Frequency Developer Gateway Kubernetes Deployment Guide

This guide will help you set up, configure, and test your Kubernetes services on Ubuntu using MicroK8s and kubectl.

Table of Contents

• Frequency Developer Gateway Kubernetes Deployment Guide
  • Table of Contents
  • Prerequisites
  • 1. Installing MicroK8s
  • 2. Setting Up MicroK8s
  • 3. Enable Kubernetes Add-ons in MicroK8s
  • 4. (Optional) Installing kubectl
  • 5. Deploying Frequency Developer Gateway
    • 5.1. Prepare Helm Chart
    • 5.2. Deploy with Helm
  • 6. Accessing Kubernetes Services
    • 6.1. Accessing via NodePort
    • 6.2. Port-Forward for Local Testing
  • 7. Finding the Host Machine's IP Address
  • 8. Verifying and Troubleshooting
    • Check Pods and Services
    • Inspect Pod Logs
    • Checking Resources
  • 9. Tearing Down the Deployment
  • 10. Conclusion

Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure the following:

• Ubuntu 20.04+.
• MicroK8s installed and configured.
• Helm installed for managing Kubernetes applications.
• kubectl installed for interacting with Kubernetes clusters. This is optional if you're using microk8s kubectl.
• Redis installed and running.
• Frequency Chain running and accessible from the Kubernetes cluster.

Check this guide, for more details on installing MicroK8s and installing Helm

1. Installing MicroK8s

Install MicroK8s using the following command:

sudo snap install microk8s --classic --channel=1.28/stable

Once installed, verify the installation:

microk8s status --wait-ready

2. Setting Up MicroK8s

To manage MicroK8s as a regular user, you need to add your user to the microk8s group:

sudo usermod -aG microk8s $USER
sudo chown -f -R $USER ~/.kube

Then, apply the changes to the current session:

newgrp microk8s

Verify again:

microk8s status --wait-ready

3. Enable Kubernetes Add-ons in MicroK8s

To enhance your cluster functionality, you can enable the following MicroK8s add-ons:

sudo microk8s enable dns ingress storage helm3

• DNS: For service discovery.
• Ingress: To expose services externally.
• Storage: Dynamic storage provisioning.
• Helm3: Helm package manager for Kubernetes.

4. (Optional) Installing kubectl

If kubectl isn't already installed, you can use the following command to install it:

sudo snap install kubectl --classic

5. Deploying Frequency Developer Gateway

5.1. Prepare Helm Chart

An example Helm chart, for example, frequency-gateway;

Make sure your values.yaml contains the correct configuration for NodePorts and services.

Sample values.yaml Excerpt:

Things to consider:

• FREQUENCY_URL - URL of the Frequency Chain API
• REDIS_URL - URL of the Redis server
• IPFS_ENDPOINT: IPFS endpoint for pinning content
• IPFS_GATEWAY_URL: IPFS gateway URL for fetching content
• PROVIDER_ACCOUNT_SEED_PHRASE - Seed phrase for the provider account
• PROVIDER_ID - MSA Id of the provider account

service:
  type: NodePort
  account:
    port: 8080
    targetPort: http-account
    deploy: true <--- Set to true to deploy
  contentPublishing:
    port: 8081
    targetPort: http-publishing
    deploy: true
  contentWatcher:
    port: 8082
    targetPort: http-watcher
    deploy: true
  graph:
    port: 8083
    targetPort: http-graph
    deploy: true

5.2. Deploy with Helm

Deploy gateway with Helm:

sudo microk8s helm3 install frequency-gateway deployment/k8s/frequency-gateway/

Once deployed, verify that your Helm release is deployed:

sudo microk8s helm3 list

You should see the status as deployed.

6. Accessing Kubernetes Services

By default, Kubernetes services are exposed on localhost. Here's how to access them:

6.1. Accessing via NodePort

After deployment, check the NodePorts:

sudo microk8s kubectl get services

This will show output like:

frequency-gateway   NodePort    10.152.183.81   <none>        8080:31780/TCP,8081:30315/TCP,8082:31250/TCP,8083:31807/TCP   8s

The services are accessible via:

• Port 8080: http://<node-ip>:31780
• Port 8081: http://<node-ip>:30315
• Port 8082: http://<node-ip>:31250
• Port 8083: http://<node-ip>:31807

Note: node-ip is internal to the Kubernetes cluster. To access the services externally, you need to find the host machine's IP address.

6.2. Port-Forward for Local Testing

If you just need to expose ports for local testing, you can use kubectl port-forward:

sudo microk8s kubectl port-forward svc/frequency-gateway 3013:8080 &
sudo microk8s kubectl port-forward svc/frequency-gateway 3014:8081 &
sudo microk8s kubectl port-forward svc/frequency-gateway 3015:8082 &
sudo microk8s kubectl port-forward svc/frequency-gateway 3016:8083 &

This will forward traffic from your localhost to the Kubernetes services.

Replace <host-ip> with the external IP of your host machine.

Access Swagger UI at http://<host-ip>:3013/docs/swagger

7. Finding the Host Machine's IP Address

If you need to access the services externally from another machine on the same network, you need the host machine's IP.

To find the IP address of the host:

hostname -I

This will return a list of IP addresses. Use the first IP (likely the local IP of your machine).

Example:

http://<host-ip>:8080
http://<host-ip>:8081
http://<host-ip>:8082
http://<host-ip>:8083

8. Verifying and Troubleshooting

Check Pods and Services

sudo microk8s kubectl get pods
sudo microk8s kubectl get services

Inspect Pod Logs

If any pods are not running as expected, you can check logs:

sudo microk8s kubectl logs <pod-name>

Checking Resources

sudo microk8s kubectl describe pod <pod-name>
sudo microk8s kubectl describe service <service-name>

9. Tearing Down the Deployment

To delete the Helm release and clean up:

sudo microk8s helm3 uninstall frequency-gateway

Alternatively, to delete all Kubernetes resources:

sudo microk8s kubectl delete all --all

10. Conclusion

You've successfully deployed Frequency Developer Gateway on Kubernetes and Helm, exposing the services via NodePorts for local access. You can also expand this setup by using Ingress for broader network access or by setting up a cloud-based Kubernetes environment for production deployments.