Our previous articles modern-application-delivery-platform highlights the delivery of Enterprise Applications on Zadara and also setting up a Zadara Project VPC in preparation for this article.
Zadara and Taikun Cloudworks have developed a joint solution brief to highlight the collaborative benefits that we jointly bring.
What is Taikun Cloudworks:
Taikun CloudWorks tackles the Day Two Kubernetes challenge head-on, providing a user-centric platform that streamlines Kubernetes management.
Taikun Cloudworks offers:
- Centralized Command and Control: Management of all your Kubernetes clusters, regardless of their cloud location, from a single, intuitive interface. Taikun CloudWorks delivers this unified control panel, empowering centralized oversight and simplified administration.
- Effortless Deployments: Removes the complexity involved in grappling with intricate configurations. Taikun CloudWorks streamlines deployments, allowing you to seamlessly deploy and scale your Kubernetes applications with minimal effort. This translates into increased developer productivity and faster time-to-market.
- Automation Efficiency: Rapid application deployment by removing the manual repetitive tasks with Taikun CloudWorks’ robust automation capabilities. Leverage Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipelines to expedite cloud deployments, freeing your IT team to focus on strategic initiatives.
Prerequisites:
We have some prerequisites that are required to enable Taikun Cloudworks deployments on Zadara zCompute.
Whether this is a completely new cloud delivered on-premises or via one of Zadara’s edge Cloud locations, you will need to create a Project, Access and Secret keys.
Note: For the Storage Type, please contact your Zadara Cloud Admin or Zadara Support (Support@zadara.com) and ensure that the default Volume Type is set to GP2.
Note: You must have at least a manager role in the Taikun Cloudworks to complete these prerequisites. Talk to your Zadara Cloud Admin to add the AWS policy FullMemberAccess and IAMFullAccess to your zCompute Project Group.
- Customer Creates CloudWorks Trial Account zadara.taikun.cloud/registration
- Customer Logs into Organization
- Customer Adds Additional Users & Managers
We must add the Zadara Cloud to your Cloudworks Account, follow the details below
Select the Zadara tile
Add the Zadara endpoint API url and associated credentials to the Taikun Cloudworks Credentials screen.
Next, is to create a Project for the new Cloudworks Cluster running on zCompute.
Select the Zadara Cloud you have just created, unless you have specific networking requirements the default should be perfectly OK.
Create the Kubernetes environment
Kubernetes Clusters are projects in Taikun Cloudworks. You can have multiple projects such as one in Frankfurt, London and Virginia. Everything is managed within the same GUI.
From a sizing perspective, you can use the z4.large flavour for the Bastion host. This is the best choice from a commercial perspective and enough to handle the traffic requirements.
In the realm of Kubernetes deployments, security is paramount. This is the reason why Taikun Cloudworks will use a bastion host to prevent external access to the Kubernetes nodes. This aligns perfectly with established security best practices for Kubernetes environments; only the bastion host has a public IP address (Elastic IP) and also serves as a NodePort proxy.
Bastion hosts are a cornerstone of robust security practices, and Taikun CloudWorks simplifies their implementation, enabling you to create a more secure and manageable Kubernetes environment.
For the Master nodes we also recommend a z4.large size. Only in much larger environments with thousands of nodes, will it be better to look at the master node cpu and memory utilisation and decide to use another larger instance flavour .
For the Worker node we recommend you start with a z4.xlarge flavour. This depends on your scaling and application plans. You should consider parameters such as the amount of POD’s, the overhead and costs. For this topic we will discuss later a separate Blog as this is a whole topic in itself.
Generating a Kubeconfig
A kubeconfig file is your key to interacting with a Kubernetes cluster. It contains essential information like the cluster address and your authentication credentials. In Taikun CloudWorks, generating a kubeconfig for an existing Kubernetes cluster is a straightforward process.
While generating a kubeconfig with broader access (like project manager or all users) can be convenient, it is recommended that you prioritise creating personal kubeconfigs with limited permissions for enhanced security.
Consider using different kubeconfig files for various purposes within the cluster to maintain organised access control.
Conclusion
By following these steps, you have successfully set up a Taikun Cloudworks managed cluster on a Zadara Edge Cloud Platform. You can now use Cloudworks to manage and scale your containerized workloads on your Zadara Edge Cloud Platform.
In the next blog we demonstrate how to deploy simple Applications such as WordPress, MongoDB etc.
Here are some additional resources that you may find helpful:
- Taikun Cloud documentation: https://taikun.cloud/docs/home/
- Zadara zCompute documentation: https://guides.zadara.com/
