Install SUSE Observability

Before you start

Extra notes for installing on:

Before you start the installation of SUSE Observability:

  • Check the requirements to make sure that your Kubernetes environment fits the setup that you will use (recommended, minimal or non- high availability).

  • Check that you have the required permissions.

  • Add the SUSE Observability helm repository to the local helm client:

helm repo add suse-observability https://charts.rancher.com/server-charts/prime/suse-observability
helm repo update

Install SUSE Observability

For environments without internet access, also known as air-gapped environments, first follow these extra instructions.

Also, make sure to follow the air-gapped installation instructions whenever those are present for a step.

  1. Create the namespace where SUSE Observability will be installed

  2. Generate baseConfig_values.yaml and sizing_values.yaml

  3. Set up a storage class

  4. Deploy SUSE Observability with Helm

  5. Access the SUSE Observability UI

Create namespace

Start by creating the namespace where you want to install SUSE Observability and deploy the secret in that namespace. In our walkthrough we will use the namespace suse-observability:

kubectl create namespace suse-observability

Generate baseConfig_values.yaml and sizing_values.yaml

The baseConfig_values.yaml file is required to deploy StackState with Helm. It contains your StackState license key, StackState Receiver API key and other important information. The sizing_values.yaml file is recommended to deploy StackState with Helm as it contains information about the resources that StackState will be provisioned with according to the size on the landscape you want to observe. The affinity_values.yaml file contains Kubernetes affinities to deploy SUSE Observability with different scheduling options.

Before you continue: Make sure you have the latest version of the Helm charts with helm repo update.

You can generate the SUSE Observability baseConfig_values.yaml, sizing_values.yaml, and affinity_values.yaml files by running a separate Helm Chart. This is the suse-observability/suse-observability-values chart. A sample command line is:

export VALUES_DIR=.
helm template \
  --set license='<your license>' \
  --set baseUrl='<suse-observability-base-url>' \
  --set sizing.profile='<sizing.profile>' \
  suse-observability-values \
  suse-observability/suse-observability-values --output-dir $VALUES_DIR

This command generates the files $VALUES_DIR/suse-observability-values/templates/baseConfig_values.yaml, $VALUES_DIR/suse-observability-values/templates/sizing_values.yaml, and $VALUES_DIR/suse-observability-values/templates/affinity_values.yaml. These contain the necessary configuration for installing the SUSE Observability Helm Chart.

The SUSE Observability administrator passwords will be autogenerated by the above command and are output as comments in the generated basicConfig.yaml file. The actual values contain the bcrypt hashes of those passwords so that they’re securely stored in the Helm release in the cluster.

The values that can be passed to this chart are:

Configuration Value Description

Basic Config generate

basicConfig.generate

Switch on or off the generation of the basicConfig_values.yaml file.

Receiver API Key

receiverApiKey

The API key used by SUSE Observability to receive data from agents. This is a secret key that should be kept private. If you omit this, a random key will be generated for you.

Base URL

baseUrl

The <STACKSTATE_BASE_URL>. The external URL for SUSE Observability that users and agents will use to connect. For example https://suse-observability.internal. If you haven’t decided on an Ingress configuration yet, use http://localhost:8080. This can be updated later in the generated file.

Username and password**

-u -p

The username and password used by SUSE Observability to pull images. For air-gapped environments these need to be the username and password for the local contaier registry.

License key

license

The SUSE Observability license key.

Default password

adminPassword

The password for the default user (admin) to access SUSE Observability’s UI. If you omit this, a random password will be generated for you. If you do pass this value and it’s not bcrypt hashed, the chart will hash it for you.

Image Registry

imageRegistry

The registry where the SUSE Observability images are hosted. If not provided, the default value will be 'quay.io'

Pull Secret Username

pullSecret.username

The username used to pull images from the Docker registry where the SUSE Observability images are hosted. Only needed for custom registries.

Pull Secret Password

pullSecret.password

The password used to pull images from the Docker registry where the SUSE Observability images are hosted. Only needed for custom registries.

Sizing generate

sizing.generate

Switch on or off the generation of the sizing_values.yaml file.

Sizing profile

sizing.profile

OneOf trial, 10-nonha, 20-nonha, 50-nonha, 100-nonha, 150-ha, 250-ha, 500-ha. Based on these profiles, you can generate the sizing_values.yaml file containing default sizes for the SUSE Observability resources and configuration to deploy in HA or Non-HA mode. For example, 10-nonha produces a sizing_values.yaml to deploy a NonHa SUSE Observability instance to observe a 10 node cluster in a Non High availability mode. Currently, moving from a Non-HA to an HA environment is not possible. If you expect that your environment will require observing around 150 nodes, then it’s better to go with HA immediately.

