AWS

Before you can perform a ForgeOps deployment on a Kubernetes cluster running on AWS, you must complete these prerequisite tasks:

Clone the forgeops and forgeops-extras repositories
Install third-party software on your local computer
Start a virtual machine that runs Docker engine on your local computer
Set up your AWS environment to meet the requirements for ForgeOps deployments
Create a Kubernetes cluster in AWS
Set up your local computer to access the cluster’s ingress controller

`forgeops` and `forgeops-extras` repositories

Get the forgeops and forgeops-extras repositories:

Clone the repositories. For example:

$ git clone https://github.com/ForgeRock/forgeops.git
$ git clone https://github.com/ForgeRock/forgeops-extras.git

Both repositories are public; you do not need credentials to clone them.

Check out the forgeops repository’s release/7.5-20240402 branch:
```
$ cd /path/to/forgeops
$ git checkout release/7.5-20240402
```
Depending on your organization’s repository strategy, you might need to clone the repository from a fork, instead of cloning ForgeRock’s master repository. You might also need to create a working branch from the release/7.5-20240402 branch. For more information, refer to Repository Updates.

Check out the forgeops-extras repository’s master branch:

$ cd /path/to/forgeops-extras
$ git checkout master

Third-party software

Before performing a ForgeOps deployment, obtain non-ForgeRock software and install it on your local computer.

ForgeRock recommends that you install third-party software using Homebrew on macOS and Linux^[1] .

The versions listed in the following table have been validated for ForgeOps deployments on Amazon Web Services. Earlier and later versions will probably work. If you want to try using versions that are not in the table, it is your responsibility to validate them.

Install the following third-party software:

Software Version Homebrew package

Software	Version	Homebrew package
Python 3	3.11.8	`python@3.11`
Docker client	25.0.3	`docker`
Kubernetes client (kubectl)	1.29.3	`kubernetes-cli`
Kubernetes context switcher (kubectx)	0.9.5	`kubectx`
Kustomize	5.3.0	`kustomize`
Helm	3.14.3	`helm`
JSON processor jq	1.7.1	`jq`
Terraform	1.5.7	`terraform`
Six (Python compatibility library)	1.16.0	`six`
Setup tools (Python)	69.2.0	`python-setuptools`
Amazon AWS Command Line Interface	2.15.32	`awscli`
AWS IAM Authenticator for Kubernetes	0.6.14	`aws-iam-authenticator`

Python 3

3.11.8

python@3.11

Docker client

25.0.3

docker

Kubernetes client (kubectl)

1.29.3

kubernetes-cli

Kubernetes context switcher (kubectx)

0.9.5

kubectx

Kustomize

5.3.0

kustomize

Helm

3.14.3

helm

JSON processor jq

1.7.1

jq

Terraform

1.5.7

terraform

Six (Python compatibility library)

1.16.0

six

Setup tools (Python)

69.2.0

python-setuptools

Amazon AWS Command Line Interface

2.15.32

awscli

AWS IAM Authenticator for Kubernetes

0.6.14

aws-iam-authenticator

Docker engine

In addition to the software listed in the preceding table, you’ll need to start a virtual machine that runs Docker engine.

On macOS systems, use Docker Desktop or an alternative, such as Colima.
On Linux systems, use Docker Desktop for Linux, install Docker machine from your Linux distribution, or use an alternative, such as Colima.

For more information about using Colima when performing ForgeOps deployments, refer to this article.

The default configuration for a Docker virtual machine provides adequate resources for a ForgeOps deployment.

For users running Microsoft Windows

ForgeRock supports ForgeOps deployments on macOS and Linux. If you have a Windows computer, you’ll need to create a Linux VM. We tested the following configurations:

Hypervisor: Hyper-V, VMWare Player, or VMWare Workstation
Guest OS: Current Ubuntu LTS release with 12 GB memory and 60 GB disk space
Nested virtualization enabled in the Linux VM.

Perform all the procedures in this documentation within the Linux VM. In this documentation, the local computer refers to the Linux VM for Windows users.

