Installing Spinnaker to Minikube Kubernetes using Helm Chart

Here in this blog, we will walk you through the steps to use Helm Charts to install Spinnaker on a local Kubernetes cluster (installed using Minikube).  Before getting started with installation steps we take a quick look at what each of these applications is:

• Spinnaker is an open-source, multi-cloud continuous delivery platform for releasing software changes with high velocity and confidence.

• Helm is a tool that streamlines installing and managing Kubernetes applications. Helm Charts help you define, install, and upgrade even the most complex Kubernetes application.

• Kubernetes (k8s) is an open-source container orchestration system for automating computer application deployment, scaling, and management.

• Minikube provides a way to install and run Kubernetes locally. Minikube runs a single-node Kubernetes cluster inside a VM on your laptop for users looking to try out Kubernetes or develop with it day-to-day.

• Kubectl is the Kubernetes command-line tool that allows you to run commands against Kubernetes clusters. You can use kubectl to deploy applications, inspect and manage cluster resources, and view logs.

Prerequisites of installing Spinnaker on Kubernetes

Before installing Spinnaker on Minikube using Helm we need to ensure the following: 

1. Minikube is cluster ready and kubectl can connect to that cluster
2. Helm 3.2.4 is installed

Install Kubectl

.We need the latest version of Kubectl to manage the Kubernetes cluster.

To install kubectl, run the following commands.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y apt-transport-https gnupg2 curl

curl -s https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg | sudo apt-key add -

echo "deb https://apt.kubernetes.io/ kubernetes-xenial main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kubernetes.list

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install -y kubectl

Install Minikube

To install Minikube, run the following commands.

curl -LO https://storage.googleapis.com/minikube/releases/latest/minikube_latest_amd64.deb

sudo dpkg -i minikube_latest_amd64.deb

Start the Minikube Cluster

Take into consideration that Spinnaker is composed out of multiple microservices, so you’ll need to allocate sufficient memory and CPU to run it locally.

• To start the Minikube cluster, run the following command.

      minikube start

      Once it is started we will be able to see the following information.

         

• If you need to stop the Minikube cluster, run the following command.

      minikube stop

• To check the Minikube cluster status, run the following command.

      minikube status

Install Helm on Kubernetes

Before installing the Spinnaker, we need to set up Helm on Kubernetes. 

Download the latest release of Helm binary and move it to the bin folder.

• Install helm from the URL link as given below.

      https://get.helm.sh/helm-v3.2.4-linux-amd64.tar.gz

• Uncompress the tar file using Untar command as given below.

      tar -xf helm-v3.2.4-linux-amd64.tar.gz

    mv linux-amd64/helm /usr/local/bin/helm

• To check the helm version run the following command.

     helm version

Deploy Spinnaker into Kubernetes using Helm

With Minikube and Helm installed and running, now we can install Spinnaker. Since it is available as a Helm Chart, we will get this done through a couple of steps. 

Before we deploy Spinnaker, we need a configuration file in YAML format, which will provide the initial set of configuration values. 

• To get this file from the Github Spinnaker Helm Chart repository run the following command.

      wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/helm/charts/master/stable/spinnaker/values.yaml

      helm repo add stable https://kubernetes-charts.storage.googleapis.com/

• Change the Spinnaker Version and tag values in values.yaml file as given below.

      vi values.yaml

      halyard:

       spinnaker Version: 1.21.2

        image:

          repository: gcr.io/spinnaker-marketplace/halyard

          tag: 1.38.0

• Install Spinnaker using the following command.

   

  helm install spinnaker stable/spinnaker -f values.yaml

        kubectl get pods 

  All the spinnaker components should be in running state as given below:

  

• Once all the spinnaker components are running, get the kubectl service.

      run kubectl get svc

• Edit the svc of the spin-deck to access the Spinnaker UI.

      kubectl edit svc spin-deck 

• Change the service value from ClusterIP to NordPort as given below:

      spec:

      clusterIP: 10.107.78.199

      externalTrafficPolicy: Cluster

      ports:

      - nodePort: 31529

        port: 9000

        protocol: TCP

        targetPort: 9000

      selector:

       app: spin

    cluster: spin-deck

     sessionAffinity: None

     type: NordPort

     status:

     loadBalancer: {}

• For accessing the spinnaker, run the following command.

      minikube IP

      bhaveen@bhaveen-Vostro-3590:~/spinnaker$ minikube IP

      192.168.99.100

• Spinnaker can now be accessed from the browser by visiting

      192.168.99.100:31529 (spin-deck node ip)

The Spinnaker UI looks like the following:

Hope this article, installing Spinnaker on Kubernetes (Minikube) using Helm Chart is useful for you to get your Spinnaker deployment up and running. Further, if you are facing problems with your Spinnaker deployments, please book a meeting with us.

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