Install Dash Enterprise on Google Kubernetes Engine (Multi-node)

This guide can help you if you are a new Dash Enterprise customer looking to start with a Dash Enterprise 5 installation, or if you are upgrading from Dash Enterprise 4.X.

For Dash Enterprise 4 installation instructions, see the Dash Enterprise 4 version.

About the Installation

Dash Enterprise 5 runs on Kubernetes, an open-source system that automates application lifecycles. Several managed services allow you to get started with Kubernetes-based software quickly. In this guide, you’ll learn how to install Dash Enterprise on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), available with a Google Cloud Platform (GCP) account.

In GKE, you work with a GKE cluster, which consists of multiple worker machines that are also called nodes. You host your GKE cluster inside a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), a virtual network dedicated to your GCP account.

Installing Dash Enterprise is an automated process. You use a bootstrap node to run Plotly-provided scripts that provision the infrastructure and install Dash Enterprise on it. A bootstrap node is a virtual machine (VM) whose only purpose is to run the scripts. After Dash Enterprise is installed, you can decommission it. Using fresh VMs is the best practice because the scripts are unlikely to run into errors caused by other installed software. This guide describes how to use GCP’s Compute Engine service to provision the bootstrap node (please reach out to our Customer Success team if you’re unable to use Compute Engine).

As part of the automated infrastructure provisioning, the GKE cluster is provisioned with the Google Cloud CLI gcloud container clusters create command. A VPC network is created if you don’t already have one, and a network load balancer is created as the main point of entry for all traffic directed towards Dash Enterprise.

Remember that these resources counts towards your GCP quotas. Review your billing and quotas if necessary.

The cluster nodes belong to a single availability zone (AZ). The Dash Enterprise core system isn’t currently configured for high availability; however, as long as the core system is available, Dash app developers can take advantage of features like app replicas to increase the availability of deployed apps. High availability for the core system may be supported in the future.

You’ll be installing Dash Enterprise as the single tenant on the GKE cluster—that is, no other software is installed on the cluster (except mandatory supporting software). Single-tenancy is well-suited for Dash Enterprise because it is a complex platform: Dash Enterprise interacts with the Kubernetes API to organize resources on the fly when developers perform tasks like deploying Dash apps and creating databases. Multi-tenancy is not currently supported.

Plotly uses Replicated to package and deliver Dash Enterprise. You’ll be interacting with the KOTS Admin Console, part of the Replicated toolset, in the configuration step of this installation. After the installation, you’ll continue to use the KOTS Admin Console for system administration such as performing Dash Enterprise upgrades.

Prerequisites

Here’s what you’ll need before you can start your Dash Enterprise installation:

• A workstation with internet access and a web browser.
• An SSH key pair.
• A wildcard or multi-domain TLS/SSL full certificate chain and unencrypted private key obtained from a globally trusted certificate authority (CA). The full certificate chain must be a .pem file in the following format:
  txt -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- <Your> -----END CERTIFICATE----- -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- <Your> -----END CERTIFICATE----- -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- <Your> -----END CERTIFICATE-----

Self-signed certificates, internally signed certificates, and using multiple certificates are not supported. If you obtained your certificate as multiple files, you need to combine them into a single .pem file. You can do this with cat server.pem intermediate.pem trustedroot.pem > fullchain.pem on Linux or copy server.pem+intermediate.pem+trustedroot.pem fullchain.pem on Windows, replacing the file names if yours are different.

You’ll upload the full certificate chain and unencrypted private key during the configuration, and they will be used to terminate TLS/SSL. If you need to preview the required DNS entries, go to Creating DNS Entries, but note that you’ll only be able to create them after the installation. * The following GCP resources:
* A GCP project.
* A service account with the predefined Kubernetes Engine Admin IAM role (roles/container.admin) and Service Account User role (roles/iam.serviceAccountUser) whose credentials you’ll use to provision the GKE cluster. Learn how to create a service account.
* A key file for the service account in JSON format that you’ll use to authenticate as the service account. Learn how to create a service account key.
* A user account with the Service Account User role (roles/iam.serviceAccountUser), required to manage the service account, and the Compute Instance Admin v1 (roles/compute.instanceAdmin.v1) role, required to create and manage the bootstrap node.
* The Google Cloud CLI is installed on your workstation and you are logged in with your user account.
* (If specifying an existing VPC network) Your VPC network adheres to the following outbound firewall rules at a minimum:

where <base-domain> is the base domain you chose for Dash Enterprise.

