On-Prem Deployment & Installation

Introduction

vuLauncher is a specialized application designed to facilitate the installation of vuSmartMaps™  within a customer managed kubernetes cluster or Virtual Machine (VM) based environment only. It offers a user-friendly graphical user interface (UI) through which users can input essential details about the target environment.

Pre-requisites

Before utilizing vuLauncher, ensure the following prerequisites are met:

1. Kubernetes nodes / VMs and Storage provisioned as per storage sizing requirements .
2. We should have a “/var” partition in all VMs with minimum 20GB storage  

💡Note: Ensure that all the partitions are being used by the same user and user group.

Please follow the below steps to own the partitions by the same user and user group.

1. 1. Create the group using – groupadd rvunet
   2. Add the users to the group

• • • usermod -aG rvunet root
    • usermod -aG rvunet vunet

1. 3. To change the group ownership of /data, run the following command

• • • chown -R :rvunet /data

1. 4. Set group write permissions accordingly

• • • chmod -R g+w /data

1. 5. Set the setgid bit for the same partition

• • • chmod g+s /data

3. Create 2 more mount points, if you wish to store Hyperscale data for a longer duration and follow the above steps to own the partitions.
4. Supported OS

1. 1. Ubuntu – 20.04, 22.04
   2. RHEL –   8.x
   3. Oracle Linux – 7.x,8.x

Access Requirements

Before proceeding, ensure that the following ports are properly configured on your system.

External Communication

External Access Requirements to download vuSmartMaps binary (for installations and during upgrades)

Along with above whitelisting, Internet access is required on the kubernetes nodes or VMs during the installation. This is required for installing any missing Linux Package dependencies. If complete internet access is not feasible, applicable package managers (apt, dpkg, yum, dnf, rpm, zypp, pacman, portage, apk-tools, xbps, pkgtools or nix) to be whitelisted. We recommend package manager URLs to be allowed post installation as well to manage upgrades.

Generic External Access Requirements

Data Source specific Access Requirements for telemetry collection

Intra Cluster Communication

Within the vuSmartMaps cluster, various services including Kubernetes control plane interact across nodes. This requires the respective communication ports (TCP) to be opened.

It is preferred that there is unrestricted across nodes within the cluster. However, if access control policies are in place using Firewalls or hypervisors, the following communication ports are to be opened.

Node Types – there will be two types of nodes (Virtual Machines) allocated for vuSmartMaps installation.

• vuSiteManager VM. This VM runs in the installation, management and self monitoring software and is sitting outside the vuSmartMaps Kubernetes cluster. This VM requires access to nodes/services in vuSmartMaps Kubernetes cluster for installation, deployment, management and monitoring.
• vuSmartMaps Nodes. These are the VMs in vuSmartMaps cluster running vuSmartMaps services.

Ports/Communication between vuSiteManager VM and vuSmartMaps VMs

Ports/Communication between all vuSmartMaps VMs

💡Note: For a single node deployment, ports should be opened internally on the same node. In case of multi node deployment, ports should be opened internally on all the nodes including sitemanager and launcher VMs. Apart from Traefik, other services can’t switch to other ports if there is a conflict with default ports. So, for this release, the default service ports will be used.

Single Node Installation

You must have access to the VM with the minimal configuration mentioned in the prerequisites below. You should have the ‘ssh’ credentials/key to be able to ssh to the virtual machine. The OS of the VM should be linux.

Downloading the binary

1. Create a folder in the home directory and download the NG installation binary using the below command

• wget https://download.vunetsystems.com/_Downloads_/_vuDocker_/vuSmartMaps_NG_2_11.tar.gz  –user=<username> –password=<password>  –no-check-certificate

💡Note: If you don’t have access to the download server, download the binaries directly from this URL 

Please check with [email protected] for getting the credentials for Download server.

2. Extract the tar file using

• • tar -xvzf vuSmartMaps_NG_2_11.tar.gz

3. Once extracted, start the launcher, using

• •  ./build/launcher_linux_x86_64

4. Once the launcher has started successfully, access the launcher User Interface from a web browser using the link available.

Welcome Page

• This will be the starting page for Installation.
• Click on Proceed to install button, to start with the actual NG installation.  

