Tanzu Service on VMware Cloud on AWS – Installing Tanzu Application Platform

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VMware Tanzu Application Platform is a modular, application detecting platform that provides a rich set of developer tools and a paved path to production to build and deploy software quickly and securely on any compliant public cloud or on-premises Kubernetes cluster.

Tanzu Application Platform delivers a superior developer experience for enterprises building and deploying cloud-native applications on Kubernetes. It enables application teams to get to production faster by automating source-to-production pipelines. It clearly defines the roles of developers and operators so they can work collaboratively and integrate their efforts.

Operations teams can create application scaffolding templates with built-in security and compliance guardrails, making those considerations mostly invisible to developers. Starting with the templates, developers turn source code into a container and get a URL to test their app in minutes.

Pre-requisite

  1. You should have created an account on Tanzu Network to download Tanzu Application Platform packages.
  2. Servers should have Network access to https://registry.tanzu.vmware.com
  3. A container image registry and access from K8s cluster, in my case i have installed “Harbor” with let’s encrypt certificate.
  4. Registry credentials with read and write access made available to Tanzu Application Platform to store images.
  5. Git repository for the Tanzu Application Platform GUI’s software catalogs, along with a token allowing read access.

Kubernetes cluster requirements

Installation requires Kubernetes cluster v1.20, v1.21, or v1.22 on Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Service on VMware Cloud on VMC as well as pod security policies must be configured so that Tanzu Application Platform controller pods can run as root. To set the pod security policies, run:

#kubectl create clusterrolebinding default-tkg-admin-privileged-binding --clusterrole=psp:vmware-system-privileged --group=system:authenticated

Install Cluster Essentials for VMware Tanzu

The Cluster Essentials for VMware Tanzu package simplifies the process of installing the open-source Carvel tools on your cluster. It includes a script that uses the Carvel CLI tools to download and install the server-side components kapp-controller and secretgen-crontroller on the targeted cluster. Currently, only MacOS and Linux are supported for Cluster Essentials for VMware Tanzu.

  • Sign in to Tanzu Network.
  • Navigate to Cluster Essentials for VMware Tanzu on VMware Tanzu Network.
  • on Linux, download tanzu-cluster-essentials-linux-amd64-1.0.0.tgz.
  • Unpack the TAR file into the tanzu-cluster-essentials directory by running:
#mkdir $HOME/tanzu-cluster-essentials
#tar -xvf tanzu-cluster-essentials-linux-amd64-1.0.0.tgz -C $HOME/tanzu-cluster-essentials
  • Configure and run install.sh using below commands:
#export INSTALL_BUNDLE=registry.tanzu.vmware.com/tanzu-cluster-essentials/cluster-essentials-bundle@sha256:82dfaf70656b54dcba0d4def85ccae1578ff27054e7533d08320244af7fb0343
#export INSTALL_REGISTRY_HOSTNAME=registry.tanzu.vmware.com
#export INSTALL_REGISTRY_USERNAME=TANZU-NET-USER Name
#export INSTALL_REGISTRY_PASSWORD=TANZU-NET-USER PASSWORD
#cd $HOME/tanzu-cluster-essentials
#./install.sh

now Install kapp & imgpkg CLI onto your $PATH using below commands:

sudo cp $HOME/tanzu-cluster-essentials/kapp /usr/local/bin/kapp
sudo cp $HOME/tanzu-cluster-essentials/imgpkg /usr/local/bin/imgpkg

For Linux Client VM: Install the Tanzu CLI and Plugins

To install the Tanzu Tanzu command line interface (CLI) on a Linux operating system, Create a directory named Tanzu and download tanzu-framework-bundle-linux from Tanzu Net and unpack the TAR file into the Tanzu directory and install using below commands:

#mkdir $HOME/tanzu 
#tar -xvf tanzu-framework-linux-amd64.tar -C $HOME/tanzu
#export TANZU_CLI_NO_INIT=true
#cd $HOME/tanzu 
#sudo install cli/core/v0.11.1/tanzu-core-linux_amd64 /usr/local/bin/tanzu
#tanzu version
#cd $HOME/tanzu
#tanzu plugin install --local cli all
#tanzu plugin list

Ensure that you have the accelerator, apps, package, secret, and services plug-ins installed. You need these plug-ins to install and interact with the Tanzu Application Platform.

