PaaS deployment

Before you begin

To get you up and running with the Apica Ascent PaaS, we've made Apica Ascent PaaS' Kubernetes components available as Helm Charts. To deploy Apica Ascent PaaS, you'll need access to a Kubernetes cluster and Helm 3.

Before you start deploying Apica Ascent PaaS, let's run through a few quick steps to set up your environment correctly.

Add the Apica Ascent Helm repository

Add Apica Ascent's Helm repository to your Helm repositories by running the following command.

helm repo add logiq-repo https://logiqai.github.io/helm-charts

The Helm repository you just added is named logiq-repo. Whenever you install charts from this repository, ensure that you use the repository name as the prefix in your install command, as shown below.

helm install <deployment_name> logiq-repo/<chart_name>

You can now search for the Helm charts available in the repository by running the following command.

helm search repo logiq-repo

Running this command displays a list of the available Helm charts along with their details, as shown below.

$ helm repo update
$ helm search repo logiq-repo
NAME                CHART VERSION    APP VERSION            DESCRIPTION
logiq-repo/logiq      v3.0.9          v3.5.9.1        Apica Ascent Observability HELM chart for Kubernetes

If you've already added Apica Ascent's Helm repository in the past, you can update the repository by running the following command.

helm repo update

Create a namespace to deploy Apica Ascent

Create a namespace where we'll deploy Apica Ascent PaaS by running the following command.

kubectl create namespace Apica Ascent

Running the command shown above creates a namespace named logiq. You can also name your namespace differently by replacing logiq with the name of your choice in the command above. In case you do, remember to use the same namespace for the rest of the instructions listed in this guide.

Important: Ensure that the name of the namespace is not more than 15 characters in length.

Prepare your Values file

Just as any other package deployed via Helm charts, you can configure your LOGIG PaaS deployment using a Values file. The Values file acts as the Helm chart's API, giving it access to values to populate the Helm chart's templates.

To give you a head start with configuring your Apica Ascent deployment, we've provided sample values.yaml files for small, medium, and large clusters. You can use these files as a base for configuring your Apica Ascent deployment. You can download these files from the following links.

6KB

values.small.yaml

You can pass the values.yaml file with the helm install command using the -f flag, as shown in the following example.

helm install logiq --namespace logiq --set global.persistence.storageClass=<storage_class_name> logiq-repo/logiq -f values.small.yaml

Read and accept the EULA

As a final step, you should read our End User's License Agreement and accept its terms before you proceed with deploying Apica Ascent PaaS.

Latest Apica Ascent component versions

The following table lists the latest version tags for all Apica Ascent components.

Image Version

Image	Version
`logiq-flash`	v3.0
`coffee`	v3.0
`logiq` Helm chart	v3.0.1

logiq-flash

v3.0

coffee

v3.0

logiq Helm chart

v3.0.1

Install Apica Ascent PaaS

Now that your environment is ready, you can proceed with installing Apica Ascent PaaS in it. To install Apica Ascent PaaS, run the following command.

helm install logiq --namespace logiq --set global.persistence.storageClass=<storage class name> logiq-repo/logiq

Running the above command installs Apica Ascent PaaS and exposes its services and UI on the ingress' IP address. Accessing the ingress' IP address in a web browser of your choice takes you to the Apica Ascent PaaS login screen, as shown in the following image.

If you haven't changed any of the admin settings in the values.yaml file you used during deployment, you can log into the Apica Ascent PaaS UI using the following default credentials.

Username: flash-admin@foo.com
Password: flash-password

Note: You can change the default login credentials after you've logged into the UI.

Your Apica Ascent PaaS instance is now deployed and ready for use. Your Apica Ascent instance enables you to ingest and tail logs, index and query log data, and search capabilities. Along with the Apica Ascent UI, you can also access these features via Apica Ascent's CLI, apicactl.

Customising your Apica Ascent deployment

You can customise your Apica Ascent PaaS deployment either before or after you deploy it in your environment. The types of supported customisations are listed below.

