Install OpenZiti Router in Kubernetes

ziti-router

Host an OpenZiti router in Kubernetes

Add the OpenZiti Charts Repo to Helm

helm repo add openziti https://docs.openziti.io/helm-charts/

Minimal Installation

After adding the charts repo to Helm, then you may install the chart in the same cluster where the controller is running by using the cluster-internal service of the control plane endpoint. This default values used in this minimal approach is suitable for a Kubernetes distribution like K3S or Minikube that configures pass-through TLS for Service resources of type LoadBalancer.

# get a router enrollment token from the controller's management API
ziti edge create edge-router router1 \
  --role-attributes default --tunneler-enabled --jwt-output-file /tmp/router1.jwt

# subscribe to the openziti Helm repo
helm repo add openziti https://openziti.github.io/helm-charts/

# install the router chart
helm install \
  --namespace ziti-router --create-namespace --generate-name \
  openziti/ziti-router \
    --set-file enrollmentJwt=/tmp/router1.jwt \
    --set advertisedHost=ziti-router.example.com \
    --set ctrl.endpoint=ziti-controller-ctrl.ziti-controller.svc:6262

You must supply some values when you install the chart:

Key	Type	Default	Description
enrollmentJwt	string	nil	the router enrollment token from the Ziti management API
advertisedHost	string	nil	the DNS name that edge clients will resolve to reach this router's edge listener
ctrl.endpoint	string	nil	the DNS name:port of the router control plane endpoint provided by the Ziti controller

Managed Kubernetes Installation

Managed Kubernetes providers typically configure server TLS for a Service of type LoadBalancer. Ziti needs pass-through TLS because edge clients authenticate to the router with client certificates. We'll accomplish this by changing the Service type to ClusterIP and creating Ingress resources with pass-through TLS for each cluster service.

This example demonstrates creating TLS pass-through Ingress resources for use with ingress-nginx.

Ensure you have the ingress-nginx chart installed with controller.extraArgs.enable-ssl-passthrough=true. You can verify this feature is enabled by running kubectl describe pods {ingress-nginx-controller pod} and checking the args for --enable-ssl-passthrough=true.

# subscribe to ingress-nginx
helm repo add ingress-nginx https://kubernetes.github.io/ingress-nginx/

# install ingress-nginx
helm install \
  --namespace ingress-nginx --create-namespace --generate-name \
  ingress-nginx/ingress-nginx \
    --set controller.extraArgs.enable-ssl-passthrough=true

Create a Helm chart values file for this router chart.

# /tmp/router-values.yml
ctrl:
  endpoint: ziti-controller-ctrl.ziti-controller.svc:6262
advertisedHost: ziti-router.example.com
edge:
  advertisedPort: 443
  service:
    type: ClusterIP
  ingress:
    enabled: true
    ingressClassName: nginx
    annotations:
      kubernetes.io/ingress.allow-http: "false"
      nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/ssl-passthrough: "true"
      nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/secure-backends: "true"

Now upgrade your router chart release with the values file.

# will attempt enrollment again if it failed initially
helm upgrade \
  --namespace ziti-router ziti-router-123456789 \
  openziti/ziti-router \
    --set-file enrollmentJwt=/tmp/router1.jwt \
    --values /tmp/router-values.yml

Router Transport Links

The minimal installation guided you to install a router in the same cluster as the controller, and the managed Kubernetes upgrade guided you to expose the router's edge listener as a pass-through TLS Ingress. Building on those concepts, let's expand your mesh of Ziti routers. For this you will need to configure router link listeners, i.e. router-to-router links. This is accomplished in this chart by setting some additional values.

Merge the following with your router values.

linkListeners:
  transport:
    advertisedHost: router1-transport.example.com
    advertisedPort: 443
    service:
      enabled: true
      type: ClusterIP
    ingress:
      enabled: true
      ingressClassName: nginx
      annotations:
        kubernetes.io/ingress.allow-http: "false"
        nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/ssl-passthrough: "true"
        nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/secure-backends: "true"

Notice that we've chosen a distinct DNS name for this new ingress. This allows us to have any number of 443/tcp virtual servers on the same IP address. You may find it convenient to delegate a DNS zone with a wildcard record resolving to your Nginx LoadBalancer IP.

Now upgrade your router chart release with the merged values file.

helm upgrade \
  --namespace ziti-router ziti-router-123456789 \
  openziti/ziti-router \
    --set-file enrollmentJwt=/tmp/router1.jwt \
    --values /tmp/router-values.yml

Proxy tunnel mode

The Openziti router supports the Proxy Tunnel mode. If you need to deploy Kubernetes services together with your Ziti Router in order to make these ports available as ClusterIP, NodePort or LoadBalancer services within your cluster, you can let this helm chart deploy those services for you. In some specific cases, it is not enough to have just one Kubernetes service making accessible all ports assigned to specific Openziti services, but to have some of these proxy ports on one, and others on another Kubernetes service (for example, if you want to expose one of the proxy services as a ClusterIP service, but another as a LoadBalancer service).

