Download the configuration file

1. In Admin Manager, navigate to your target Groundplex and select it to display the Snaplex page.
2. In the Downloads tab, download the Configuration file or use the API api/1/rest/public/snaplex/config/<path_to_groundplex> to download the slpropz file.
   
   
   
   
3. Click Cancel to exit the screen.
4. Use the API to retrieve the information needed to configure a node on a Groundplex.
   1. GET https://{controlplane_path}/api/1/rest/public/snaplex/config/{plex_path}?{query_parameters}. An example would be similar to the path provided below: https://elastic.snaplogic.com/api/1/rest/public/snaplex/config/snaplogic/shared/MyGround
   2. Use the path retrieved from the API in the snaplogic_config_link parameter of the Helm chart. Learn more at Retrieve config info for a Groundplex and Download the slpropz configuration file
5. Set the parameter snaplogic_secret in the Helm chart YAML file to the name of the Kubernetes secret you create, as described in the Deploy the Helm Chart section.

Run the Snaplex with Org credentials

The Environment admin credentials are required to pull the .slpropz file for the Snaplex as regular users of an Org cannot spin up and run a Snaplex node. The admins also fetch the lastest Snaplex settings from the Snaplogic control plane at container start up time.

The enhanced encryption key is added separately, and enhanced encryption is configured through Manager. Learn more about Enhanced encryption. The admin credentials are required each time, because the Kubernetes pod pulls the .slpropz file at start-up. The Snaplex configuration files are accessed using the configure credentials and require minimum permissions to access the Environment.

Both the credentials for the SnapLogic Environment admin and the Enhanced encryption secret are in JSON format as key/value pairs.

1. Generate a key and encode it for each value. We recommend you use Base64 to encode the values.
2. To create the SnapLogic secret:
   • Create the YAML file with the following two keys, username and password as shown in the example YAML file:

     
     apiVersion: v1
     kind: Secret
     metadata:
       name: mysecret
     type: Opaque
     data:
       username: Base64 username
       password: Base64 password
     

     Tip: Run the following command to encode your username/password into the text of the secret:

     $ echo -n "snaplogic_username_or_password" | Base64

   • Run the following command: $ kubectl apply -f snaplogic_secret.yaml
     Important: If your password includes any of the following characters, you must escape the character with a backslash (\) in the string that you pass to the encoder:

     
     \ (backslash)
     $ (dollar sign)
     ' (apostrophe or single-quote)
     ` (backtick)
     " (double-quotes)
     & (ampersand)
     | (pipe symbol)
     ; (semicolon)
     ! (exclamation mark)
     For example, if your password is mypa$$word, pass the string mypa\$\$word to the Base64 encoder.               

3. (Optional) If Enhanced Encryption is enabled for your Org, create the Enhanced Encryption secret by running the following commands:

   $ kubectl create secret generic enhanced-encryption-secret --from-file=keystore_jks --from-file=keystore_pass

   $ kubectl apply -f enhanced_encryption_secret.yaml
4. After the secret is created, delete the YAML file because it is no longer needed.
   Important: Refer to the Kubernetes documentation regarding the management of the secret.
   You can now deploy the Helm Chart

Deploy the Helm chart

The following list describes each field parameter in the values.yaml file:

Example Helm chart

 
  # Default values for snaplogic-snaplex.
   # This is a YAML-formatted file.
   # Declare variables to be passed into your templates.

   # Regular nodes count
   jccCount: 1

   # Feedmaster nodes count
   feedmasterCount: 1

   # Docker image of SnapLogic snaplex
   image:
     repository: snaplogic/snaplex
     tag: latest

   # SnapLogic configuration link
   snaplogic_config_link: 

   # SnapLogic Org admin credential
   #snaplogic_secret:

   # Enhanced encryption secret
   #enhanced_encrypt_secret:

   # CPU and memory limits/requests for the nodes
   limits:
     memory: 8Gi
     cpu: 2000m
   requests:
   memory: 8Gi
   cpu: 2000m

   # Default file ulimit and process ulimit
   sl_file_ulimit: 8192
   sl_process_ulimit: 4096

   # Enable/disable startup, liveness and readiness probes
   probes:
     enabled: true

   # JCC HPA
   autoscaling:
     enabled: false

     minReplicas:
     maxReplicas:

