Installation#

This document describes how to set up a deployment of Inrupt Enterprise Solid Server (ESS). To set up a deployment, ESS provides various Kustomize overlays that can act as the base configuration for your deployment.

See also Release Notes.

Important

Starting in ESS 2.2, ESS uses three-element version descriptors for its Kubernetes images, corresponding to the release versions (i.e., semantic versions of Major.Minor.Patch). For example docker.software.inrupt.com/inrupt-kustomizer:2.3.5.

PodSpaces (Developer Preview)

Inrupt provides hosted versions of the Enterprise Solid Server, eliminating the installation overhead. For more information, see Inrupt PodSpaces.

Prerequisites#

Note

The tutorial follows the Infrastructure as Code (IaC) practice for managing the system and assumes the installation directory is under source control.

Warning

CRITICAL SECURITY REQUIREMENT

NEVER commit files containing secrets such as .env or JWT to version control. These files must be managed securely.

As part of updating the inputs for your deployment:

  1. Review the template secret files

  2. Set strong secrets for the values, such as strong passwords

  3. Store the secret securely outside your repository using one of these methods:

    • Cloud secrets management service

    • Enterprise secrets vault solution

    • Kubernetes Secrets with encryption at rest

    • Secure file system with restricted access (development only)

  4. Configure your deployment to retrieve credentials from your secure storage at runtime

  5. Add the secrets files to your .gitignore file immediately

Entitlement Token#

To login to Inrupt’s private Docker registry and download the ESS Docker images, your enterprise needs to obtain an entitlement token from Inrupt.

For inquiries (including pricing inquiries) about obtaining the token, you can either:

Docker#

The installation uses Linux Docker images. If Docker is not installed, refer to its official documentation to install.

Kubernetes Version#

ESS supports Kubernetes versions 1.21+.

Kubernetes Management Tool#

To deploy and manage the Kubernetes cluster, install a Kubernetes deployment tool (if not already installed).

This tutorial uses kubectl. To install kubectl, use the directions at https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/tools/.

Kubernetes Environment#

For your Kubernetes Environment, ensure that the following features are enabled:

To enable these features for your Kubernetes environment, refer to your Kubernetes-specific documentation.

For an example, see Prepare a Local Kubernetes Environment to set up a local Kubernetes environment.

OIDC-Compliant Identity Provider#

ESS integrates with your OpenID Connect (OIDC) compliant Identity Provider (IdP). In addition, as part of the provided standalone overlay, ESS includes Keycloak. When using the provided Keycloak, your usernames should be alphanumeric.

To use your OIDC-compliant IdP, refer to your IdP’s official site to set up an OIDC application. When configuring the OIDC application:

Callback/Redirect URL

Set to https://openid.<ESS Domain>/callback.

OAuth 2.0 Flow

Set to Authorization code grant. For more information, see The OAuth 2.0 Authorization Framework.

OIDC Scopes

Must include openid and profile.

Tip

Contact Inrupt Support Center for guidance setting up an OIDC application with your IdP.

Publicly Accessible#

ESS services are designed to be accessible from and have access to the Internet. For example,

  • JSON Web Key Set (JWKS) may be hosted on external services, and ESS services would need access to those when running in an open Solid ecosystem.

  • If running ESS with certificates from LetsEncrypt, common LetsEncrypt validation challenges require Internet access.

  • With Internet access, ESS can also integrate with third-party services such as Identity Providers, Cloud Logging, Metrics, Telemetry systems.

Installation#

Step 1: Initialize the Installation Directory#

  1. Start Docker.

  2. Open a terminal shell and login to Inrupt’s private Docker registry. When prompted for your password, enter your entitlement token:

    docker login  --username <userid> docker.software.inrupt.com

  3. Get the latest 2.3 version of the inrupt-kustomizer:

    Note

    Starting in ESS 2.2, ESS uses three-element version descriptors for its Kubernetes images, corresponding to the release versions(i.e., semantic versions of Major.Minor.Patch). As such, to get the latest version, you must use the specific patch version.

    docker pull docker.software.inrupt.com/inrupt-kustomizer:2.3.5

  4. Initialize an empty installation directory with a base overlay for your environment:

    Important

    The tutorial follows the Infrastructure as Code (IaC) practice for managing the system and assumes the installation directory is under source control.

    As such, the steps include committing the directory and its files to your source control.

    Warning

    CRITICAL SECURITY REQUIREMENT

    NEVER commit files containing secrets such as .env or JWT to version control. These files must be managed securely.

    As part of updating the inputs for your deployment:

    1. Review the template secret files

    2. Set strong secrets for the values, such as strong passwords

    3. Store the secret securely outside your repository using one of these methods:

      • Cloud secrets management service

      • Enterprise secrets vault solution

      • Kubernetes Secrets with encryption at rest

      • Secure file system with restricted access (development only)

    4. Configure your deployment to retrieve credentials from your secure storage at runtime

    5. Add the secrets files to your .gitignore file immediately

    1. Run the inrupt-kustomizer, specifying the absolute path to the installation directory.

      Note

      • If the specified directory does not exist, the operation creates the directory.

