Prerequisites for installing Kaptain

IMPORTANT: Ensure the cluster that you want to use to deploy Kaptain is the only cluster in its workspace. Kaptain is meant to be deployed on workspaces with a single cluster.

• kubectl on your installation machine

• A DKP cluster, either one of the following, depending on your license

  • An Essential cluster. Refer to this page for more information on the Essential license.
  • A Managed or Attached cluster for Enterprise customers. Refer to this page for more information on the license. In this case, said cluster must be the only one in its workspace. D2iQ recommends that you install it on a separate attached or managed cluster, as the management cluster is intended to be a pane of glass for running other clusters and is not intended for workloads.

• The following Platform applications (dependencies) enabled in the cluster where you want to install Kaptain:

  • Istio
  • MinIO Operator (installed by default in some clusters, not on attached clusters)
  • Knative, if you are running the serverless installation of KServe, which is the default mode that comes pre-bundled with Kaptain. (Not required if you are using the RawDeployment installation mode)

  You have two options to install these applications. For more instructions, refer to the Install dependencies section.

• Refer to the on-premise installation page, if you are installing Kaptain on premises.

WARNING: Ensure that DKP Kommander is installed using the default certificate and not a customer-issued or ACME certificate. Otherwise, the installation of Kaptain can break. Custom and ACME certificates are supported in Kaptain versions 2.2 and later, and DKP versions 2.3 and later.

Reference the cluster on which you must execute the commands

You can do this by setting the KUBECONFIG environment variable to the appropriate kubeconfig file’s location (KUBECONFIG=clusterKubeconfig.conf), or by using the --kubeconfig=cluster_name.conf flag. For more information, refer to the Configure Access to Multiple Clusters documentation.

Install dependencies

Install dependencies on any type of cluster (Essential and Enterprise)

To install any of the previous applications after you have installed DKP, follow the instructions in the Application Deployment page.

NOTE: When installing these applications, set the environment variable to the workspace of the cluster where you want to install Kaptain.

Install dependencies during the installation of DKP (Essential only)

You can install the applications Kaptain requires during the installation of DKP by adapting the configuration file:

NOTE: When installing these applications, set the environment variable to the workspace of the cluster where you will install Kaptain. For customers with an Essential license and a single-cluster experience, the clusterKubeconfig.conf is your Essential cluster. For customers with an Enterprise license and multi-cluster experience, your clusterKubeconfig.conf is the managed or attached cluster where Kaptain should be installed.

1. Ensure that your kubectl configuration references the cluster on which you must execute the commands. For customers with an Essential license and a single-cluster experience, reference your Essential cluster.

2. Use the existing Kommander configuration file kommander.yaml, or initialize the default one, if you have not done so yet:

   dkp install kommander --init > kommander-config.yaml
   

   Review the Customizing the configuration file page to gain more understanding on how to use a configuration file to install DKP.

3. Ensure the following applications are enabled in the config:

   apiVersion: config.kommander.mesosphere.io/v1alpha1
   kind: Installation
   apps:
     ...
     dex:
     dex-k8s-authenticator:
     kube-prometheus-stack:
     istio:
    knative:
     minio-operator:
     traefik:
     nvidia:  # to enable GPU support
     [...]
   

   For GPU deployment, follow the instructions in the Kommander GPU documentation.

4. Apply the new configuration to Kommander:

   dkp install kommander --installer-config kommander-config.yaml
   

   This customized configuration file will enable these applications to deploy when installing DKP. For more information, refer to the Customizing the configuration file page.

Verify the deployment

Verify if the applications have been deployed successfully. For this, refer to the Verify Applications section.

Refer to the installation overview for next steps.