ngrok

Intro

The ngrok Ingress Controller for Kubernetes is an official open-source controller for adding public and secure ingress traffic to your k8s services. You can think of the ngrok Ingress Controller as ngrok packaged as an idiomatic k8s controller — deployed via a simple helm chart, configurable via standard k8s Ingress object (using the kind: Ingress construct), and compatible with k8s best practices.

This recipe describes how customers can standardize the configuration, deployment and lifecycle management of the ngrok Ingress Controller for Kubernetes as a custom system add-on across their fleet of clusters.

You can also watch a video of this in action.

What Will You Do¶

In this exercise,

You will create a customized ngrok add-on using ngrok's official Helm chart
You will use the add-on in a custom cluster blueprint
You will then apply this cluster blueprint to a managed cluster
You will then deploy a test workload to use the ngrok ingress controller

Assumptions¶

You have already provisioned or imported one or more Kubernetes clusters using the controller.

Step 1: Create ngrok Keys¶

In this step, you will use the ngrok console to retrieve an Authtoken and an API key which will be used by the controller to communicate with the ngrok service.

Access the ngrok Dashboard with your Pro account.
Click Your Authtoken on the left side of the window. Copy the Authtoken to a text editor for later use.
Click API and follow the instructions to create a new API key. Copy the API key to a text editor for later use.

Step 2: Create Custom Values File¶

In this step, you will create a custom values file for the ngrok Helm chart.

Save the below YAML to a file named ngrok-values.yaml
Update the API Key and Authtoken values with the values obtained from the previous step

credentials:
  apiKey: <API_KEY>
  authtoken: <AUTHTOKEN>

Step 3: Create Namesapce¶

You will now create a managed namespace from the controller for the ngrok resources.

Ensure you are logged into the console
In your project, navigate to Infrastructure -> Namespaces
Click on New Namespace
Enter ngrok-ingress-controller for the name
Select Wizard for Type
Click Save

Create Namespace

Click "Save & Go To Placement"
Select one of your clusters for placement
Click "Save & Go To Publish"
Click "Publish"
Click "Exit"

Step 4: Create Addon¶

In this step, you will create a custom cluster add-on from the Catalog. The add-on will then be used in a custom cluster blueprint.

In the Rafay console, navigate to Catalog in the left side tree
Search for "kubernetes-ingress-controller"
Click on kubernetes-ingress-controller

Create Add-On

Click Create Add-On
Enter ngrok for the name of the add-on
Select the previously created namespace
Click Create

Create Add-On

Enter v1 for the version name
Click Upload Files under the Values File(s) section
Select the previously saved ngrok-values.yaml file
Click Save Changes

Create Add-On

Step 5: Create Blueprint¶

In this step, you will create a custom cluster blueprint which contains the previously created addon.

In the Rafay console, navigate to Infrastructure -> Blueprints in the left side tree
Click New Blueprint
Enter ngrok for the name of the blueprint
Click Save

Create Blueprint

Enter v1 for the version name
Select minimal for the base blueprint

Create Blueprint

Click Configure Add-Ons
Click the + symbol to add the ngrok add-on to the blueprint
Click Save Changes

Create Blueprint

Click Save Changes

Step 6: Apply Bluprint¶

In this step, you will apply the previously created blueprint to the cluster. Applying the blueprint will install the ngrok ingress controller.

In the Rafay console, navigate to Infrastructure -> Clusters in the left side tree
Click the gear icon on your cluster
Select Update Blueprint
Select ngrok for the blueprint and v1 for the version
Click Save and Publish

Apply Blueprint

The blueprint will begin being applied to the cluster

Apply Blueprint

Afer a short period of time, the blueprint will be applied to the cluster.

Apply Blueprint

Click Exit

Step 7: Create ngrok Edge¶

In this step, you will create an edge in the ngrok console. The edge endpoint will be the URL that is used to access the workload via the ingress controller.

Access the ngrok Dashboard with your Pro account.
Click Cloud Edge -> Edges in the left side tree
Click New Edge
Click Create HTTPS Edge
Copy the endpoint for use in a later step

Create Edge

Step 8: Deploy Workload¶

In this step, you will deploy a test workload that will use the ngrok ingress controller. You will then be able to use the ngrok service to access the test workload via a secure channel.

Save the following YAML to a file named ngrok-workload.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: game-2048
  namespace: ngrok-ingress-controller
spec:
  ports:
    - name: http
      port: 80
      targetPort: 80
  selector:
    app: game-2048
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: game-2048
  namespace: ngrok-ingress-controller
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: game-2048
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: game-2048
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: backend
          image: alexwhen/docker-2048
          ports:
            - name: http
              containerPort: 80
---
# ngrok Ingress Controller Configuration
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: game-2048-ingress
  namespace: ngrok-ingress-controller
spec:
  ingressClassName: ngrok
  rules:
    - host: NGROK_DOMAIN
      http:
        paths:
          - path: /
            pathType: Prefix
            backend:
              service:
                name: game-2048
                port:
                  number: 80

Update NGROK_DOMAIN in line number 45 of the file with the endpoint value obtained from the previous step. Be sure to remove "https://" from the endpoint
In the Rafay console, navigate to Applications -> Workloads in the left side tree
Click New Workload -> Create New Workload
Enter ngrok-workload for the name
Select K8s YAML for the package type
Select Upload files manually
Select ngrok-ingress-controller for the namespace
Click Continue

Create workload

Click Choose File
Select the previously saved ngrok-workload.yaml file
Click Save and Go To Placement
Select the cluster to deploy the workload to
Click Save and Go To Publish
Click Publish to deploy the workload

Create workload

Click Exit

Step 9: Verify Workload¶

In this step, you will verify that the previously deployed workload is running and can be accessed from the ngrok endpoint.

In the Rafay console, navigate to Infrastructure -> Clusters in the left side tree
Click kubectl on your cluster
Enter the following command:

kubectl get ingresses --namespace=ngrok-ingress-controller

You will see something similar to the following screenshot.

Verify Workload

Notice that the "Hosts" value is the same value of you edge endpoint.

Enter the edge endpoint/Hosts value into a web browswer to access the test workload through the ngrok service.

Verify Workload

Recap¶

Congratulations! You have successfully created a custom cluster blueprint with the ngrok kubernetes ingress controller as a custom add-on. You can now use this blueprint on as many clusters as you require.