secret:

    • secret-key: 256 bit secret key used to encrypt sensitive data (openssl rand -hex 32)
    • gitlab-oauth2-client-id: Application ID of the GitLab application
    • gitlab-oauth2-client-secret: Secret of the GitLab application
    apiVersion: v1
    kind: Secret
    metadata:
      name: r2devops-secret
      namespace: r2devops
    type: Opaque
    data:
      secret-key: REDACTED
      gitlab-oauth2-client-id: REDACTED
      gitlab-oauth2-client-secret: REDACTED

  2. PostgreSQL secret

    Replace REDACTED by your postgres password encoded in base64. If you want to use postgres embedded in this chart, choose the value.

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: Secret
    metadata:
        name: postgresql-secret
        namespace: r2devops
    type: Opaque
    data:
        password: REDACTED

  3. Redis secret

    Replace REDACTED by your redis password encoded in base64. If you want to use redis embedded in this chart, choose the value.

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: Secret
    metadata:
        name: redis-secret
        namespace: r2devops
    type: Opaque
    data:
        password: REDACTED

🤖 R2Devops​

Add R2Devops related configuration in your new values file custom_values.yaml:

  1. Add R2Devops domain

    front:
      host: 'r2devops.mydomain.com'

    jobs:
      host: 'r2devops.mydomain.com'

      # Not using secret for configuration (comment if you use secret)
      extraEnv:
        - name: SECRET_KEY
          value: '<secret-key>'
        - name: GITLAB_OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID
          value: '<gitlab-oauth2-client-id>'
        - name: GITLAB_OAUTH2_CLIENT_SECRET
          value: '<gitlab-oauth2-client-secret>'

      # Using existing secret for configuration (uncomment if you use secret)
      #extraEnv:
      #  - name: SECRET_KEY
      #    valueFrom:
      #      secretKeyRef:
      #        name: "r2devops-secret"
      #        key: "secret-key"
      #  - name: GITLAB_OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID
      #    valueFrom:
      #      secretKeyRef:
      #        name: "r2devops-secret"
      #        key: "gitlab-oauth2-client-id"
      #  - name: GITLAB_OAUTH2_CLIENT_SECRET
      #    valueFrom:
      #      secretKeyRef:
      #        name: "r2devops-secret"
      #        key: "gitlab-oauth2-client-secret"

    worker:
      replicaCount: 20 # Default is 20. Increase it depending of your needs

  2. Add your GitLab instance domain and organization

    Organization

    If you use a SaaS version of GitLab (like gitlab.com): add the path of your organization top-level group in organization. Else, let it empty

    gitlab:
        domain: 'https://gitlab.mydomain.com'
        organization: ''

  3. Add your Ingress configuration

    ingress:
      enabled: true
      className: '' # Add class name for your ingress controller
      annotations: {} # Add annotation required by your ingress controller or certificate manager

  4. (Optional) Add your custom Certificate Authority

    You can either:

    • Reference an existing secret containing your CA public root certificate using the existingSecret key.
    • Or manually add your CA public root certificate in the values using the certificates key.
    customCertificateAuthority:
      existingSecret: ""
      certificates: []
      # - name: rootCA.crt # Must have the .crt extension
      #   value: |
      #     -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
      #     (SNIPPED FOR BREVITY)
      #     -----END CERTIFICATE-----

📘 PostgreSQL​

Add following configuration in your custom_values.yaml file

postgresql:

  custom:
    host: REPLACE_ME_BY_POSTGRES_HOST
    dbName: REPLACE_ME_BY_POSTGRES_DB_NAME
    sslmode: 'require'
    port: 5432

  global:
    postgresql:

      # Not using secret for auth (comment if you use secret)
      auth:
        username: REPLACE_ME_BY_POSTGRES_USERNAME
        postgresPassword: REPLACE_ME_BY_POSTGRES_PASSWORD

      # Using existing secret for auth password (uncomment if you use secret)
      #auth:
      #  username: r2devops
      #  existingSecret: "postgresql-secret"
      #  secretKeys:
      #    adminPasswordKey: "password"
      #    userPasswordKey: "password"

📕 Redis​

Add following configuration in your custom_values.yaml file:

redis:

  custom:
    port: 6379
    host: REPLACE_ME_BY_REDIS_HOST
    user: REPLACE_ME_BY_REDIS_USENAME
    cert: |
      REPLACE_ME_BY_REDIS_TLS_CERTIFICATE

  # Not using secret for auth (comment if you use secret)
  auth:
    password: REPLACE_ME_BY_REDIS_PASSWORD

  # Using existing secret for auth (uncomment if you use secret)
  #auth:
  #  existingSecret: "redis-secret"
  #  existingSecretPasswordKey: "password"

🚀 Install the chart​

Run the following command:

helm upgrade -n r2devops --create-namespace --install r2devops r2devops/r2devops -f custom_values.yaml
Congratulations

You have successfully installed R2Devops on your Kubernetes cluster 🎉

Not the same behavior

Did you encounter a problem during the installation process ? See the troubleshooting section.

📚 Configuration example​

info

This example run in a Kubernetes cluster using:

  • nginx as ingressController
  • cert-manager
  • A clusterIssuer named letsencrypt-production
front:
  host: "r2devops.mydomain.com"

jobs:
  host: "r2devops.mydomain.com"
  extraEnv:
    - name: SECRET_KEY
      value: "REDACTED"
    - name: GITLAB_OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID
      value: "REDACTED"
    - name: GITLAB_OAUTH2_CLIENT_SECRET
      value: "REDACTED"

gitlab:
  domain: "https://gitlab.mydomain.com"

worker:
  replicaCount: 20

ingress:
  enabled: true
  className: "nginx"
  annotations:
    cert-manager.io/cluster-issuer: "letsencrypt-production"

postgresql:
  global:
    postgresql:
      auth:
        username: REDACTED
        postgresPassword: REDACTED
  custom:
    host: "database-1.REDACTED.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com"
    port: 5432
    dbName: "r2devops"
    sslmode: "require"

redis:
  auth:
    password: REDACTED
  custom:
    port: 6379
    host: "REDACTED"
    user: "REDACTED"
    cert: |
      -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
      REDACTED
      -----END CERTIFICATE-----

⏫ Update​

  1. Update R2Devops Helm repository 
    helm repo update
  2. Run the helm upgrade 
    helm upgrade -n $R2DEVOPS_NS --install r2devops r2devops/r2devops -f custom_values.yaml
  3. You have successfully updated R2Devops 🎉