Mender Server

tutorial

Please note the code snippets in this section reuses the environment variables you set up when progressing through the tutorial, including the optional step of installing Minio. Please make sure you correctly define them or adapt the snippet to your specific use case.

Prerequisites

Optional: external services

The Mender Helm chart is packaged with required external services:

Using these packages is fine for test or PoC setups. For production setups, however, it's recommended to use external dedicated services.

Device authentication keys

The Mender Server deployment requires generating keys that are used for user and device authentication. The following snippet uses openssl to generate the required keys:

openssl genpkey -algorithm RSA -pkeyopt rsa_keygen_bits:3072 | openssl rsa -out device_auth.key
openssl genpkey -algorithm RSA -pkeyopt rsa_keygen_bits:3072 | openssl rsa -out useradm.key

Installing the Mender Helm chart

Before installing the Mender Server on the Kubernetes cluster using the Mender Helm chart, add the Mender Helm Chart repository:

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

You can now install the Mender Server running:

export MENDER_SERVER_DOMAIN="mender.example.com"
export MENDER_SERVER_URL="https://${MENDER_SERVER_DOMAIN}"
export MENDER_VERSION_TAG="mender-3.3.2"
export MONGODB_ROOT_PASSWORD=$(pwgen 32 1)
export MONGODB_REPLICA_SET_KEY=$(pwgen 32 1)

cat >mender-3.3.2.yml <<EOF
global:
  enterprise: false
  image:
    tag: ${MENDER_VERSION_TAG}
  mongodb:
    URL: ""
  nats:
    URL: ""
  s3:
    AWS_URI: "https://${MINIO_DOMAIN_NAME}"
    AWS_BUCKET: "mender-artifact-storage"
    AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: "${MINIO_ACCESS_KEY}"
    AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: "${MINIO_SECRET_KEY}"
  url: "${MENDER_SERVER_URL}"

# This enables bitnami/mongodb sub-chart
mongodb:
  enabled: true
  auth:
    enabled: true
    rootPassword: ${MONGODB_ROOT_PASSWORD}
    replicaSetKey: ${MONGODB_REPLICA_SET_KEY}

# This enabled nats sub-chart
nats:
  enabled: true

api_gateway:
  env:
    SSL: false

device_auth:
  certs:
    key: |-
$(cat device_auth.key | sed -e 's/^/      /g')

useradm:
  certs:
    key: |-
$(cat useradm.key | sed -e 's/^/      /g')
EOF

helm upgrade --install mender mender/mender --version 5.0.3 -f mender-3.3.2.yml

To store the Mender artifacts in an AWS S3 bucket instead of relying on a Minio service, update the examples above as follows:

global:
  s3:
    AWS_URI: "https://s3.<your-aws-region>.amazonaws.com"
    AWS_BUCKET: "<name-of-your-bucket>"
    AWS_REGION: "<your-aws-region>"
    AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: "<your-access-key-id>"
    AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: "<your-secret-access-key>"
    AWS_FORCE_PATH_STYLE: "false"

How to select the Docker tag to use

We support the following Docker image tags:

  • Immutable tag for a specific bugfix version: e.g., mender-X.Y.Z (recommended)
  • Moving tag for a specific minor version: e.g., mender-X.Y
  • Moving tag for a major version: e.g., mender-X
  • Moving tag for the latest released bugfix version: latest
  • Moving tag for the latest development version: mender-master

Exposing the service

You must configure an Ingress or a Load Balancer to expose the Mender Server outside the Kubernetes cluster.

For example, to expose the Mender Server with an Ingress, run:

cat >mender-ingress.yml <<EOF
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: mender-ingress
  annotations:
    cert-manager.io/issuer: "letsencrypt"
spec:
  tls:
  - hosts:
    - ${MENDER_SERVER_DOMAIN}
    secretName: mender-ingress-tls
  rules:
  - host: "${MENDER_SERVER_DOMAIN}"
    http:
      paths:
      - path: /
        pathType: Prefix
        backend:
          service:
            name: mender-api-gateway
            port:
              number: 80
EOF

kubectl apply -f mender-ingress.yml

Create the admin user

Create the initial user using the useradm pod:

USERADM_POD=$(kubectl get pod -o name | grep useradm | head -1)
kubectl exec $USERADM_POD -- useradm create-user --username "demo@mender.io" --password "demodemo"

Pre-release version

To use a pre-release (master) version of the backend, please refer to the Development section of the documentation.

We welcome contributions to improve this documentation. To submit a change, use the Edit link at the top of the page or email us at .