Cloud Deployment

• 1: AWS Deployment
• 2: Azure Deployment
• 3: Operations Best Practices

1 - AWS Deployment

Architecture

Deployment Prerequisites

In order to get started, your Atolio support team will do the following on your behalf:

1. Grant your AWS account access to the Client ECR repos (for pulling Docker images).
2. Add your Deployment Engineer as a collaborator to the Atolio GitHub repository (lumen-infra), which contains:

• Deployment documentation
• Terraform for the Atolio stack infrastructure
• Configuration files for Atolio services
• Maintenance scripts

The following deployment prerequisites will help streamline your deployment process.

Determine AWS account

You can either choose to deploy Atolio into an existing AWS account or a new account. Atolio also supports deploying to your own AWS Virtual Private Cloud (VPC). When the account is available, share the AWS account number with your Atolio support team.

We recommend:

• Ensuring that Service Quotas within your AWS account allow for a minimum of 64 vCPU for On-Demand Standard instances.
• Raising any other organizational AWS policies / restrictions (e.g. networking, containers) with your Atolio support team ahead of the deployment call.

Determine Atolio DNS name

Before the deployment call, you may want to decide on your desired Atolio web location. Create a AWS Route 53 hosted zone in the AWS account for hosting the Atolio stack (e.g. search.yourdomain.com.): this will be the DNS name (without the trailing dot) for the Atolio web application (e.g. https://search.yourdomain.com):

aws route53 create-hosted-zone --name search.yourdomain.com --caller-reference "atolio-initial-provision"

This hosted zone allows the deployment (i.e. the External DNS controller) to add records to link host names (e.g. search.yourdomain.com, feed.search.yourdomain.comand relay.search.yourdomain.com) to the load balancer as created by the AWS ALB controller.

For the remainder of this document, we will use https://search.yourdomain.com in the examples, but it is expected for you to replace with your own DNS name.

Creation of or using existing VPC

By default, Atolio’s Terraform code will create a VPC. However, you may choose to use an existing VPC and subnets within your AWS account. In this case, set create_vpc to false.

Then, configure all VPC related variables. See below sample:

# Uncomment these lines and update the values in case you want to deploy in a
# pre-existing VPC (by default a new VPC will be created).
#
# Note that automatic subnet discovery for the ALB controller will only work
# if the subnets are tagged correctly as documented here:
# https://kubernetes-sigs.github.io/aws-load-balancer-controller/v2.7/deploy/subnet_discovery/
# create_vpc             = false
# vpc_id                 = "vpc-000"
# vpc_cidr_block         = "10.0.0.0/16"
# vpc_private_subnet_ids = ["subnet-1111", "subnet-2222"]
# vpc_public_subnet_ids  = ["subnet-3333", "subnet-4444"]
# vespa_az                = "us-west-2a"
# vespa_private_subnet_id = "subnet-1111"

Additional notes regarding existing VPC usage:

• As per above sample, subnets must be tagged corectly as documented in subnet discovery.
• When specifying vespa_private_subnet_id, the referenced subnet ID must also be in the vpc_private_subnet_ids array.
• In terms of VPC sizing, the default (10.0.0/16) is currently oversized. For reference, VPC Subnet IP addresses are primarily allocated to the EKS cluster and ALB, with AWS reserving several for internal services. We recommend a subnet of /24 (256 IPs) as the minimum to ensure enough available IP addresses for Kubernetes to assign to pods.
• Ensure specified subnets have available IPv4 Addresses.

Delegate responsibility for Atolio subdomain

The customer’s parent domain (e.g. yourdomain.com) needs to delegate traffic to the new Atolio subdomain (search.yourdomain.com). This is achieved by adding an NS record to the parent domain with the 4 name servers copied from the new subdomain (similar to what is described here).

Setup authentication

Atolio supports single sign-on (SSO) authentication through Okta, Microsoft Entra ID, and Google using the OpenID Connect (OIDC) protocol.