Pod AntiAffinity

affinity.podAntiAffinity.requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution

Enforce that the replicas of the same data services are scheduled to different Kubernetes nodes. Only applicable for HA profiles. Either true or false. The default is true - scheduling to different nodes is enforced.

Store the generated basicConfig.yaml and sizing_values.yaml files safely. You can reuse these files for upgrades, saving time and ensuring that SUSE Observability continues to use the same API key. This is desirable as it means Agents and other data providers for SUSE Observability won’t need updating. You can regenerate the files independently using the switches basicConfig.generate=false and sizing.generate=false to disable any of them while still keeping the previously generated version of the file in the output-dir.

The SUSE Observability Values chart generates affinity configurations that you can use with the main SUSE Observability chart to control pod scheduling behavior. Refer to Configure Kubernetes Affinities documentation for more information.

Set up a storage class

You need to set up a storage class. Rancher’s local-path is recommended if available, but SUSE Storage is also supported. Edit the file $VALUES_DIR/suse-observability-values/templates/baseConfig_values.yaml to add the "storageClass" configuration:

# Source suse-observability-values/templates/baseConfig_values.yaml
global:
  imageRegistry: "registry.rancher.com"
  storageClass: "local-path" # New configuration line, the rest remains the same

Deploy SUSE Observability with Helm

The recommended deployment of SUSE Observability is a production ready, high availability setup with many services running redundantly. If required, it’s also possible to run SUSE Observability in a non-redundant setup, where each service has only a single replica. This setup is only recommended for a test environment.

For air-gapped environments follow the instructions for the air-gapped installations.

  • Setup

  • Air-gapped setup

To deploy SUSE Observability on Kubernetes:

  1. Before you deploy:

  2. Deploy the latest SUSE Observability version to the suse-observability namespace with the following command:

helm upgrade \
  --install \
  --namespace suse-observability \
  --values $VALUES_DIR/suse-observability-values/templates/baseConfig_values.yaml \
  --values $VALUES_DIR/suse-observability-values/templates/sizing_values.yaml \
  --values $VALUES_DIR/suse-observability-values/templates/affinity_values.yaml \
suse-observability \
suse-observability/suse-observability

To deploy SUSE Observability in an air-gapped setup on Kubernetes:

  1. Before you deploy:

  2. Deploy the latest SUSE Observability version to the suse-observability namespace with the following command:

helm upgrade \
  --install \
  --namespace suse-observability \
  --values local-docker-registry.yaml \
  --values $VALUES_DIR/suse-observability-values/templates/baseConfig_values.yaml \
  --values $VALUES_DIR/suse-observability-values/templates/sizing_values.yaml \
  --values $VALUES_DIR/suse-observability-values/templates/affinity_values.yaml \
suse-observability \
suse-observability/suse-observability

After the install, the SUSE Observability release should be listed in the SUSE Observability namespace and all pods should be running:

# Check the release is listed
helm list --namespace suse-observability

# Check pods are running
# It may take some time for all pods to be installed or available
kubectl get pods --namespace suse-observability

Access the SUSE Observability UI

After SUSE Observability has been deployed you can check if all pods are up and running:

kubectl get pods --namespace suse-observability

When all pods are up, you can enable a port-forward:

kubectl port-forward service/<helm-release-name>-suse-observability-router 8080:8080 --namespace suse-observability

For the ingress configuration, generate the file $VALUES_DIR/suse-observability-values/templates/ingress_values.yaml and add the below code.

Remember to set a secret for the TLS configuration. For details on how to do that, consult the kubectl documentation.

 
ingress:
  enabled: true
  class: ""
  annotations:
    nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-body-size: "50m"
    nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/ssl-redirect: "true"
    #if external dns (cloudflare and similars) configure:
    #external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/target: <INGRESS_FQDN>
    #external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/ttl: "60"
    #end if
  host:  <SUSE_OBSERVABILITY_HOST>
  tls:
  - hosts:
    - <SUSE_OBSERVABILITY_HOST>
    secretName: suse-private-ai-tls
  existingSecret: suse-private-ai-tls
  # Set up your secrets in whichever way feels fit. Check k8s docs for details: https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/kubectl/generated/kubectl_create/kubectl_create_secret_tls/

Proceed to run an upgrade to apply ingress configuration:

helm upgrade --namespace suse-observability --reuse-values --values suse-observability-values/templates/ingress_values.yaml suse-observability suse-observability/suse-observability

If you are not using an external DNS, add to your local machine /etc/hosts: <CLUSTER_IP> <SUSE_OBSERVABILITY_HOST>.

SUSE Observability will now be available in your browser at https://localhost:8080. Log in with the username admin and the default password provided in the values.yaml file.

Next steps are