NGINX Kubernetes Ingress Controller | AWS Environment¶

This solution will use AWS backend services to host the modern application and NGINX Kubernetes Ingress Controller. Utilizing AWS managed services will dramatically reduce the amount of time needed to build out a solution. Using Terraform for building the AWS services provides a consistent deployment every time.

Prior knowledge of AWS or Terraform is not needed. The solution aims for a smaller learning curve on infrastructure (with abstractions) in exchange for more time with Kubernetes.

Terraform is an open-source infrastructure as code software tool that provides a consistent CLI workflow to manage hundreds of cloud services. Terraform codifies cloud APIs into declarative configuration files.

Visual Studio Code is a streamlined code editor with support for development operations like debugging, task running, and version control.

This solution is leveraging Terraform to create and manage the following products and services.

• Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR)

• Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS)

• Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)

• Amazon Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)

• Amazon Auto Scaling

• Amazon Identity and Access Management (IAM)

• Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3)

• Terraform

• VSCode

• NGINX Ingress Build Resources

  • Docker v18.09+

  • GNU Make

  • git

  • OpenSSL, optionally, if you would like to generate a self-signed certificate and a key for the default server.

  • For NGINX Plus, you must have the NGINX Plus license - the certificate (nginx-repo.crt) and the key (nginx-repo.key).

1. VSCode is our preferred IDE. This allows an editor and terminal within a single pane, open VSCode, and a new Terminal. If you are in the UDF environment, you can access VSCode through the coder access method on the ubuntuHost resource. Also, see F5 UDF Environment Access.

   Example:

   

2. Set or verify environment AWS credentials

   Note

   AWS Access and Secret keys for the UDF environment are located in the Blueprint or Course Documentation, under section cloud accounts

   Warning

   For UDF users, the region must be us-west-2

   In the terminal window, copy the below text and paste+enter:

   aws configure
   

   Variables Table for awscli to UDF Cloud Accounts:

   Variable Name	Cloud Account Variable Value
   AWS Access Key ID	API Key
   AWS Secret Access Key	API Secret
   Default region name	us-west-2
   Default ouput format	json

   Example:

   

3. git clone the public repositories containing all code.

   Note

   Examples are shown pulling the repositories down to the Desktop folder. If you choose to change the clone location, be aware of the path

   In the terminal window, copy the below text and paste+enter:

   git clone -b 'v1.1.0' --single-branch https://github.com/f5devcentral/f5-digital-customer-engagement-center
   

   git clone -b 'v1.10.0' --single-branch https://github.com/nginxinc/kubernetes-ingress
   

   Example:

   

4. Change directory to the F5 Digital Customer Engagement Center repository

   In the terminal window copy the below text and paste+enter:

   cd /home/ubuntu/Desktop/f5-digital-customer-engagement-center/solutions/delivery/application_delivery_controller/nginx/kic/aws
   

   Example:

   

5. SSH key for created AWS Resources

   Note

   For UDF run workshops, an SSH key has already been created for you

   Terraform will need an SSH key for creating resources. If you have one, you can provide it or create a new one.

   In the terminal window, copy the below text and paste+enter:

   cat ~/udf_user.pub
   

   Copy the output to be used in the next step, or provide an SSH key.

   Example:

   

6. Modify Terraform admin.auto.tfvars file for deployment.

   Warning

   resourceOwner is arbitrary. For UDF users, awsRegion must be us-west-2

   In the terminal window copy the below text and paste+enter:

   cp admin.auto.tfvars.example admin.auto.tfvars
   

   sudo vi admin.auto.tfvars
   

   Variable Name	Variable Value
   resourceOwner	Arbitrary (i.e. johnc)
   awsRegion	Leave us-west-2
   awsAz1	Leave us-west-2a
   awsAz2	Leave us-west-2b
   sshPublicKey	Copy pasted ssh key from previous step

   save and exit file with :wq

   Example:

   

7. Run the setup script - This will create AWS resource objects

   In the terminal window copy the below text and paste+enter:

   ./setup.sh
   

   Example:

   

8. Accept the Terraform deployment

   enter when needed

   Example:

   

9. Terraform Completed

   Warning

   Terraform is building several services, this can take 10-15 minutes

   Note

   If you need to see the outputs again later and have not saved them, utilize the terraform output command.

   The outputs from our Terraform run are in green. We will need this information to access our services and create/publish NGINX into the environment.

   Save the outputs for the next several steps.

   Example:

   

10. All of the Terraform-created objects are dynamic, so until running the Terraform template they did not exist. Now that the resources are created, we need to apply access to those services.

Warning

Terraform does not know about the changes in this step. If Terraform must be re-run, this step will need to be repeated.

Step 1: Log in to ECR. Change the ecrRepositoryURL to the terraform output.

In the terminal window copy the below text and paste+enter:

aws ecr get-login-password --region us-west-2 | docker login --username AWS --password-stdin ecrRepositoryURL

ECR is used as our registry for the Kubernetes environment. Registries are used to keep container images for lifecycle and deployments. NGINX Ingress Controller is a container.

Example:

Step 2: Log in to EKS. Change the kubernetesClusterName to the terraform output.

In the terminal window copy the below text and paste+enter:

aws eks --region us-west-2 update-kubeconfig --name kubernetesClusterName

Kubernetes in this environment will host our application, and we will be using NGINX Ingress Controller to expose that application.

Example:

Step 3: Update the Subnet Tags for the EKS cluster. Change the kubernetesClusterName, publicSubnetAZ1 and publicSubnetAZ2 to the terraform output.

In the terminal window copy the below text and paste+enter:

aws ec2 create-tags \
   --resources publicSubnetAZ1 publicSubnetAZ2 \
   --tags Key=kubernetes.io/cluster/kubernetesClusterName,Value=shared   Key=kubernetes.io/role/elb,Value=1

For EKS to create an Elastic Load Balancer for our Ingress solution, two tags need to be placed on the public subnets. Ideally, Terraform would add the tags. However, the EKS module from Terraform does not manipulate those. So, we are doing it manually. These issues can be tracked here.

• issue01

• issue02

Example:

11. The environment has been created, all access has been set.

    At this point, we can deploy our services and provide access.

    Proceed to NGINX Kubernetes Ingress Controller | Deployment