Skip to main content

Add an application to the cluster

Add an application to your cluster can be done using the lizz add command. This command does the following:

  • clone the application repository,
  • clone the cluster repository
  • render the application templates using the values
  • create a new repository for the application
  • add the new application to the fleet repository

In this guide, you will see how to add different applications that demonstrate different usage of the lizz add command.

Requirements​

To add an application, you first need to have a Kubernetes cluster initialized.

Add the domain name application​

The domain name application is a very simple application. Its only purpose is to contain the domain name value that can later be used by other applications.

The domain name value is a user value that has to be given to the application using the --set-value flag.

lizz add github --owner=$GITHUB_USER  --fleet=fleet --origin-url=https://github.com/openlizz/application-domain-name --path=./ --destination=domain-name --set-value value="local.gd" --personal

Add the Nginx application​

The Nginx application deploys to the cluster an ingress Nginx controller. The application installs custom resources and therefore needs access to all the cluster namespaces. Give access to all the namespaces to an application can be done by adding the --cluster-role flag.

lizz add github \
  --owner=$GITHUB_USER \
  --fleet=fleet \
  --origin-url=https://github.com/openlizz/application-nginx \
  --path=./kind \
  --destination=nginx \
  --cluster-role \
  --personal

Add the Photoprism and the Homer applications​

The Photoprism application deploys Photoprism and the Homer application deploys Homer. Those two application do not require a particular setup and can be added using the following commands:

lizz add github --owner=$GITHUB_USER  --fleet=fleet --origin-url=https://github.com/openlizz/application-photoprism --path=./default --destination=photoprism --personal
lizz add github --owner=$GITHUB_USER  --fleet=fleet --origin-url=https://github.com/openlizz/application-homer --path=./default --destination=homer --personal

Reconcile the fleet repository​

With the add command, Lizz creates the application repositories and updates the fleet repository but Lizz does not interact with Kubernetes and therefore the applications are not deployed yet.

The deployement is made by Flux and you can force Flux to reconcile and deploy the applications now by running:

flux reconcile source git flux-system

This will start the deployment process. You can watch the applications deployment with:

flux get kustomizations --all-namespaces --watch

After a couple of minutes, the output should be similar to:

NAMESPACE       NAME            REVISION        SUSPENDED   READY   MESSAGE
flux-system     flux-system     main/bd97a66    False       True    Applied revision: main/bd97a66
flux-system     applications    main/bd97a66    False       True    Applied revision: main/bd97a66
domain-name     domain-name     main/6d2c5f8    False       True    Applied revision: main/6d2c5f8
ingress-nginx   ingress-nginx   main/cb0da53    False       True    Applied revision: main/cb0da53
homer           homer           main/d9ee26f    False       True    Applied revision: main/d9ee26f
photoprism      photoprism      main/f2977cb    False       True    Applied revision: main/f2977cb

You can check that the pods are running with:

kubectl get pod --all-namespaces

The output should be:

NAMESPACE            NAME                                         READY   STATUS      RESTARTS   AGE
flux-system          helm-controller-6fd9c49774-2lsp7             1/1     Running     0          5m20s
flux-system          kustomize-controller-5b6576ff96-nmjzl        1/1     Running     0          5m20s
flux-system          notification-controller-54f474bd8-2xp98      1/1     Running     0          5m20s
flux-system          source-controller-9ffdccb9f-67hz6            1/1     Running     0          5m20s
homer                homer-6b94ddb4c7-4nxm6                       1/1     Running     0          114s
ingress-nginx        ingress-nginx-admission-create-sxmls         0/1     Completed   0          2m57s
ingress-nginx        ingress-nginx-admission-patch-4nhzv          0/1     Completed   1          2m57s
ingress-nginx        ingress-nginx-controller-65b4b4df7d-ktxdm    1/1     Running     0          2m57s
kube-system          coredns-6d4b75cb6d-4x5g9                     1/1     Running     0          5m38s
kube-system          coredns-6d4b75cb6d-pfxh8                     1/1     Running     0          5m38s
kube-system          etcd-kind-control-plane                      1/1     Running     0          5m53s
kube-system          kindnet-k4g4t                                1/1     Running     0          5m38s
kube-system          kube-apiserver-kind-control-plane            1/1     Running     0          5m53s
kube-system          kube-controller-manager-kind-control-plane   1/1     Running     0          5m53s
kube-system          kube-proxy-wsq6d                             1/1     Running     0          5m38s
kube-system          kube-scheduler-kind-control-plane            1/1     Running     0          5m53s
local-path-storage   local-path-provisioner-9cd9bd544-q7zkx       1/1     Running     0          5m38s
photoprism           photoprism-86b879b6b7-fjlw2                  1/1     Running     0          113s

Automatic configuration​

As we added the domain name and the Ngnix applications before adding the Photoprism and the Homer applications, these two latest applications have been added configured with an ingress and the correct domain name. You can see that by running:

kubectl get ingress --all-namespaces

The output should be:

NAMESPACE    NAME         CLASS    HOSTS                 ADDRESS     PORTS   AGE
homer        homer        <none>   homer.local.gd        localhost   80      2m36s
photoprism   photoprism   <none>   photoprism.local.gd   localhost   80      2m35s

Same thing with the Homer application which has been deployed with Photoprism in its homepage as the Photoprism application has been added before the Homer application. You can access the homepage by running kubectl -n homer port-forward svc/homer 8080:8080 and accessing localhost:8080, or directly by accessing homer.local.gd if your cluster is locally.

You should see something similar to:

Homer application screenshot Homer application screenshot

Next​

Your cluster has now applications 🥳

You can see how to remove the applications you do not want anymore.