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Our Helm charts repository is the quickest way to get started using Flex with Kubernetes.

Installation​

Helm must be installed to use the charts. Please refer to Helm's documentation to get started.

Once Helm has been setup you need to add this repository to your Helm repositories:

helm repo add factorhouse https://charts.factorhouse.io
helm repo update

You can then run helm search repo factorhouse to see the available charts.

Start a Flex Instance​

The minimum information required by Flex to operate is:

  • License Details
  • Flink REST URL

See the Flex Documentation for a full list of configuration options.

Using configuration provided via --set env.XYZ

tip

Quoting Values

When using --set env.XXX to pass configuration, some values may require quoting—especially if they contain commas, numbers, or quotation marks. Refer to the examples below for guidance.

tip

Escaping Characters

Special characters may need to be escaped with \ when using --set. For more information, see the Helm documentation.

Use the following to install from command line:

helm install --namespace factorhouse --create-namespace flex factorhouse/flex-ce \
  --set env.LICENSE_ID="00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001" \
  --set env.LICENSE_CODE="FLEX_COMMUNITY" \
  --set env.LICENSEE="Factor House\, Inc." \ <-- note the quoted comma
  --set env.LICENSE_EXPIRY="2022-01-01" \
  --set env.LICENSE_SIGNATURE="638......A51" \
  --set env.FLINK_REST_URL="http://flink-dev.svc"

NAME: flex-ce
LAST DEPLOYED: Mon May 31 17:22:21 2021
NAMESPACE: factorhouse
STATUS: deployed
REVISION: 1
NOTES:
1. Get the application URL by running these commands:
  export POD_NAME=$(kubectl get pods --namespace factorhouse -l "app.kubernetes.io/name=flex,app.kubernetes.io/instance=flex" -o jsonpath="{.items[0].metadata.name}")
  echo "Visit http://127.0.0.1:3000 to use your application"
  kubectl --namespace factorhouse port-forward $POD_NAME 3000:3000

Using environment variables defined in a ConfigMap

You can configure Flex with a ConfigMap of environment variables as follows:

helm install --namespace factorhouse --create-namespace flex factorhouse/flex-ce --set envFromConfigMap=flex-config

This approach expects a ConfigMap to be available within the factorhouse namespace in kube, to understand how to configure Flex with a local ConfigMap template see Start Flex with Local Changes.

See flex-ce-config.yaml.example for an example ConfigMapfile.

See the Kubernetes documentation on configuring all key value pairs in a config map as environment variables for more information.

Manage a Flex instance​

Access the Flex UI via port forwarding​

Follow the notes instructions to set the $POD_NAME variable and configure port forwarding to the Flex UI.

export POD_NAME=$(kubectl get pods --namespace factorhouse -l "app.kubernetes.io/name=flex-ce,app.kubernetes.io/instance=flex-ce" -o jsonpath="{.items[0].metadata.name}")

kubectl --namespace factorhouse port-forward $POD_NAME 3000:3000

Flex is now available on http://127.0.0.1:3000.

Check the Flex Pod​

kubectl describe pods --namespace factorhouse

Name:         flex-9988df6b6-vvf8z
Namespace:    factorhouse
Priority:     0
Node:         ip-172-31-33-42.ap-southeast-2.compute.internal/172.31.33.42
Start Time:   Mon, 31 May 2021 17:22:22 +1000
Labels:       app.kubernetes.io/instance=flex
              app.kubernetes.io/name=flex
              pod-template-hash=9988df6b6
Annotations:  kubernetes.io/psp: eks.privileged
Status:       Running

View the Flex Pod logs​

kubectl logs --namespace factorhouse $POD_NAME 

11:36:49.111 INFO  [main] flex.system ? start Flex
...

Remove Flex​

Deletes the flex-ce release from the factorhouse namespace using Helm.

helm delete --namespace factorhouse flex-ce

Start Flex with local changes​

You can run Flex with local edits to these charts and provide local configuration when running Flex.

Pull and untar the Flex Charts​

helm pull factorhouse/flex-ce --untar --untardir .

Make local edits​

Make any edits required to flex-ce/Chart.yaml or flex-ce/values.yaml (adding volume mounts, etc).

Run local Charts​

The command to run local charts is slightly different, see ./flex-ce rather than factorhouse/flex-ce.

helm install --namespace factorhouse --create-namespace flex ./flex-ce <.. --set configuration, etc ..>

Run with local ConfigMap configuration​

Place your local ConfigMap in the ./flex-ce/templates/ directory.

Your local ConfigMap can then be referenced with --set envFromConfigMap=flex-config.

helm install --namespace factorhouse --create-namespace flex ./flex-ce --set envFromConfigMap=flex-config

See flex-ce-config.yaml.example for an example ConfigMap file.

See the Kubernetes documentation on configuring all key value pairs in a config map as environment variables for more information.

Manage sensitive environment variables​

This helm chart accepts the name of a secret containing sensitive parameters, e.g.

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: flex-secrets
data:
  SASL_JAAS_CONFIG: a3JnLmFwYWNoXS5rYWZrYS5jb21tb24uc2VjdXJpdHkucGxhaW4uUGxhaW5Mb2dpbk2vZHVsZSByZXF1aXJiZCB1c2VybmFtZT0iTFQ1V0ZaV1BRWUpHNzRJQyIgcGFzc3dvcmQ9IjlYUFVYS3BLYUQxYzVJdXVNRjRPKzZ2NxJ0a1E4aS9yWUp6YlppdlgvZnNiTG51eGY4SnlFT1dUeXMvTnJ1bTAiBwo=
  CONFLUENT_API_SECRET: NFJSejlReFNTTXlTcGhXdjNLMHNYY1F6UGNURmdadlNYT0ZXSXViWFJySmx2N3A2WStSenROQnVpYThvNG1NSRo=
kubectl apply -f ./flex-secrets.yaml --namespace factorhouse

Then run the helm chart (this can be used in conjunction with envFromConfigMap)

See the Kubernetes documentation on configuring all key value pairs in a secret as environment variables for more information.

helm install --namespace factorhouse --create-namespace flex ./flex-ce --set envFromSecret=flex-secrets --set envFromConfigMap=flex-config

Provide files to the Flex Pod​

There are occasions where you must provide files to the Flex Pod in order for Flex to run correctly, such files include:

  • RBAC configuration
  • SSL Keystores
  • SSL Truststores

How you provide these files is down to user preference, we are not able to provide any support or instruction in this regard.

You may find the Kubernetes documentation on injecting data into applications useful.

Flex memory and CPU requirements​

These charts run Flex with Guaranteed QoS, having resource request and limit set to these values by default:

resources:
  limits:
    cpu: 2
    memory: 8Gi
  requests:
    cpu: 2
    memory: 8Gi

These default resource settings are conservative, suited to a deployment of Flex that manages multiple Flink clusters and associated resources.

When running Flex with a single Flink cluster you can experiment with reducing those resources as far as our suggested minimum:

Minimum resource requirements​

resources:
  limits:
    cpu: 1
    memory: 2Gi
  requests:
    cpu: 1
    memory: 2Gi

Adjust these values from the command line like so:

helm install --namespace factorhouse --create-namespace flex factorhouse/flex \
     --set resources.limits.cpu=1 \
     --set resources.limits.memory=2Gi \
     --set resources.requests.cpu=1 \
     --set resources.requests.memory=2Gi

We recommend always having limits and requests set to the same value, as this set Flex in Guaranteed QoS and provides a much more reliable operation.