Enabling HTTPS for the Apica Ascent UI
Using an AWS S3 bucket
Install Apica Ascent server and client CA certificates(optional)
Updating the storage class
Using an external AWS RDS Postgres database instance
Uploading a Apica Ascent professional license
Customising the admin account
Using an external Redis instance
Configuring the cluster_id
Sizing your Apica Ascent cluster
NodePort/ClusterIP/LoadBalancer
Using Node Selectors
Installing Grafana

Enabling HTTPS for the Apica Ascent UI

You can enable HTTPS and assign a custom domain in the ingress for your Apica Ascent UI while installing Apica Ascent in your environment by running the following command.

helm install logiq --namespace logiq \
--set global.domain=logiq.my-domain.com \
--set ingress.tlsEnabled=true \
--set kubernetes-ingress.controller.defaultTLSSecret.enabled=true \
--set global.persistence.storageClass=<storage class name> logiq-repo/logiq

The following table describes all of the Helm options passed in the command above.

Helm option Description Default

Helm option	Description	Default
`global.domain`	The DNS domain where the Apica Ascent service will be running. This option is required to enable HTTPS.	No default
`ingress.tlsEnabled`	Enables the ingress controller to front HTTPS for services	false
`kubernetes-ingress.controller.defaultTLSSecret.enabled`	Specifies if a default certificate is enabled for the ingress gateway	false
`kubernetes-ingress.controller.defaultTLSSecret.secret`	Specifies the name of a TLS secret for the ingress gateway. If this is not specified, a secret is automatically generated of option `kubernetes-ingress.controller.defaultTLSSecret.enabled`

global.domain

The DNS domain where the Apica Ascent service will be running. This option is required to enable HTTPS.

No default

ingress.tlsEnabled

Enables the ingress controller to front HTTPS for services

false

kubernetes-ingress.controller.defaultTLSSecret.enabled

Specifies if a default certificate is enabled for the ingress gateway

false

kubernetes-ingress.controller.defaultTLSSecret.secret

Specifies the name of a TLS secret for the ingress gateway. If this is not specified, a secret is automatically generated of option kubernetes-ingress.controller.defaultTLSSecret.enabled

After you run the command, you should then update your DNS server to point to the ingress controller service's IP. Once you've done this, you can access your Apica Ascent UI at the domain https://logiq.my-domain.com that you set in the ingress controller service.

Passing an ingress secret

You can pass your own ingress secret while installing the Helm chart by running the following command.

helm install logiq --namespace logiq \
--set global.domain=logiq.my-domain.com \
--set ingress.tlsEnabled=true \
--set kubernetes-ingress.controller.defaultTLSSecret.enabled=true \
--set kubernetes-ingress.controller.defaultTLSSecret.secret=<secret_name> \
--set global.persistence.storageClass=<storage class name> logiq-repo/logiq

If you want to pass your own ingress secret, you can do so when installing the HELM chart

Using an AWS S3 bucket

Depending on your requirements, you may want to host your storage in either your own Kubernetes cluster or create a new storage bucket in a cloud provider like AWS.

If you choose to use an S3 bucket, be sure to deploy your Apica Ascent PaaS cluster in the same region that hosts your S3 bucket. Failing to do so can lead to you incurring additional data transfer costs for transferring data between regions.

To use your own S3 bucket, do the following.

Create an access/secret key pair for creating and managing your bucket

Go to your AWS IAM console and create an access key and secret key using which you can create your S3 bucket. Also provide access to the bucket for writing and reading your log files.

Deploy Apica Ascent in gateway mode

The S3 gateway acts as a caching gateway and helps reduce API costs. Deploy the Apica Ascent Helm chart in gateway mode by running the following command. Ensure you pass your AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY and name your S3 bucket uniquely.

helm install logiq --namespace logiq --set global.domain=logiq.my-domain.com \
--set global.environment.s3_bucket=<bucket_name> \
--set global.environment.awsServiceEndpoint=https://s3.<region>.amazonaws.com \
--set global.environment.s3_region=<region> \
--set global.environment.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=<access_key> \
--set global.environment.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=<secret_key> \
--set global.persistence.storageClass=<storage class name> logiq-repo/logiq

The command above automatically provisions an S3 bucket for you in the region you specify using the access credentials you pass with the command. If you do not wish to create a new bucket, make sure the access credentials you pass work with the S3 bucket you specify in the command. Additionally, make sure you provide a valid Amazon service endpoint for your S3 bucket or else the configuration defaults to using the https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com endpoint.

