Install Palette on VMware

Palette can be installed on VMware vSphere with internet connectivity or in an airgap environment. When you install Palette, a three-node cluster is created. You use the interactive Palette CLI to install Palette on VMware vSphere. Refer to Access Palette for instructions on requesting repository access.

Prerequisites

tip

We recommend using the --validate flag with the ec install command to validate the installation. Check out the Validate Environment section of the EC command for more information.

• An AMD64 Linux environment with connectivity to the VMware vSphere environment.

• Docker or equivalent container runtime installed and available on the Linux host.

• Palette CLI installed and available. Refer to the Palette CLI Install page for guidance.

• Review the required VMware vSphere permissions. Ensure you have created the proper custom roles and zone tags.

• We recommended the following resources for Palette. Refer to the Palette size guidelines for additional sizing information.

  • 8 CPUs per VM.

  • 16 GB Memory per VM.

  • 100 GB Disk Space per VM.

• The following network ports must be accessible for Palette to operate successfully.

  • TCP/443: Inbound to and outbound from the Palette management cluster.

  • TCP/6443: Outbound traffic from the Palette management cluster to the deployed cluster's Kubernetes API server.

• The network IP address range you specify during the installation must not overlap with any existing IP addresses in your environment. The IP address range must also have connectivity to the VMware vSphere environment.

• Ensure you have an SSL certificate that matches the domain name you will assign to Palette. You will need this to enable HTTPS encryption for Palette. Reach out to your network administrator or security team to obtain the SSL certificate. You need the following files:

  • x509 SSL certificate file in base64 format.

  • x509 SSL certificate key file in base64 format.

  • x509 SSL certificate authority file in base64 format. This file is optional.

• Zone tagging is required for dynamic storage allocation across fault domains when provisioning workloads that require persistent storage. Refer to Zone Tagging for information.

• Assigned IP addresses for application workload services, such as Load Balancer services.

• Ensure Palette has access to the required domains and ports. Refer to the Required Domains section for more information.

• Shared Storage between VMware vSphere hosts.

info

Self-hosted Palette installations provide a system Private Cloud Gateway (PCG) out-of-the-box and typically do not require a separate, user-installed PCG. However, you can create additional PCGs as needed to support provisioning into remote data centers that do not have a direct incoming connection from the Palette console. To learn how to install a PCG on VMware, check out the VMware guide.

Deployment

The video below demonstrates the installation wizard and the prompts you will encounter. Take a moment to watch the video before you begin the installation process. Make sure to use values that are appropriate for your environment. Use the three-dots Menu in the lower right corner of the video to expand the video to full screen and to change the playback speed.

Use the following steps to install Palette.

1. Log in to your vCenter environment.

2. Create a vSphere VM and Template folder with the name spectro-templates. Ensure this folder is accessible by the user account you will use to deploy the Palette installation.

3. Find the OVA download URL corresponding to your Palette version in the Kubernetes Requirements section. Use the identified URL to import the Operating System and Kubernetes distribution OVA required for the install. Place the OVA in the spectro-templates folder.

4. Append an r_ prefix to the OVA name and remove the .ova suffix after the import. For example, the final output should look like r_u-2204-0-k-12813-0. This naming convention is required for the install process to identify the OVA. Refer to the Supplement Packs page for a list of additional OVAs you can download and upload to your vCenter environment.

   tip

   You can also use the Deploy OVF Template wizard in vSphere to make the OVA available in the spectro-templates folder. Append the r_ prefix, and remove the .ova suffix when assigning a name and target location. You can terminate the deployment after the OVA is available in the spectro-templates folder. Refer to the Deploy an OVF or OVA Template guide for more information about deploying an OVA in vCenter.

5. Open a terminal window and invoke the Palette CLI by using the ec command to install the enterprise cluster. The interactive CLI prompts you for configuration details and then initiates the installation. For more information about the ec subcommand, refer to Palette Commands.

   palette ec install

   You can also use the --validate flag to validate the installation prior to deployment. Refer to the Validate Environment section of the EC command for more information.

   palette ec install --validate

6. At the Enterprise Cluster Type prompt, choose Palette.

7. Type y if you want to use Ubuntu Pro. Otherwise, type n. If you choose to use Ubuntu Pro, you will be prompted to enter your Ubuntu Pro token.