Refer to Configuring Authentication for more details on the steps to complete in your desired SSO provider in order to obtain the necessary OIDC configuration values.

Local environment setup

Finally, ensure you have the following utilities installed:

• Setup Terraform on your local machine as described on the HashiCorp docs site - we require v1.5.0 at a minimum.
• Install the AWS Command Line Interface
• Install kubectl
• Install Helm
• Download the atolioctl executable from the release page. You will use this to configure sources.

Create Cloud Infrastructure

The Terraform configuration requires an external (S3) bucket to store state. A script is available to automate the whole process (including running Terraform). Before running the script, create a config.hcl file based on the provided config.hcl.template:

cd deploy/terraform/aws
cp ./config.hcl.template config.hcl

Update the copied file with appropriate values. At a minimum, it should look something like this:

# Domain name for Atolio stack (same as hosted zone name without trailing ".")
lumen_domain_name = "search.yourdomain.com"

Then copy the Helm template and update the values with the appropriate OIDC settings. You will also likely modify lumenImageTag to specify the version of Atolio you’d like to deploy. Note: the OIDC settings are necessary for the Helm release to succeed (the Marvin service is dependent on these settings for validating authentication).

cp ./templates/values-lumen-admin.yaml values-lumen.yaml

lumenImageTag: "4.9.0"

# Path to your company logo to be shown in the Atolio UI
searchUi:
  publicLogoPath: "https://search.yourdomain.com/yourLogo.svg"

jwtSecretKey: "256-bit-secret-key-for-sign-jwts"

# See also scripts/config-oidc.sh helper script to obtain some of the values below
oidc:
  provider: "add-your-provider-here"
  endpoint: "add-your-endpoint-here"
  clientId: "add-your-id-here"
  clientSecret: "add-your-secret-here"

# If running behind a reverse proxy, this should be set to the URL the end user will
# use to access the product.
reverseProxyUrl: ""

For the jwt_secret_key any 256 bit (32 character) string can be used. It is used to sign JWT tokens used by the web application and atolioctl tool. It should be a well guarded secret that is unique to the deployment.

If your users will be accessing the web interface via a reverse proxy (e.g. such as StrongDM), then be sure to set the reverseProxyUrl field to reflect the URL they will actually enter into their browser to access Atolio, which will be different to the hostname defined in lumen_domain_name. Leave this field empty if not using a reverse proxy.

You should have all variables within the OIDC block configured. Now you can create the infrastructure and deploy the k8s cluster. From the ’terraform/aws’ directory:

./scripts/create-infra.sh --name=deployment-name

This will create the infrastructure in the us-west-2 AWS region. If you want to deploy in another region parameter (e.g. us-east-1) an additional parameter can be provided:

./scripts/create-infra.sh --name=deployment-name --region=us-east-1

The deployment-name argument is used to generate a deployment name for e.g. tagging resources and naming e.g. the kubernetes cluster and S3 buckets. So make sure it is unique across all deployments. (i.e. using a globally unique deployment name). Typically this is named after the customer for which the Atolio app is deployed or a particular deployment flavour (e.g. acmecorp or engtest).

The script automates the following steps (parameterized based on the provided deployment name):

1. Create an S3 bucket to store Terraform state
2. Create a terraform.tfvars file for Terraform
3. Run terraform init
4. Run terraform apply (using input variables in generated terraform.tfvars)

With the infrastructure created, you’ll want to update-kubeconfig so an updated context can be added to your local configuration:

aws --profile {atolio profile} eks update-kubeconfig --region us-west-2 --name lumen-{deployment-name}

At this point you should be able to interact with the kubernetes cluster, e.g.

kubectl get po -n atolio-svc

Note, Atolio specific services run on the following namespaces:

• atolio-svc (Services)
• atolio-db (Database)

When you have validated that the infrastructure is available, the next step is to configure sources.