      • If the specified directory exists, ensure that the directory is empty. If the directory is not empty, the inrupt-kustomizer does not attempt to initialize the directory with the base configuration files.

      docker run -it -v ${HOME}/ess:/kustomize docker.software.inrupt.com/inrupt-kustomizer:2.3.5

      The operation prompts you to select from one of the available overlays provided by Inrupt as a base overlay:

      It appears that this environment hasn't been initialized.
You can choose an overlay that you'd like to base this environment on.
For more details please see: https://docs.inrupt.com/ess/2.3/installation/

The available overlays are:

scalable-cloud
    ESS Scalable Cloud with external storage, queues and identity provider

standalone
    WARNING! ESS Standalone comes bundled with in-cluster storage, queues and identity provider for specific evaluation purposes only. DO NOT deploy ESS Standalone in production environments. Unexpected issues may arise. Inrupt disclaims all liability and responsibility for use of ESS Standalone in a production environment. Contact support@inrupt.com for assistance or inquiries. Your understanding is appreciated.

    2. Enter the overlay to use. For example, to use the Scalable Cloud overlay as the base, enter scalable-cloud:

      Please enter the overlay you would like to use [scalable-cloud]: scalable-cloud

      Note

      You may choose to run ESS on other Kubernetes environments. To install ESS as a standalone on a local environment, contact Inrupt for technical assistance.

      The operation populates the specified installation directory with various files needed to set up your environment.

      Extracting inputs required for overlay "scalable-cloud"...
The inputs for "scalable-cloud" are now in the "inputs" folder
Generating "kustomization.yaml" to allow you to fine-tune your environment...
Please refer to the readme.txt file that was generated. It contains instructions on how to set up your environment.

    3. Place the directory under source control in a private repo.

      Warning

      Ensure that the directory is in a private repo for best security

Step 2: Update Inputs and Build#

Important

Inputs may change per versions. For example, a new input file may be added or new input may be required in an existing input file. Always review the contents of the inputs/ folder when performing the installation/upgrades.

During the initialization, Inrupt generates a readme.txt file in the installation directory. The file provides instructions on updating inputs for your deployment and building the deployment file.

  1. Go to the installation directory.

    cd ${HOME}/ess

  2. Using the instructions in the readme.txt file, update the inputs in the base overlay for your deployment.

    Warning

    CRITICAL SECURITY REQUIREMENT

    NEVER commit files containing secrets such as .env or JWT to version control. These files must be managed securely.

    As part of updating the inputs for your deployment:

    1. Review the template secret files

    2. Set strong secrets for the values, such as strong passwords

    3. Store the secret securely outside your repository using one of these methods:

      • Cloud secrets management service

      • Enterprise secrets vault solution

      • Kubernetes Secrets with encryption at rest

      • Secure file system with restricted access (development only)

    4. Configure your deployment to retrieve credentials from your secure storage at runtime

    5. Add the secrets files to your .gitignore file immediately

    Important

    Inputs may change per versions. For example, a new input file may be added or new input may be required in an existing input file. Review the contents of your inputs/ folder for your installation/upgrades.

    Kafka Message Encryption

    ESS’ services communicate with each other by sending messages through Kafka.

    By default, Inrupt enables data encryption for all data that pass through the Kafka messaging system.

    Tip

    You MUST set the data encryption key values to a strong password.

    For more information on the Kafka configurations, see ESS’ Kafka Configuration.

  3. After updating the inputs, build the deployment file per the instructions in the readme.txt file.

  4. Commit all changes in the directory to source control.

    Important

    Ensure that the repo is private.

Step 3: Optional. Customize Your Deployment Configuration#

Optionally, you can further customize your ESS deployment using Kustomize overlays, such as to use certificates from an official Certificate Authority (CA).

Note

You can opt to customize after setting up a base deployment.

For examples on customizing your deployment with overlays, see Customize ESS.

Step 4: Deploy#

After you have built the deployment file, you can deploy.

  1. If not already, go to the installation directory:

    cd ${HOME}/ess

  2. Deploy to your Kubernetes environment:

    kubectl apply -f kustomized.yaml

    Tip

    The deploy operation is idempotent. If the deploy operation does not complete successfully, you can safely retry the operation.

    Warning: Self-signed Certificates

    The provided base overlays create self-signed certificates. These self-signed certificates are for development purposes only. In production, ESS should be run with certificates from an official Certificate Authority (CA). For an example of how you can customize your deployment to use your production certificates, see Use Official Certificate Authority.

  3. You can view the ESS components and services that are running:

    kubectl -n ess get all

  4. For local standalone deployments, add the ESS service domains to the /etc/hosts file on your local machine.

    The following steps are specific to Linux operating system.

    1. Get your local Kubernetes cluster IP address:

      K8_IP=$(kubectl get nodes -o jsonpath="{.items[*].status.addresses[?(@.type=='InternalIP')].address}")

    2. Get a list of the ESS service domains:

      ESS_DOMAINS=$(grep "host: " kustomized.yaml | awk '{print $3}' | sort -u | tr -d '\r' | tr '\n' ' ')

    3. Backup your /etc/hosts file:

      sudo cp /etc/hosts /etc/hosts.bak

    4. Update the /etc/hosts:

      sudo sed -n -e '/# ESS-DOMAINS-BEGIN/,/# ESS-DOMAINS-END/!p' -e '$a# ESS-DOMAINS-BEGIN\n'"$K8_IP $ESS_DOMAINS"'\n# ESS-DOMAINS-END' -i /etc/hosts

  5. To verify, go to https://start.{ESS DOMAIN}/.

Appendix#

Delete ESS#

Because ESS deploys to a namespace (ess), you can delete ESS by deleting the ess namespace:

kubectl delete namespace ess

Warning

Ensure that no other components have been deployed to the namespace.