Here's an example router values' snippet to merge with your other values:

tunnel:
  mode: proxy
  proxyServices:
    # this will be bound on the "default" proxy Kubernetes service, see below
    - zitiService: my-ziti-service.svc
      containerPort: 10443
      advertisedPort: 10443
    # this will be bound on an additionally configured proxy Kubernetes service, see below
    - zitiService: my-other-service.svc
      containerPort: 10022
      advertisedPort: 10022
  proxyDefaultK8sService:
    enabled: true
    type: ClusterIP
  proxyAdditionalK8sServices:
    - name: myservice
      type: LoadBalancer
      annotations:
        metallb.universe.tf/loadBalancerIPs: 192.168.1.100

Values Reference

Key	Type	Default	Description
advertisedHost	string	nil	common advertise-host for transport and edge listeners can also be specified separately via edge.advertisedHost and linkListeners.transport.advertisedHost
affinity	object	{}	deployment template spec affinity
configFile	string	"ziti-router.yaml"	filename of router config YAML
configMountDir	string	"/etc/ziti/config"	writeable mountpoint where read-only config file is projected to allow router to write ./endpoints statefile in same dir
csr.sans.dns	list	[]	additional DNS SANs
csr.sans.ip	list	[]	additional IP SANs
ctrl.endpoint	string	nil	required control plane endpoint
deleteIdentityScriptFile	string	"delete-identity.bash"	exec by Helm post-delete hook
dnsPolicy	string	"ClusterFirstWithHostNet"
edge.advertisedHost	string	nil	DNS name that edge clients will use to reach this router's edge listener
edge.advertisedPort	int	443	cluster service, node port, load balancer, and ingress port
edge.containerPort	int	3022	cluster service target port on the container
edge.enabled	bool	true	enable the edge listener in the router config
edge.ingress.annotations	string	nil	ingress annotations, e.g., to configure ingress-nginx
edge.ingress.enabled	bool	false	create an ingress for the cluster service
edge.service.annotations	string	nil	service annotations
edge.service.enabled	bool	true	create a cluster service for the edge listener
edge.service.labels	string	nil	service labels
edge.service.type	string	"ClusterIP"	expose the service as a ClusterIP, NodePort, or LoadBalancer
enrollJwtFile	string	"enrollment.jwt"	projected subpath where the enrollment token will be mounted
enrollmentJwt	string	nil	enrollment one time token from the controller's management API
execMountDir	string	"/usr/local/bin"	read-only mountpoint for executables (must be in image's executable search PATH)
fabric.metrics.enabled	bool	false	configure fabric metrics in the router config
identityMountDir	string	"/etc/ziti/identity"	read-only mountpoint for router identity secret specified in deployment for use by router run container
image.args	list	["{{ .Values.configMountDir }}/{{ .Values.configFile }}"]	deployment container command args and opts
image.command	list	["ziti","router","run"]	deployment container command
image.pullPolicy	string	"Always"	deployment image pull policy
image.repository	string	"docker.io/openziti/ziti-router"	container image tag for deployment
initScriptFile	string	"ziti-router-init.bash"	exec by Helm post-install hook
linkListeners.transport.advertisedHost	string	nil	DNS name that other routers will use to form mesh transport links with this router. Default is cluster-internal service DNS name:port.
linkListeners.transport.advertisedPort	int	443	cluster service, node port, load balancer, and ingress port
linkListeners.transport.containerPort	int	10080	cluster service target port on the container
linkListeners.transport.ingress.annotations	string	nil	ingress annotations, e.g., to configure ingress-nginx
linkListeners.transport.ingress.enabled	bool	false	create an ingress for the cluster service
linkListeners.transport.service.annotations	string	nil	service annotations
linkListeners.transport.service.enabled	bool	true	create a cluster service for the router transport link listener
linkListeners.transport.service.labels	string	nil	service labels
linkListeners.transport.service.type	string	"ClusterIP"	expose the service as a ClusterIP, NodePort, or LoadBalancer
nodeSelector	object	{}	deployment template spec node selector
persistence.VolumeName	string	nil	PVC volume name
persistence.accessMode	string	"ReadWriteOnce"	PVC access mode: ReadWriteOnce (concurrent mounts not allowed), ReadWriteMany (concurrent allowed)
persistence.annotations	object	{}	annotations for the PVC
persistence.enabled	bool	true	required: place a storage claim for the ctrl endpoints state file
persistence.existingClaim	string	""	A manually managed Persistent Volume and Claim Requires persistence.enabled: true If defined, PVC must be created manually before volume will be bound
persistence.size	string	"50Mi"	50Mi is plenty for this state file
persistence.storageClass	string	""	Storage class of PV to bind. By default it looks for the default storage class. If the PV uses a different storage class, specify that here.
podAnnotations	object	{}	annotations to apply to all pods deployed by this chart
podSecurityContext	object	{"fsGroup":2171}	deployment template spec security context
podSecurityContext.fsGroup	int	2171	this is the GID of "ziggy" run-as user in the container that has access to any files created by the router process in the emptyDir volume used to persist the endpoints state file
resources	object	{}	deployment container resources
securityContext	string	nil	deployment container security context
tolerations	list	[]	deployment template spec tolerations
tunnel.mode	string	"host"	run mode for the router's built-in tunnel component: host, tproxy, proxy, or none
tunnel.proxyAdditionalK8sServices	list	[]	additional Kubernetes services created additionally to the "default" proxy listener service, only if mode is "proxy"
tunnel.proxyDefaultK8sService	object	{"enabled":true,"type":"ClusterIP"}	default Kubernetes service object listening to proxy ports defined in "proxyServices", only if tunnel mode is "proxy"
tunnel.proxyServices	list	[]	list of definitions to configure proxy services and according kubernetes services for these if mode "proxy"
tunnel.resolver	string	"none"	built-in nameserver configuration, e.g. udp://127.1.2.3:53

TODO's

• replicas - does it make sense? afaik every replica needs it's own identity - how does this fit in?
• lower CA / Cert lifetime; refresh certificates on update