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Installation

To get started quickly, we recommend to run VILLAS in a small Kubernetes cluster.

info

There are dedicated installation instructions for VILLASnode in case you only want to use the simulation gateway instead of the full framework.

For beginners, we recommend to start looking at VILLASnode first.

You can run the full set of VILLASframework components pre-configured in a Kubernetes cluster using the Helm chart.

Requirements​

Minikube​

For small tests and beginners we recommend a local Minikube setup.

  1. Install Minikube
  2. Install Helm
  3. Start Minikube:
minikube start
  1. Enable the Ingress controller in your minikube cluster:
minikube addons enable ingress

Helm Chart​

To deloy the Helm chart you must first add the FEIN e.V. chart repository:

helm repo add fein https://packages.fein-aachen.org/helm/charts/
helm repo update

Create a minimal chart configuration file named values.yaml with the following contents: Please have a look at the charts default values for more details about the available configuration options.

info

In this guide we assume the host running Minikube is accessible via the local IP address 192.168.1.100.

Please make sure to update the ingress.host setting with a resolvable hostname of the machine running Minikube or update the nip.io name it with the real IP address as shown below.

values.yaml
web:
  auth:
    admin:
      mail: admin@example.com
      username: admin

      # please to change to a secure password
      password: VillasTest1234

ingress:
  port: 8080
  host: villas.192-168-1-100.nip.io 

broker:
  auth:
    username: admin
    password: vieQuoo2sieDahHee8ohM5aThaibiPei
    erlangCookie: iKpbgHPsHAj8x58kzFWVT23xahSQ03Vw

Once the configuration file has been prepared, start the installation with the following command: 

helm install -f values.yaml villas fein/villas

Access the application​

  1. Keep the following command in a terminal running in a background terminal:
minikube kubectl -- -n ingress-nginx port-forward svc/ingress-nginx-controller 8080:80 --address='0.0.0.0'

Once the installation has completed, you can visit the VILLASweb interface at the following address: http://villas.192-168-1-100.nip.io:8080/ Please use the username / password from above (admin / VillasTest1234) to login.

Troubleshooting Tips​

If the login with the configured admin user credentials is not working, it is most likely caused by some unhealthy components of the VILLASframework setup. Use the kubectl tool to troubleshoot the issue:

minikube kubectl -- get all

This command should list all the micro-services of the framework:

NAME                                      READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
pod/villas-broker-0                       1/1     Running   0          46d
pod/villas-controller-5fd7ffcc94-6wtgk    1/1     Running   3          50d
pod/villas-node-5886d65784-56vkv          1/1     Running   189        50d
pod/villas-pintura-5b4f67b778-nmkp4       1/1     Running   0          50d
pod/villas-relay-68b9bd9749-j6cz8         1/1     Running   6          61d
pod/villas-s3-776d564c7d-7tqdg            1/1     Running   0          50d
pod/villas-signaling-58d9968db8-jtqgg     1/1     Running   1          50d
pod/villas-web-backend-55846fb89f-64f66   1/1     Running   3          2m17s
pod/villas-web-frontend-8544c4c97-bwb85   1/1     Running   4          75d
pod/villas-web-frontend-8544c4c97-qxrz7   1/1     Running   1          50d

NAME                             TYPE        CLUSTER-IP       EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)                                                                                                      AGE
service/villas-broker            NodePort    10.110.19.38     <none>        5672:30809/TCP,4369:31485/TCP,25672:31143/TCP,15672:32192/TCP,1883:30813/TCP                                 299d
service/villas-broker-headless   ClusterIP   None             <none>        4369/TCP,5672/TCP,25672/TCP,15672/TCP                                                                        533d
service/villas-controller        ClusterIP   10.102.148.101   <none>        80/TCP                                                                                                       231d
service/villas-node              ClusterIP   10.98.62.216     <none>        80/TCP,12000/UDP,12001/UDP,12002/UDP,12003/UDP,12004/UDP,12005/UDP,12006/UDP,12007/UDP,12008/UDP,12009/UDP   578d
service/villas-pintura           ClusterIP   10.105.42.155    <none>        80/TCP                                                                                                       148d
service/villas-relay             ClusterIP   10.111.135.48    <none>        80/TCP                                                                                                       578d
service/villas-s3                ClusterIP   10.107.135.160   <none>        9000/TCP                                                                                                     578d
service/villas-signaling         ClusterIP   10.96.113.236    <none>        80/TCP                                                                                                       111d
service/villas-web-backend       ClusterIP   10.105.91.100    <none>        80/TCP                                                                                                       546d
service/villas-web-frontend      ClusterIP   10.96.96.174     <none>        80/TCP                                                                                                       578d

NAME                                        READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
deployment.apps/villas-controller           1/1     1            1           280d
deployment.apps/villas-node                 1/1     1            1           280d
deployment.apps/villas-pintura              1/1     1            1           148d
deployment.apps/villas-relay                1/1     1            1           280d
deployment.apps/villas-s3                   1/1     1            1           280d
deployment.apps/villas-signaling            1/1     1            1           111d
deployment.apps/villas-web-backend          1/1     1            1           280d
deployment.apps/villas-web-frontend         2/2     2            2           280d

Make sure that all deployments are ready and pods (a.k.a containers) are in a running state. If for some reason a deployment is not ready, you can use the following kubectl command to show the log of the respective pod.

minikube kubectl -- logs pod/villas-web-backend-55846fb89f-64f66

For more information on how to troubleshoot the setup with the kubectl tool, please consult the kubectl documentation and guides about Kubernetes in general.

To gain a deeper understanding of the micro-service architecture, we recommend to also have a closer look at the VILLAS Helm chart source code.