Standalone Installation

Overview

This documents will show you how to install KubeVela in standalone mode. There are two options:

1. Local machine: Install on a local machine based on Linux, macOS or Windows operating system.
2. Remote Linux server: Install on a remote Linux server with accessible IP address.

tip

Install KubeVela on a remote server with non-linux operating system is not fully tested.

About VelaD

We'll use VelaD to install KubeVela in standalone mode. VelaD is a CLI tool that packages KubeVela with all dependencies for minimal installation and VelaUX. VelaD enables you to run KubeVela on any of docker compatible environments or Linux system.

• VelaD leverages K3s and k3d to manage Kubernetes automatically. Users needn't care the details about Kubernetes.
• KubeVela along with all related images, and vela command line are packaged together that enables air-gapped installation of KubeVela and VelaUX.

caution

Installation with standalone mode is suited for development and testing purpose best that you don't even aware of the Kubernetes inside. If you want to use it in production, you need to understand and maintain the K3s for Kubernetes management well.

Install in a local machine

1. Prepare environment

VelaD support installing KubeVela on machines based on these OS: Linux, macOS, Windows.

Requirements

1. If you are using Linux or macOS, make sure your machine have curl installed.
2. If you are using macOS or Windows, make sure you've already installed Docker.
3. Make sure the docker daemon is up and running.

2. Install VelaD and Setup KubeVela

Download VelaD

It will download and place the binary in your system PATH,

Linux/MacOS Script

You may be required for root privilege during the installation process if not using root. If you don't need the automation with root access, you can download from the release page and uncompress manually.

curl -fsSl https://kubevela.io/script/install-velad.sh | bash

Check velad installed in /usr/local/bin/

Linux/MacOS with asdf-vm

If you are using the asdf version manager, you can install velad with:

# Add the velad plugin for asdf
asdf plugin add velad

# List all installable versions
asdf list-all velad

# Install the desired version (could be "latest")
asdf install velad <version>

# set it as the global version, unless a project declares it otherwise locally
asdf global velad <version>

Windows

Run following command in powershell with administrator privilege.

powershell -Command "iwr -useb https://static.kubevela.net/script/install-velad.ps1 | iex"

Check velad installed in C:\vela\

info

VelaD helps install Vela CLI, which requires administrator privilege.

Start powershell as administrator

1. Click on the 'Start' button to open the Start menu.
2. Scroll to the Windows PowerShell shortcut folder then, right click on the Windows Powershell option and select 'Run as administrator'.

Setup KubeVela

velad install

expected output

Preparing K3s images...
Successfully prepare k3s image: /Users/sunjianbo/.vela/velad/k3s/k3s-airgap-images-amd64.tgz
Successfully prepare k3d images

...snip...

KubeVela control plane has been successfully set up on your cluster.
If you want to enable dashboard, please run "vela addon enable /Users/sunjianbo/.vela/addons/velaux"

Keep the token below if you want to restart the control plane
K1075e7f6c77555e6ebdaf4854e4a2f39ae4287cfad23f27cdac5b33608d44633fe::server:zSpzbdbGzVxOwfBvvjgT

🚀 Successfully install KubeVela control plane
🔭 See available commands with `vela help`

Verify Installation

Export kubeconfig and list all built-in ComponentDefinition:

Linux/macOS

export KUBECONFIG=$(velad kubeconfig --host)
vela comp

Windows

$env:PATH += ";$HOME\.vela\bin;"
$env:KUBECONFIG = $(velad kubeconfig --host)
vela comp

tip

• When executing velad install, vela CLI (vela) is already installed and add to PATH automatically. So you can use it directly.
• A file uesd to configure access to clusters is called kubeconfig file

expected output

NAME                    DEFINITION                  DESCRIPTION
config-helm-repository  autodetects.core.oam.dev    Config information to authenticate helm chart repository
daemon                  daemonsets.apps             Describes daemonset services in Kubernetes.
cron-task               cronjobs.batch              Describes cron jobs that run code or a script to completion.
worker                  deployments.apps            Describes long-running, scalable, containerized services
that running at backend. They do NOT have network endpoint
to receive external network traffic.
task                    jobs.batch                  Describes jobs that run code or a script to completion.
webservice              deployments.apps            Describes long-running, scalable, containerized services
that have a stable network endpoint to receive external
network traffic from customers.
config-image-registry   autodetects.core.oam.dev    Config information to authenticate image registry
k8s-objects             autodetects.core.oam.dev    K8s-objects allow users to specify raw K8s objects in
properties
raw                     autodetects.core.oam.dev    Raw allow users to specify raw K8s object in properties.
This definition is DEPRECATED, please use 'k8s-objects'
instead.
ref-objects             autodetects.core.oam.dev    Ref-objects allow users to specify ref objects to use.
Notice that this component type have special handle logic.

Export kubeconfig and list all built-in ComponentDefinition:

3. Install VelaUX

VelaUX is a dashboard for KubeVela. It is a web application that runs in your cluster. You can access it with your browser. This is optional if you don't use UI console of KubeVela.

Linux/macOS

vela addon enable ~/.vela/addons/velaux

Windows

vela addon enable $HOME\.vela\addons\velaux

expected output

Addon: velaux enabled Successfully.

By default, velaux don't have any exposed port, you can view it by:

vela port-forward addon-velaux -n vela-system 8080:80

Choose > local | velaux | velaux for visit.

note

For more VelaUX options, refer to VelaUX addon document for other advanced installation arguments.

VelaUX needs authentication. The default username is admin and the password is VelaUX12345.

It requires you to override with a new password for the first login, please make sure to remember the new password.

4. Cleanup

This command will clean up KubeVela controllers along with the Kubernetes cluster, refer to the advanced guide for more detailed steps.

velad uninstall

Install on a remote Linux server

This documents show you how to install KubeVela on a remote Linux server (e.g. aws EC2 or aliyun ECS) in standalone mode.

