Overview

Before you install the Kinetic Platform into an existing Kubernetes cluster, the prerequisites below must be met.

Recommended: We strongly recommend having a Kubernetes operator available to work through the installation with your team. Additionally, you should have a member of your team who was part of the cluster creation process available to you to answer questions on Kubernetes versions and patching expectations.

Hardware and Software Requirements

• Version: Kubernetes Version 1.25 is required.

  Note: Before installing or upgrading the Kinetic Platform, you are responsible for ensuring the compatibility of your Kubernetes cluster version with the Kinetic platform version. Consult Kinetic Support before upgrading your Kubernetes cluster version.

• Kubernetes Container Network Interface (CNI): This required component is either an add-on or pre-installed for most cloud-provided Kubernetes installations. More information can be found here: Network Plugins.

  Note: Kinetic Data does not support customer-owned Kubernetes clusters. Work with your Kubernetes administrator for any questions about your cluster’s CNI.

• Kubernetes Container Storage Interface (CSI): This component is required. More information can be found here: Kubernetes CSI Developer Documentation.
• Kots Kubernetes CLI Plugin: Installation instructions for this required plugin can be found here: Installing the kots CLI | Replicated Docs.
• Container Registry: If you plan on deploying the Kinetic Platform within an air-gapped (internet-isolated) Kubernetes cluster, you will need to set up a container registry. See Container Registry Usage in Air-Gapped Kubernetes Cluster Kinetic Platform Installation for more information.

Node/Server Requirements

We recommend setting up a three-node cluster for your environment with the resources below.

🚧

Important

We do NOT recommend going lower than these default memory and CPU requests and specifications.

• RAM: 32GB per node.
• CPU: 8-core CPU per node.
• Storage: We recommend providing a minimum of 100GB storage on all nodes as we will provision local storage to manage some operations resources.

Cluster Setup Considerations

The Kinetic Platform cluster configuration process includes customizing the CoreDNS configuration. This process involves adding a rewrite plugin to alter DNS resolution within the cluster for traffic coming from outside the cluster.

• CoreDNS Customization Considerations During the installation process, you'll find a checkbox on the configuration form that allows opting out of the automatic deletion of the existing config map to deploy a new one with the necessary customizations. In some cases, your existing cluster may require a different method for including these customizations, such as another Configuration Map or Secret. Customers are responsible for ensuring these customizations are applied. Please consult Kinetic Support for further details or assistance with applying these customizations manually. It is crucial to ensure that manual customizations are not overwritten by Platform upgrades or Kubernetes version upgrades.
• The Nginx Ingress controller: The Kinetic Platform installation process requires deploying an Ingress controller that manages external traffic, directing it to the appropriate service within the cluster. It is configured to expose HTTPS traffic on port 30443 and HTTP traffic on port 30080. To make the Kinetic Platform accessible via a load balancer, these ports must be exposed from the cluster to your load balancer.
  If you prefer to use your own Nginx Controller, reach out to Kinetic Support for assistance with this customization.