     # Average count of Snaplex queued pipelines (e.g. targetPlexQueueSize: 5), leave empty to disable
     # To enable this metric, Prometheus and Prometheus-Adapter are required to install.
     targetPlexQueueSize:

     # Average CPU utilization (e.g. targetAvgCPUUtilization: 50 means 50%), leave empty to disable.
     # To enable this metric, Kubernetes Metrics Server is required to install.
     targetAvgCPUUtilization:

     # Average memory utilization (e.g. targetAvgMemoryUtilization: 50 means 50%), leave empty to disable.
     # To enable this metric, Kubernetes Metrics Server is required to install.
     targetAvgMemoryUtilization:

     # window to consider waiting while scaling up. default is 0s if empty.
     scaleUpStabilizationWindowSeconds:
     # window to consider waiting while scaling down. default is 300s if empty.
     scaleDownStabilizationWindowSeconds:

   # grace period seconds after JCC termination signal before force shutdown, default is 30s if empty.
   terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 900

   # Enable IPv6 service for DNS routing to Control plan
   enableIPv6: false

Steps

1. Configure the following parameters in the Helm chart and name the file values.yaml.
2. In the Helm chart console, run the following command: $ helm install snaplogic helm_chart_folder where helm_chart_folder is the Helm Chart ZIP file, which you can download from this document.
3. Run the Helm list command to determine the status of the deployment. The following sample output shows a successful deployment:
   
   
   
   
   Warning: If you deploy the Snaplex JCC nodes but resources in the Kubernetes environment are not available to fulfill the Helm Chart, then your deployment goes into a pending state until sufficient resources are available.
4. The following sample output shows the pending status of resources:
   
   
   
   After you deploy your Helm chart, you can deploy a load balancer.

Configure IPv6

• In the values.yaml file of the Helm chart, set the value enableIPv6: true.
• Set the global property for the jcc.k8s_subdomain_service in this format:
  • -- Helm Release Name -snaplogic-snaplex-ipv6.

Deploy a load balancer

To add load balancers to your JCC and FeedMaster nodes:

1. In the Helm console, run the Helm list command to list the services.
2. In SnapLogic Admin Manager, navigate to the Snaplexes and select the target Snaplex. The Update Snaplex screen displays.
3. On the Settings tab, specify the corresponding values in the following fields:
   • Load balancer: Specify the protocol and port number of the Snaplex JCC node. Refer to PORT(s) associated with snaplogic-snaplex-regular.
   • Ultra load balancer: Specify the protocol and port number of the FeedMaster node. Refer to PORT(s) associated with snaplogic-snaplex-feed.
   • Review the information and click Save. After the Snaplex and FeedMaster nodes are deployed, you can start designing and running pipelines and Tasks.

Best Practices

• Avoid running processes in the same container as the JCC so that the JCC has the maximum amount of memory available, as requested.
• Do not overwrite the global.properties option unless working with your CSM to customize your Groundplex.
• Request resources upfront. The requests determine the minimum required resources, while limits set the maximum resources a Container can consume. Setting them to the same amount ensures stability and exact resource usage. To do this, set the pod’s request and limit to the same value, as shown in the image below:
  
  
  
  

Installing utilities

For Kubernetes based deployments, users have to build images/containers that install the utilities in appropriate locations. Those images can use the official Snaplogic image as the base image.

When deploying the Snaplex to Kubernetes, the users would then use that image/container for deployment and have necessary dependencies and utilities in place.

FAQ

1. What constitutes the licensed node count for a Groundplex Kubernetes deployment?

   You can split the license volume across multiple Nodes and Pods as long as you do not exceed the allocated CPU and memory (for a 4-container configuration).

2. Which configuration would determine license compliance if a user is licensed for 4 8*32 nodes? Is it no of Nodes, Pods or Container?

   If a user is licensed for four 8*32 nodes, then they should deploy not more than four Kubernetes containers, each assigned no more than 8vCPU and 32GB RAM.

Downloads

Download and extract the following files, using the values.yaml file as the basis for your Helm Chart.

Download this Helm Chart.