Deploying Redis Enterprise on Kubernetes

• Quickstart Guide
  • Prerequisites
  • Installation
  • Installation on OpenShift
• Configuration
  • RedisEnterpriseCluster custom resource
  • Private Repositories
  • Pull Secrets
  • Advanced Configuration
• Upgrade
• Supported K8S Distributions

This page describe how to deploy Redis Enterprise on Kubernetes using the Redis Enterprise Operator. High level architecture and overview of the solution can be found HERE.

Quickstart Guide

Prerequisites

• A Kubernetes cluster version of 1.11 or higher, with a minimum of 3 worker nodes with time synchronized (via NTP).
• A Kubernetes client (kubectl) with a matching version. For OpenShift, an OpenShift client (oc).
• Access to DockerHub, RedHat Container Catalog or a private repository that can serve the required images.

The following are the images and tags for this release:

Component	k8s	Openshift
Redis Enterprise	redislabs/redis:6.0.6-39	redislabs/redis:6.0.6-39.rhel7-openshift
Operator	redislabs/operator:6.0.6-24	redislabs/operator:6.0.6-24
Services Rigger	redislabs/k8s-controller:6.0.6-24	redislabs/k8s-controller:6.0.6-24

• RedHat certified images are available on Redhat Catalog
  

Installation

The "Basic" installation deploys the operator (from the current release) with the default Ubuntu/Alpine base OS images from DockerHub and default settings. This is the fastest way to get up and running with a new Redis Enterprise on Kubernetes.

1. Create a new namespace:

   kubectl create namespace demo

   Switch context to the newly created namespace:

   kubectl config set-context --current --namespace=demo

2. Deploy the operator bundle

   To deploy the default installation with kubectl, the following command will deploy a bundle of all the yaml declarations required for the operator:

   kubectl apply -f bundle.yaml

   Alternatively, to run each of the declarations of the bundle individually, run the following commands instead of the bundle:

   kubectl apply -f role.yaml
   kubectl apply -f role_binding.yaml
   kubectl apply -f service_account.yaml
   kubectl apply -f crds/app_v1_redisenterprisecluster_crd.yaml
   kubectl apply -f crds/app_v1alpha1_redisenterprisedatabase_crd.yaml
   kubectl apply -f operator.yaml

   Note: The rbac.yaml file used in previous releases has been broken down into three distinct files: role.yaml, role_binding.yaml and service_account.yaml. The crd.yaml file was renamed to redisenterprisecluster_crd.yaml, with the API version prepended to the filename. Apply the crds/app_v1alpha1_redisenterprisedatabase_crd.yaml if managing database instances through Kubernetes API and commands is desired.

3. Run kubectl get deployment and verify redis-enterprise-operator deployment is running.

   A typical response may look like this:

   NAME                               READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
   redis-enterprise-operator          1/1     1            1           2m

4. Redis Enterprise Cluster custom resource - RedisEnterpriseCluster

   Create a RedisEnterpriseCluster(REC) using the default configuration, which is suitable for development type deployments and works in typical scenarios. For more advanced deployment options you may choose the configuration relevant for you - see the index at the top for documentation references that cover many scenarios and the examples in the example folder.

   kubectl apply -f crds/app_v1_redisenterprisecluster_cr.yaml

   Notes:

   1. The redis-enterprise-cluster.yaml file was renamed to redisenterprisecluster_cr.yaml, with the API version prepended to the filename.
   2. The Operator can only manage one Redis Enterprise Cluster custom resource in a namespace. To deploy another Enterprise Clusters in the same Kubernetes cluster, deploy an Operator in an additional namespace for each additional Enterprise Cluster required. Note that each Enterprise Cluster can effectively host hundreds of Redis Database instances. Deploying multiple clusters is typically used for scenarios where complete operational isolation is required at the cluster level.

5. Run kubectl get rec and verify creation was successful. rec is a shortcut for RedisEnterpriseCluster. A typical response may look like this:

   NAME               AGE
   redis-enterprise   5m
   

6. Redis Enterprise Database custom resource - RedisEnterpriseDatabase

   Create a RedisEnterpriseDatabase (REDB) by using Custom Resource. The Redis Enterprise Operator can be instructed to manage databases on the Redis Enterprise Cluster using the REDB custom resource. Example:

   cat << EOF > /tmp/redis-enterprise-database.yml
   apiVersion: app.redislabs.com/v1alpha1
   kind: RedisEnterpriseDatabase
   metadata:
     name: redis-enterprise-database
   spec:
     redisEnterpriseCluster:
       name: redis-enterprise
     memorySize: 100MB
   EOF
   kubectl apply -f /tmp/redis-enterprise-database.yml

   Replace the name of the cluster with the one used on the current namespace. All REDB configuration options are documented here.

