Create a Kubernetes cluster in AWS using Terraform and install MKE 4k#

Prerequisites#

In addition to the MKE 4k dependencies, you need to do the following:

Install Terraform (required for creating VMs in AWS)
Create an AWS account
Set the environment variables for the AWS CLI:
- AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
- AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
- AWS_SESSION_TOKEN

Create virtual machines on AWS#

To create virtual machines on AWS using the example Terraform scripts:

Download the example Terraform folder to your local machine.

Create a terraform.tfvars file with content similar to:

cluster_name = "mke4k-cluster"
controller_count = 1
worker_count = 1
cluster_flavor = "m5.large"
region = "us-east-1"

Run terraform init.
Run terraform apply -auto-approve.
Run terraform output --raw mke4k_cluster > VMs.yaml.

Info

To get detailed information on the virtual machines using the AWS CLI, run:

aws ec2 describe-instances --region $(grep "region" terraform.tfvars | awk -F' *= *' '{print $2}' | tr -d '"')

Alternatively, you can get a visual overview of the virtual machines at the AWS EC2 page by selecting the desired region from the dropdown menu in the top-right corner.

Install MKE 4k#

Generate a sample mke4.yaml configuration file:
```
mkectl init > mke4.yaml
```

Edit the hosts section in the mke4.yaml configuration file using the values from the VMs.yaml file. Example configuration of the hosts section:

hosts:
  - role: controller+worker
    ssh:
      address: 54.91.231.190
      keyPath: <path_to_terraform_folder>/aws_private.pem
      port: 22
      user: ubuntu
  - role: worker
    ssh:
      address: 18.206.202.16
      keyPath: <path_to_terraform_folder>/aws_private.pem
      port: 22
      user: ubuntu

Edit the apiServer.externalAddress in the configuration file
```
terraform output -raw lb_dns_name | { read lb; yq -i ".apiServer.externalAddress = \"$lb\"" mke4.yaml; }
```
If you do not have the yq tool installed, edit the mke4.yaml configuration file manually, setting apiServer.externalAddress to the output of the terraform output -raw lb_dns_name command.
Create the MKE 4k cluster:
```
mkectl apply -f mke4.yaml
```

Upon successful completion of the MKE 4k installation, a username and password will be automatically generated and displayed once for you to use. To explicitly set a password value:

mkectl apply -f mke4.yaml --admin-password <password>

Clean up infrastructure#

To clean up and tear down infrastructure that is no longer needed, ensuring that all resources managed by Terraform are properly deleted, navigate to the Terraform folder and run:

terraform destroy --auto-approve

After successfully destroying the resources, Terraform will update the state file to reflect that the resources no longer exist.