2 - Azure Deployment

Architecture

Deployment Prerequisites

In order to get started, your Atolio support team will do the following on your behalf:

1. Grant access to Client ECR repos (for pulling Docker images) to your Azure subscription (and Azure Container Registry).
2. Add your Deployment Engineer as a collaborator to the Atolio GitHub repository (lumen-infra), which contains:

• Deployment documentation
• Terraform for the Atolio stack infrastructure
• Configuration files for Atolio services
• Maintenance scripts

The following deployment prerequisites will help streamline your deployment process.

Determine Azure subscription

You can either choose to deploy Atolio into an existing Azure subscription or an existing one. Atolio will deploy into a new Azure Resource Group (RG), with another RG created automatically by Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) for the cluster. When the subscription & RG are available, share the details with your Atolio support team.

We recommend:

• Ensuring that Service Quotas within your Azure subscription allow for a minimum of 64 vCPU under the Total Regional vCPUs quota.
• Raising any other organizational Azure policies / restrictions (e.g. networking, containers) with your Atolio support team ahead of the deployment call.

Determine Atolio DNS name

Before the deployment call, you may want to decide on your desired Atolio web location. Create an Azure DNS Zone in the Azure subscription for hosting the Atolio stack (e.g. search.yourdomain.com.): this will be the DNS name (without the trailing dot) for the Atolio Web application (e.g. https://search.yourdomain.com).

For the remainder of this document, we will use https://search.yourdomain.com in the examples, but it is expected for you to replace with your own DNS name.

Obtain a certificate for SSL

For the previously defined DNS name, you will need to obtain a certificate that can be used for SSL. This certificate will need to be installed in the application gateway in a later step.

Setup Authentication

Atolio supports single sign-on (SSO) authentication through Okta, Microsoft Entra ID, and Google using the OpenID Connect (OIDC) protocol.

Refer to Configuring Authentication for more details on the steps to complete in your desired SSO provider in order to obtain the necessary OIDC configuration values.

The oidc_client_id and oidc_client_secret will be the respective values created and saved during Azure AD - Create New App Registration.

Setup local environment

Finally, ensure you have the following utilities installed:

• Setup Terraform on your local machine as described on the HashiCorp docs site - we require v1.5.0 at a minimum.
• Install the Azure Command Line Interface
• Install kubectl
• Install Helm
• Download the atolioctl executable from the release page. You will use this to configure sources.

Note: If you are running on Windows, you may also need to install the Windows Subsystem for Linux.

Create Cloud Infrastructure

Note: Atolio requires an Azure region with 3 availability zones. You can check which regions include support for multiple availability zones here.*

The Terraform configuration requires an external (S3) bucket to store state. A script is available to automate the whole process (including running Terraform). Before running the script, create a config.hcl file based on the provided config.hcl.template:

cd deploy/terraform/azure
cp ./config.hcl.template config.hcl

Update the copied file with appropriate values. At a minimum, it should look something like this:

# Domain name for Atolio stack (same as hosted zone name without trailing ".")
lumen_domain_name = "search.yourdomain.com"

Then copy the Helm template and update the values with the appropriate OIDC settings and repository values. You will also likely modify lumenImageTag to specify the version of Atolio you’d like to deploy. Note: the OIDC settings are necessary for the Helm release to succeed (the Marvin service is dependent on these settings for validating authentication).

cp ./templates/values-admin.yaml values-lumen.yaml

lumenImageTag: "4.9.0"

# Path to your company logo to be shown in the Atolio UI
searchUi:
  publicLogoPath: "https://search.yourdomain.com/yourLogo.svg"

jwtSecretKey: "256-bit-secret-key-for-sign-jwts"

# See also scripts/config-oidc.sh helper script to obtain some of the values below
oidc:
  provider: "add-your-provider-here"
  endpoint: "add-your-endpoint-here"
  clientId: "add-your-id-here"
  clientSecret: "add-your-secret-here"

# If running behind a reverse proxy, this should be set to the URL the end user will
# use to access the product.
reverseProxyUrl: ""

For the jwt_secret_key any 256 bit (32 character) string can be used. It is used to sign JWT tokens used by the web application and atolioctl tool. It should be a well guarded secret that is unique to the deployment.

