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Version: 1.49

Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP)

This guide will walk you through the process of installing Okteto on a Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP) workload cluster.

Okteto is a supported platform on NKP. NKP provides the cluster and its infrastructure (storage, networking, and load balancing), and Okteto runs on top of it as a regular Helm-based application, giving your developers and their AI agents on-demand development and preview environments.

Supported configurations​

NKP manages clusters on several infrastructure providers. Okteto only depends on standard Kubernetes capabilities that NKP provides natively on all of them: a default storage class backed by a CSI driver, a CNI, and a LoadBalancer service implementation.

ConfigurationStatus
NKP 2.17 workload clusters on Amazon EKSValidated
NKP workload clusters on Nutanix AHV, AWS, Azure, AKS, GCP, vSphere, and pre-provisioned infrastructureSupported. Meets the same requirements and follows the same steps
Air-gapped NKP installationsNot covered by this guide. Contact us to plan your installation

Install Okteto on an NKP workload cluster, not on the NKP management cluster. The management cluster runs Kommander and the Cluster API controllers, and it should stay dedicated to managing your fleet.

Installation Requirements​

Before you start, make sure you have the following CLIs installed in your machine:

You'll also need the following:

  • An Okteto License
  • A Domain and the ability to create wildcard DNS records for it
  • An NKP management cluster, and a workload cluster managed by it

Getting your Okteto License​

A license is mandatory to use Okteto. You'll receive a license key as part of your subscription to Okteto. If you haven't received it, please open a support ticket.

If you are interested in evaluating Okteto, sign up for our Free Tier (5 seats, 1 year). No credit card required.

A Domain and the ability to create wildcard DNS records for it​

You'll need sufficient access to a subdomain to add a wildcard DNS record, such as dev.example.com. By default, all endpoints created by Okteto for your development environments will be exposed on the wildcard subdomain you choose.

NKP doesn't create this record for you, so make sure you can add it in your DNS provider.

Prepare your NKP workload cluster​

Our installation guides assume Okteto will be running in a new dedicated workload cluster.

note

If you plan on installing Okteto in an existing workload cluster with other workloads, read this section to make sure your cluster satisfies the requirements to install Okteto.

Create the workload cluster​

Create a workload cluster from your NKP management cluster using the NKP Dashboard or the nkp create cluster command for your infrastructure provider. Follow the NKP documentation for the provider-specific options.

For initial evaluation, we recommend a node pool of 3 worker nodes with 4 vCPUs, 16 GB of memory, and 250 GB of disk each (for example, m5.xlarge on AWS).

note

Okteto supports Kubernetes versions 1.34 through 1.36. Check the supported Kubernetes versions for the Okteto Helm chart version you plan to install, and choose an NKP release that ships a compatible Kubernetes version.

For example, to create a workload cluster on Amazon EKS from your management cluster:

export CLUSTER_NAME="okteto"
export WORKSPACE_NAMESPACE="<your-workspace-namespace>"

nkp create cluster eks \
  --cluster-name=${CLUSTER_NAME} \
  --namespace=${WORKSPACE_NAMESPACE} \
  --region=<your-aws-region> \
  --worker-instance-type=m5.xlarge \
  --worker-replicas=3 \
  --kubeconfig=<management-cluster-kubeconfig>

Clusters created from the management cluster are attached to its workspace automatically, so they show up in the NKP Dashboard and receive the workspace platform applications.

Get the workload cluster kubeconfig​

Retrieve the kubeconfig of the workload cluster from the management cluster:

nkp get kubeconfig \
  --cluster-name=${CLUSTER_NAME} \
  --namespace=${WORKSPACE_NAMESPACE} \
  --kubeconfig=<management-cluster-kubeconfig> > ${CLUSTER_NAME}.conf

export KUBECONFIG=$(pwd)/${CLUSTER_NAME}.conf
kubectl get nodes

All the commands below run against the workload cluster.

tip

On Amazon EKS, the kubeconfig returned by nkp get kubeconfig authenticates with aws-iam-authenticator. If you don't have it installed, generate the kubeconfig with aws eks update-kubeconfig --name <eks-cluster-name> --region <your-aws-region> instead.

Verify the default storage class​

Okteto uses persistent volumes to persist the cache of the Okteto Build service (BuildKit). The default installation also uses persistent volumes to store your container images in the Okteto Registry.

NKP deploys a CSI driver and a default storage class on every cluster. Confirm there is one marked as (default):

kubectl get storageclass

The name depends on your infrastructure provider:

Infrastructure providerDefault storage class
Nutanix AHVnutanix-volume
AWS / Amazon EKSebs-sc
Azure / AKSazuredisk-sc
GCPcsi-gce-pd
vSpherevsphere-raw-block-sc
warning

On pre-provisioned clusters, NKP uses the localvolumeprovisioner storage class, which Nutanix doesn't recommend for production. Configure a production-grade CSI driver as the default storage class before installing Okteto.

