Installing Sisense using Helm Charts

You can deploy Sisense in your Kubernetes cluster in the form of a set of container images in a package provided by Sisense as a Helm chart. This page describes how to install Sisense using Helm charts on both single and multi-node deployments.


Note:

The Helm Charts installation option can be used to install Sisense up to version L2021.1. For later Sisense versions, use Provisioner to install, upgrade, and/or maintain Sisense on an existing Kubernetes environment. See Installing Sisense using Provisioner and Helm.


Prerequisites

For Single-node deployments:

  • Ability to add disks and mount them to the designated node

For Multi-node deployments:

  • RWX and RWO persistent storage class available in the cluster for Sisense deployment

For both deployments:

  • Sisense version L8.2.6.582 or later
  • Helm 3.4.1 installed. If you are currently using Helm 2 charts, you can migrate them to Helm 3 charts. For information see Migrating Helm v2 to v3.
  • The helm charts included as part of the deployment. Download the latest version, extract the archive, and retrieve the charts in: kubespray/roles/sisense/files
  • ALB Controller Helm chart path: kubespray/roles/sisense/setupalbcontroller/files/

Deploying Sisense

To deploy Sisense with Helm charts:

  1. Verify that your kubectl is connected to the correct K8S cluster.

  2. For single-node deployments, add another disk to the designated node and map it to /opt/sisense. See Mounting on a Dedicated Disk for Sisense Single Nodes for more information.

    Create the following directories with the commands below:


       
      install -d -m 0755 -o 999 -g 999 /opt/sisense/mongodb
      install -d -m 0755 -o ${your_linux_user}/opt/sisense/config/umbrella-chart
      install -d -m 0755 -o ${your_linux_user}/opt/sisense/config/logging-monitoring
      install -d -m 0755 -o ${your_linux_user}/opt/sisense/storage
      install -d -m 0755 -o ${your_linux_user}/opt/sisense/zookeeper
      install -d -m 0755 -o ${your_linux_user}/opt/sisense/dgraph-io
      install -d -m 0755 -o ${your_linux_user}/opt/sisense/storage/nlq
      install -d -m 0755 -o ${your_linux_user}/opt/sisense/storage/plugins
      install -d -m 0755 -o ${your_linux_user}/opt/sisense/storage/external-plugins
      install -d -m 0755 -o ${your_linux_user}/opt/sisense/storage/external-plugins/apiPlugins
      install -d -m 0755 -o ${your_linux_user}/opt/sisense/storage/external-plugins/apiPlugins/plugins
      install -d -m 0755 -o ${your_linux_user}/opt/sisense/storage/external-plugins/apiPlugins/swaggerDefs
      install -d -m 0755 -o ${your_linux_user}/opt/sisense/storage/backups
      install -d -m 0755 -o ${your_linux_user}/opt/sisense/storage/connectors
      install -d -m 0755 -o ${your_linux_user}/opt/sisense/storage/data
      install -d -m 0755 -o ${your_linux_user}/opt/sisense/storage/emails
      install -d -m 0755 -o ${your_linux_user}/opt/sisense/storage/exports
      install -d -m 0755 -o ${your_linux_user}/opt/sisense/storage/reports
      install -d -m 0755 -o ${your_linux_user}/opt/sisense/storage/farms
      install -d -m 0755 -o ${your_linux_user}/opt/sisense/storage/samples
      install -d -m 0755 -o ${your_linux_user}/opt/sisense/storage/translations
      install -d -m 0755 -o ${your_linux_user}/opt/sisense/storage/licensing
      install -d -m 0755 -o ${your_linux_user}/opt/sisense/storage/system_backups
      install -d -m 0755 -o ${your_linux_user}/opt/sisense/storage/serverSidePlugins
      

  3. Label the nodes in your deployment.
    For single-node deployments:
    kubectl label node ${NODE_NAME} node=single --overwrite
    For multi-node deployments:

    Run the commands below and replace the values ${NODE_NAME} and ${NAMESPACE}

    On application+query nodes:
    kubectl label node ${NODE_NAME} node-${NAMESPACE}-Application=true --overwrite
    kubectl label node ${NODE_NAME} node-${NAMESPACE}-Query=true --overwrite
    On build nodes:
    kubectl label node ${NODE_NAME} node-${NAMESPACE}-Build=true --overwrite

    Note:

    If Sisense is live, Sisense recommends you label all your nodes as Application, Query, and Build.