The Minikube implementation on Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2) has networking issues. As a result, consistent access to the ingress controller or the apps deployed on Minikube is not possible. This issue is tracked here. Do not attempt to perform ForgeOps deployments on WSL2 until this issue is resolved.

Setup for AWS

Perform these steps to set up an AWS environment that meets the requirements for ForgeOps deployments:

Create and configure an IAM group:
1. Create a group with the name forgeops-users.
2. Attach the following AWS preconfigured policies to the forgeops-users group:
  - IAMUserChangePassword
  - IAMReadOnlyAccess
  - AmazonEC2FullAccess
  - AmazonEC2ContainerRegistryFullAccess
  - AWSCloudFormationFullAccess
3. Create two policies in the IAM service of your AWS account:
  1. Create the EksAllAccess policy using the eks-all-access.json file in the /path/to/forgeops/etc/aws-example-iam-policies directory.
  2. Create the IamLimitedAccess policy using the iam-limited-access.json file in the /path/to/forgeops/etc/aws-example-iam-policies directory.
4. Attach the policies you created to the forgeops-users group.
  
  Remember, a ForgeOps deployment is a reference implementation, and is not for production use. The policies you create in this procedure are suitable for ForgeOps deployments. When you create a project plan, you’ll need to determine how to configure AWS permissions.
5. Assign one or more AWS users who will perform ForgeOps deployments to the forgeops-users group.
If you haven’t already done so, set up your aws command-line interface environment using the aws configure command.

Verify that your AWS user is a member of the forgeops-users group:

$ aws iam list-groups-for-user --user-name my-user-name --output json
{
    "Groups": [
        {
            "Path": "/",
            "GroupName": "forgeops-users",
            "GroupId": "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST",
            "Arn": "arn:aws:iam::048497731163:group/forgeops-users",
            "CreateDate": "2020-03-11T21:03:17+00:00"
        }
    ]
}

Verify that you are using the correct user profile:

$ aws iam get-user
{
    "User": {
        "Path": "/",
        "UserName": "my-user-name",
        "UserId": "...",
        "Arn": "arn:aws:iam::01...3:user/my-user-name",
        "CreateDate": "2020-09-17T16:01:46+00:00",
        "PasswordLastUsed": "2021-05-10T17:07:53+00:00"
    }
}

Kubernetes cluster creation

ForgeRock provides Terraform artifacts for Amazon EKS cluster creation. Use them to create a cluster that supports ForgeOps deployments. After performing a ForgeOps deployment, you can use your cluster as a sandbox to explore ForgeRock Identity Platform customization.

When you create a project plan, you’ll need to identify your organization’s preferred infrastructure-as-code solution, and, if necessary, create your own cluster creation automation scripts.

Here are the steps the ForgeOps team follows to create a Kubernetes cluster on Amazon EKS:

Copy the file that contains default Terraform variables to a new file:
1. Change to the /path/to/forgeops-extras/terraform directory.
2. Copy the terraform.tfvars file to override.auto.tfvars ^[2].
Copying the terraform.tfvars file to a new file preserves the original content in the file.
Determine the cluster size: small, medium, or large.
Define your cluster’s configuration:
1. Open the override.auto.tfvars file.
2. Determine the location of your cluster’s configuration in the override.auto.tfvars file:
  
  Cluster size Section containing the cluster configuration
  
  Small
  
  cluster.tf_cluster_eks_small
  
  Medium
  
  cluster.tf_cluster_eks_medium
  
  Large
  
  cluster.tf_cluster_eks_large
3. Modify your cluster’s configuration by setting values in the section listed in the table:
  1. Modify your cluster’s configuration by setting values in the section listed in the table:
  2. Set the value of the enabled variable to true.
  3. Set the value of the meta.cluster_name variable to the name of the Amazon EKS cluster you’ll create.
  4. Set the values of the location.region and location.zones variables to the region and zones where you’ll perform the ForgeOps deployment.
    