Upload License

1. Here you need to provide a valid license. This license file will contain the services that are going to be installed along with its required resources.
2. Upload the valid license and click on Continue.

💡Note: Please get the updated license file from [email protected]

Installation Environment

1. Here, you will be prompted to select your installation environment choice
2. Select installation environment as Virtual Machine.
3. Click the Continue button to proceed further.

Configure VM

1. Here you need to provide the VM Credentials, along with either private key or password-based authentication details.
2. Under the IP Address section. Add the Public IP address of the VM where you want to install the vuSmartMaps.
3. After providing the credentials, the metrics for the VM will be displayed on the right-hand side.
4. Verify the VM details and click on Continue.

💡Note: The VM Credentials would be shared, along with the VM details.

Configure Data Store

For Hyperscale data tier configuration, we have below options:

1. Hot: Most frequently used data will be stored here, so preferably choose a storage class which has high Disk IOPS.
2. Warm: The data which is not mostly accessed will be stored in warm disk space. So a default storage class would be sufficient.
3. Cold: This is where we will store data for Archival purposes. We store this data in S3 bucket (Minio).
4. In this step, we need to select the Nodes where we have the Hot, Warm, and Cold mounts available. And based on this section, the storage classes will be configured and used for storing data in the Hyperscale database.
5. Based on the requirements, choose the disk(s) required for the installation and click on Continue.

💡Note: HOT Disk should always be selected.

Configure Disk

1. Based on the previous step, 3 storage classes will be configured for each type of storage. Accordingly we need to assign the storage class and encryption setting for each disk.
2. Along with the disk storage, select Encrypted option here for the Hyperscale disk settings and click on Continue.

💡Note: Since, we’ve only one mount point, we’re going with only Hot disk configuration. Select Warm as Longhorn-hdd and Cold as Longhorn-archive incase if 2 more mount points are added.

Mapping

VM to Service Mapping (with advanced Configuration)

1. Here you can override the Service mapping to VM
2. By default, the vulauncher installation script will allocate resources to the available VM in the best possible way. Click on Continue if you’re fine with the default allocation.
3. If the user wishes to override, they can click the ‘Edit’ button. This will prompt them with a list of VMs, where they can increase or decrease the count as needed.
4. In the Advanced Configuration section, choose the set of VMs for a service. If a VM goes down, then kubernetes will choose the given set of VMs to bring up this service.  By default, all the nodes are chosen. 

Customize

1. Here users can override the port that the service is running on.
2. There may be cases where your enterprise requires you to run standard services on non standard ports. Please configure the port for these services here.
3. To override, click the edit button of the respective service, and then write the required port number
4. Click Continue to proceed.

Install

1. Here this page shows the summary of the information that the user provided.
2. You can click the edit button on the details page, to move back to their respective section and override the change.
3. You can also click the name of the stepper window to move.
4. Then click Continue, to start the deployment procedure.

💡Note: Once you start the deployment, you cannot edit the configuration you provided.

Installation Process

1. The installation shows each event that is going to be performed.
2. Users can click Cancel Installation to stop the ongoing installation. Additionally, they can retry if the process is halted or if the installation stops.

💡Note: If for some reasons, your browser or laptop closes and you lose this page, please execute this command and restart your configuration deployment. Please restart launcher using ./build/launcher_linux_x86_640

3. Once the installation is successful, a prompt will open. Here, users can click Go to vuSmartMaps, and it will redirect to the vuSmartMaps login page.

4. Use the Login credentials displayed here, to login to the UI.

Post Deployment Steps

Once the deployment is successful, run the following command in the master node to own the kube config file and to list the storage classes

• sudo chown -R vunet:vunet /etc/kubernetes/admin.conf
• kubectl get sc

Along with the above, please verify the below scenarios

Default Timezone 

Each vuSmartMaps installation will have a default timezone configured in the About page. By default, this is set to UTC. This time zone serves as the base timezone for the platform and can only be updated by the Admin. The default timezone is used for:

• The user interface (observability): viewing Alerts, Dashboards, Reports, Log Analytics, and downloading Reports and Dashboards as PDFs with a Global timeselector.
• Scheduling: The timezone for the scheduled time for Alerts and Reports.
• Distributed channels: Timezone of the content sent via Emails, SMS, WhatsApp,ITSM, etc.

