Deploying the Turbonomic components

After you install the Turbonomic VM that will host the platform, you can install the platform components.

First, gather the information that you need to run the installation:

  • Network Time Source for Time Synchronization (optional)

    You can complete this step during installation or later. If you want to synchronize the VM's clock now, you are prompted for the Network Time Source. For more information about synchronizing the VM's clock, see Synchronizing Time.

  • Your updated root password

    The installation script requires that you update the root password for the VM. If you followed the instructions in OVA: Installing the vCenter Image or in VHD: Installing the vCenter Image, then you have already completed this step.

When you are ready with the necessary information, you can run the installation script.

The IBM License Service, which collects license usage information that is used to create usage snapshots and reports, is installed automatically as part of the t8cinstall.sh script. For more information, see Tracking License Usage with IBM License Service.

The following steps describe the default installation process. If you want to customize your installation, then you should consider taking the steps in Stepwise Platform Deployment.

Note:

Starting with Turbonomic version 8.7.5, IBM Container Registry is used for all Turbonomic images for online upgrades and installations. Ensure that you have access to https://*.icr.io before continuing.

All OVA installs use Kubernetes v1.28.8. Docker commands no longer work. You can use crictl and ctr commands instead. For more information, see the following resources:
  1. Start up the installation script.

    • Start a secure session (SSH) on your Turbonomic VM as the turbo user.

    • Run the installation script.

      /opt/local/bin/t8cInstall.sh
  2. Verify that you configured a static IP address for the Turbonomic VM.

    After the components start, you will type this static IP address into a web browser to access the login page for the Turbonomic user interface.

    As a first step, the script prompts you with:

    Have you run the ipsetup script to setup networking yet? [y/n] n

    If you did not previously configure a static IP for the platform VM, the setup script will be called on so that you can configure a static IP, and continue the installation.

    If you configured a static IP for the platform VM, enter y to continue the installation.

    Because of dependencies between Turbonomic and the Kubernetes installation, it is not recommended to change the IP address after the Turbonomic installation. The VM must run with a static IP, regardless if this is a production, testing, or evaluation installation.

    If you followed the instructions in OVA: Installing the vCenter Image or in VHD: Installing the vCenter Image, then you already ran the ipsetup script to configure a static IP.

  3. Wait while the script completes the installation.

    As the installation process continues, the script completes the following installation steps.

    • Configures the platform environment with the necessary certificates.

    • Configures the Kubernetes cluster on the VM.

      Configuring the Kubernetes cluster can take a few tries before it succeeds. For each try that does not succeed, you see messages similar to:

      To further debug and diagnose cluster problems, use 'kubectl cluster-info dump'.

      When the connection succeeds, the script advances to the next steps.

    • Establishes local storage for the platform.

    • Creates the Kubernetes namespace for the platform as turbonomic.

    • Configures authorization to access the required Kubernetes secrets.

    • Initializes the MariaDB database server to manage historical data for the platform.

      The script creates two accounts on the MariaDB that have full privileges:

      • root@localhost

        This account does not use a password. To connect via this account the user must be system root.

      • mysql@localhost

        This account does not use a password. To connect via this account the user must be system mysql.

      Note:

      For security reasons, IBM recommends that you configure passwords for these accounts. You can connect with these accounts by using sudo. For example, sudo mysql. After you connect, you can then set passwords to these accounts. For more information, see the MariaDB Knowledgebase at https://mariadb.com/kb.

    • Installs the Timescale database for embedded reports and the Data Exporter.

    • Deploys and starts up the platform components.

    As the deployment begins, the script prints the following:

    ############################
    Start the deployment rollout
    ############################

    After it deploys the components, it waits for the components to start:

    The installation process is complete, waiting for all the components to start up.
    ** The script will wait for as long as 30 minutes. **

    If the components all start within 30 minutes, then the installation is complete and successful.

    If the components do not all start within 30 minutes, the script displays the following and then exits:

    ===========================================================================
        One or more of your deployments has not started up yet.
        ** Please give your environment another 30 minutes to stablize. **
        To check the status of your components, execute the following command:
        kubectl get pods
        If some components are still not ready, contact your support representative
        Deployments not ready:
    

    The script then displays the formatted result of the kubectl get pods command. This shows you the status of the pods in the Turbonomic platform.

    If the script exits before the components all start, give the platform another 30 minutes. To periodically check the component status, run the kubectl get pods command. If the components do not all start after another 30 minutes, contact your support representative.

    If the installation is successful and all of the components started, the script displays a message similar to the following, where it gives the VM's static IP address:

    #################################################
    Deployment Completed, please login through the UI
    https://10.10.123.123
    #################################################

    You can move on to the next steps.

  4. Save a copy of the platform's Master Key secret.

    The installation procedure creates a Master Key secret in the Kubernetes cluster. Turbonomic uses this secret to provide access for the platform components. Save the key data to a safe location.

    To save the data:

    1. List the platform secrets.

      kubectl get secrets

      The results should include the Master Key secret.

      ...
      master-key-secret              Opaque                        1      57d
      ...
    2. Display the Master Key data.

      After you find the Master Key name, you can then display the key data.

      kubectl get secret master-key-secret -o yaml

      The output is similar to the following example:

      apiVersion: v1
      data:
        primary_key_256.out: AfnJWutxNHAduaIOdAii3DRA2fMa6lzX4rWetZxxZvc=
      kind: Secret
      metadata:
        creationTimestamp: "2021-06-30T02:59:19Z"
        managedFields:
        - apiVersion: v1
          fieldsType: FieldsV1
          fieldsV1:
            f:data:
              .: {}
              f:primary_key_256.out: {}
            f:type: {}
          manager: kubectl-create
          operation: Update
          time: "2021-06-30T02:59:19Z"
        name: master-key-secret
        namespace: turbonomic
        resourceVersion: "1072"
        uid: a314b2ba-2061-4b41-b844-56caf2c3728d
      type: Opaque

      The important key data to save is the primary_key... data. In this example, you should save the line:

      primary_key_256.out: AfnJWutxNHAduaIOdAii3DRA2fMa6lzX4rWetZxxZvc=
    3. Save the data to a safe place.

      Write this data to a file and save it in a safe backup location. If you ever need to recover the Master Key, your support representative uses this data to perform the recovery.

  5. Log in to the Turbonomic user interface using the server address and import your license key.

    For more information, see License installation and first-time login.

  6. Create other user accounts with various roles. For more information about user accounts and roles, see Managing user accounts.

    Note:

    For security reasons, you can create a different account with an Administrator role to serve as the main administrator of your Turbonomic installation, and then delete the default administrator account. You must always have at least one user account with administrator privileges.