Verify load balancer support​

Okteto exposes its ingress controller using a Kubernetes LoadBalancer service. Make sure your workload cluster can allocate an external address for it:

  • Nutanix AHV, vSphere, and pre-provisioned clusters: NKP uses MetalLB. NKP's own Traefik ingress already takes one address from the MetalLB range, so make sure the range has at least one more free IP address for Okteto.
  • Cloud providers (AWS, EKS, Azure, AKS, GCP): the cloud provider allocates a load balancer automatically.

NKP clusters use Cilium as the CNI, with kube-proxy replacement enabled. We recommend setting externalTrafficPolicy: Local on the Okteto ingress controller service so the load balancer only sends traffic to nodes that run an ingress controller pod. The configuration below already includes it.

Installing Okteto​

note

If you already use Argo CD, or you want a GitOps-based installation, you can install Okteto with Argo CD instead of running Helm directly. Argo CD deploys the same Helm chart declaratively. See Configure Argo CD for the Application manifest, sync policy, and the ignoreDifferences Okteto requires. It replaces Add the Okteto Helm repository and Installing the Okteto Helm chart. Every other step on this page still applies, including the DNS record, sign-in, and CLI context.

Okteto is installed using a Helm chart. Let's start the process:

Add the Okteto Helm repository​

You'll need to add the Okteto Helm repository to be able to install Okteto:

helm repo add okteto https://charts.okteto.com
helm repo update

Create the Helm configuration file​

In order to install Okteto you need to first create a config.yaml for the installation process. Replace license and subdomain with your own values, and pick the configuration for your infrastructure provider:

config.yaml
license: "REPLACE ME WITH YOUR OKTETO LICENSE"
subdomain: "REPLACE ME WITH YOUR OKTETO DOMAIN"

ingress-nginx:
  controller:
    service:
      externalTrafficPolicy: Local

registry:
  storage:
    filesystem:
      persistence:
        enabled: true

MetalLB assigns the next free address in its range to the Okteto ingress controller. To request a specific address, add the metallb.universe.tf/loadBalancerIPs: <ip-address> annotation under ingress-nginx.controller.service.annotations.

Note: This is the minimum configuration. Check our Helm configuration docs to learn more

Okteto installs its own NGINX ingress controller, which runs alongside the Traefik ingress that NKP deploys on every cluster. The two don't conflict: Okteto only manages ingresses for the endpoints of your development environments.

Installing the Okteto Helm chart​

Install the latest version of Okteto by running:

helm upgrade --install okteto okteto/okteto -f config.yaml --namespace=okteto --create-namespace --version=1.49.0

After a few seconds, all the resources will be created. The output will look something like this:

Release "okteto" has been installed. Happy Helming!
NAME: okteto
LAST DEPLOYED: Thu Mar 26 18:07:55 2020
NAMESPACE: okteto
STATUS: deployed

Retrieve the Ingress Controller address​

Use kubectl to fetch the address allocated to the NGINX Ingress Controller installed as a part of Okteto:

kubectl get service -l=app.kubernetes.io/name=ingress-nginx,app.kubernetes.io/component=controller --namespace=okteto

The output will look something like this:

NAME                             TYPE           CLUSTER-IP   EXTERNAL-IP    PORT(S)                                     AGE
okteto-ingress-nginx-controller  LoadBalancer   10.0.7.73    10.38.12.151   80:30795/TCP,443:32481/TCP,1234:30885/TCP   5m

Take the EXTERNAL-IP value and add a wildcard DNS record for the domain you have chosen to use:

  • If it's an IP address (MetalLB), create an A record with the name * pointing to it.
  • If it's a hostname (for example, an AWS NLB), create a CNAME record with the name * pointing to it, or an alias record if your DNS provider supports it.

Sign in to your Okteto instance​

warning

Important: The default installation is not recommended for production use. We highly advise configuring a wildcard certificate and Okteto Registry storage after finishing your evaluation and giving your team access to your Okteto instance.

NKP deploys cert-manager on workload clusters by default, so you can follow the cert-manager and Let's Encrypt guide without installing cert-manager yourself. Only create the DNS01 Issuer and the wildcard Certificate.

After a successful installation, you can access your Okteto instance at https://okteto.SUBDOMAIN. Your account will be automatically created as part of the login process. The first user to successfully login into the instance will be automatically assigned the administrator role.

Configure the Okteto CLI​

Install the Okteto CLI if you haven't done it yet and set the Okteto CLI context with your Okteto instance. To do this, run the command below replacing SUBDOMAIN:

okteto context use https://okteto.SUBDOMAIN

Once your Okteto instance is up and running and your Okteto CLI properly configured, you are going to deploy your first app to Okteto 😎

Support for joint Okteto and Nutanix customers​

Okteto and Nutanix work together to support joint customers. If you run into an issue installing or operating Okteto on NKP, open a support ticket with Okteto. When an issue involves the NKP layer, we'll coordinate with Nutanix to resolve it.