• (If specifying an existing VPC network) You have sufficient IP addresses available for Kubernetes to use internally. As a rule of thumb, we recommend 60 IP addresses times the number of nodes in your cluster. This corresponds to 240 IP addresses if your organization purchased the Standard offering of Dash Enterprise, or 600 IP addresses for Premium.

Calculating a more accurate IP requirement: Kubernetes needs one IP address for each service or pod. The Dash Enterprise core system uses 41 services and 103 (Standard) or 151 (Premium) pods. In addition, pods are created when Dash app developers perform certain actions. If you know about your organization’s intended usage of Dash Enterprise, such as how many apps and workspaces developers plan to create, you can calculate a more accurate IP requirement than the rule of thumb above.

Preparing Your Installation

Contact our Customer Success team to get started. We’ll ask you:

• The base domain you want for your Dash Enterprise instance. It must be a fully qualified domain name (FQDN).
• Whether your environment has any requirements (if your environment requires advanced configuration, an additional Support and Services Engagement may be required).
• How your organization plans to use Dash Enterprise and whether you need changes to the default gcloud container clusters create command, which defines the GKE cluster to be provisioned. Note that not all options for this command are supported by Plotly.
• The zone you want for the GKE cluster.
• The name you want for the GKE cluster.
• The scheme you want for your load balancer (internal or internet-facing).

Obtaining Your Installation Plan

When we have all the information we need, we’ll send you a zipped folder called your Installation Plan. Your Installation Plan is tailor-made based on your conversation with Customer Success and contains everything you need to install Dash Enterprise for your organization.

Your Installation Plan contains:

• Your infrastructure provisioning script, provision_infra_gcp.sh, containing the commands for provisioning the GKE cluster. The gcloud container clusters create command looks similar to the examples below:

• Your installation script, install_de_gcp.sh, containing the commands for installing Dash Enterprise and supporting software.
• Your Dash Enterprise license file.
• Your restore script, restore.sh, containing commands for provisioning a new GKE cluster and installing supporting software on it. This script is provided in the event that you back up Dash Enterprise and need to restore your data. It is not used for the installation.

Defining Variables in the Scripts

Open the infrastructure provisioning script. At the top, edit the following variable values:

• PROJECT_ID: The name of the GCP project you are using.
• SERVICE_ACCOUNT_KEYFILE: The path to the service account key file on the bootstrap node. You’ll move this key file to the home directory of the bootstrap node in a later step, so set this to /home/<username>/<file-name>, where <username> is the username in your SSH public key (comes before the @ in your email address) and <file-name> is the full name of the key file, including the .json extension.

Next, open the installation script. At the top, edit the following variable values:

• ADMIN_PASSWORD: The password you want to set for the KOTS Admin Console.

About storing and resetting this password: We recommend storing this password in your organization’s password manager, and giving access to any other members of your team who will be managing the Dash Enterprise system (notably performing upgrades and obtaining support bundles). This password is not retrievable with a kubectl command. It can be changed in the Admin Console UI by anyone who is able to log in with the current password. If lost, reset it by downloading the KOTS CLI and running kubectl kots reset-password plotly-system.

Preparing Your Bootstrap Node

In this step, you’ll use GCP’s Compute Engine service to provision a VM that runs on Ubuntu 20. This VM will serve as your bootstrap node.

To create a VM:

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the project that you want to use for your GKE cluster.

2. Go to Compute Engine.

3. Go to VM Instances; then select Create instance.

4. In Name, enter a name for your VM.

5. In Machine type, select e2-medium (2 vCPU, 4 GB memory).

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6. Configure the boot disk:

7. Under Boot disk, select Change. The Boot disk pane opens.

8. In Operating System, select Ubuntu.
9. In Version, select Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (x86).

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4. Select Select.