   Optional: REDB admission controller

   When using the REDB Custom Resource Definition (Redis Enterprise Database) it is recommended to set up admission control to improve input validation and catch configuration errors before they reach the cluster. The procedure is documented here

Installation on OpenShift

The "OpenShift" installations deploys the operator from the current release with the RHEL image from DockerHub and default OpenShift settings. This is the fastest way to get up and running with a new cluster on OpenShift 3.x. For OpenShift 4.x, you may choose to use OLM deployment from within your OpenShift cluster or follow the steps below. Other custom configurations are referenced in this repository.

Note: you will need to replace <my-project> with your project name

1. Create a new project:

   oc new-project my-project

2. Perform the following commands (you need cluster admin permissions for your Kubernetes cluster):

   oc apply -f openshift/scc.yaml

   You should receive the following response: securitycontextconstraints.security.openshift.io "redis-enterprise-scc" configured

3. Provide the operator permissions for pods (substitute your project for "my-project"):

   oc adm policy add-scc-to-group redis-enterprise-scc system:serviceaccounts:my-project

4. Deploy the OpenShift operator bundle:

   NOTE: Update the storageClassName setting in openshift.bundle.yaml (by default its set to gp2).

   oc apply -f openshift.bundle.yaml

5. Redis Enterprise Cluster custom resource - RedisEnterpriseCluster

   Apply the RedisEnterpriseCluster resource with RHEL7 based images:

   oc apply -f openshift/redis-enterprise-cluster_rhel.yaml

6. Redis Enterprise Database custom resource - RedisEnterpriseDatabase

   Create a RedisEnterpriseDatabase (REDB) by using Custom Resource. The Redis Enterprise Operator can be instructed to manage databases on the Redis Enterprise Cluster using the REDB custom resource. Example:

   cat << EOF > /tmp/redis-enterprise-database.yml
   apiVersion: app.redislabs.com/v1alpha1
   kind: RedisEnterpriseDatabase
   metadata:
     name: redis-enterprise-database
   spec:
     redisEnterpriseCluster:
       name: redis-enterprise
     memorySize: 100MB
   EOF
   kubectl apply -f /tmp/redis-enterprise-database.yml

   Replace the name of the cluster with the one used on the current namespace. All REDB configuration options are documented here.

   Optional: REDB admission controller

   When using the REDB Custom Resource Definition (Redis Enterprise Database) it is recommended to set up admission controller to improve input validation and catch configuration errors before they reach the cluster. The procedure is documented here.

Installation on PKS

Instruction on how to deploy the Operator on PKS can be found on the Redis Labs documentation Website

Configuration

RedisEnterpriseCluster custom resource

The operator deploys a RedisEnterpriseCluster with default configurations values, but those can be customized in the RedisEnterpriseCluster spec as follow:

• Redis Enterprise Image

    redisEnterpriseImageSpec:
      imagePullPolicy:  IfNotPresent
      repository:       redislabs/redis
      versionTag:       6.0.6-39

• Persistence

    persistentSpec:
      enabled: true
      volumeSize: "10Gi" # if you don't provide default is 5 times RAM size
      storageClassName: "standard" #on AWS common storage class is gp2

• Redis Enterprise Nodes(pods) resources

    redisEnterpriseNodeResources:
      limits:
        cpu: "4000m"
        memory: 4Gi
      requests:
        cpu: "4000m"
        memory: 4Gi

• Cluster username (Default is [email protected])

  username: "[email protected]"

• Extra Labels: Additional labels to tag the k8s resources created during deployment

    extraLabels:
      example1: "some-value"
      example2: "some-value"

• UI service type: Load Balancer or cluster IP (default)

  uiServiceType: LoadBalancer

• UI annotations: Add custom annotation to the UI service

    uiAnnotations:
      uiAnnotation1: 'UI-annotation1'
      uiAnnotation2: 'UI-Annotation2'

• SideCar containers: images that will run along side the redis enterprise containers

    sideContainersSpec:
      - name: sidecar
        image: dockerhub_repo/repo:tag
        imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent

• CRDB (Active Active):

  Currently supported for OpenShift*

  activeActive: # edit values according to your cluster
    apiIngressUrl:  my-cluster1-api.myopenshiftcluster1.com
    dbIngressSuffix: -dbsuffix1.myopenshiftcluster1.com
    method: openShiftRoute

• IPV4 enforcement

  You might not have IPV6 support in your K8S cluster. In this case, you could enforce the use of IPV4, by adding the following attribute to the REC spec:

    enforceIPv4: true

  Note: Setting 'enforceIPv4' to 'true' is a requirement for running REC on PKS.