User specific Timezone

User-specific timezones can also be configured by each user from the Profile page,allowing customization of the timezone settings for individual preferences while the platform-wide operations adhere to the default timezone.

To specify the user-specific timezone, navigate to the User-Specific Timezone icon at the top right, which displays the timezone set by the user in their profile.

You can change this timezone by navigating to the profile section.

Select your desired timezone from the User Specific Timezone dropdown menu, and the system will update to reflect the chosen timezone.

Default Retention Settings

Each vuSmartMaps installation will have default data retention settings available under Platform Settings -> Data Retention -> Hyperscale DataStore.

Update the default settings accordingly as per the requirements

Multi-Node Installation

You must have access to the VM with the minimal configuration mentioned in the prerequisites below. You should have the ‘ssh’ credentials/key to be able to ssh to the virtual machine.

In the case of vuSmartMaps multi-node cluster installation, it is recommended to have a separate node apart from all vuSmartMaps nodes where we will run vuLauncher and vuSiteManager.

A dedicated VM for SiteManager with a minimum configuration of 200GB disk space, 16 cores, and 64GB RAM. This VM must have connectivity to all other nodes where vuSmartMaps will be installed. The OS of the VM should be linux.

License configuration will be different for multi node installation, please check with [email protected] for getting the license according to the installation environment.

A  user with passwordless sudo privilege to be present on all the VMs in the case of multi node deployment.

Ensure uniform credentials across all VMs i.e. same password or private key across all VMs

💡Note: For a multi node deployment, ports should be opened internally on all the nodes including sitemanager and launcher VMs. Apart from Traefik, other services can’t switch to other ports if there is a conflict with default ports. So, for this release, the default service ports will be used.

Downloading the binary

1. Create a folder in the home directory and download the NG installation binary using the below command

• wget https://download.vunetsystems.com/_Downloads_/_vuDocker_/vuSmartMaps_NG_2_11.tar.gz  –user=<username> –password=<password>  –no-check-certificate

💡Note: If you don’t have access to the download server, download the binaries directly from this URL 

Please check with [email protected] for getting the credentials for Download server.

2. Extract the tar file using

• • tar -xvzf vuSmartMaps_NG_2_11.tar.gz

3. Once extracted, start the launcher, using

• •  ./build/launcher_linux_x86_64

4. Once the launcher has started successfully, access the launcher User Interface from a web browser using the link available.

Welcome Page

• This will be the starting page for Installation.
• Click on Proceed to install button, to start with the actual NG installation.  

Upload License

1. Here you need to provide a valid license. This license file will contain the services that are going to be installed along with its required resources.
2. Upload the valid license and click on Continue.

💡Note: Please get the updated license file from [email protected]

Please mention the number of nodes when requesting the license, you’re using in case of multi node deployment.

Installation Environment

1. Here, you will be prompted to select your installation environment choice
2. Select installation environment as Virtual Machine.
3. Click the Continue button to proceed further.

Configure VM

1. Here you need to provide the VM Credentials, along with either private key or password-based authentication details. Ensure that password less connection is there for all the VMs.
2. Under the IP Address section. Add the Public IP address of all the VMs where you want to install the vuSmartMaps.
3. After providing the credentials, the metrics for the VM will be displayed on the right-hand side.
4. Verify the VM details and click on Continue.

Configure Data Store

For Hyperscale data tier configuration, we have below options:

1. Hot: Most frequently used data will be stored here, so preferably choose a storage class which has high Disk IOPS.
2. Warm: The data which is not mostly accessed will be stored in warm disk space. So a default storage class would be sufficient.
3. Cold: This is where we will store data for Archival purposes. We store this data in S3 bucket (Minio).
4. In this step, we need to select the Nodes where we have the Hot, Warm, and Cold mounts available. And based on this section, the storage classes will be configured and used for storing data in the Hyperscale database.
5. Based on the requirements, choose the disk(s) required for the installation and click on Continue.

💡Note: HOT Disk should always be selected.

In the case of multi node installation, select the Data Store configuration accordingly.