5. In Service account, select the service account you want to use.

6. Use the default settings for everything else or adjust them to your preference; then select Create.

7. Add your public SSH key to the bootstrap node:

8. Select your newly created VM; then select Edit.

9. Under Security and access, select Add item.
10. In SSH key 1, enter your SSH public key.
11. Select Save. The username and key are displayed under SSH keys. You’ll use this username when SSHing into the VM in a later step.

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10. Configure the firewall rules:

• Under Network interfaces, select the Network used by your VM instance.
• In the Firewalls tab, add an ingress firewall rule for port 8800 (required to port-forward the KOTS Admin Console) and, if not already present, an inbound port rule for port 22 (required to SSH into the VM).
• Go back to the list of VM instances. Next to your newly created VM, select More actions <img> > View network details.
• In the Firewall and routes details section, select the Firewall tab and check that ports 22 and 8800 are open. In the example below, we’ve named our rule for port 8800 “replicated-manager”.

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• If your organization uses outbound rules, then you’ll also need the following:

Moving Files to Your Bootstrap Node

In this step, you’ll move your infrastructure provisioning script, Dash Enterprise install script, and service account key file to the bootstrap node you’ve prepared. One way to do this is to use secure copy protocol (SCP).

To transfer your infrastructure provisioning script, Dash Enterprise install script, and service account key file from your workstation to your bootstrap node using SCP:

1. On your workstation, unzip your Installation Plan if it isn’t already.
2. Transfer the infrastructure provisioning script, Dash Enterprise install script, and service account key file to your bootstrap node’s home directory:

sh scp -i path/to/private/key path/to/installation/plan/{provision_infra_az,install_de_az}.sh path/to/service/account/key <username>@<bootstrap-ip>:.
where path/to/private/key is the path to the SSH private key corresponding to the public key you added to your bootstrap node, path/to/installation/plan is the path to your Installation Plan folder containing the provision_infra_gcp.sh and install_de_gcp.sh scripts, path/to/service/account/key is the path to your service account key file, <username> is the username displayed under SSH keys in your bootstrap node information, and <bootstrap-ip> is the external IP address displayed under Network interfaces in your bootstrap node information.

Provisioning and Installation

To provision the GKE cluster and install Dash Enterprise on it:

1. SSH into your bootstrap node:
   sh ssh -i path/to/private/key <username>@<bootstrap-ip>
   where path/to/private/key is the path to the SSH private key corresponding to the public key you added to your bootstrap node, <username> is the username displayed under your bootstrap node’s SSH keys, and <bootstrap-ip> is the external IP address displayed under Network interfaces.

2. In the home directory of your bootstrap node, run the infrastructure provisioning script:
   bash provision_infra_gcp.sh

The script takes several minutes to complete. Continue when you are returned to the command prompt.

3. In the home directory of your bootstrap node, run the Dash Enterprise installation script:
   bash install_de_gcp.sh

4. When you are prompted for the kots install location by Enter installation path (leave blank for /usr/local/bin), press Enter to accept the default.

5. When you are prompted to grant write permissions to /usr/local/bin, press y (you will not be prompted for a password).

The script takes several minutes to complete. Continue when you see the message Forwarding from 0.0.0.0:8800 -> 3000 (do not exit yet).

If you exit by mistake, restart the port-forward with kubectl port-forward -n plotly-system svc/kotsadm --address 0.0.0.0 8800:3000.

Configuration

Now that your GKE cluster is provisioned and Dash Enterprise is installed on it, you’re ready for configuration. The KOTS Admin Console will take you through uploading your Dash Enterprise license as well as your TLS/SSL certificate and key.

To access the KOTS Admin Console and configure Dash Enterprise:

1. On your workstation, go to http://<bootstrap-ip>:8800, where <bootstrap-ip> is the public IP address of your bootstrap node.
2. Enter the password that you set for ADMIN_PASSWORD in Defining Variables in the Scripts; then select Log in. You are prompted to upload your license.
3. Drag or browse to the license file in your Installation Plan; then select Upload license. The Admin Console opens to the Configure Dash Enterprise page.
4. Upload your TLS/SSL certificate and key.
5. Select Continue. The Admin Console runs preflight checks, which can take up to a few minutes.
6. Wait for the preflight checks to complete. If the results are all successful, select Continue. If you encounter an error, contact Customer Success.
   The Admin Console opens to the dashboard, where the status of the system is displayed. The system is not ready until DNS entries are created, so it is normal for the status to display “Missing” or “Unavailable”.
7. On your bootstrap node, press Ctrl+C to disconnect from the Admin Console for now (you can reconnect with kubectl port-forward -n plotly-system svc/kotsadm --address 0.0.0.0 8800:3000).

