Skip to main content
Version: Release 25.1

Install or Upgrade—Release—on Azure AKS

Note: Here is a basic setup for the Azure K8S cluster, use it as a guideline to create K8s cluster to have minimal K8s environment for Digital.ai Release installation.

Prerequisites​

Important: If you want to enable the TLS protocol in your cluster, you must have the TLS secret created in the namespace before you start the installation or upgrade. This means that you must create the namespace first, create the TLS secret in that namespace, and use the same namespace and TLS secret during the installation or upgrade of Digital.ai Release.

The xl kube install and xl kube upgrade options reference let you go with the default (latest) docker image tags available when you install or upgrade Digital.ai Release. However, here are the Docker Hub links to verify all the available image tags.

Step 1—Prepare for Installation​

You must set up your system for installation, which include installing the kubectl, the required CLIs, and so on.

Install and Configure the kubectl, XL CLI, Azure CLI, and yq​

See:

Step 2—Set up the Azure AKS Cluster​

This step involves tasks such as setting up the resource group, creating a TLS private key, creating the AKS cluster and connecting to it, creating Azure File and Azure Disk storage classes, and setting up the domain name.

Note: The instructions to set up the cluster are indicative of the process. You may have to keep abreast of the latest developments in regards to the cloud platform you work with and set up the cluster to suit your requirements.

Create the Resource Group​

Run the az group create command to create a resource group. Here's an example.

❯ az group create --name xld-operator-group --location germanywestcentral
{
  "id": "/subscriptions/.../resourceGroups/xld-operator-group",
  "location": "germanywestcentral",
  "managedBy": null,
  "name": "xld-operator-group",
  "properties": {
    "provisioningState": "Succeeded"
  },
  "tags": null,
  "type": "Microsoft.Resources/resourceGroups"
}

Create TLS Public and Private Keys​

Run the ssh-keygen command to generate the public and private keys. Here's an example.

ssh-keygen -f ssh-key-xld-operator-cluster -N "" -m pem

Use the use public file ssh-key-xld-operator-cluster.pub public key when you create your Azure AKS cluster.

Create the Azure AKS cluster.​

Run the az aks create command to create the AKS cluster. Here's an example with the TLS key added to it.

❯ az aks create --resource-group xld-operator-group  --name xld-operator-cluster --node-count 1 --enable-addons monitoring --ssh-key-value ssh-key-xld-operator-cluster.pub

Here's the example output for the above command:

AAD role propagation done[############################################]  100.0000%{
"aadProfile": null,
...
"sku": {
 "name": "Basic",
 "tier": "Free"
},
"tags": null,
"type": "Microsoft.ContainerService/ManagedClusters",
"windowsProfile": null
}

For more information, see Deploy an Azure Kubernetes Service cluster using the Azure CLI.

Connect to the Cluster​

Run the az aks get-credentials command to connect to the cluster.

Here's an example.

❯ az aks get-credentials --resource-group xld-operator-group --name xld-operator-cluster
Merged "xld-operator-cluster" as current context in /Users/johndoe/.kube/config

Verify the Cluster Nodes​

❯ kubectl get node

Create the Storage Classes​

  1. Verify the default storage classes.

    kubectl get storageclass

  2. Create two new storage classes—azurefile and azuredisk—using the kubernetes.io/azure-file and kubernetes.io/azure-disk provisioners. Here are the two example yaml files for creating these two storage classes.

    azure-file-sc.yaml

    kind: StorageClass
    apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
    metadata:
      name: dai-operator-azurefile
    provisioner: kubernetes.io/azure-file
    mountOptions:
      - dir_mode=0777
      - file_mode=0777
      - uid=0
      - gid=0
      - mfsymlinks
      - cache=strict
      - actimeo=30
    parameters:
      skuName: Standard_LRS

    azure-disk-sc.yaml

    kind: StorageClass
    apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
    metadata:
      name: dai-operator-azuredisk
    provisioner: kubernetes.io/azure-disk
    reclaimPolicy: Delete
    volumeBindingMode: WaitForFirstConsumer
    parameters:
      storageaccounttype: Standard_LRS

  3. Apply these yaml files.

    ❯ kubectl apply -f azure-file-sc.yaml
      storageclass.storage.k8s.io/dai-operator-azurefile created

    ❯ kubectl apply -f azure-disk-sc.yaml
      storageclass.storage.k8s.io/dai-operator-azuredisk created

  4. Set the default storage class.

    ❯ kubectl patch storageclass dai-operator-azurefile -p '{"metadata": {"annotations":{"storageclass.kubernetes.io/is-default-class":"true"}}}'
    storageclass.storage.k8s.io/dai-operator-azurefile patched

    ❯ kubectl patch storageclass default -p '{"metadata": {"annotations":{"storageclass.kubernetes.io/is-default-class":"false"}}}'
    storageclass.storage.k8s.io/default patched

  5. During installation xl kube install all questions for storageClass set to dai-operator-azurefile value, with the following PostgreSQL specs as exceptions, which would use the dai-operator-azuredisk storage class.

Set up the Domain Name​

Set up the Azure DNS with your fully qualified domain name. See Apply a DNS label to the service.

Step 3—Install Digital.ai Release​

  1. Run the xl kube install command. For more information about flags to skip prompts, enable additional logging, and so on, see xl kube install Command Reference.
  2. Answer the questions in the installation options reference.
  3. When prompted, select Azure AKS as the Kubernetes setup where the Digital.ai Devops Platform will be installed. For more information, see
  4. Complete the installation.
  5. Log on to the Release server and verify the installation.

Upgrade Release on Azure AKS​

The following upgrade scenarios are supported:

  • Upgrading existing sites created using Helm Charts
  • Upgrading existing sites created using Operator

Backup and Restore​

  • Before you upgrade existing Release sites using the Operator-based installer, you must back up your volumes, databases, and file systems so that you can revert to the earlier state in case of upgrade failures.
  • Back up your data according to your organization's backup policies.

Upgrade Digital.ai Release​

  1. Run the xl kube upgrade command. For more information about flags to skip prompts, enable additional logging, and so on, see xl kube upgrade command reference
  2. Answer the questions in the upgrade options reference.
  3. When prompted, select AWS EKS as the Kubernetes setup where the Digital.ai Devops Platform will be upgraded. For more information, see Upgrade Options Reference for Release.
  4. Complete the upgrade.
  5. Log on to the Release server and verify the installation.