  4. Create a Sisense namespace in your cluster, with a namespace.yaml file that contains:


      
      ${NAMESPACE} - namespace name
      

    Example

  5. Apply the namespace file with the following command: kubectl apply -f namespace.yaml

  6. For multi-node deployments only, deploy a RWX PersistentVolumeClaim for Sisense.
    (For FSx only) Deploy the FSx driver and storage class object included in the original installation package.


      
      kubectl apply -f kubespray/roles/storage/files/fsx-latest-driver.yamlkubectl apply -f kubespray/roles/storage/templates/fsx-sc.yaml.j2
      

  7. Create a pvc.yaml file that contains the following:

    • ${SISENSE_DISK_SIZE} - PersistentVolumeClaim Disk size (default recommended value is 70Gi)
    • ${STORAGE_CLASS_NAME} - Read Write Many Supported StorageClass (aws-fsx for example)
    • ${NAMESPACE} - namespace name
    • You can download an example file here.
      If you are using AWS-FSx as your shared storage, you should also generate a persistent volume:
      pv.yaml


      
      `${fsx_file_system_id} - AWS FSx file system id
      ${fsx_region} - AWS FSx region
      ${fsx_mount_name} - AWS FSx mount name 
      ${NAMESPACE} - namespace name`
      

    For example:


      
      ---
      apiVersion: v1
      kind: PersistentVolume
      metadata:
        name: ${NAMESPACE}-storage-pv
      spec:
        capacity:
          storage: ${SISENSE_DISK_SIZE}Gi
        volumeMode: Filesystem
        claimRef:
          apiVersion: v1
          kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
          name: storage
          namespace: ${NAMESPACE}
        accessModes:
          - ReadWriteMany
        persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy: Recycle
        mountOptions:
        - flock
        storageClassName: aws-fsx
        csi:
          driver: fsx.csi.aws.com
          volumeHandle: ${fsx_file_system_id}
          volumeAttributes:
            dnsname: ${fsx_file_system_id}.fsx.${fsx_region}.amazonaws.com
            mountname: ${fsx_mount_name}
      

    Create the resources:


      
      kubectl apply -f pvc.yaml
      kubectl apply -f pv.yaml
      

  8. Create value files for your Helm charts according to your deployment type:

    Single-node :

    You can download examples here:
    version L2021.1.0
    version L2021.1.1
    version L2021.10

    Multi-node :
    You can download examples here:
    version L2021.1.0
    version L2021.1.1
    version L2021.10

    Description of all the parameters:

    • ${IS_CLOUD_LOAD_BALANCER_ENABLED} - Set to "true" for a load balancer to be deployed as part of the deployment. When "true", after the Helm installation is complete, the load balancer will be available. Update the value of ${API_SERVER_ADDRESS} and re-run the Helm upgradeade
    • ${K8S_NODE_1} - This is the name of the DNS. If there is no DNS, this is the external IP of the first/only cluster node. This parameter will be used to configure fluentd (logging) - the location of the combined logs file
    • ${APPLICATION_DNS_NAME} - If a DNS exists for the relevant nodes, otherwise leave it blank.
    • ${GATEWAY_PORT} - This is the ${API_SERVER_ADDRESS} port. Sisense recommends port 30845, but it can be changed to any port between 30000-32000
    • ${API_SERVER_ADDRESS} - This is composed of three parts
      * http_protocol://address:port
      * http_protocol - If ${SSL_ENABLED}, then "https://", otherwise it is "http://"
      * address - This is one of the following:
      * If a DNS exists, set the master-node name.
      * If a load balancer exists, set its address.
      * Otherwise set the external IP of a master-node in the cluster.
      * port - This is one of the following:
      * If a DNS exists, leave it empty.
      * If a load balancer exists and (${SSL_ENABLED}==false), set it to 80, otherwise, leave it empty.
      * Otherwise, set it to${GATEWAY_PORT}.
    • ${NAMESPACE} - The name of your Sisense deployed namespace.
    • ${IS_K8S_CLOUD} - If this is a cloud Kubernetes cluster, set this to "true", otherwise, set it to "false".
    • ${IS_ALB} - If using AWS Load balancer controller, set this to "true", otherwise, set it to "false".
    • ${KUBE_API_PORT} - If k8s_cloud, then set this to 443, otherwise, set it to 6443.
    • ${DOCKER_REGISTRY} - If online_installation, set this to "quay.io/sisense", otherwise set this to " ".
    • ${EXPOSE_NODE_PORTS} - To expose a third-party node, set the port to "true", otherwise, set it to "false".
    • ${KUBE_NETWORK_PLUGIN} - Set your network plugin name (CNI).
    • ${ENABLE_INTERNAL_MONITORING} - Set to true to indicate Prometheus and Grafana, otherwise, set it to false. (Note: This will be deprecated soon.)
    • ${ENABLE_EXTERNAL_MONITORING} - Set this to true if you allow uploading logs to the Sisense external monitoring system.
    • ${STORAGE_CLASS} - Your RWO storage class name.
    • ${K8S_CLOUD_PROVIDER} - If you are deploying Sisense on the cloud, the value should be the name of your provider: AWS, GKE, or Azure.
    • ${DEPLOYMENT_TIMEZONE} - Enter the system time zone. Default: UTC Applicable to the timezone of the relative date-time filters. Format: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones (e.g. UTC, US/Central, Asia Tokoyo, Etc/GMC+6)
    • Multi-Node only parameters:

