Quickstart

**Estimated guide time: 10 minutes**

important

This quick start guide assumes you have already registered a new user in the Jetic Platform

The goal of this quickstart guide is to create an integration in our platform and have it deployed to a local Kubernetes cluster. To accomplish this we'll need to do the following:

Create a new cluster object in Jetic
Creating a local Kubernetes Cluster using Minikube
Install Camel-k
Install our Jetic Bridge
Create an integration and deploy!

If you already have a Kubernetes cluster please refer to our connection guide. If you'd like to get started with a cluster that is not locally installed, consider one of our guides in "Creating A Cluster"

There are some tools that will make the quickstart setup easier and more convenient. They may not be required depending on your choice of setup, but they are recommended. Each will be mentioned later in the documentation along with some alternatives where applicable.

Docker: A container manager for developing, shipping, and running applications
kubectl: The Kubernetes command line tool for interacting with your clusters
Helm: A package manager designed for deploying applications in Kubernetes

Now, let's get started.

Create a Jetic cluster#

First things first, you'll need to create a cluster object in our application that we'll eventually connect to your actual Kubernetes cluster.

Log in to our application and navigate to the main 'Management' dashboard. Click on the '+' in top left, select 'New Cluster' and fill out the modal form. You now have a new cluster and you'll need to take note of the cluster key and secret.

important

Without these values you won't be able to connect your cluster

Create a Minikube cluster#

Minikube is a great way to introduce yourself to Kubernetes for a few reasons.

It's free
Installation & setup is simple

You may need to install a container/virtual machine manager if you don't have one installed already. Minikube is compatible with many managers as described here, but Docker is preferred.

There are only a few steps for installing and setting up Minikube which can be found in their Get Started! guide. Be sure to install for your given operating system.

Once you've installed Minikube you can check that your cluster is up and running by running:

minikube dashboard

Alternatively you can use kubectl which is a much better way of interacting with any Kubernetes cluster, including your Minikube. However if you don't want to install kubectl separately, you can still use kubectl commands out of the box within Minikube. In your terminal simply add kubectl -- between minikube and the kubectl command you want to use. For example, if you want to view all pods in your Minikube cluster you can run:

minikube kubectl -- get po -A

The first time you use kubectl -- will actually installs kubectl on your behalf within minikube. Just make sure you continue to prefix your minikube commands with kubectl -- if you choose to continue with this approach.

Next you'll need to enable Minikube's built-in container registry. This is a repository that will used to store container images for your integrations.

note

Normally a Kubernetes cluster would need to have an external container registry configured, however Minikube provides a built-in container registry

Enable your Minikube container registry by running the following command

minikube addons enable registry

After enabling your container registry your cluster is ready for the next step.

Install Camel K#

You can install Camel-K into your Minikube in the following ways:

Using Kamel: The Camel-K command line tool for running integrations in a Kubernetes cluster
Using Helm: A package manager designed for deploying applications in Kubernetes

Using Kamel#

If you need to install Kamel you can follow the instructions provided by Apache found here. Installing the latest version is typically recommended.

Once you have the Kamel CLI installed, you can install Camel-K in your Minikube cluster using: kamel install --maven-repository https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/ --maven-repository https://us-central1-maven.pkg.dev/aqueous-flames-274123/maven-repo

note

Using --maven-repository will ensure your camel-k installation is able to reference dependencies in our maven repository.

tip

If you want specify the namespace during install you can append the namespace flag --namespace <string> to your install command. For a full list of install options available simply run kamel install --help

After running the install command, wait a moment for the installation process and proceed to the verification section below.

Using Helm#

If you need to install Helm you can follow the their detailed instructions found here.

Once you have Helm you can use it to install Camel-K which is available in the Artifact Hub (formerly Helm Hub). Follow the instructions on the Camel K page on Artifact Hub for more information.

Verify Camel-K install in your cluster#

Whether you used Kamel or Helm, you need to verify that Camel-K is installed correctly. Check if you at least have the pod, camel-k-operator, running in your cluster. You can achieve this with kubectl, if you have it installed, otherwise with minikube:

kubectl get pod
minikube dashboard to view your cluster in browser
minikube kubectl -- get pod

If you see this pod has a status of 'running' or similar then you're ready to move on to the next step!

Install Jetic Bridge#

Our Jetic Bridge is a small application we've created which follows the Kubernetes Operator design pattern. It is installed in your kubernetes cluster so that it can manage all your integration deployments from our platform.

We currently offer the following methods for installation:

Using Helm: A package manager designed for deploying applications in Kubernetes

Using Helm#

With Helm, you can install our Bridge in the same way that you would install any other Helm chart.

Start by adding our managed chart repository to your helm client. Provide the repository with a name, for example jetic-platform.

helm repo add jetic-platform https://datagreat.github.io/camel-cloud-bridge/charts

tip

You can see all the charts that are available in this repository by running helm search repo jetic-platform

You can now install the jetic-bridge using the helm install command but be sure to add the following parameters. They should have been gathered in previous steps, but you can find them in Cluster Management:

cluster.key
cluster.secret

For example:

helm install jetic-bridge jetic-platform/jetic-bridge --set cluster.key={key} --set cluster.secret={secret}

In the configurations section below you'll find additional parameters that you can set to tailor your installation.

After running the install command you can view your newly created helm release by running helm list or helm ls

important

You may need to run the command helm repo update if you run into issues installing our chart the first time

You're now ready for the next step of validating the installation.

Configurations#

Parameters	Description	Default	Required
cluster.key	A unique identifier for your cluster. Provided in 'Cluster Management'	n/a	true
cluster.secret	A randomly generated string for authenticating with the Jetic Platform. Provided in 'Cluster Management'	n/a	true
namespace	The kubernetes namespace the jetic-bridge should be installed in	default	false
logging.level	The verbosity of the jetic-bridge logs	INFO	false

Verify Bridge install in your cluster#

Whether you used kubectl or Helm, you need to verify that the jetic-bridge is installed correctly. Provied there were no errors during install, check to see if you have the pod, jetic-bridge, running in your cluster. You can achieve this with kubectl, if you have it installed, otherwise with minikube:

kubectl get pod
minikube dashboard to view your cluster in browser
minikube kubectl -- get pod

If you see this pod has a status of 'running' or similar then congratulations, your cluster is now connected to the Jetic Platform! You're ready to move on to the next step!

Deploying an integration in Minikube#

Now that you're minikube cluster is connected to our application it's time to create a new integration.

In the 'Management' dashboard select the '+' button in the top left, select 'New Integration' and fill out the modal form. Once you create a new integration you'll be automatically navigated to our Camel Studio where you can edit this new integration. In the side bar on the left side of the studio, select the 'Catalog' icon and drag over a timer & log component as shown below.

tip

You can search for a component in the catalog side bar or by clicking any available '+' icon in the studio

For now we won't worry about configuring the components and will just keep their default values.

In the deployment bar at the bottom of the studio you'll find a cluster drop down. You'll need to update it by selecting the name of the cluster you created at the beginning of this guide. Once you've selected your cluster you can simply hit the 'Run' button.

At this point your integration is being deployed to your Minikube Kubernetes cluster! You can view the build logs of the new pod being created in your cluster in the 'Build Log' tab. Once your pod is finished building you can view the integration logs in the 'Execution Log' tab. You should now see a regular interval of logs coming in from your timer & log components so congratulations, you've just deployed a new integration to your Kubernetes cluster!