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Version: Operator 3.1.0

Use Helm to Create an Aerospike Cluster on Kubernetes

Follow these instructions to use the Operator to deploy the Aerospike cluster using Helm.

Requirementsโ€‹

Before deploying your Aerospike cluster using Helm, you must use Helm to install the Aerospike Kubernetes Operator on your cluster.

note

For Kubernetes 1.23 version or later, Pod Security Admission (PSA) is enabled by default. Make sure the namespace where the Aerospike Cluster is deployed has either baseline or privileged Pod Security Standard level set. The restricted level is not supported by Aerospike. The default Pod Security Standard level in Kubernetes 1.23 is privileged. For more details, see Apply Pod Security Standards

Prepare the namespaceโ€‹

We recommend not using the Aerospike Kubernetes Operator's namespace for your clusters. Instead, use at least one namespace called aerospike for Aerospike clusters.

If this is the first cluster being launched, create and provide access for the Operator to use this namespace.

note

For Kubernetes 1.23 version or later, Pod Security Admission (PSA) is enabled by default. Make sure the namespace where the Aerospike cluster is deployed has either baseline or privileged Pod Security Standard level set. The restricted level is not supported by Aerospike. The default Pod Security Standard level in Kubernetes 1.23 is privileged. For more details, see Apply Pod Security Standards

There are two ways to grant permission for the target namespaces:

  1. Using kubectl
  2. Using akoctl plugin

Using kubectlโ€‹

The procedure to use the namespace aerospike is as follows:

Create the namespaceโ€‹

Create the Kubernetes namespace if not already created:

kubectl create namespace aerospike

Create a service accountโ€‹

kubectl -n aerospike create serviceaccount aerospike-operator-controller-manager

Create RoleBinding/ClusterRoleBinding for Aerospike clusterโ€‹

Next, create a RoleBinding or ClusterRoleBinding as per requirement to attach this service account to ClusterRole aerospike-cluster. This ClusterRole is created as part of Operator installation and grants Aerospike cluster permission to service account.

  • For using Kubernetes native Pod only network to connect to Aerospike cluster create RoleBinding:
kubectl -n aerospike create rolebinding aerospike-cluster --clusterrole=aerospike-cluster --serviceaccount=aerospike:aerospike-operator-controller-manager
  • For connecting to Aerospike cluster from outside Kubernetes create ClusterRoleBinding:
kubectl create clusterrolebinding aerospike-cluster --clusterrole=aerospike-cluster --serviceaccount=aerospike:aerospike-operator-controller-manager
tip

For attaching multiple service accounts of different namespaces in one go, add multiple --serviceaccount params in above command

Example: To attach service accounts of aerospike and aerospike1 namespace
kubectl create clusterrolebinding aerospike-cluster --clusterrole=aerospike-cluster --serviceaccount=aerospike:aerospike-operator-controller-manager --serviceaccount=aerospike1:aerospike-operator-controller-manager

If the required ClusterRoleBinding already exists in cluster, edit it to attach new service account:

kubectl edit clusterrolebinding aerospike-cluster

This command launches an editor. Append the following lines to the subjects section:

  # A new entry for aerospike.
# Replace aerospike with your namespace
- kind: ServiceAccount
name: aerospike-operator-controller-manager
namespace: aerospike

Save and verify that the changes are applied.

Using akoctl pluginโ€‹

For instructions on installing the akoctl plugin, see akoctl installation.

The procedure to use the namespace aerospike is as follows:

  • For using Kubernetes native Pod only network to connect to Aerospike cluster grant namespace scope permission:
kubectl akoctl auth create -n aerospike --cluster-scope=false
  • For connecting to Aerospike cluster from outside Kubernetes grant cluster scope permission:
kubectl akoctl auth create -n aerospike
tip

For granting permission of multiple namespaces in one go, specify comma separated namespace list in -n param

Example: To grant permission for aerospike and aerospike1 namespace
kubectl akoctl auth create -n aerospike,aerospike1

Configure Persistent Storageโ€‹

The Aerospike Operator works with dynamically-provisioned storage classes. Aerospike Server pods may have different storage volumes associated with each service.

Persistent storage on the pods uses these storage class provisioners.

Apply a sample storage class based on your Kubernetes environment:

  • EKS: kubectl apply -f eks_ssd_storage_class.yaml
  • GCE: kubectl apply -f gce_ssd_storage_class.yaml
  • Microk8s: kubectl apply -f microk8s_filesystem_storage_class.yaml

See Storage Provisioning for more details on configuring persistent storage.

Get the Helm Chartsโ€‹

To get the Helm charts, clone the aerospike/aerospike-kubernetes-operator repository.

git clone https://github.com/aerospike/aerospike-kubernetes-operator.git

The charts are in the aerospike-kubernetes-operator/helm-charts folder.

cd aerospike-kubernetes-operator
git checkout 3.1.0

Deploy the Clusterโ€‹

Deploy in "dev" Modeโ€‹

"Dev" mode creates a minimal Aerospike Cluster with security disabled. Use this for testing only, not in production.