Installing the Tanzu Application Platform Package and Profiles

VMware recommends install of Tanzu Application Platform packages by relocating the images to your registry from VMware Tanzu Network registry, this will ease the deployment process, so lets do it by logging in to Tanzu Net Registry, setting some env variables and relocate images.

#docker login registry.tanzu.vmware.com
#export INSTALL_REGISTRY_USERNAME=MY-REGISTRY-USER
#export INSTALL_REGISTRY_PASSWORD=MY-REGISTRY-PASSWORD
#export INSTALL_REGISTRY_HOSTNAME=MY-REGISTRY
#export TAP_VERSION=VERSION-NUMBER
#imgpkg copy -b registry.tanzu.vmware.com/tanzu-application-platform/tap-packages:1.0.2 --to-repo ${INSTALL_REGISTRY_HOSTNAME}/TARGET-REPOSITORY/tap-packages

This completes the download and upload on images to local registry.

Create a registry secret by running below command:

#tanzu secret registry add tap-registry \
  --username ${INSTALL_REGISTRY_USERNAME} --password ${INSTALL_REGISTRY_PASSWORD} \
  --server ${INSTALL_REGISTRY_HOSTNAME} \
  --export-to-all-namespaces --yes --namespace tap-install

Add the Tanzu Application Platform package repository to the cluster by running:

#tanzu package repository add tanzu-tap-repository \
  --url ${INSTALL_REGISTRY_HOSTNAME}/TARGET-REPOSITORY/tap-packages:$TAP_VERSION \
  --namespace tap-install

Get the status of the Tanzu Application Platform package repository, and ensure the status updates to Reconcile succeeded by running:

#tanzu package repository get tanzu-tap-repository --namespace tap-install

Tanzu Application Platform profile

The tap.tanzu.vmware.com package installs predefined sets of packages based on your profile settings. This is done by using the package manager you installed using Tanzu Cluster Essentials.Here is my full profile sample file:

buildservice:
  descriptor_name: full
  enable_automatic_dependency_updates: true
  kp_default_repository: harbor.tkgsvmc.net/tbs/build-service
  kp_default_repository_password: <password>
  kp_default_repository_username: admin
  tanzunet_password: <password>
  tanzunet_username: tripathiavni@vmware.com
ceip_policy_disclosed: true
cnrs:
  domain_name: tap01.tkgsvmc.net
grype:
  namespace: default
  targetImagePullSecret: tap-registry
learningcenter:
  ingressDomain: learningcenter.tkgsvmc.net
metadata_store:
  app_service_type: LoadBalancer
ootb_supply_chain_basic:
  gitops:
    ssh_secret: ""
  registry:
    repository: tap
    server: harbor.tkgsvmc.net/tap
profile: full
supply_chain: basic
tap_gui:
  app_config:
    app:
      baseUrl: http://tap-gui.tap01.tkgsvmc.net
    backend:
      baseUrl: http://tap-gui.tap01.tkgsvmc.net
      cors:
        origin: http://tap-gui.tap01.tkgsvmc.net
    catalog:
      locations:
        - target: https://github.com/avnish80/tap/blob/main/catalog-info.yaml
          type: url
  ingressDomain: tap01.tkgsvmc.net
  ingressEnabled: "true"
  service_type: LoadBalancer

save this file with modified values as per your environment, for more details about details of settings, check Here.

Install Tanzu Application Platform

finally lets install TAP, to install the Tanzu Application Platform package run below commands:

#tanzu package install tap -p tap.tanzu.vmware.com -v $TAP_VERSION --values-file tap-values.yml -n tap-install

to verify the packages installed, you can go to TMC and check there

or you an run below command to verify too

#tanzu package installed get tap -n tap-install

This completes the installation of Tanzu Application platform, now developer can: Develop and promote an application, Create an application accelerator, Add testing and security scanning to an application, Administer, set up, and manage supply chains.

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