The following instructions are made to assist users set up their Microsoft Azure Kubernetes environment for running Wallaroo Community. These represent a recommended setup, but can be modified to fit your specific needs.

If your prepared to install the environment now, skip to Setup Environment Steps.

There are two methods we’ve detailed here on how to setup your Kubernetes cloud environment in Azure:

• Quick Setup Script: Download a bash script to automatically set up the Azure environment through the Microsoft Azure command line interface az.
• Manual Setup Guide: A list of the az commands used to create the environment through manual commands.

The following video demonstrates the manual guide:

Azure Prerequisites

To install Wallaroo in your Microsoft Azure environment, the following prerequisites must be met:

• Register a Microsoft Azure account: https://azure.microsoft.com/.
• Install the Microsoft Azure CLI and complete the Azure CLI Get Started Guide to connect your az application to your Microsoft Azure account.
• The Kubernetes cluster must include the following minimum settings:
  • Nodes must be OS type Linux the containerd driver as the default.
  • Role-based access control (RBAC) must be enabled.
  • Minimum of 4 nodes, each node with a minimum of 8 CPU cores and 16 GB RAM. 50 GB will be allocated per node for a total of 625 GB for the entire cluster.
  • RBAC is enabled.
  • Minimum machine type is set to to Standard_D8s_v4.

Azure Cluster Recommendations

The following recommendations will assist in reducing the cost of a cloud based Kubernetes Wallaroo cluster.

• Turn off the cluster when not in use. An Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster can be turn off when not in use, then turned back on again when needed to save on costs. For more information on starting and stopping an AKS cluster, see the Stop and Start an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster guide.

  If organizations adopt this process, be aware of the following issues:

  • IP Address Reassignment: The load balancer public IP address may be reassigned when the cluster is restarted by the cloud service unless a static IP address is assigned. For more information in Microsoft Azure see the Use a static public IP address and DNS label with the Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) load balancer user guide.

• Assign to a Single Availability Zone: Clusters that span multiple availability zones may have issues accessing persistent volumes that were provisioned in another availability zone from the node when the cluster is restarted. The simple solution is to assign the entire cluster into a single availability zone. For more information in Microsoft Azure see the Create an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster that uses availability zones guide.

  The scripts and configuration files are set up to create the Azure environment for a Wallaroo instance are based on a single availability zone. Modify the script as required for your organization.

Setup Environment Steps

Standard Setup Variables

The following variables are used in the Quick Setup Script and the Manual Setup Guide. Modify them as best fits your organization.

Quick Setup Script

The following sample script creates an Azure Kubernetes environment ready for use with Wallaroo Community. This script requires the following prerequisites listed above.

Modify the installation file to fit for your organization. The only parts that require modification are the variables listed in the beginning as follows:

The following steps are geared towards a standard Linux or macOS system that supports the prerequisites listed above. Modify these steps based on your local environment.

1. Download the script above.

2. In a terminal window set the script status as execute with the command chmod +x wallaroo_community_azure_install.bash.

3. Modify the script variables listed above based on your requirements.

4. Run the script with either bash wallaroo_community_azure_install.bash or ./wallaroo_community_azure_install.bash from the same directory as the script.

   

Manual Setup Guide

The following steps are guidelines to assist new users in setting up their Azure environment for Wallaroo. Feel free to replace these with commands with ones that match your needs.

See the Azure Command-Line Interface for full details on commands and settings.

The following are used for the example commands below. Replace them with your specific environment settings:

• Azure Resource Group: wallarooCEGroup
• Azure Resource Group Location: eastus
• Azure Container Registry: wallarooCEAcr
• Azure Kubernetes Cluster: wallarooCEAKS
• Azure Container SKU type: Base
• Azure Nodepool Name: wallarooCEPool

Setting up an Azure AKS environment is based on the Azure Kubernetes Service tutorial, streamlined to show the minimum steps in setting up your own Wallaroo environment in Azure.

Manual Guide

This follows these major steps:

• Create an Azure Resource Group
• Create an Azure Container Registry
• Create the Azure Kubernetes Environment

Set Variables

The following are the variables used in the environment setup process. Modify them as best fits your organization’s needs.

WALLAROO_RESOURCE_GROUP=wallaroocegroupdocs
WALLAROO_GROUP_LOCATION=eastus
WALLAROO_CONTAINER_REGISTRY=wallarooceacrdocs
WALLAROO_CLUSTER=wallarooceaksdocs
WALLAROO_SKU_TYPE=Base
WALLAROO_NODEPOOL=wallaroocepool
WALLAROO_VM_SIZE=Standard_D8s_v4
WALLAROO_CLUSTER_SIZE=4

Create an Azure Resource Group

To create an Azure Resource Group for Wallaroo in Microsoft Azure, use the following template:

az group create --name $WALLAROO_RESOURCE_GROUP --location $WALLAROO_GROUP_LOCATION

(Optional): Set the default Resource Group to the one recently created. This allows other Azure commands to automatically select this group for commands such as az aks list, etc.

az configure --defaults group=$WALLAROO_RESOURCE_GROUP

Create an Azure Container Registry

An Azure Container Registry(ACR) manages the container images for services includes Kubernetes. The template for setting up an Azure ACR that supports Wallaroo is the following:

az acr create -n $WALLAROO_CONTAINER_REGISTRY -g $WALLAROO_RESOURCE_GROUP --sku $WALLAROO_SKU_TYPE --location $WALLAROO_GROUP_LOCATION

Create an Azure Kubernetes Services

And now we can create our Kubernetes service in Azure that will host our Wallaroo that meet the prerequisites. Modify the settings to meet your organization’s needs. This creates a 4 node cluster with a total of 32 cores.

az aks create \
--resource-group $WALLAROO_RESOURCE_GROUP \
--name $WALLAROO_CLUSTER \
--node-count $WALLAROO_CLUSTER_SIZE \
--generate-ssh-keys \
--vm-set-type VirtualMachineScaleSets \
--load-balancer-sku standard \
--node-vm-size $WALLAROO_VM_SIZE \
--nodepool-name $WALLAROO_NODEPOOL \
--nodepool-name mainpool \
--attach-acr $WALLAROO_CONTAINER_REGISTRY \
--kubernetes-version=1.23.8 \
--zones 1 \
--location $WALLAROO_GROUP_LOCATION

Download Wallaroo Kubernetes Configuration

Once the Kubernetes environment is complete, associate it with the local Kubernetes configuration by importing the credentials through the following template command:

az aks get-credentials --resource-group $WALLAROO_RESOURCE_GROUP --name $WALLAROO_CLUSTER

Verify the cluster is available through the kubectl get nodes command.

kubectl get nodes

NAME                               STATUS   ROLES   AGE   VERSION
aks-mainpool-37402055-vmss000000   Ready    agent   81m   v1.23.8
aks-mainpool-37402055-vmss000001   Ready    agent   81m   v1.23.8
aks-mainpool-37402055-vmss000002   Ready    agent   81m   v1.23.8
aks-mainpool-37402055-vmss000003   Ready    agent   81m   v1.23.8

Install Wallaroo

With your environment ready, it’s time to install Wallaroo.