Create a Secret containing the Aerospike feature key file features.conf.

kubectl create secret generic aerospike-secret --from-file=[path to your features.conf file]

Default Values in "dev" Modeโ€‹

These values are set as defaults when the cluster is deployed in "dev" mode (devMode=true).

aerospikeConfig:
service:
feature-key-file: /etc/aerospike/secrets/features.conf

security:
enable-security: false

network:
service:
port: 3000
fabric:
port: 3001
heartbeat:
port: 3002

namespaces:
- name: test
memory-size: 1073741824 # 1GiB
replication-factor: 2
storage-engine:
type: memory

podSpec:
multiPodPerHost: true

storage:
volumes:
- name: aerospike-config-secret
source:
secret:
secretName: aerospike-secret
aerospike:
path: /etc/aerospike/secrets

validationPolicy:
skipWorkDirValidate: true
skipXdrDlogFileValidate: true

Install the chart.

helm install aerospike helm-charts/aerospike-cluster --set devMode=true
tip

This command assumes few defaults, and deploys an Aerospike cluster in "dev" mode with no data persistence. We recommend you create a custom YAML file with your required configurations, and apply it with helm install.

Deploy in "production" Mode (devMode=false)โ€‹

Create Secretsโ€‹

Create Secrets to set up features like the feature-key file (features.conf), Aerospike authentication, TLS, and the cluster admin password. See the Manage TLS Certificates section for more details.

The example Secrets directory includes a collection of example TLS certificates, security credentials, and more. Download these files into a local folder called secrets, then apply them as a Kubernetes Secret:

kubectl -n aerospike create secret generic aerospike-secret --from-file=secrets

Next, create a Secret containing the password for the Aerospike cluster admin:

kubectl -n aerospike create secret generic auth-secret --from-literal=password='admin123'

This is an example of a custom user-defined values.yaml file not using "dev" mode (installed with devMode=false).

## Aerospike cluster size
replicas: 3

## Aerospike server docker image
image:
repository: aerospike/aerospike-server-enterprise
tag: 6.4.0.0

## Aerospike access control configuration
aerospikeAccessControl:
users:
- name: admin
secretName: auth-secret
roles:
- sys-admin
- user-admin

## Aerospike Configuration
aerospikeConfig:
service:
feature-key-file: /etc/aerospike/secret/features.conf
security: {}

network:
service:
port: 3000
heartbeat:
port: 3002
fabric:
port: 3001

namespaces:
- name: test
memory-size: 3000000000
replication-factor: 2
storage-engine:
type: device
devices:
- /test/dev/xvdf
- name: testMem
memory-size: 3000000000
replication-factor: 1
storage-engine:
type: memory

## Network policy
aerospikeNetworkPolicy: {}

## Pod spec
podSpec:
multiPodPerHost: true

## Rack configuration
rackConfig:
namespaces:
- test
racks:
- id: 1
# Change to the zone for your k8s cluster.
zone: us-central1-c
- id: 2
# Change to the zone for your k8s cluster.
zone: us-central1-c

## Storage configuration
storage:
filesystemVolumePolicy:
cascadeDelete: true
initMethod: deleteFiles
blockVolumePolicy:
cascadeDelete: true
volumes:
- name: workdir
aerospike:
path: /opt/aerospike
source:
persistentVolume:
storageClass: ssd
volumeMode: Filesystem
size: 1Gi
- name: ns
aerospike:
path: /test/dev/xvdf
source:
persistentVolume:
storageClass: ssd
volumeMode: Block
size: 5Gi
- name: aerospike-config-secret
source:
secret:
secretName: aerospike-secret
aerospike:
path: /etc/aerospike/secret

## Validation policy
validationPolicy:
skipWorkDirValidate: false
skipXdrDlogFileValidate: false

## seedsFinderServices defines service (e.g. loadbalancer) to connect to Aerospike
seedsFinderServices: {}

## operatorClientCert defines certificates to connect to Aerospike
operatorClientCert: {}

## Dev Mode
devMode: false

Install the chart with custom values.

helm install aerospike helm-charts/aerospike-cluster/ -f [custom YAML file]

Configurationsโ€‹

For more details on these configurations, see the Aerospike Cluster Configuration Settings.

NameDescriptionDefault
replicasAerospike cluster size.3
image.repositoryAerospike Server container image repository.aerospike/aerospike-server-enterprise
image.tagAerospike Server container image tag.5.5.0.9
imagePullSecretsSecrets containing credentials to pull Aerospike container image from a private registry.{} (nil)
customLabelsCustom labels to add on the Aerospike cluster resource{} (nil)
aerospikeAccessControlAerospike access control configuration. Define users and roles to be created on the cluster.{} (nil)
aerospikeConfigAerospike configuration.{} (nil)
aerospikeNetworkPolicyNetwork policy (client access configuration).{} (nil)
commonNameBase string for naming pods, services, stateful sets, etc.Release name truncated to 63 characters (without hyphens)
podSpecAerospike pod spec configuration.{} (nil)
rackConfigAerospike rack configuration.{} (nil)
storageAerospike pod storage configuration.{} (nil)
validationPolicyValidation policy.{} (nil)
operatorClientCertClient certificates to connect to Aerospike.{} (nil)
seedsFinderServicesService (e.g. loadbalancer) for Aerospike cluster discovery.{} (nil)
devModeDeploy Aerospike cluster in dev mode.false