The following table describes all the Helm options passed in the command above.

elm option Description Default

elm option	Description	Default
`global.cloudProvider`	This helm option specifies the supported `cloudProvider` that is hosting the S3 compatible bucket. Currently, only `aws` is supported.	`aws`
`global.environment.s3_bucket`	The name of the S3 bucket in AWS	`logiq`
`global.environment.awsServiceEndpoint`	The S3 Service endpoint: https://s3.<region>.amazonaws.com	`https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com`
`global.environment.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID`	The AWS Access key for accessing the bucket	No default
`global.environment.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY`	The AWS Secret key for accessing the bucket	No default
`global.environment.s3_region`	The AWS Region where the bucket is hosted	`us-east-1`

global.cloudProvider

This helm option specifies the supported cloudProvider that is hosting the S3 compatible bucket. Currently, only aws is supported.

aws

global.environment.s3_bucket

The name of the S3 bucket in AWS

logiq

global.environment.awsServiceEndpoint

The S3 Service endpoint: https://s3.**<region>**.amazonaws.com

https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com

global.environment.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID

The AWS Access key for accessing the bucket

No default

global.environment.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY

The AWS Secret key for accessing the bucket

No default

global.environment.s3_region

The AWS Region where the bucket is hosted

us-east-1

Install Apica Ascent server and client CA certificates (optional)

Apica Ascent supports TLS for all of your log ingest sources. Apica Ascent also enables non-TLS ports by default. However, we recommend that you don't use non-TLS ports unless you're running Apica Ascent in a secure VPC or cluster.

You can provide server and client CA certificates to the cluster using a Kubernetes secrets file. Before using the following secrets file template, replace the template sections below with your Base64 encoded secret files.

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: logiq-certs
type: Opaque
data:
  ca.crt: {{ .Files.Get "certs/ca.crt.b64" }}
  syslog.crt: {{ .Files.Get "certs/syslog.crt.b64" }}
  syslog.key: {{ .Files.Get "certs/syslog.key.b64" }}

Once you've filled out this template, be sure to save the secrets file and name it appropriately, such as logiq-certs.yaml. You can now install the Apica Ascent Helm chart, along with the certificates using the following command.

helm install logiq --namespace logiq --set global.domain=logiq.my-domain.com \
--set logiq-flash.secrets_name=logiq-certs \
--set global.persistence.storageClass=<storage class name> logiq-repo/logiq

Note: If you skip this step, the Apica Ascent server automatically generates a CA and a pair of client and server certificates for you to use. You can retrieve them from the ingest server pods under the folder/flash/certs.

The following table describes the Helm options passed in the install command.

HELM Option Description Default

HELM Option	Description	Default
`logiq-flash.secrets_name`	TLS certificate key pair and CA cert for TLS transport	No default

logiq-flash.secrets_name

TLS certificate key pair and CA cert for TLS transport

No default

Updating the storage class

If you plan on using a specific storage class for your volumes, you can configure your Apica Ascent deployment to use that storage class. Apica Ascent uses the standard storage class by default.

The following table details the Kubernetes StorageClass names and their default provisioner for each cloud provider.

Cloud Provider K8S StorageClassName Default Provisioner

Cloud Provider	K8S StorageClassName	Default Provisioner
AWS	`gp3`	EBS
Azure	UltraSSD_LRS	Azure Ultra disk
GCP	`standard`	`pd-standard`
Digital Ocean	`do-block-storage`	Block Storage Volume
Oracle	`oci-bv`	Block Volume
Microk8s	`microk8s-hostpath`

AWS

gp3

EBS

Azure

UltraSSD_LRS

Azure Ultra disk

GCP

standard

pd-standard

Digital Ocean

do-block-storage

Block Storage Volume

Oracle

oci-bv

Block Volume

Microk8s

microk8s-hostpath

Note: It's possible that your environment uses a different StorageClass name for the provisioner. In such cases, ensure that you use the appropriate name for the storage class. For example, if you create a storage class named ebs-volume for the EBS provisioner for your cluster, you can use ebs-volume instead of gp2,as suggested by the table above.

You can update the storage class name for your Apica Ascent deployment by running the following command.

helm upgrade --namespace logiq \
--set global.persistence.storageClass=<storage class name> \
logiq logiq-repo/logiq

Using an external AWS RDS Postgres database instance

To use an external AWS RDS Postgres database for your Apica Ascent deployment, run the following command.

helm install logiq --namespace logiq \
--set global.chart.postgres=false \
--set global.environment.postgres_host=<postgres-host-ip/dns> \
--set global.environment.postgres_user=<username> \
--set global.environment.postgres_password=<password> \
--set global.persistence.storageClass=<storage class name> logiq-repo/logiq

The following table describes the Helm options that are passed with the command above.

