Quick Start

Learn how to get Keptn running in five minutes. Whether you prefer Helm, Docker or Keptn CLI, or k3d, we have you covered.

This Quick Start guide shows how to quickly create a local Keptn installation that runs either as a Helm chart in Kubernetes or as Docker container in K3d and run some exercises to demonstrate Keptn functionality.

You can install and run Keptn on virtually any Kubernetes cluster. See Install CLI and Keptn for detailed instructions about creating a Keptn cluster locally or in the cloud.

Helm

1) Install core control plane components and expose via a LoadBalancer:

helm repo add keptn https://charts.keptn.sh && helm repo update
helm install keptn keptn/keptn \
-n keptn --create-namespace \
--wait \
--set=control-plane.apiGatewayNginx.type=LoadBalancer

2) Install the execution plane components. These are additional microservices that will handle certain tasks:

helm install jmeter-service keptn/jmeter-service -n keptn
helm install helm-service keptn/helm-service -n keptn

Next Steps

Now try the Multi-Stage Delivery example and then Auto-Remediation (see below).

Keptn Hello World (Docker Based)

Prerequisites for Hello World

• Machine with Docker installed and at least 8GB RAM

Run the Keptn Hello, World! example:

docker run --rm -it \
--name thekindkeptn \
-v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro \
--add-host=host.docker.internal:host-gateway \
gardnera/thekindkeptn:0.0.14

The Keptn Bridge (UI) will be available on http://localhost

Outcome

The command above has:

• Created a Kubernetes cluster in Docker using k3d
• Installed Keptn and removed all authentication (for demo purposes)
• Installed and authenticated the keptn CLI
• Created a helloworld project
• Ran your first hello Keptn sequence

You can also run additional hello sequences with: keptn trigger sequence --sequence hello --project helloworld --service demoservice --stage demo

Next Steps

Now try the Multi-Stage Delivery example and then Auto-Remediation (see below).

Keptn CLI

1) Download the Keptn Command Line Tool:

curl -sL https://get.keptn.sh | bash

2) Install Keptn core control plane and execution plane services for continuous delivery using the CLI:

keptn install -n keptn --use-case=continuous-delivery --endpoint-service-type=LoadBalancer

k3d Keptn

Use this method if you don’t have Docker and either have or don’t mind installing k3d.

Prerequisites for k3d based Keptn

This quickstart is designed for Linux-based systems. Consequently, use Linux, macOS, or Windows subsystem for Linux v2 with a full virtual machine (WSL2). Note that this tutorial has not been fully verified on non-amd64 architectures (including Arm-based Apple M1).

The following tools need to be installed for this tutorial:

• Docker with minimum 4vCPUS, 12GB RAM, 20GB disk space left (see FAQ)
• kubectl version >= 1.19
• helm version >= 3.3.0 - Installation Guide
• git
• k3d version 4.4.4

All executables should be configured to be executable in the user space without sudo or equivalents.

Installing K3d

If you already have k3d installed, you can check its version by running k3d --version. This tutorial targets version 4.4.4 and may not work properly with older or newer versions.

curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rancher/k3d/main/install.sh | TAG=v4.4.4 bash

Install Keptn

1. Start a k3d cluster for Keptn

   k3d cluster create mykeptn -p "8082:80@loadbalancer" --k3s-server-arg "--kube-proxy-arg=conntrack-max-per-core=0"  --k3s-agent-arg "--kube-proxy-arg=conntrack-max-per-core=0" --agents 1
   

2. Download and install the Keptn CLI

   curl -sL https://get.keptn.sh | bash
   

3. Install Keptn control-plane and execution-plane for continuous delivery use case or use the helm install version mentioned below.

   keptn install --use-case=continuous-delivery
   

   Keptn comes with different installation options, please have a look at the installation documentation for more details on cluster requirements, resource consumption, supported Kubernetes versions, and more. Please note that although during the installation procedure it might be mentioned that Istio is required, it is not required for this quickstart guide.

