Version: latest

Add a Custom Pack

You can add a custom pack to Palette to add new integrations or applications to your cluster profiles.

further guidance

Check out the tutorial Deploy a Custom Pack to learn how to deploy a custom pack to a custom registry.

Prerequsites

The following items are required to create a custom pack.

ORAS CLI v1.0.0 or the Spectro Cloud CLI if you are using the legacy Spectro Registry. We recommend using Oras CLI with an Open Container Initiative (OCI) compliant registry.
A custom Pack registry registered in Palette. Check out the following guides for additional help on how to set up a custom pack registry:

JSON Schema

Each pack contains a metadata file named pack.json. The table below explains in greater detail the JSON schema attributes.

Property Name	Data type	Required	Description
name	String	True	Name of the pack
displayName	String	True	Name of the pack as it is to be displayed on the Palette management console.
layer	String	True	Relevant layer that this pack should be part of; such as os, k8s, cni, csi, addon
addonType	String	False	Addon-type must be set for packs that have the layer set to Addon. The value must be one of the following: logging, monitoring, load balancer, authentication, ingress, security. Setting a relevant correct addon type ensures packs are organized correctly on the management console making it easy for profile authors to find packs.
version	String	True	A Semantic version for the pack. It is recommended that the pack version be the same as the underlying integration it is being created for. For example, the version for the pack that will install Prometheus 2.3.4, should set to 2.3.4.
cloudTypes	Array	True	You can provide one or more types for a pack. Supported values are as follows: all, aws, azure, gcp, tencent, vsphere, openstack, baremetal, maas, aks, eks, tke, edge, edge-native, coxedge, and libvirt (virtualized edge).
group	String	False	Optional categorization of packs. For example, LTS can be set for Ubuntu OS packs.
annotations	Array	False	Optional key-value pairs required during pack installation. Typically, custom packs do not need to set annotations. Some packs like the ones for OS require annotations that need to be set with an image id.
eol	String	False	End of life date for integration.
KubeManifests	Array	False	Relative path to Kubernetes manifest yaml files.
charts	Array	False	Relative path to the helm chart archives.

The following is the JSON schema for packs. Review the schema to ensure your JSON configuration is defined correctly.

{
  "type": "object",
  "required": ["name", "displayName", "version", "layer"],
  "properties": {
    "name": {
      "$ref": "#/definitions/nonEmptyString"
    },
    "displayName": {
      "$ref": "#/definitions/nonEmptyString"
    },
    "version": {
      "$ref": "#/definitions/nonEmptyString"
    },
    "layer": {
      "$ref": "#/definitions/layer"
    },
    "group": {
      "type": "string"
    },
    "cloudTypes": {
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "type": "string",
        "enum": [
          "all",
          "aws",
          "azure",
          "gcp",
          "vsphere",
          "openstack",
          "baremetal",
          "maas",
          "aks",
          "eks",
          "tencent",
          "tke",
          "edge",
          "libvirt",
          "edge-native",
          "coxedge"
        ]
      }
    },
    "cloudType": {
      "type": "string",
      "enum": [
        "all",
        "aws",
        "azure",
        "gcp",
        "vsphere",
        "openstack",
        "baremetal",
        "maas",
        "aks",
        "eks",
        "tencent",
        "tke",
        "edge",
        "libvirt",
        "edge-native",
        "coxedge"
      ]
    },
    "eol": {
      "type": "string"
    },
    "addonType": {
      "type": "string"
    },
    "addonSubType": {
      "type": "string"
    },
    "charts": {
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "type": "string"
      }
    },
    "kubeManifests": {
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "type": "string"
      }
    },
    "annotations": {
      "type": "object",
      "additionalProperties": {
        "type": "string"
      }
    },
    "constraints": {
      "$ref": "#/definitions/constraints"
    }
  },
  "definitions": {
    "nonEmptyString": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 1
    },
    "layer": {
      "type": "string",
      "enum": ["kernel", "os", "k8s", "cni", "csi", "addon"]
    },
    "constraints": {
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "dependencies": {
          "type": "array",
          "items": {
            "$ref": "#/definitions/dependency"
          }
        },
        "resources": {
          "type": "array",
          "items": {
            "$ref": "#/definitions/resource"
          }
        }
      }
    },
    "dependency": {
      "type": "object",
      "required": ["packName", "layer", "type"],
      "properties": {
        "packName": {
          "$ref": "#/definitions/nonEmptyString"
        },
        "layer": {
          "$ref": "#/definitions/layer"
        },
        "minVersion": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "maxVersion": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "type": {
          "type": "string",
          "enum": ["required", "optional", "notSupported", "upgrade"]
        }
      }
    },
    "resource": {
      "type": "object",
      "required": ["type"],
      "properties": {
        "type": {
          "type": "string",
          "enum": ["cpu", "memory", "diskSize"]
        },
        "minLimit": {
          "type": "number"
        },
        "components": {
          "type": "array",
          "items": {
            "$ref": "#/definitions/component"
          }
        }
      }
    },
    "component": {
      "type": "object",
      "required": ["scheduleType"],
      "properties": {
        "scheduleType": {
          "type": "string",
          "enum": ["all", "control-plane", "worker"]
        },
        "resourceRequestParamRef": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "replicaCountParamRef": {
          "type": "string"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Create a Custom Pack

Follow the steps below to create a custom pack.

Create a directory with a suitable name for all the pack contents.

Example: prometheus_1_0

Create a metadata file named pack.json to describe the pack.

