Install the BACK Stack¶

In order to try out the BACK Stack locally you can follow these steps

You will use Porter to perform the installation. Currently, the generated Bundle supports installing the BACK stack on EKS or locally using KinD

Porter Bundle Info & Settings¶

Credentials:

NOTE: Although cloud provider credentials are not required, without them you cannot provision new clusters.

How to generate Azure AKS kubeconfig file:

az aks get-credentials --name MyManagedCluster \ 
  --resource-group MyResourceGroup \ 
  --file kubeconfig-azure

How to generate AWS EKS kubeconfig file:

aws eks update-kubeconfig --name backstack-hub \ 
  --region us-west-1 \ 
  --kubeconfig kubeconfig-aws

How to generate Azure Credentials:

az ad sp create-for-rbac --sdk-auth --role Owner \ 
  --scopes /subscriptions/$YOURSUBSCRIPTIONID > azure.json

How to pass AWS Credentials: NOTE Ensure you have stored your Key ID and Access Key in a file under the default heading (e.g.)

cat ~/.aws/credentials
[default]
aws_access_key_id = YOURKEYHERE
aws_secret_access_key = YOURSECRETKEYHERE

Name	Description	Required	Comments
aws-credentials	Credentials to be used for Crossplane `provider-aws`	false
azure-credentials	Credentials to be used for Crossplane `provider-azure`	false
github-token	Github API token	true
kubeconfig	kubeconfig to connect to non-local cluster	false	This should point to a kubeconfig for the cluster you want to install to. Ensure there is a valid long term authentication token stored in the file
vault-token	This should always be `root`	true

Parameters:

Name	Description	Type	Default	Required
argocd-host	DNS name for ArgoCD	string	`argocd-7f000001.nip.io`	false
backstage-host	DNS name for Backstage	string	`backstage-7f000001.nip.io`	false
cluster-type	Target kubernetes cluster type. Accepted values are `kind`, `eks`	string	`kind`	true
repository	Gitops repository for cluster requests and catalog-info	string	`https://github.com/$YOURUSERNAME/showcase`	true
vault-host	DNS name for Vault	string	`vault-7f000001.nip.io`	false

This bundle uses the following tools: docker, exec, helm3, Kubernetes.

Generic Installation Instructions¶

To install this bundle, run the following commands, passing --param KEY=VALUE for any parameters you want to customize:

porter credentials generate back-stack-cloud-creds \ 
  --reference ghcr.io/back-stack/showcase-bundle:latest

porter install --reference ghcr.io/back-stack/showcase-bundle:latest \ 
  --credential-set back-stack-cloud-creds \ 
  --param repository=https://github.com/USER/REPO

Installing Locally into KinD¶

The Porter bundle already includes KinD, so the only prerequisite is Docker/Docker Desktop to be running.

Install porter

Generate the credentials config, leaving the kubeconfig empty (it will be ignored)

porter credentials generate back-stack-cloud-creds \ 
  --reference ghcr.io/back-stack/showcase-bundle:latest

Install the bundle; the default cluster-type and *-host parameters are configured for local deployment, and you need to allow Porter to access your local docker daemon.

porter install back-stack \
  --reference ghcr.io/back-stack/showcase-bundle:latest \
  --credential-set back-stack-cloud-creds \
  --param repository=https://github.com/USER/REPO \
  --allow-docker-host-access

To connect to the KinD cluster running the BACK stack, update your kubeconfig:

porter installations output show kubeconfig-external \ 
  -i back-stack > ~/.kube/config

Installing into EKS¶

Existing EKS cluster with AWS Load Balancer Controller add-on installed
local kubeconfig file to connect to the cluster
Install porter (see above)

Generate the credentials config, specifying the path to the kubeconfig-aws file

porter credentials generate back-stack-cloud-creds \ 
  --reference ghcr.io/back-stack/showcase-bundle:latest

Install the bundle; set cluster-type to eks and specify DNS names that you want to use to access the BACK stack services. This can either be done using --param flags or by generating a parameter set

# using parameter set
porter parameters generate back-stack-params \ 
  --reference ghcr.io/back-stack/showcase-bundle:latest

porter install back-stack \ 
  --reference ghcr.io/back-stack/showcase-bundle:latest \
  --credential-set back-stack-cloud-creds \
  --parameter-set back-stack-params

After installation, you need to ensure the DNS names specified for argocd-host, backstage-host, and vault-host all resolve to the ingress service created during installation. The endpoint for this can be found by checking the bundle outputs
```
porter installations output show ingress -i back-stack
```
For this showcase, you can update /etc/hosts.