HELM Option Description Default

HELM Option	Description	Default
`global.chart.postgres`	Deploys Postgres which is needed for Apica Ascent metadata. Set this to `false` if an external Postgres cluster is being used	`true`
`global.environment.postgres_host`	The host IP/DNS for external Postgres	`postgres`
`global.environment.postgres_user`	The Postgres admin user	`postgres`
`global.environment.postgres_password`	The Postgres admin user password	`postgres`
`global.environment.postgres_port`	The host port for external Postgres	5432

global.chart.postgres

Deploys Postgres which is needed for Apica Ascent metadata. Set this to false if an external Postgres cluster is being used

true

global.environment.postgres_host

The host IP/DNS for external Postgres

postgres

global.environment.postgres_user

The Postgres admin user

postgres

global.environment.postgres_password

The Postgres admin user password

postgres

global.environment.postgres_port

The host port for external Postgres

5432

Important: While configuring RDS, create a new parameter group that sets autoVacuum to true or the value 1. Associate this parameter group to your RDS instance.

autoVacuum automates the execution of the VACUUM and ANALYZE commands to gather statistics. autoVacuum checks for bloated tables in the database and reclaims the space for reuse.

Uploading a Apica Ascent PaaS Enterprise Edition license

The Apica Ascent PaaS Community Edition gives you access to Enterprise Edition features but with lesser daily log ingest rates and ingest worker processes. If you feel the need to up your daily ingest rates and make the most out of Apica Ascent by extending its use to the rest of your team with SSO and RBAC, you can upgrade to the Apica Ascent PaaS Enterprise Edition.

You can get yourself an Enterprise Edition license by contacting us via license@logiq.ai. Once you receive your new license, you can apply it to your Apica Ascent deployment using Apica Ascent's CLI, apicactl.

To use logiqctl, generate an API token from the Apica Ascent UI, as shown in the following image.

Once you've configured logiqctl with your API token and Apica Ascent cluster endpoint, run the following commands to update your license.

# Set cluster end point
> logiqctl config set-cluster your-logiq-cluster.com

# Set the API Key
> logiqctl config set-token r0q7EyIxNgVjAqLoIeDioJAWEhAR6wK4Y5XpPb3A

# Set the default namespace 
> logiqctl config set-context ngnix

Customising the admin account

Apica Ascent enables you to set your own admin credentials to log into your Apica Ascent cluster instead of using the default credentials. You can set your admin credentials while deploying Apica Ascent by running the following command.

helm install logiq --namespace logiq \
--set global.environment.admin_name="LOGIQ Administrator" \
--set global.environment.admin_password="admin_password" \
--set global.environment.admin_email="admin@example.com" \
--set global.persistence.storageClass=<storage class name> logiq-repo/logiq

The following table describes the Helm options passed with the command above.

HELM Option Description Default

HELM Option	Description	Default
`global.environment.admin_name`	The Apica Ascent Administrator's name	`flash-admin@foo.com`
`global.environment.admin_password`	The Apica Ascent Administrator password	`flash-password`
`global.environment.admin_email`	The Apica Ascent Administrator's e-mail	`flash-admin@foo.com`

global.environment.admin_name

The Apica Ascent Administrator's name

flash-admin@foo.com

global.environment.admin_password

The Apica Ascent Administrator password

flash-password

global.environment.admin_email

The Apica Ascent Administrator's e-mail

flash-admin@foo.com

Using an external Redis instance

You can specify an external Redis instance to be used with your Apica Ascent deployment by specifying the Redis host in the installation command, as shown below.

helm install logiq --namespace logiq \
--set global.chart.redis=false \
--set global.environment.redis_host=<redis-host-ip/dns> \
--set global.persistence.storageClass=<storage class name> logiq-repo/logiq

Important: Currently, Apica Ascent only supports connections to a Redis cluster in a local VPC without authentication. If you're using an AWS Elasticache instance, do not turn on encryption-in-transit or cluster mode.

The following table describes the Helm options that can be passed with the command above.