8. Choose VMware vSphere as the cloud type. This is the default.

9. Type an enterprise cluster name, or use the default value. Your VM instances will use this name as a prefix.

10. When prompted, enter the information listed in each of the following tables.

    Environment Configuration

    Parameter	Description
    HTTPS Proxy	Leave this blank unless you are using an HTTPS Proxy. This setting will be propagated to all EC nodes and all of its target cluster nodes. Example: https://USERNAME:PASSWORD@PROXYIP:PROXYPORT.
    HTTP Proxy	Leave this blank unless you are using an HTTP Proxy. This setting will be propagated to all EC nodes and all of its target cluster nodes. Example: http://USERNAME:PASSWORD@PROXYIP:PROXYPORT.
    No Proxy	You will be prompted to provide a list of local network CIDR addresses, hostnames, and domain names that should be excluded from being a proxy. This setting will be propagated to all the nodes to bypass the proxy server. Example if you have a self-hosted environment: my.company.com,10.10.0.0/16
    Proxy CA Certificate Filepath	The default is blank. You can provide the filepath of a CA certificate on the installer host. If provided, this CA certificate will be copied to each host in the PCG cluster during deployment. The provided path will be used on the PCG cluster hosts. Example: /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/ca.crt.
    Pod CIDR	Enter the CIDR pool IP that will be used to assign IP addresses to pods in the EC cluster. The pod IP addresses should be unique and not overlap with any machine IPs in the environment.
    Service IP Range	Enter the IP address range that will be used to assign IP addresses to services in the EC cluster. The service IP addresses should be unique and not overlap with any machine IPs in the environment.

11. Choose the image registry configuration. By default, our support team will provide you with the credentials for the AWS ECR registry that contains the packs. Use the following table for guidance.

    Pack & Image Registry Configuration

    Parameter	Description
    Registry Type	Specify the type of registry. Allowed values are OCI or OCI ECR. Select OCI ECR if you received credentials for the ECR registry from support.
    Registry Name	Enter the name of the registry.
    Registry Endpoint	Enter the registry endpoint.
    Registry Base Path	Enter the registry base path. Use the value production if you are using the Palette AWS ECR registry.
    Allow Insecure Connection	Bypasses x509 verification. Type y.
    Registry CA certificate filepath	Specify the file path to the certificate authority. Use absolute paths.
    Registry Username or Registry Access Key	Enter the registry username or the access key if using OCI ECR.
    Registry Password or Registry Secret Key	Enter the registry password or the secret key if using OCI ECR.
    Registry Region	Enter the registry region. Use us-east-1 unless told otherwise by our support team. This option is only available if you are using OCI ECR.
    ECR Registry Private	Type y as the OCI ECR registry requires credentials.
    Pull images from public registries	Type y to use a public registry for images.

    When prompted to Pull images from public registry, type y.

12. The next set of prompts asks for the VMware vSphere account information. Enter the information listed in the table below.

    VMware vSphere Account Information

    Parameter	Description
    vSphere Endpoint	VMware vSphere endpoint. Must be a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) or IP address without a scheme - that is, without an IP protocol, such as https://. Example: vcenter.mycompany.com.
    vSphere Username	VMware vSphere account username.
    vSphere Password	VMware vSphere account password.
    Allow Insecure Connection	Bypasses x509 verification. Type Y if using a VMware vSphere instance with self-signed Transport Layer Security (TLS) certificates. Otherwise, type n.

    VMware vSphere Cluster Configuration

    This information determines where Palette will be deployed in your VMware vSphere environment. The Palette CLI will use the provided VMware credentials to retrieve information from your VMware vSphere environment and present options for you to select from.

    Parameter	Description
    Datacenter	The installer retrieves the Datacenter automatically.
    Folder	Select the folder that contains the VM instance.
    Image Template Folder	Select the folder that contains the CAPI image templates.
    Cluster	Select the cluster where you want to deploy Palette.
    Network	Select the network where you want to deploy Palette.
    Resource Pool	Select the resource pool where you want to deploy Palette.
    Datastore	Select the datastore where you want to deploy Palette.
    Fault Domains	Configure one or more fault domains by selecting values for these properties: Cluster, Network (with network connectivity), Resource Pool, and Storage Type (Datastore or VM Storage Policy). Note that when configuring the Network, if you are using a distributed switch, choose the network that contains the switch.
    NTP Servers	You can provide a list of Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers.
    SSH Public Keys	Provide any public SSH keys to access your Palette VMs. This option opens up your system's default text editor. Vi is the default text editor for most Linux distributions. To review basic vi commands, check out the vi Commands reference.

13. Specify the IP pool configuration. The placement type can be Static or Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). Choosing static placement creates an IP pool from which VMs are assigned IP addresses. Choosing DHCP assigns IP addresses using DNS.

    Static Placement Configuration

    Parameter	Description
    IP Start range	Enter the first address in the EC IP pool range.
    IP End range	Enter the last address in the EC IP pool range.
    Network Prefix	Enter the network prefix for the IP pool range. Valid values are in [0, 32]. Example: 18.
    Gateway IP Address	Enter the IP address of the static IP gateway.
    Name servers	Comma-separated list of DNS name server IP addresses.
    Name server search suffixes	An optional comma-separated list of DNS search domains.

14. The last set of prompts are for the vSphere machine and database configuration. Use the following table for guidance.

    vSphere Machine Configuration

    Parameter	Description
    Small	Deploy VM nodes with 8 CPU, 16 GB memory, 60 GB storage. The database specs are 20 GB database with 2 CPU limit and 4 GB memory limit.
    Medium	Deploy VM nodes with 16 CPU, 32 GB memory, 100 GB storage. The database specs are 60 GB database with 4 cpu limit and 8 GB memory limit.
    Large	Deploy VM nodes with 32 CPU, 64 GB memory, 120 GB storage. The database specs are 80 GB database with 8 CPU limit and 16 GB memory limit.
    Custom	Deploy VM nodes with custom CPU, memory, storage, database size, CPU limit, and memory limit. If you specify custom, you will be prompted for the CPU, memory, and storage.

