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Run Airy Core on AWS with Terraform

Create a cluster and run Airy Core using Terraform.

The goal of this document is to provide a step-by-step guide to setting up Airy Core on a Kubernetes Cluster using the infrastructure-as-code tool Terraform. Terraform takes care of provisioning, updating, and cleaning up virtual resources.

note

Currently, we only support the AWS Elastic Kubernetes Service (AWS-EKS) as a provider. Terraform modules for other providers (and on different architectures) such as Google Cloud and Digital Ocean will soon be added.

Requirements​

Architecture​

The local file structure for the installation is as follows:

[Airy Workspace Directory]
    airy.yaml
    cli.yaml
    /[INSTALLATION DIRECTORY]
        /airy-core
            main.tf
            variables.tf
            outputs.tf
        /[PROVIDER]
            main.tf
            variables.tf
            outputs.tf

The installation takes place in two steps, each in a separate Terraform environment organized by directories:

    1. /[PROVIDER] (default = aws-eks) - where you create the cluster.
    1. /airy-core- where Airy Core is installed on the cluster.

In each directory, the main.tf is the root module of a remote parent module of the same name in our GitHub repository (airy/infrastructure/terraform/modules).

Install step by step​

note

When you run a cloud installation with the Airy CLI with airy create --provider cloud-provider, the CLI will run all the following steps in a sequence. Currently, only the AWS EKS (aws-eks) provider is supported.

If you already have a cluster installed without Terraform, i.e. via Helm, skip Step 4 and place the Kubernetes config file in the installation directory. Remember to specify the location of this file in the main.tf of airy-core.

1. Create Airy Workspace​

Create a directory with an airy.yaml and cli.yaml file. If you skip this step, the CLI will create it for you.

2. Create the installation directory inside Airy Workspace​

mkdir terraform

3. Set up files inside Installation Directory​

Copy/Download airy-core and the relevant provider directory from airy/infrastructure/terraform/install.

This can be done by git clone git@github.com:airyhq/airy.git and then moving the relevant files. Or grab the files inside your installation directory directly (and select the provider directory).

$ cd terraform
$ svn export https://github.com/airyhq/airy/trunk/infrastructure/terraform/install/airy-core
$ svn export https://github.com/airyhq/airy/trunk/infrastructure/terraform/install/[PROVIDER]

4. Create Kubernetes Cluster​

note

Every provider has its own requirements for creating and accessing the Kubernetes cluster. For AWS check the following requirements.

Change into your /[PROVIDER] directory.

cd [PROVIDER]
$ terraform init
$ terraform apply

This will ask for the provider environmental variables, in the case of AWS: aws_profile and aws_region. You can provide these values when prompted on the Command Line or do one of the following alternatives:

  • export them as AWS_REGION and AWS_PROFILE,
  • export them as TF_VAR_aws_region and TF_VAR_aws_profile,
  • store them, in a terraform.tfvars file in the same provider directory.

This step will take time, depending on the provider and architecture. Provisioning a full Kubernetes Cluster takes between 5 - 10 mins. On completion, it will output a kube.conf in the installation directory.

5. Install Airy on Cluster​

$ cd ../airy-core
$ terraform init
$ terraform apply

Terraform will look for a Kube Config to connect to the cluster provisioned in Step 4. (or which you already have provisioned), and helm install airy-core onto it.

This will output a link to your UI, API, and source URLs.

6. Verify the installation​

Connect to your new instance using kube.conf file inside your installation directory.

kubectl get pods --kubeconfig ./kube.conf

To uninstall, simply run terraform destroy in the airy-core directory first, and then once again in the PROVIDER directory.

Uninstall step by step​

For uninstalling Airy you need to destroy both of the environments that you have created. First destroy the airy-core environment:

$ cd ../airy-core
$ terraform destroy

Then destroy the PROVIDER environment:

cd [PROVIDER]
$ terraform destroy

Install and uninstall using a script​

In the airy/infrastructure/terraform/install, there are scripts:

  • install.sh
  • uninstall.sh
  • install.flags

These scripts provide a simple interface for the installation/uninstallation process. They are also used by the Airy CLI and are useful to check the file structure as well as ensure correct install/uninstall order.

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