HELM Option Description Default

HELM Option	Description	Default
`global.chart.redis`	Deploys Redis that is needed for log tailing. Set this to `false` if you're using an external Redis cluster.	`true`
`global.environment.redis_host`	The host IP/DNS of the external Redis cluster	`redis-master`
`global.environment.redis_port`	The host port where the external Redis service is exposed	6379

global.chart.redis

Deploys Redis that is needed for log tailing. Set this to false if you're using an external Redis cluster.

true

global.environment.redis_host

The host IP/DNS of the external Redis cluster

redis-master

global.environment.redis_port

The host port where the external Redis service is exposed

6379

Configuring the `cluster_id`

You can configure a cluster ID for your Apica Ascent instance at the time of deployment by passing the cluster_id of your choice while running the following install command. This helps you identify your Apica Ascent cluster in case you'd like to monitor it.

helm install logiq --namespace logiq \
--set global.environment.cluster_id=<cluster id> \
--set global.persistence.storageClass=<storage class name> logiq-repo/logiq

The following table describes the Helm options passed with the command above.

HELM Option Description Default

HELM Option	Description	Default
`global.environment.cluster_id`	The cluster ID being used for the K8s cluster running LOGIQ. For more information, read Managing multiple K8S clusters.	`LOGIQ`

global.environment.cluster_id

The cluster ID being used for the K8s cluster running LOGIQ. For more information, read Managing multiple K8S clusters.

LOGIQ

Sizing your Apica Ascent cluster

When deploying Apica Ascent, it's advisable to size your infrastructure appropriately to provide adequate vCPU and memory for the Apica Ascent instance to utilise. The following table describes the minimum recommended sizes for small, medium, and large cluster specifications.

Apica Ascent cluster size	vCPU	Memory	NodeCount
small	12	32 GB	3
medium	20	56 GB	5
large	32	88 GB	8

Configuring `NodePort`, `ClusterIP`, and `LoadBalancer`

The service type configurations for your Apica Ascent deployment are exposed in the values.yaml , as shown in the following example.

flash-coffee:
  service:
    type: ClusterIP
logiq-flash:
  service:
    type: NodePort
kubernetes-ingress:
  controller:
    service:
      type: LoadBalancer

For example, if you are deploying Apica Ascent on a bare-metal server and want an external load balancer to front Apica Ascent, configure all services as NodePort and pass the service types in the installation command, as shown in the following example.

helm install logiq -n logiq -f values.yaml \
--set flash-coffee.service.type=NodePort \
--set logiq-flash.service.type=NodePort \
--set kubernetes-ingress.controller.service.type=NodePort \
logiq-repo/logiq

Using Node Selectors

You can optimise the deployment of the Apica Ascent stack using node labels and node selectors that help place various components of the stack optimally.

You can use the node label logiq.ai/node to control the placement of ingest pods for log data into ingest-optimised nodes, thereby allowing you to manage costs and instance sizing effectively.

The various nodeSelectors are defined in the globals section of the values.yaml file. In the following example, different node pools such as ingest , common , db, cache , and sync are used.

globals:
  nodeSelectors:
    enabled: true
    ingest: ingest
    infra: common
    other: common
    db: db
    cache: cache
    ingest_sync: sync

Note: Node selectors are enabled by setting enabled to true for globals.nodeSelectors in your values.yaml file.

Installing Grafana

The Apica Ascent stack bundles Grafana as part of the deployment as an optional component. You can enable Grafana in your Apica Ascent cluster by running the following command.

helm upgrade --install logiq --namespace logiq \
--set global.chart.grafana=true \ 
--set global.persistence.storageClass=<storage class name> logiq-repo/logiq

The Grafana instance is exposed at port 3000 on the ingress controller. The deployed Grafana instance uses the same login credentials as the Apica Ascent UI.

PreviousPaaS Deployment Architecture NextDeploying Apica Ascent PaaS on Kubernetes

Last updated 3 months ago

Before you begin

Add the Apica Ascent Helm repository

Create a namespace to deploy Apica Ascent

Prepare your Values file

Read and accept the EULA

Latest Apica Ascent component versions

Install Apica Ascent PaaS

Customising your Apica Ascent deployment

Enabling HTTPS for the Apica Ascent UI

Passing an ingress secret

Using an AWS S3 bucket

Create an access/secret key pair for creating and managing your bucket

Deploy Apica Ascent in gateway mode

Install Apica Ascent server and client CA certificates (optional)

Updating the storage class

Using an external AWS RDS Postgres database instance

Uploading a Apica Ascent PaaS Enterprise Edition license

Customising the admin account

Using an external Redis instance

Configuring the cluster_id

Sizing your Apica Ascent cluster

Configuring NodePort, ClusterIP, and LoadBalancer

Using Node Selectors

Installing Grafana

Configuring the `cluster_id`

Configuring `NodePort`, `ClusterIP`, and `LoadBalancer`