Use kubectl to Create an Aerospike Cluster on Kubernetes

To deploy an Aerospike Database Enterprise Edition (EE) cluster with AKO, create an Aerospike custom resource (CR) file with the cluster parameters, such as the number of nodes, Aerospike configuration, and system resources. Then use kubectl to apply that configuration file to your Kubernetes cluster(s). The Aerospike Kubernetes Operator can deploy multiple Aerospike clusters within a single Kubernetes namespace, or in multiple namespaces.

Requirements

Before deploying your Aerospike cluster, install the Aerospike Kubernetes Operator on your Kubernetes cluster(s) using either:

OLM
Helm

1. Prepare the namespace

We recommend not using the Aerospike Kubernetes Operator’s namespace for your clusters. Instead, use at least one namespace called aerospike for Aerospike clusters.

If this is the first cluster being launched, create and provide access for AKO to use this namespace.

You can use the kubectl or akoctl tools to grant permissions for the aerospike namespace.

kubectl
akoctl

Create the Kubernetes namespace if not already created.
```
kubectl create namespace aerospike
```

Create a service account.

kubectl -n aerospike create serviceaccount aerospike-operator-controller-manager

Create a RoleBinding or ClusterRoleBinding to attach this service account to the aerospike-cluster ClusterRole. This ClusterRole is created as part of AKO installation and grants Aerospike cluster permissions to the service account.
- For using the Kubernetes native, pod-only network to connect to the Aerospike cluster, create a RoleBinding with the following command:
```
kubectl -n aerospike create rolebinding aerospike-cluster --clusterrole=aerospike-cluster --serviceaccount=aerospike:aerospike-operator-controller-manager
```
- For connecting to the Aerospike cluster from outside Kubernetes, create a ClusterRoleBinding with the following command:
```
kubectl create clusterrolebinding aerospike-cluster --clusterrole=aerospike-cluster --serviceaccount=aerospike:aerospike-operator-controller-manager
```
  Tip
  For attaching multiple service accounts of different namespaces at one time, add multiple --serviceaccount parameters to the previous command.
  Example: To attach service accounts of the aerospike and aerospike1 namespaces:
  kubectl create clusterrolebinding aerospike-cluster --clusterrole=aerospike-cluster --serviceaccount=aerospike:aerospike-operator-controller-manager --serviceaccount=aerospike1:aerospike-operator-controller-manager
If the required ClusterRoleBinding already exists in the cluster, edit it to attach a new service account.
```
kubectl edit clusterrolebinding aerospike-cluster
```
The kubectl edit command launches an editor. Append the following lines to the subjects section:
```
kind: ServiceAccount
```
```
name: aerospike-operator-controller-manager
```
```
namespace: aerospike
```
Save and ensure that the changes are applied.

For instructions on installing the akoctl plugin, see akoctl installation.

For using the Kubernetes native, pod-only network to connect to the Aerospike cluster, grant namespace scope permissions:
```
kubectl akoctl auth create -n aerospike --cluster-scope=false
```
For connecting to the Aerospike cluster from outside Kubernetes, grant cluster scope permissions:
```
kubectl akoctl auth create -n aerospike
```
To grant permissions for multiple namespaces at the same time, specify a comma-separated namespace list with the -n flag.
```
kubectl akoctl auth create -n aerospike,aerospike1
```

2. Prepare the Aerospike cluster configuration

The Aerospike Kubernetes Operator GitHub repository contains example YAML CR files for the cluster deployment. These files are located in the main Aerospike Kubernetes Operator repository.

The use case for your cluster will help you determine which configuration parameters you need to set in the CR file.

3. Configure persistent storage

Persistent storage on the pods support a variety of storage class provisioners.

Aerospike provides sample storage class files in the GitHub repository available for download here: Sample storage classes Apply one of the following sample storage classes based on your Kubernetes environment:

EKS: kubectl apply -f eks_ssd_storage_class.yaml
GCE: kubectl apply -f gce_ssd_storage_class.yaml
Microk8s: kubectl apply -f microk8s_filesystem_storage_class.yaml

These file paths assume that you are running commands from the folder containing the files. If not, replace the file name with the full path to the sample file.

See Storage Provisioning for more details on configuring persistent storage.

4. Create secrets

Create secrets to set up features like the feature-key file (features.conf), Aerospike authentication, TLS, and the cluster admin password. See the Manage TLS Certificates section for more details.

The example secrets directory on GitHub includes a collection of example TLS certificates and security credentials.

Download these files into a local folder called secrets, then apply them as a Kubernetes Secret:

kubectl  -n aerospike create secret generic aerospike-secret --from-file=secrets

Create a Secret containing the password for the Aerospike cluster admin:

kubectl  -n aerospike create secret generic auth-secret --from-literal=password='admin123'

5. Create Aerospike cluster custom resource (CR)

See cluster configuration settings for details on the parameters available in the Aerospike cluster CR file. You can find sample Aerospike cluster CR files for different configurations in the main Aerospike Kubernetes Operator repository.

You can edit the CR file at any time to make changes and manage the Aerospike cluster.

6. Deploy the Aerospike cluster

To deploy a non-root Aerospike cluster, see Create Non-root Aerospike Cluster.

Use the custom resource YAML file (CR file) you created to deploy an Aerospike cluster. If you don’t have a CR file, you can choose one of the sample files in the main Aerospike Kubernetes Operator repository.

For example, to use the dim_nostorage_cluster_cr.yaml file, download it and apply it to your cluster with:

kubectl apply -f dim_nostorage_cluster_cr.yaml

7. Verify cluster status

Use kubectl get statefulset to ensure AKO creates the StatefulSets for the custom resource.

Output:

$ kubectl get statefulset -n aerospike
NAME      READY   AGE
aerocluster-0   2/2     24s

Use kubectl get pods to check the pods to confirm the status. This step may take time as the pods provision resources, initialize, and are ready. Wait for the pods to switch to the Running state before you continue.

Output:

$ kubectl get pods -n aerospike
NAME          READY   STATUS      RESTARTS   AGE
aerocluster-0-0     1/1     Running     0          48s
aerocluster-0-1     1/1     Running     0          48s

If the Aerospike cluster pods do not switch to Running status in a few minutes, refer to the Troubleshooting Guide.