    Before continuing:
    
    Go to the Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service endpoints and quotas page and verify the region you’re specifying supports Amazon EKS.
    
    Run the aws ec2 describe-availability-zones --region region-name command to identify three availability zones in your AWS region.
4. Save and close the override.auto.tfvars file.
Ensure your region has an adequate CPU quota for a ForgeOps deployment.

Locate these two variables in your cluster’s configuration in the override.auto.tfvars file:
- node_pool.type: the machine type to be used in your cluster
- node_pool.max_count: the maximum number of machines to be used in your cluster
Your quotas must be large enough to let you allocate the maximum number of machines in your region. If your quotas are too low, request and wait for a quota increase from Amazon Web Services before attempting to create your cluster.
Create a cluster using Terraform artifacts in the forgeops-extras repository:
1. Change to the directory that contains Terraform artifacts:
  $ cd /path/to/forgeops-extras/terraform
2. Run the tf-apply script to create your cluster:
  $ ./tf-apply
  Respond yes to the Do you want to perform these actions? prompt.
  
  When the tf-apply script finishes, it issues a message that provides the path to a kubeconfig file for the cluster.
  
  The script creates:
  The EKS cluster
  
  The fast storage class
  
  The ds-snapshot-class volume snapshot class
  The script deploys:
  An ingress controller
  
  Certificate manager
Set your Kubernetes context to reference the new cluster by setting the KUBECONFIG environment variable as shown in the message from the tf-apply command’s output.
To verify the tf-apply script created the cluster, log in to the AWS console. Access the console panel for the Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service, and then list the EKS clusters. The new cluster should appear in the list of Kubernetes clusters.

Cluster size	Section containing the cluster configuration
Small	`cluster.tf_cluster_eks_small`
Medium	`cluster.tf_cluster_eks_medium`
Large	`cluster.tf_cluster_eks_large`

Hostname resolution

Set up hostname resolution for the ForgeRock Identity Platform servers you’ll deploy in your namespace:

Get the ingress controller’s FQDN from the EXTERNAL-IP column of the kubectl get services command output:

$ kubectl get services --namespace ingress-nginx
NAME                                 TYPE           CLUSTER-IP     EXTERNAL-IP                                    PORT(S)                      AGE
ingress-nginx-controller             LoadBalancer   10.100.43.88   k8s-ingress ...elb.us-east-1.amazonaws.com   80:30005/TCP,443:30770/TCP   62s
ingress-nginx-controller-admission   ClusterIP      10.100.2.215   <none>                                         443/TCP                      62s

Run the host command to get the ingress controller’s external IP addresses. For example:

$ host k8s-ingress ...elb.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
k8s-ingress ...elb.us-east-1.amazonaws.com has address 3.210.123.210
k8s-ingress ...elb.us-east-1.amazonaws.com has address 3.208.207.77
k8s-ingress ...elb.us-east-1.amazonaws.com has address 44.197.104.140

Depending on the state of the cluster, between one and three IP addresses appear in the host command’s output.

Configure hostname resolution for the ingress controller:
1. Choose an FQDN (referred to as the deployment FQDN) that you’ll use when you deploy the ForgeRock Identity Platform, and when you access its GUIs and REST APIs.
  
  Examples in this documentation use forgeops.example.com as the deployment FQDN. You are not required to use forgeops.example.com; you can specify any FQDN you like.
2. If DNS does not resolve your deployment FQDN, add an entry to the /etc/hosts file that maps the ingress controller’s external IP address to the deployment FQDN. For example:
  3.210.123.210 forgeops.example.com

1. The Linux version of Homebrew does not support installing software it maintains as casks. Because of this, if you’re setting up an environment on Linux, you won’t be able to use Homebrew to install software in several cases. You’ll need to refer to the software’s documentation for information about how to install the software on a Linux system.

2. The Terraform configuration contains a set of variables under forgerock that adds labels required for clusters created by ForgeRock employees. If you’re a ForgeRock employee creating a cluster, set values for these variables.

ForgeOps

AWS

forgeops and forgeops-extras repositories