Configure Disk

1. Based on the previous step, 3 storage classes will be configured for each type of storage. Accordingly we need to assign the storage class and encryption setting for each disk.
2. Along with the disk storage, select Encrypted option here for the Hyperscale disk settings and click on Continue.

💡Note: Since, we’ve only one mount point, we’re going with only Hot disk configuration. Select Warm as Longhorn-hdd and Cold as Longhorn-archive incase if 2 more mount points are added.

Mapping

VM to Service Mapping (with advanced Configuration)

1. Here you can override the Service mapping to VM
2. By default, the vulauncher installation script will allocate resources to the available VM in the best possible way. Click on Continue if you’re fine with the default allocation.
3. If the user wishes to override, they can click the ‘Edit’ button. This will prompt them with a list of VMs, where they can increase or decrease the count as needed.
4. In the Advanced Configuration section, choose the set of VMs for a service. If a VM goes down, then kubernetes will choose the given set of VMs to bring up this service.  By default, all the nodes are chosen. 

Customize

1. Here users can override the port that the service is running on.
2. There may be cases where your enterprise requires you to run standard services on non standard ports. Please configure the port for these services here.
3. To override, click the edit button of the respective service, and then write the required port number
4. Click Continue to proceed.

Install

1. Here this page shows the summary of the information that the user provided.
2. You can click the edit button on the details page, to move back to their respective section and override the change.
3. You can also click the name of the stepper window to move.
4. Then click Continue, to start the deployment procedure.

💡Note: Once you start the deployment, you cannot edit the configuration you provided.

Installation Process

1. The installation shows each event that is going to be performed.
2. Users can click Cancel Installation to stop the ongoing installation. Additionally, they can retry if the process is halted or if the installation stops.

💡Note: If for some reasons, your browser or laptop closes and you lose this page, please execute this command and restart your configuration deployment. Please restart launcher using ./build/launcher_linux_x86_640

3. Once the installation is successful, a prompt will open. Here, users can click Go to vuSmartMaps, and it will redirect to the vuSmartMaps login page.

4. Use the Login credentials displayed here, to login to the UI.

Post Deployment Steps

Follow the below steps in the master node, once the deployment is successful.

1. To find out which node is the master node, execute the following command in the node where the Kubernetes cluster is running.

• • kubectl get nodes -n vsmaps

In the above output, the e2e-69-187 node is the master node, since the Role is assigned as Master.

2. Run the command below from the command line to access kubectl cli.

– echo unset KUBECONFIG >> ~/.bash_profile

3. Run the following command in the master node to own the kube config file and to list the storage classes-kubectl get sc

Along with the above, please verify the below scenarios

Default Timezone 

Each vuSmartMaps installation will have a default timezone configured in the About page. By default, this is set to UTC. This time zone serves as the base timezone for the platform and can only be updated by the Admin. The default timezone is used for:

• The user interface (observability): viewing Alerts, Dashboards, Reports, Log Analytics, and downloading Reports and Dashboards as PDFs with a Global timeselector.
• Scheduling: The timezone for the scheduled time for Alerts and Reports.
• Distributed channels: Timezone of the content sent via Emails, SMS, WhatsApp,ITSM, etc.

User specific Timezone

User-specific timezones can also be configured by each user from the Profile page,allowing customization of the timezone settings for individual preferences while the platform-wide operations adhere to the default timezone.

To specify the user-specific timezone, navigate to the User-Specific Timezone icon at the top right, which displays the timezone set by the user in their profile.

You can change this timezone by navigating to the profile section.

Select your desired timezone from the User Specific Timezone dropdown menu, and the system will update to reflect the chosen timezone.

Default Retention Settings

Each vuSmartMaps installation will have default data retention settings available under Platform Settings -> Data Retention -> Hyperscale DataStore.

Update the default settings accordingly as per the requirements

Upcoming Enhancements

Anticipate the following improvements in future releases:

1. Enhanced UI experience.
2. Log downloading in case of installation failure.
3. Provision of an executable build instead of a tar file.
4. Support for different authentication keys for each VM.
5. Implementation of HTTPS security.
6. Integration of fasthttp for improved performance.

Further Reading

• Deployment On Existing Kubernetes Cluster
• Deployment On AWS-Elastic Kubernetes Service

FAQs