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DigitalOcean

November 23, 2024About 3 min

DigitalOcean

If you want to set up a Kubernetes cluster on DigitalOcean, follow this guide.

Create Account

Create an account with DigitalOcean.

Add Project

On the left side you will see a menu. Click on New Project. Enter a name and click Create Project.
Skip moving resources, probably.

Create Kubernetes Cluster

On the right top you find the button Create. Click on it and choose Kubernetes - Create Kubernetes Cluster.

  • use the latest Kubernetes version
  • choose your datacenter region
  • name your node pool: e.g. pool-<your-network-name>
  • 2 Basic nodes with 2.5 GB RAM (total of 4 GB), 2 shared CPUs, and 80 GB Disk each is optimal for the beginning
  • set your cluster name: e.g. cluster-<your-network-name>
  • select your project
  • no tags necessary

Getting Started

After your cluster is set up – see progress bar above – click on Getting started. Please install the following management tools:

Install the tools as described on the tab or see the links here.

After the installation, click on Continue.

Download Configuration File

Follow the steps to download the configuration file.

You can skip this step if necessary, as you can download the file later. You can then do this by clicking on Kubernetes in the left menu. In the menu to the right of the cluster name in the cluster list, click on More and select Download Config.

Patch & Minor Version Upgrades

Skip Patch & Minor Version Upgrades for now.

Install 1-Click Apps

You don't need a 1-click app. Our helmet script will install the required NGINXs. Therefore, skip this step as well.

For a 1-click Kubernetes Dashboard or alternatives, follow the next steps.

Install Kubernetes Dashboard

We recommend installing a Kubernetes Dashboard, as DigitalOcean no longer offers a pre-installed dashboard.

There you will also find a section entitled Getting Started, which describes how you can log in from your local computer.

Very short description:

In your DigitalOcean Account

For authentication, download the current cluster configuration file from DigitalOcean.

In Terminal

Set the context of the cluster by command:

kubectl config use-context <context-name>

We seem to have two instances in our DigitalOcean cluster how we need to log into the Kubernetes Dashboard. It looks like it depends on the Kubernetes Dashboard version, but we are not absolutely sure.

Login with kubeconfig File

Port-forward the Kubernetes Dashboard to your local machine:

# save pod name
$ export POD_NAME=$(kubectl get pods -n kubernetes-dashboard -l "app.kubernetes.io/name=kubernetes-dashboard,app.kubernetes.io/instance=kubernetes-dashboard" -o jsonpath="{.items[0].metadata.name}")
# forward port
$ kubectl -n kubernetes-dashboard port-forward $POD_NAME 8443:8443

Access the URL in your local web browser at https://127.0.0.1:8443/, and log in using your Kubernetes cluster credentials – downloaded config file. You may encounter a certificate warning, so make sure to override it.

Login with Admin Token

Port-forward the Kubernetes Dashboard to your local machine:

# create your access token
kubectl -n kubernetes-dashboard create token admin-user
# forward port
kubectl -n kubernetes-dashboard port-forward svc/kubernetes-dashboard-kong-proxy 8443:443

Access the URL in your local web browser at https://127.0.0.1:8443/, and log in using your access token. You may encounter a certificate warning, so make sure to override it.

Alternatives to Kubernetes Dashboard

DigitalOcean has a website about Kubernetes Dashboard and alternatives:

DNS Configuration

There are the following two ways to set up the DNS.

Manage DNS With A Different Domain Provider

If you have registered your domain or subdomain with another domain provider, add an A record there with one of the IP addresses from one of the cluster droplets in the DNS.

To find the correct IP address to set in the DNS A record, click Droplets in the left main menu. A list of all your droplets will be displayed. Take one of the IPs of perhaps two or more droplets in your cluster from the list and enter it into the A record.

Manage DNS With DigitalOcean

TODO: How to configure the DigitalOcean DNS management service …

To understand what makes sense to do when managing your DNS with DigitalOcean, you need to know how DNS works:

DNS means Domain Name System. It resolves domains like example.com into an IP like 123.123.123.123. DigitalOcean is not a domain registrar, but provides a DNS management service. If you use DigitalOcean's DNS management service, you can configure your cluster to always resolve the domain to the correct IP and automatically update it for that. The IPs of the DigitalOcean machines are not necessarily stable, so the cluster's DNS service will update the DNS records managed by DigitalOcean to the new IP as needed.

CAUTION: If you are using an external DNS, you currently have to do this manually, which can cause downtime.

Deploy

Yeah, you're done here. Back to Deployment with Helm for Kubernetes.

Backups On DigitalOcean

You can and should do backups with Kubernetes for sure.

Additional to backup and copying the Neo4j database dump and the backend images you can do a volume snapshot on DigitalOcean at the moment you have the database in sleep mode.