If your users will be accessing the web interface via a reverse proxy (e.g. such as StrongDM), then be sure to set the reverseProxyUrl field to reflect the URL they will actually enter into their browser to access Atolio, which will be different to the hostname defined in lumen_domain_name. Leave this field empty if not using a reverse proxy.

You should have all variables within the OIDC block configured. Now you can create the infrastructure and deploy the k8s cluster. From the ’terraform.azure’ directory:

./scripts/create-infra.sh --name=deployment-name

This will create the infrastructure in your default Azure region. If you want to deploy in another region parameter (e.g. eastus) an additional parameter can be provided:

./scripts/create-infra.sh --name=deployment-name --region=eastus

The deployment-name argument is used to define a deployment name for collecting resources into an Azure Resource Group containing the kubernetes cluster, networking, storage, etc. We recommend making it unique across all deployments, i.e. using a globally unique deployment name. Typically this is named after the customer for which the Atolio app is deployed or a particular deployment flavour (e.g. acmecorp or engtest).

The script automates the following steps (parameterized based on the provided deployment name):

1. Create an Azure Blob Storage to store Terraform state
2. Create a terraform.tfvars file for Terraform
3. Run terraform init
4. Run terraform apply (using input variables in generated terraform.tfvars)

With the infrastructure created, you’ll want to retrieve an updated context using (this is also output via Terraform as update_kubeconfig_command):

az aks get-credentials --name=lumen-{deployment-name} --resource-group lumen-{deployment-name}

At this point you should be able to interact with the kubernetes cluster, e.g.

kubectl get po -n atolio-svc

Note, Atolio specific services run on the following namespaces:

• atolio-svc (Services)
• atolio-db (Database)

When you have validated that the infrastructure is available, the next step is to configure sources.

3 - Operations Best Practices

Troubleshooting

Current configuration and service status can be monitored in the admin: https://search.yourdomain.com/admin.

With the appropriate Kubernetes context set, port forwarding to particular pods is a common case to query select APIs. For example, you may wish to query the Vespa document cluster directly. You’d do this by port forwarding the container node (with valid AWS profile set in context):

kubectl port-forward -n atolio-db pod/vespa-container-0 8080

Additionally, the Feeder service provides gRPC APIs which are used by various services and tools. As the port name is not sticky, it is recommended to port forward the service:

kubectl port-forward -n atolio-svc service/feeder 8889

To observe the possible APIs, use grpcurl to describe and explore:

grpcurl -plaintext 127.0.0.1:8889 describe

Note there are two namespaces used in an Atolio deployment. They are atolio-svc (for all services) and atolio-db for Vespa (database and search).

Storing Deployment Artifacts

This completes the initial deployment of the Atolio stack. Please make sure to store the following artifacts created by the deployment process in a safe place for future use:

• Deployment specific Terraform settings (terraform.tfvars and values.yaml)
• Initial configuration (config.hcl) which is needed to generate redeploy from scratch (this generates terraform.tfvars)
• Google credential files (Client OAuth and Directory API keys)

These will be needed to make future changes and provide access to the Atolio stack for maintenance.

Additionally there is a hidden .terraform directory with Terraform internal state that is needed to re-run Terraform without the need for reconfiguration.

Deploying Updates

The Atolio micro services of the Atolio stack (i.e. Marvin, Search UI, Source Fleet, and Feeder) will be updated by Atolio. This is done by pushing updated Docker images to the Docker Repositories (ECR) hosted by Atolio.

Atolio, under normal circumstances, will not replace pushed images. We follow a typical major/minor/patch versioning model and any changes, including hot fixes, will be pushed under their relevant version.

This means that to update services, simply amend lumenImageTag in both values-lumen.yaml and values-vespa.yaml files with the desired version. If using the image tag for a lumen-infra release, then you do not need to update this value.