Example:

{
  "annotations": {
    "name": "value"
  },
  "displayName": "<PACK_DISPLAY_NAME>",
  "eol": "2028-04-30",
  "group": "<PACK_GROUP>",
  "kubeManifests": ["manifests/deployment.yaml"],
  "layer": "<LAYER>",
  "name": "<PACK_NAME>",
  "version": "<PACK_VERSION>"
}

Create a file named values.yaml. This file consists of configurable parameters that need to be exposed to the end-users during the creation of a cluster profile.

info

A values.yaml file is mandatory for every pack. For an OS pack, there are typically no configurable parameters, but an empty file still needs to be added to the OS pack.

Parameters for all charts, manifests, and Ansible roles defined in the pack are defined in the values.yaml file. Helm charts natively support values override. Any values defined are merged with those defined within a chart. Manifests and Ansible roles need to be explicitly templatized if parameter configuration is desired.

    pack:
        namespace : <default namespace for charts and manifests>
    charts:
        chart1:
        <configurable chart1 parameters>
        chart2:
        <configurable chart2 parameters>
    manifests:
        manifest1:
            <templatized manifest1 parameters>
        manifest2:
            <templatized manifest2 parameters>
    ansibleRoles:
        role1:
        <templatized role1 parameters>
        role2:
            <templatized role2 parameters>

A pack must have the logo file named logo.png and must be copied into the pack directory.
Login to the pack registry using the following command:
```
 spectro registry login [REGISTRY_SERVER]
```

Push the newly defined pack to the pack registry using the following command:

 spectro pack push [PACK_DIR_LOCATION] --registry-server [REGISTRY_SERVER]

To overwrite contents of a previously deployed pack, use the force option as follows:
```
 spectro pack push [PACK_DIR_LOCATION] -f --registry-server [REGISTRY_SERVER]
```

Adding an OS Pack

The OS is one of the Core Layers in a cluster profile. An OS pack can be built to use a custom OS image for cluster nodes. This might be desirable if an organization wants to use an approved hardened OS image for their infrastructure. There are typically the following two scenarios for the OS image:

Pre-Installed Kubernetes - The OS image has the desired version of Kubernetes components like kubelet, kubectl, etc installed.
Vanilla OS Image - Kubernetes components are not installed.

Additionally, for both scenarios additional components or packages may need to be installed at runtime to prepare the final OS image. This can be done by specifying one or more Ansible roles in the pack. The following are a few examples of building custom OS pack to cover the some of these scenarios.

A few sample pack manifests for building a custom OS pack are shown in the following examples. These are examples for images that do not have Kubernetes components pre-installed. Palette installs these components at the time of provisioning. The version of Kubernetes that gets installed depends on the Kubernetes pack configuration in the cluster profile. If Kubernetes is pre-installed in the image, set the flag skipK8sInstall to true.

Examples

AWS Custom OS Pack
Azure Custom OS Pack
VMware Custom OS Pack

AWS Custom-OS Pack

{
  "annotations":
    {
      "cloudRegion": "us-east-1",
      "imageId": "ami-071f6fc516c53fca1",
      "imageOwner": "421085264799",
      "osName": "centos",
      "os_spectro_version": "0",
      "sshUsername": "centos",
      "skipK8sInstall": "false",
    },
  "cloudTypes": ["aws"],
  "displayName": "CentOS",
  "eol": "2024-06-30",
  "group": "",
  "kubeManifests": [],
  "layer": "os",
  "name": "golden-centos-aws",
  "version": "7.7.1908",
}

Azure Custom OS Pack

{
  "annotations":
    {
      "imageOffer": "CentOS",
      "imagePublisher": "OpenLogic",
      "imageSKU": "7.7",
      "osName": "centos",
      "os_spectro_version": "0",
      "sshUsername": "centos",
      "skipK8sInstall": "true",
    },
  "cloudTypes": ["azure"],
  "displayName": "CentOS",
  "eol": "2024-06-30",
  "group": "",
  "kubeManifests": [],
  "layer": "os",
  "name": "golden-centos-azure",
  "version": "7.7.1908",
}

VMware Custom OS Pack - Local Image

{
  "annotations":
    {
      "folder": "spectro-templates",
      "imageId": "/Datacenter/vm/spectro-templates/base-images/centos-7-vanilla-with-vm-tools",
      "osName": "centos",
      "os_spectro_version": "0",
      "sshPassword": "password",
      "sshUsername": "root",
      "skipK8sInstall": "false",
    },
  "cloudTypes": ["vsphere"],
  "displayName": "CentOS",
  "eol": "2024-06-30",
  "group": "",
  "kubeManifests": [],
  "layer": "os",
  "name": "golden-centos-vsphere",
  "version": "7.7.1908",
}

VMware Custom OS Pack - Remote Image

{
  "annotations":
    {
      "folder": "spectro-templates",
      "imageId": "https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/18.04/release/ubuntu-18.04-server-cloudimg-amd64.ova",
      "osName": "ubuntu",
      "os_spectro_version": "0",
      "sshUsername": "ubuntu",
      "skipK8sInstall": "false",
    },
  "cloudTypes": ["vsphere"],
  "displayName": "Ubuntu",
  "eol": "2028-04-30",
  "group": "LTS",
  "kubeManifests": [],
  "layer": "os",
  "name": "golden-ubuntu-vsphere",
  "version": "18.04.4",
}

Prerequsites​

JSON Schema​

Create a Custom Pack​

Adding an OS Pack​

Examples​

AWS Custom-OS Pack​

Azure Custom OS Pack​

VMware Custom OS Pack - Local Image​

VMware Custom OS Pack - Remote Image​