    • ${ZERO_DISK_SIZE} - The default should be "1GB", but it can be increased
    • ${ALPHA_DISK_SIZE} - The default should be "1GB", but it can be increased
    • ${MONGO_DB_DISK_SIZE} - The default should be "3GB", but it can be increased
    • ${ZK_DISK_SIZE} - The default should be "2GB", but it can be increased.

  9. Deploy SSL if required. If you deploy SSL, you must provide your SSL key and certificate files. Enter the following variables:

    • ${SSL_KEY_PATH} - The path to your SSL key file
    • ${SSL_CERT_PATH} - The path to your SSL certificate file
    • ${NAMESPACE} - Your Sisense installation namespace
    • Delete any existing certificates that might already exist with this name:
      kubectl delete secret -n ${NAMESPACE} sisense-tls --ignore-not-found
      Create new certificates for each namespace:
      kubectl create secret tls sisense-tls -n ${NAMESPACE} --key ${SSL_KEY_PATH} --cert ${SSL_CERT_PATH}

  10. For multi-node deployments only. Deploy a descheduler (binds pending pods to nodes) and Nginx (replica controller) charts.
    Use the following parameters when running the Helm commands below:
    * ${DESCHEDULER_CHART_PATH} - Sisense Helm chart path
    * ${NGINX_CHART_PATH} - Sisense Helm chart path
    * ${UTILS_NAMESPACE} - Cluster utils namespace
    helm upgrade descheduler --install --namespace ${UTILS_NAMESPACE} ${DESCHEDULER_CHART_PATH}
    helm upgrade nginx-ingress --install--namespace ${UTILS_NAMESPACE} ${NGINX_CHART_PATH}

  11. Create a ServiceAccount for the management service by creating a management-admin.yaml file that contains:
    * ${NAMESPACE} - The namespace name.
    Example management-admin.yaml:


      
      
      
      kind: ServiceAccount
      apiVersion: v1
      metadata:
      name: management
      namespace: ${NAMESPACE}
      labels:
      app.kubernetes.io/managed-by: Helm
      annotations:
      meta.helm.sh/release-namespace: ${NAMESPACE}
      meta.helm.sh/release-name: ${NAMESPACE}
      ---
      kind: ClusterRoleBinding
      apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
      metadata:
      name: management-${NAMESPACE}
      subjects:
      - kind: ServiceAccount
      name: management
      namespace: ${NAMESPACE}
      roleRef:
      apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
      kind: ClusterRole
      name: management
      ---
      kind: ClusterRole
      apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
      metadata:
      name: management
      rules:
      - apiGroups: ["", "apps", "extensions"]
      resources:
      - configmaps
      - endpoints
      - persistentvolumeclaims
      - replicationcontrollers
      - secrets
      - serviceaccounts
      - services
      - pods
      - crontabs
      - secrets
      - deployments
      - statefulsets
      - daemonsets
      - services
      - replicasets
      verbs: ["get", "list", "watch", "create", "update", "patch", "delete"]
      
      - apiGroups: ["batch", "extensions"]
      resources: ["jobs", "cronjobs"]
      verbs: ["get", "list", "create", "update", "patch", "delete"]
      
      - apiGroups: [""]
      resources: ["namespaces"]
      verbs: ["get", "list", "watch"]
      
      - apiGroups: [""]
      resources: ["nodes"]
      verbs: ["get", "list", "watch", "patch"]`
      

    Then run:
    kubectl apply -f management-admin.yaml

  12. Deploy your Sisense chart using the following parameters when running the Helm command below:
    helm upgrade ${RELEASE_NAME} --install --force --namespace ${NAMESPACE} --values ${VALUES_YAML_PATH} ${SISENSE_CHART_PATH}
    where:

    • ${RELEASE_NAME} - Helm release name (unless explicitly defined otherwise, the name of the Helm release is sisense)
    • ${NAMESPACE} - Namespace name
    • ${VALUES_YAML_PATH} - The values.yaml path
    • ${SISENSE_CHART_PATH} - Sisense helm chart path

  13. Monitor the Sisense Helm installation by running:
    kubectl get po -n ${NAMESPACE} -w
    where:

    • ${NAMESPACE} : Namespace name