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Preparation of Kubernetes Environment for AMS Deployment

Kubernetes as known is the open source container orchestration tool that is widely used in all over the world. With the version 2.2.0+, Ant Media Server is fully compatible with Kubernetes. 

Let us show how to use Ant Media Server with Kubernetes.

Introduction​

The scope of this document is giving you the basics about how to run Ant Media Server Kubernetes Cluster. If you're not familiar with Kubernetes then you can get started with Kubernetes and follow interactive tutorials.

Running Ant Media Server in Kubernetes is fully about clustering. If you are not familiar with Ant Media Server Clustering & Scaling, please read the Cluster & Scaling documentation.

You should have some prerequisites to deploy Ant Media Server Cluster on Kubernetes.

Prerequisites​

Docker Image​

First of all, you should have an Ant Media Server docker image as scaling unit. You can create your own docker image or you can pull it from the docker repositories like Docker Hub, AWS.

Create a Docker Image​

We first need to create a docker image to run our pods in Kubernetes.

  • Get the Dockerfile: Dockerfile is available in Ant Media Server's Scripts repository that is actively used in CI pipeline. You can get it with the command below.

    wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ant-media/Scripts/master/docker/Dockerfile_Process \ -O Dockerfile_Process

  • Download or copy AMS Enterprise Edition ZIP file into the same directory that you download Dockerfile above.

  • Create the docker image. Before running the command below, please pay attention that you should replace {CHANGE_YOUR_ANT_MEDIA_SERVER_ZIP_FILE} in the command below with your exact Ant Media Server ZIP file name.

sudo docker build --network=host --file=Dockerfile_Process -t ant-media-server-enterprise-k8s:test --build-arg AntMediaServer={CHANGE_YOUR_ANT_MEDIA_SERVER_ZIP_FILE} .

The second thing we should point out is the image name and tag. The command above use the ant-media-server-enterprise-k8s:test as image name and tag. The image name is compatible with the deployment file. I mean you can absolutely change the image name and tag, just make it compatible with the deployment file we'll mention soon.

If everything is OK, your image is available in your environment. If you're going to use this image in AWS EKS or a similar service, you need to upload the image to repository such as AWS ECR or you can run a local registry.

Pulling Images from Repositories​

You can get ready images from the following repositories.

Docker Hub: antmedia/enterprise:latest

Kubernetes Cluster​

Own Kubernetes Cluster​

You can create your own Kubernetes Cluster on your servers.

Cloud Services​

You can have a Kubernetes Cluster on the cloud services. You will find blog posts about how to create such a Kubernetes cluster below.

Install Metric Server​

A metric server is used for autoscaling and is usually deployed by the cloud providers. If you are using a custom Kubernetes or the Metric Server is not deployed by your cloud provider you should deploy it manually as explained below. Firstly, Check if metrics-server is installed using the command below. 

kubectl get pods --all-namespaces | grep -i "metric"

You are going to see an output exactly like the below. 

kube-system   metrics-server-5bb577dbd8-7f58c           1/1     Running   7          23h

Manual Installation​

Download the components.yaml file on the master.

wget https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/metrics-server/releases/latest/download/components.yaml

Add the following line to line 132 of the file. --kubelet-insecure-tls. The lines are going to seem exactly as below.

Deploy the YAML file that we have made changes. 

kubectl apply -f components.yaml

Check whether everything is working properly. 

kubectl get apiservices |grep "v1beta1.metrics.k8s.io"

The output of the command should be as follows. 

v1beta1.metrics.k8s.io                 kube-system/metrics-server   True        21h

Preparing MongoDB​

MongoDB is essential to create an Ant Media Server cluster. Before running Ant Media Server nodes, you should prepare it first. You can run it anywhere that can be accessible from the Ant Media Server nodes with the one of the following ways.

Whichever way you deploy Mongo DB, you should note the IP, user name, and password if exists. We will use them soon.

Determine the Deployment Type​

You can deploy your AMS onto Kubernetes in 2 ways: with HostNetwork or without HostNetwork.

If you prefer With HostNetwork, then you will have a single pod on a single node. In this deployment type pods have their public IPs. So WebRTC connection is performed over these IPs.

If you prefer Without HostNetwork, then you can deploy multiple pods on a node. In this mode, you should have a TURN server in your setup for WebRTC connectivity.

Now, you can go to the next phase: AMS Kubernetes Deployment.

At this point, you have a Kubernetes cluster now, to create an Ant Media Server cluster you can continue with this document. Please keep in mind that according to the deployment type you should need some customization as told in the document.

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