1. Prepare a machine

Prepare a Linux server, make sure it meets the following requirements:

Requirements

1. Make sure your machine have curl installed.
2. This server has a public IP, or you can access the server's IP if it's a on-premise server.
3. If you are using a cloud server, make sure you have opened the port 6443 in secure group.

2. Install VelaD and Setup KubeVela

Download VelaD

Following script will download and place the binary in your system PATH, so you may be required for root privilege during the installation process. If you don't need the automation with root access, you can download from the release page and uncompress manually.

curl -fsSl https://kubevela.io/script/install-velad.sh | bash

Check velad installed in /usr/local/bin/

Setup KubeVela

Run the following command and replace the $SERVER_PUBLIC_IP with your server's public IP.

velad install --bind-ip=$SERVER_PUBLIC_IP

expected output

Preparing K3s images...
Successfully prepare k3s image: /Users/sunjianbo/.vela/velad/k3s/k3s-airgap-images-amd64.tgz
Successfully prepare k3d images

...snip...

KubeVela control plane has been successfully set up on your cluster.
If you want to enable dashboard, please run "vela addon enable /Users/sunjianbo/.vela/addons/velaux"

Keep the token below if you want to restart the control plane
K1075e7f6c77555e6ebdaf4854e4a2f39ae4287cfad23f27cdac5b33608d44633fe::server:zSpzbdbGzVxOwfBvvjgT

🚀 Successfully install KubeVela control plane
🔭 See available commands with `vela help`
🔑 To access the cluster, set KUBECONFIG:
export KUBECONFIG=$(velad kubeconfig --name default --host)

Verify Installation

Export kubeconfig and list all built-in ComponentDefinition:

export KUBECONFIG=$(velad kubeconfig --host)
vela comp

tip

• When executing velad install, vela CLI (vela) is already installed and add to PATH automatically. So you can use it directly. Later we will access KubeVela on local machine, we will install vela CLI on local machine again.
• A file uesd to configure access to clusters is called kubeconfig file. Vela CLI also use this file to access KubeVela.

expected output

NAME                    DEFINITION                  DESCRIPTION
config-helm-repository  autodetects.core.oam.dev    Config information to authenticate helm chart repository
daemon                  daemonsets.apps             Describes daemonset services in Kubernetes.
cron-task               cronjobs.batch              Describes cron jobs that run code or a script to completion.
worker                  deployments.apps            Describes long-running, scalable, containerized services
that running at backend. They do NOT have network endpoint
to receive external network traffic.
task                    jobs.batch                  Describes jobs that run code or a script to completion.
webservice              deployments.apps            Describes long-running, scalable, containerized services
that have a stable network endpoint to receive external
network traffic from customers.
config-image-registry   autodetects.core.oam.dev    Config information to authenticate image registry
k8s-objects             autodetects.core.oam.dev    K8s-objects allow users to specify raw K8s objects in
properties
raw                     autodetects.core.oam.dev    Raw allow users to specify raw K8s object in properties.
This definition is DEPRECATED, please use 'k8s-objects'
instead.
ref-objects             autodetects.core.oam.dev    Ref-objects allow users to specify ref objects to use.
Notice that this component type have special handle logic.

3. Install VelaUX

VelaUX is a dashboard for KubeVela. It is a web application that runs in your cluster. You can access it with your browser.

Run this command on remote server.

vela addon enable ~/.vela/addons/velaux serviceType=NodePort

expected output

Addon: velaux enabled Successfully.
...
I0907 12:03:11.462606   98769 utils.go:156] find cluster gateway service vela-system/kubevela-cluster-gateway-service:9443
Please access addon-velaux from the following endpoints:
+---------+-----------+-------------------------------+----------------------------+-------+
| CLUSTER | COMPONENT |   REF(KIND/NAMESPACE/NAME)    |          ENDPOINT          | INNER |
+---------+-----------+-------------------------------+----------------------------+-------+
| local   | apiserver | Service/vela-system/apiserver | apiserver.vela-system:8000 | true  |
| local   | velaux    | Service/vela-system/velaux    | http://47.252.17.47:30000  | false |
+---------+-----------+-------------------------------+----------------------------+-------+

By adding serviceType=NodePort, we are telling VelaUX to expose service with K8s NodePort type. Check the endpoint of VelaUX with following command:

vela status addon-velaux -n vela-system --endpoint

It will show URL like http://PUBLIC-IP:PORT access that URL with your browser.

open the port

If you are using a cloud server, please open this port in secure group.

note

For more VelaUX options, refer to VelaUX addon document for other advanced installation arguments.

VelaUX needs authentication. The default username is admin and the password is VelaUX12345.

It requires you to override with a new password for the first login, please make sure to remember the new password.

4. Access cluster From Local (Optional)

You can access KubeVela with your local machine. Make sure you add --bind-ip when executing velad install command in the last step on the server.

Copy KubeConfig

Following command will print the kubeconfig for your cluster. --external means printed kubeconfig can be used from other machine (like your local machine).

cat $(velad kubeconfig --external)

Then you need to copy this kubeconfig to your local machine. Let's say you saving a file in ~/.kube/velad-config in your local machine.

Install Vela CLI in Local

To access the cluster, you also need to install vela CLI in your local machine.

curl -fsSl https://kubevela.io/script/install.sh | bash

Access KubeVela

Export KUBECONFIG environment variable and list all built-in ComponentDefinition:

export KUBECONFIG=~/.kube/velad-config
vela comp

5. Cleanup

Run following command on remote server.

This command will clean up KubeVela controllers along with the Kubernetes cluster, refer to the advanced guide for more detailed steps.

velad uninstall