Getting Started with GigaSpaces in Kubernetes

This topic describes how to deploy GigaSpaces products in a Kubernetes environment. The integration is packaged as a Helm chart. You can deploy the full InsightEdge Platform, which includes the data grid, using the Helm chart available in the GigaSpaces Helm repository.

Prerequisites

Before beginning to work with the Space and InsightEdge, ensure that you have the following installed on your local machine or a VM:

• kubectl

• Helm

• Kubernetes cluster (cloud, on-premise, or local via minikube)

This topic describes how to do basic and intermediate-level deployment tasks for the Space and InsightEdge using simple Helm commands. You can perform these tasks using a Kubernetes minikube, because you only need a single node.

Deploying and Managing a Space

In this topic, you will learn how to do the following:

• Get the required initial GigaSpaces Helm Chart
• Deploy Platform manager
• Start a Space in Kubernetes
• Monitor your Space using Kubernetes tools
• Delete your Space

Accessing the GigaSpaces Helm Charts

The Helm package manager is used for installing InsightEdge and GigaSpaces in the Kubernetes environment. Helm makes deploying complex applications more portable, supports automatic rollbacks, and is a familiar pattern for developers that is easy to understand. Moreover, since Helm is open source, there are many community charts available with standard configurations for common application services.

A Helm chart can be used in a variety of formats and locations; packaged, unpackaged, accessed via a remote URL or even in a chart repository. The xap, insightedge, smart-cache, smart-ods and smart-augmented-transactions Helm charts are published in the GigaSpaces Helm charts repository at https://resources.gigaspaces.com/helm-charts.

Two ways to access and install these charts, in order to install a GigaSpaces product in Kubernetes, are discussed below:

• Option 1: Install a chart directly from the repo and add the GigaSpaces Helm chart repo to the Helm repo list.
• Option 2: Unpack the required Helm chart(s) in a local folder.

Option 1: Add a Helm Repo to the Repo List

You can point to the GigaSpaces Helm repo, so that Helm can locate the xap and insightedge charts for installation:

helm repo add gigaspaces https://resources.gigaspaces.com/helm-charts

After adding the GigaSpaces Helm repo, you can install the required chart(s) by referencing the chart name and product package version.

The example command format is shown below.

helm <<command>> gigaspaces/<<name-of-helm-chart>> --version=15.8.0 <<parameters>>

Option 2: Fetch the GigaSpaces Helm Charts from the GigaSpaces Repository

Another option is to fetch the GigaSpaces Helm charts that you need and unpack them locally, so you don’t have to repeat the repo name and package version in each command (which has the added benefit of making the commands shorter). For example, you can fetch (Helm 2) or pull (Helm 3) and unpack the Helm chart using the following command:

The chart is unpacked in a local folder called insightedge, which is referenced in the Helm commands.

The example command format is shown below.

helm <<command>> <<name-of-helm-chart>> <<parameters>>

helm install testmanager insightedge-manager 

helm install insightedge-manager --name testmanager

Monitoring the Cluster in Kubernetes

You can monitor the cluster you deployed using any of the following administration tools.

• Helm: Run the following command to print the status of the "demo' release in the command window.

helm status testmanager

• Kubernetes dashboard: run the following command to open a dashboard in your browser, where you can see all the Pods and services by clicking the various tabs. For example, if you're using minikube:

minikube dashboard

• Kubectl: run the following command to print the name, description, and status of the Pods in the command window. A list of events is also printed, which can be used for troubleshooting purposes. For example, if you detected a problem in one of the Pods, you can see the Pod termination reason and exit code.

kubectl describe pod

Deleting a Space from the Kubernetes Environment

A Space can be deleted by using the Undeploy feature of the Ops Manager UI.