    Additional vSphere Machine Configuration

    Parameter	Description
    Node Affinity	Select the node affinity. Enter y to schedule all Palette pods on control plane nodes.

    The installation process stands up a kind cluster locally that will orchestrate the remainder of the installation. The installation takes some time to complete.

    The Palette CLI creates a file named ec.yaml that contains the information you provided the wizard, and its location is displayed in the terminal. Credentials and tokens are encrypted in the YAML file.

    ==== Enterprise Cluster config saved ====
    Location: :/home/spectro/.palette/ec/ec-20230706150945/ec.yaml
    tip

    If an error occurs during installation, remove the kind cluster that was created and restart the installation. To remove the kind cluster, issue the following command. Replace spectro-mgmt-cluster with the name of your cluster if you used a different name.

    kind delete cluster spectro-mgmt-cluster

    Restart the install process by referencing the ec.yaml file that was created during the first installation attempt. For example:

    palette ec install --config-file /home/spectro/.palette/ec/ec-20230706150945/ec.yaml

    When the installation is complete, Enterprise Cluster Details that include a URL and default credentials are displayed in the terminal. You will use these to access the Palette system console.

    ===========================================
    ==== Enterprise Cluster System Console ====
    ===========================================
    Console URL: https://10.10.100.0/system
    Username:    ************
    Password:    ************
    
    The first of three Enterprise Cluster nodes is online and will now provision nodes two and three.
    
    It will take another ~30-45 minutes for the installation to complete.
    
    You can monitor its progress via kubectl/k9s or by viewing the System Console.
    
    export KUBECONFIG=/ubuntu/.palette/ec/ec-20231012215923/spectro_mgmt.conf

15. To avoid potential vulnerabilities, once the installation is complete, remove the kind images that were installed in the environment where you initiated the installation.

    Issue the following command to list all instances of kind that exist in the environment.

    docker images

    REPOSITORY     TAG        IMAGE ID       CREATED        SIZE
    kindest/node   v1.26.13   131ad18222cc   5 months ago   910MB

    Then, use the following command template to remove all instances of kind.

    docker image rm kindest/node:<version>

    Consider the following example for reference.

    docker image rm kindest/node:v1.26.13

    Untagged: kindest/node:v1.26.13
    Untagged: kindest/node@sha256:15ae92d507b7d4aec6e8920d358fc63d3b980493db191d7327541fbaaed1f789
    Deleted: sha256:131ad18222ccb05561b73e86bb09ac3cd6475bb6c36a7f14501067cba2eec785
    Deleted: sha256:85a1a4dfc468cfeca99e359b74231e47aedb007a206d0e2cae2f8290e7290cfd

16. Log in to the system console using the credentials provided in the Enterprise Cluster Details output. After login, you will be prompted to create a new password. Enter a new password and save your changes. Refer to the password requirements documentation page to learn more about the password requirements.

    Use the username admin and your new password to log in to the system console. You can create additional system administrator accounts and assign roles to users in the system console. Refer to the Account Management documentation page for more information.

    info

    The first time you visit the Palette system console, a warning message about an untrusted SSL certificate may appear. This is expected, as you have not yet uploaded your SSL certificate to Palette. You can ignore this warning message and proceed.

    

17. After login, a Summary page is displayed. Palette is installed with a self-signed SSL certificate. To assign a different SSL certificate you must upload the SSL certificate, SSL certificate key, and SSL certificate authority files to Palette. You can upload the files using the Palette system console. Refer to the Configure HTTPS Encryption page for instructions on how to upload the SSL certificate files to Palette.

18. The last step is to start setting up a tenant. To learn how to create a tenant, check out the Tenant Management guide.

    

Validate

You can verify the installation is successful if you can access the system console using the IP address provided in Enterprise Cluster Details and if the Summary page displays the Go to Tenant Management button.

You can also validate that a three-node Kubernetes cluster is launched and Palette is deployed on it.

1. Log in to the vCenter Server by using vSphere Client.

2. Navigate to your vSphere Datacenter and locate your Palette VM instances. The VMs are prefixed with the name you provided during the installation. For example, if you provided spectro-mgmt-cluster as the name, the VMs are named spectro-mgmt-cluster-, followed by a unique set of alphanumeric values. Verify three nodes are available.

3. Open a web browser session, and use the IP address provided in Enterprise Cluster Details at the completion of the installation to connect to the Palette system console. Copy the IP address to the address bar and append /system.

4. Log in using your credentials.

5. A Summary page will be displayed that contains a tile with a Go to Tenant Management button. After initial installation, the Summary page shows there are zero tenants.

Next Steps

You have successfully installed Palette in vSphere. Your next steps are to configure Palette for your organization. Start by creating the first tenant to host your users. Refer to Create a Tenant for instructions.

After you create the tenant, you are ready to configure authentication types in tenant settings and create users and teams.

Resources

• Palette CLI

• VMware System Requirements

• System Management

• Enterprise Install Troubleshooting