   Installation logs

   The installation logs will print the following output:

   Installing Keptn …
   Helm Chart used for Keptn installation: https://charts.keptn.sh/packages/keptn-0.14.1.tgz
   Start upgrading Helm Chart keptn in namespace keptn
   Finished upgrading Helm Chart keptn in namespace keptn
   Keptn control plane has been successfully set up on your cluster.
   Installing execution plane services for continuous-delivery use case.
   Start upgrading Helm Chart helm-service in namespace keptn
   Finished upgrading Helm Chart helm-service in namespace keptn
   Start upgrading Helm Chart jmeter-service in namespace keptn
   Finished upgrading Helm Chart jmeter-service in namespace keptn
    —————————————————
    * To quickly access Keptn, you can use a port-forward and then authenticate your Keptn CLI:
    - kubectl -n keptn port-forward service/api-gateway-nginx 8080:80
    - keptn auth –endpoint=http://localhost:8080/api –api-token=$(kubectl get secret keptn-api-token -n keptn -ojsonpath={.data.keptn-api-token} | base64 –decode)
    * Alternatively, follow the instructions provided at: https://keptn.sh/docs/0.14.x/operate/install/#authenticate-keptn-cli
    * To expose Keptn on a public endpoint, please continue with the installation guidelines provided at:
    - https://keptn.sh/docs/0.14.x/operate/install#install-keptn
   

   There is no need to follow the instructions from the installation log - the quickstart guide will cover this!

4. Configure Ingress and authenticate Keptn CLI

   curl -SL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/keptn/examples/master/quickstart/expose-keptn.sh | bash
   

5. Access Bridge: you can now access the Keptn Web UI at http://127.0.0.1.nip.io:8082/bridge.

   For different way on how to expose your Keptn installation, please refer to https://keptn.sh/docs/0.14.x/operate/install/#install-keptn.

Try Multi-Stage Delivery

Perform a multi-stage delivery with SLO-based quality gates in place. Please note this will create a local repository examples/ in your current directory. Make sure to run it from a directory you are fine having the examples stored in.

curl -SL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/keptn/examples/master/quickstart/multistage-delivery.sh | bash

Try Auto-Remediation

Run automated operations with auto-remediation in action:

curl -SL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/keptn/examples/master/quickstart/automated-operations.sh | bash

Explore Keptn

Now you have a running Keptn instance, keep exploring it! Please have a look at our tutorials and documentation to learn how you can use Keptn.

Explore tutorials to learn more about the Keptn use cases

With Keptn installed, have a look at the different tutorials to learn hands-on about the Keptn use cases:

Learn how Keptn works and how it can be adapted to your use cases

Review the documentation for a full reference on all Keptn capabilities and components and how they can be combined/extended to your needs:

• Operate Keptn
• Manage Keptn
• Continuous Delivery
• Quality Gates
• Automated Operations
• Custom Integrations

Wrapping up

If you are finished exploring Keptn, you can always stop and start the cluster and delete it eventually.

k3d cluster stop mykeptn
k3d cluster start mykeptn

Or delete it if you don’t need it anymore

k3d cluster delete mykeptn

FAQ

Kubernetes version not supported

In case keptn install prevents you from installing Keptn due to a (currently) unsupported Kubernetes version, you can bypass this check at your own risk by using the Helm installation option of Keptn.

helm install keptn https://github.com/keptn/keptn/releases/download/0.14.1/keptn-0.14.1.tgz -n keptn --create-namespace --set=continuous-delivery.enabled=true --wait
helm install helm-service https://github.com/keptn/keptn/releases/download/0.14.1/helm-service-0.14.1.tgz -n keptn --create-namespace --wait
helm install jmeter-service https://github.com/keptn/keptn/releases/download/0.14.1/jmeter-service-0.14.1.tgz -n keptn --create-namespace --wait

Now continue with step 4 from the quickstart guide.

Disk pressure on pods in Kubernetes

If the installation of Keptn is timing out, you can check if the root cause are low resources, such as disk space, by executing kubectl describe pod PODID -n keptn.executing

Please ensure that your local k3d environment has enough resources. You can verify this in your Docker resource settings. This quickstart guide has been tested with the following configuration:

Resources

Docker resources

Please make sure your Docker environment has been granted enough resources to run k3d and Keptn on top of it. This quickstart guide has been tested with the following configuration:

Resources

How to get more help?

Join our slack channel for any questions that may arise. There is a special #help channel for Keptn users when you can get help from the Keptn team.