Creating DNS Entries

In this step, you’ll create the DNS entries according to your organization’s best practices.

To create the DNS entries for Dash Enterprise:

1. On your bootstrap node, get the load balancer IP:

sh kubectl get service -n plotly-system ingress-nginx-controller -o jsonpath='{.status.loadBalancer.ingress[0].ip}' && echo

2. Create the DNS entries according to the table below.

Your base domain is an A record whose value is the IP of the load balancer that you obtained in step 1. The sub-domains required for Dash Enterprise are CNAMES whose values are your base domain.

3. Once the DNS entries are created and propagated, go to the Admin Console using its sub-domain: https://admin-<your-dash-enterprise-server>.

Continue when the status in the Admin Console is Ready.

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Accessing Dash Enterprise

Before you can log in to Dash Enterprise at https://<your-dash-enterprise-server>, you’ll need to create a Dash Enterprise user in Keycloak. Keycloak is the identity and access management solution for Dash Enterprise.

You’ll be returning to Keycloak when you’re ready to configure authentication for Dash Enterprise. To learn about important settings and choose between different identity provider modes, go to Using Keycloak.

Obtaining and Storing the Keycloak Password

In this step, you’ll retrieve the Keycloak password that is stored as a secret in your cluster and save it according to your organization’s best practices.

To obtain and store the Keycloak password:

1. On your bootstrap node, retrieve the password to Keycloak (this displays the password in plain text):

sh kubectl get secret keycloak-secrets -n plotly-system -o jsonpath='{.data.KEYCLOAK_PASSWORD}' | base64 -d && echo

Note about recovering the Keycloak password: If you change this password via the Keycloak interface, it will no longer correspond to what is
stored in your cluster. We recommend keeping it as is so that you can always recover it with this kubectl get secret command.

2. Copy the password.
3. Add the password to your organization’s password manager or other secure storage, along with the username admin. You can share these credentials with other members in your organization who need to access Keycloak.

Creating Your Dash Enterprise Admin User

In this step, you’ll log in to Keycloak using the stored credentials and create a new user with the admin role. The admin role grants access to the Admin section of the Dash Enterprise App Manager, which you’ll use to configure system limits
in a later step. Learn more about the admin role.

To access Keycloak and create your admin user:

1. Go to https://auth-<your-dash-enterprise-server>
2. Select Administration Console.
3. Enter the Keycloak credentials that you obtained and stored.

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4. Select Sign In.

5. Make sure Dash is selected in the realm list in the top left corner.

   

6. Select Users > Add User.

7. In Username, enter the username you want to use.
8. Select Save. Additional settings become available.
9. Go to Credentials.
10. In Password and Password Confirmation, enter the password you want to use.
11. Select Set Password; then set password again to confirm.
12. Assign the admin role:
    1. Go to Role Mappings.
    2. In Client Roles, select dash.
    3. In Available Roles, select admin; then select Add selected. Note that if you intend on deploying Dash apps, you’ll also need the licensed_user role, and assigning this role consumes a license seat.

To log into Dash Enterprise with this user, go to https://<your-dash-enterprise-server> and enter the credentials that you saved in Keycloak. Dash Enterprise opens to the Portal. Go to the App Manager by selecting Apps > App Manager.

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You can now safely delete the VM that you used as your bootstrap node.

Setting System Limits

In this step, you’ll safeguard Dash Enterprise against usage that would cause the Kubernetes cluster to exceed the resources it can support. Specifically, you’ll add limits to the amount of pods and volumes (PVC) that can exist, temporarily preventing Dash app developers from performing actions that would create more pods and volumes on the cluster when the limit is reached. To do so, you’ll use the System Limits setting in the Admin section of the App Manager. To learn how to calculate and set limits that are appropriate for your cluster, go to Pod and Volume Limits.