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A comprehensive guide to operating Kubernetes on Taikun

In our previous blogs, we saw how Taikun helps you abstract Kubernetes setup and deployments across multiple cloud providers. Taikun also makes it easy for users to manage their Kubernetes setups with its intuitive UI.

In this blog, we see how different features in Taikun help in operating a Kubernetes deployment better.

We will explore this by looking at some of the common needs that come up while managing a Kubernetes infrastructure, and see how that can be easily done in Taikun.

Need #1: Getting an overview of the status of infrastructure

One of the key needs for a team managing Kubernetes infrastructure is to have a dashboard that shows the exact status of their Kubernetes setup. Taikun provides a comprehensive view of the entire deployment across all cloud providers through its Dashboard.

To view the Dashboard, log in to your Taikun app. Click on the left menu. Dashboard is the first item under the User section.

The first section of the Dashboard shows an option to choose the organisation from a drop-down list. The next section consists of basic charts that show a quick overview of the setup. For eg., the status of Projects within the Organisation, Server statuses, the status of all nodes and pods etc.

The dashboard gives some granular details in the form of tables, like the status of each node and pod in the infrastructure and a summary of all events and alerts within the organisation.

Need #2: Backing up the Kubernetes deployment

Backing up of the Kubernetes deployment is important to ensure proper Disaster recovery and prevent Data loss. Backups also help better cluster portability of Kubernetes resources.

Taikun uses Velero to backup Kubernetes deployment. Backup can easily be set up in three steps:

Step 1: Add Backup credentials.

The Backup credentials can be added in the Taikun Dashboard, under the Credentials section.

In order to add new credentials, you need the following information:

  • Organisation you’ll add credentials to.
  • S3 security details.
  • Projects you want to associate the credentials to.

Once the credentials are added, you can add the Associated Projects to which you want to link it.

You can read more about backup credentials here.

Step 2: Enable backup.

After configuring the backup credentials and linking them to the relevant Projects, the next step is to enable the backup.

The backup can be enabled either during the creation of the project itself or later by going to Projects under the User section from the menu in the Taikun Dashboard.

To enable backup, we click on the Project we want to backup. This opens up the list of Servers that are in the project. Enable Backup option is on top of the screen. Once you click on it, it’ll ask for the backup credential to link the Project to. That’s it!

Step 3: Set a backup policy.

Once the backup credentials are created and the backup is enabled for the projects, the last step is to create a backup policy. The Backup policy option will get enabled in the Server list screen once you enable the backup.

Choose a name for the backup schedule, a retention period i.e. how long the backup must be kept and the cron for scheduling.

You will then be able to see the status of all backups of that project under the Backup policy.

You can read more about backup policy here.

With these three steps, you can have granular access to operating all backup tasks right within your Taikun Dashboard.

Need #3: View logs and monitor Kubernetes clusters

Taikun uses Grafana in the back end to help view logs, alerts and other data on its Dashboard. This is done after we enable monitoring for the project.

To enable or disable monitoring, simply go to the respective project to see the Server list screen. Toggle the Enable/Disable Monitoring option. Enabling monitoring activates Logs, Alerts and Metrics option for the project. You will be able to see them after 5 minutes of enabling monitoring.

You can also enable monitoring during project creation.

To view logs, click on Logs on the Server list screen and write queries.

Query to view logs is for instance in Taikun suggestor

In the same way, Alerts and Prometheus metrics can be viewed from the Taikun Dashboard. You can read more about logs, alerts and metrics here.

Need #4: Notify alerts via communication channels

Another common need for a Cloud team is to have the ability to get notifications when something fails or a process gets completed. Taikun helps you do this easily via Alerting Profiles.

You can access Alerting profiles by going to the Taikun Dashboard menu under the Profiles section. You can add Slack channel, Email, Webhook and integrations with a few apps like Opsgenie, Pagerduty, Splunk and MicrosoftTeams.

You can read more about Alerting profiles here.

Need #5: Enforce Policies for compliance

All production-level Kubernetes setups need policies to be set up to ensure compliance with local laws and regulations. It is also required to ensure consistency between Kubernetes delpoyments and keep them more secure.

Taikun allows you to add Policy profiles under the Profiles section in Taikun Dashboard’s menu. Taikun uses OPA to set up these policies.

Need #6: Access clusters via proxy servers

Cloud team often requires offline access to the Kubernetes systems. Taikun allows you to set up offline access to the resources. You can add Access profiles under the Profiles section of the Taikun Dashboard menu.

Once the Access profile is created for an organisation, you can link projects to that access profile.

Conclusion

Taikun is a one-stop tool for all your Kubernetes needs. It is a perfect companion to meet every Cloud team’s needs when it comes to Kubernetes.


Please contact us to explore Taikun in more detail and for a free consultation.

If you wish to try Taikun and see it in action, try our cloud solution here.

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