• Full detail can be found in Redis Enterprise Cluster Custom Resource Specification.

Private Repositories

Whenever images are not pulled from DockerHub, the following configuration must be specified:

In RedisEnterpriseClusterSpec (redis_enterprise_cluster.yaml):

• redisEnterpriseImageSpec
• redisEnterpriseServicesRiggerImageSpec
• bootstrapperImageSpec

Image specifications in RedisEnterpriseClusterSpec follow the same schema:

see ImageSpec for full reference

For example:

  redisEnterpriseImageSpec:
    imagePullPolicy:  IfNotPresent
    repository:       harbor.corp.local/redisenterprise/redis
    versionTag:       6.0.6-39

  redisEnterpriseServicesRiggerImageSpec:
    imagePullPolicy:  IfNotPresent
    repository:       harbor.corp.local/redisenterprise/k8s-controller
    versionTag:       6.0.6-24

  bootstrapperImageSpec:
    imagePullPolicy:  IfNotPresent
    repository:       harbor.corp.local/redisenterprise/operator
    versionTag:       6.0.6-24

In Operator Deployment spec (operator.yaml):

For example:

spec:
  template:
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: redis-enterprise-operator
          image: harbor.corp.local/redisenterprise/operator:6.0.6-24

Image specification follow the K8s Container schema.

Pull secrets

Private repositories which require login can be accessed by creating a pull secret and declaring it in both the RedisEnterpriseClusterSpec and in the Operator Deployment spec.

Create a pull secret by running:

kubectl create secret docker-registry regcred --docker-server=<your-registry-server> --docker-username=<your-name> --docker-password=<your-pword> --docker-email=<your-email>

NOTE: Make sure to witch context to the REC namespace or add flag -n .

where:

• <your-registry-server> is your Private repository FQDN. (https://index.docker.io/v1/ for DockerHub)
• <your-name> is your Docker username.
• <your-pword> is your Docker password.
• <your-email> is your Docker email.

This creates a pull secret names regcred

To use in the RedisEnterpriseClusterSpec:

spec:
  pullSecrets:
    -name: regcred

To use in the Operator Deployment:

spec:
  template:
    spec:
      imagePullSecrets:
      -name: regcred

Advanced Configuration

• To configure Priority Class, Node Pool, Eviction Thresholds and other advances configuration see topics.md file.
• Full Redis Enterprise Cluster Custom Resource Specification
• Full Redis Enterprise Database Custom Resource Specification

Upgrade

The Operator automates and simplifies the upgrade process.
The Redis Enterprise Cluster Software, and the Redis Enterprise Operator for Kubernetes versions are tightly coupled and should be upgraded together.
It is recommended to use the bundle.yaml to upgrade, as it loads all the relevant CRD documents for this version. If the updated CRDs are not loaded, the operator might fail. There are two ways to upgrade - either set 'autoUpgradeRedisEnterprise' within the Redis Enterprise Cluster Spec to instruct the operator to automatically upgrade to the compatible version, or specify the correct Redis Enterprise image manually using the versionTag attribute. The Redis Enterprise Version compatible with this release is 6.0.6-39

  autoUpgradeRedisEnterprise: true

Alternatively:

  RedisEnterpriseImageSpec:
    versionTag: redislabs/redis:6.0.6-39

Supported K8S Distributions

Each release of the Redis Enterprise Operator deployment is thoroughly tested against a set of Kubernetes distributions. The table below lists these, along with the current release's support status. "Supported", as well as "deprecated" support status indicates the current release has been tested in this environment and supported by RedisLabs. "Deprecated" also indicates that support will be dropped in a coming future release. "No longer supported" indicates that support has been dropped for this distribution. Any distribution that isn't explicitly listed is not supported for production workloads by RedisLabs.

Distribution	Support Status
Openshift 3.11	supported
Openshift 4.1	supported
Openshift 4.2	supported
Openshift 4.3	supported
Openshift 4.4	supported
KOPS vanilla 1.9	no longer supported
KOPS vanilla 1.10	no longer supported
KOPS vanilla 1.11	deprecated
KOPS vanilla 1.12	supported
KOPS vanilla 1.13	supported
KOPS vanilla 1.14	supported
KOPS vanilla 1.15	supported
KOPS vanilla 1.16	supported
KOPS vanilla 1.17	supported
GKE 1.14	supported
GKE 1.15	supported
GKE 1.16	supported
Rancher 2.4.5	supported