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Deploy kcp

kcp may be deployed via a Helm chart, an operator, or as a standalone process running on the host. Each of them has its uses as well as advantages and disadvantages. While the most preferable way to deploy kcp is using its dedicated operator, for the sake of simplicity, we've taken the liberty of making the choice for you :) .

Starting kcp as a standalone process

Important

Attention: during these exercises, we'll be making heavy use of environment variables. We will be switching back and forth between clusters, as well as needing access to the binaries we've set up in the previous chapter. Whenever you see this block, it means we are switching an environment. Make sure you cd into the workshop git repo, and copy-paste the commands to your terminal. Let's give it a try!

Important

export WORKSHOP_ROOT="$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)/20250401-kubecon-london/workshop"
export PATH="${WORKSHOP_ROOT}/bin:${PATH}"

set -gx WORKSHOP_ROOT (git rev-parse --show-toplevel)/20250401-kubecon-london/workshop
set -gx PATH $WORKSHOP_ROOT/bin $PATH

Starting kcp in standalone mode is as easy as typing kcp start and pressing Enter.

cd $WORKSHOP_ROOT && kcp start

You should see the program running indefinitely, and outputting its logs--starting with some errors that should clean up in a couple of seconds as the different controllers start up. Leave the terminal window open, as we will keep using this kcp instance throughout the duration of the workshop. In this mode, all kcp's state is in-memory only. That means exiting the process (by, for example, pressing Ctrl+C in this terminal), will lose all its etcd contents.

Once kcp's output seems stable, we can start making simple kubectl calls against it. kcp start creates a hidden directory .kcp, where it places its kubeconfig and the certificates.

Important

Open a second shell and cd into workshop's directory now.

export WORKSHOP_ROOT="$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)/20250401-kubecon-london/workshop"
export PATH="${WORKSHOP_ROOT}/bin:${PATH}"
export KUBECONFIG="${WORKSHOP_ROOT}/.kcp/admin.kubeconfig"

set -gx WORKSHOP_ROOT (git rev-parse --show-toplevel)/20250401-kubecon-london/workshop
set -gx PATH $WORKSHOP_ROOT/bin $PATH
set -gx KUBECONFIG $WORKSHOP_ROOT/.kcp/admin.kubeconfig

The following command should work now:

$ kubectl version
Client Version: v1.32.1
Kustomize Version: v5.5.0
Server Version: v1.31.0+kcp-v0.26.1

We'll have a couple more kubeconfigs to switch between, and it will be convenient to have them all in one place. Let's do that now:

mkdir -p $WORKSHOP_ROOT/kubeconfigs
ln -s $KUBECONFIG $WORKSHOP_ROOT/kubeconfigs

And that's it!

High-five! 🚀🚀🚀

Finished? High-five! Check-in your completion with:

01-deploy-kcp/99-highfive.sh

If there were no errors, you may continue with the next exercise 🔥!

Cheat-sheet

You may fast-forward through this exercise by running:

  • 01-deploy-kcp/01-start-kcp.sh in a new terminal