pomerium/docs/docs/install/helm.md

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Kubernetes / Helm	en-US	name content keywords pomerium identity-access-proxy oidc kubernetes Helm reverse-proxy

Pomerium using Helm

This quick-start will show you how to deploy Pomerium with Helm on Kubernetes.

Prerequisites

• Install kubectl.
• Install helm.
• A Kubernetes provider.

  • A cluster, with your local kubectl authorized to interact with it. The cluster configuration and node pool will depend on your provider and the scope of your project.

  • Export the configuration file from your Kubernetes host and export it to your KUBECONFIG environment variable (usually by placing it in ~/.kube).

    See Organizing Cluster Access Using kubeconfig Files for more information.

  • A namespace in the cluster for Pomerium. This document assumes the namespace pomerium.

• A configured identity provider.
• TLS certificates. If you don't yet have a production environment with trusted certificates, this page will cover using mkcert to create locally trusted certificates, and cert-manager to manage them in the cluster.

::: tip This configuration installs Redis as the data broker service. While this isn't strictly required when running Pomerium by itself, it is necessary for Pomerium Enterprise, and still highly recommended if not. :::

Certificates

This setup uses mkcert to generate certificates that are trusted by your local web browser for testing, and cert-manager to manage them. If you already have a certificate solution, you can skip the steps below and move on to the next stage.

Install mkcert

After installing mkcert, confirm the presence and names of your local CA files:

mkcert -install
The local CA is already installed in the system trust store! 👍
The local CA is already installed in the Firefox and/or Chrome/Chromium trust store! 👍

ls $(mkcert -CAROOT)
rootCA-key.pem  rootCA.pem

The output of mkcert -install may vary depending on you operating system.

Install and Configure cert-manager

If you haven't already, install cert-manager and create a CA issuer. You can follow their docs (listed below) or use the steps provided:

• cert-manager: Installing with Helm
• cert-manager: CA

1. Create a namespace for cert-manager:

   kubectl create namespace cert-manager
   

2. Add the jetstack.io repository and update Helm:

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

3. Install cert-manager to your cluster:

   helm install cert-manager jetstack/cert-manager --namespace cert-manager --create-namespace \
   --version v1.4.0 --set installCRDs=true
   

4. Confirm deployment with kubectl get pods --namespace cert-manager:

   kubectl get pods --namespace cert-manager
   NAME                                       READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
   cert-manager-5d7f97b46d-8g942              1/1     Running   0          33s
   cert-manager-cainjector-69d885bf55-6x5v2   1/1     Running   0          33s
   cert-manager-webhook-8d7495f4-s5s6p        1/1     Running   0          33s
   

5. In your Pomerium namespace, create a Kubernetes secret for the rootCA-key file in your local CA root:

   kubectl create secret tls pomerium-tls-ca --namespace=pomerium \
   --cert=$(mkcert -CAROOT)/rootCA.pem --key=$(mkcert -CAROOT)/rootCA-key.pem
   

6. Define an Issuer configuration in issuer.yaml:

   apiVersion: cert-manager.io/v1
   kind: Issuer
   metadata:
     name: pomerium-issuer
     namespace: pomerium
   spec:
     ca:
       secretName: pomerium-tls-ca
   

7. Apply and confirm:

   kubectl apply -f issuer.yaml
   issuer.cert-manager.io/pomerium-issuer created
   
   kubectl get issuers.cert-manager.io --namespace pomerium
   NAME              READY   AGE
   pomerium-issuer   True    10s
   

Install Pomerium

1. Set your kubectl context to the Pomerium namespace:

   kubectl config set-context --current --namespace=pomerium
   

2. Create certificate configurations for Pomerium. Our example is named pomerium-certificates.yaml, to differentiate from a configuration file for Pomerium Enterprise, if you choose to install it later:

   <<< @/examples/kubernetes/pomerium-certificates.yaml

   ::: tip If you already have a domain space for Pomerium with a certificate solution, use it in place of *.localhost.pomerium.io. :::

3. Apply the certificate configuration, and confirm:

   kubectl apply -f pomerium-certificates.yaml
   

   kubectl get certificate
   NAME                    READY   SECRET                 AGE
   pomerium-cert           True    pomerium-tls           10s
   pomerium-redis-cert     True    pomerium-redis-tls     10s
   

4. Create a values file for Helm to use when installing Pomerium. Our example is named pomerium-values.yaml.

   <<< @/examples/kubernetes/pomerium-values.yaml

   ::: tip The options required in the authenticate.idp block will vary depending on your identity provider.

   If you changed the *.localhost.pomerium.io value in pomerium-certificates.yaml update config.rootDomain to match, omitting the *. :::

5. Add Pomerium's Helm repo:

   helm repo add pomerium https://helm.pomerium.io
   

6. So that we can create a valid test route, add Bitnami's Helm repo to pull nginx from:

   helm repo add bitnami https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami
   

7. Update Helm:

   helm repo update
   

8. Install nginx to the cluster:

   helm upgrade --install nginx bitnami/nginx --set service.type=ClusterIP
   

9. Install Pomerium to the cluster:

   helm upgrade --install pomerium pomerium/pomerium --values ./pomerium-values.yaml
   

Navigate

If you are installing Pomerium with a valid domain name and certificates, update your DNS records to point to the external IP address of the pomerium-proxy service:

kubectl get svc pomerium-proxy
NAME             TYPE           CLUSTER-IP       EXTERNAL-IP      PORT(S)                        AGE
pomerium-proxy   LoadBalancer   10.128.117.25    192.0.2.20       443:30006/TCP,9090:30707/TCP   2m37s

For development and testing, you can use kubectl to create a local proxy:

sudo -E kubectl --namespace pomerium port-forward service/pomerium-proxy 443:443

Open a browser and navigate to hello.localhost.pomerium.com.

You can also navigate to the special pomerium endpoint hello.localhost.pomerium.com/.pomerium/ to see your current user details.

Next Steps

Congratulations on installing Pomerium to your Kubernetes cluster! If you're installing Pomerium Enterprise next, see Install Pomerium Enterprise in Helm. If not, check our our guides to install common services behind Pomerium.