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Setting up Traefik v2 and cert-manager on Kapsule

Reviewed on 16 October 2023 • Published on 01 July 2020
  • Kubernetes
  • k8s
  • Kapsule
  • kube
  • Traefik
  • cert-manager
  • Load-Balancer

Traefik - Overview

Traefik (pronounced traffic) is a modern HTTP reverse proxy and Load Balancer designed to make the deploying of microservices easy. Traefik integrates with any HTTP and TCP-based applications and every major cluster technology.

Our goal in this tutorial is to:

  • Expose Traefik 2 using a Scaleway Load Balancer
  • Deploy a test application on our cluster
  • Expose this test application through an ingress object, using Traefik 2 (deployed by Kapsule)
  • Expose this application securely (with https and Let’s Encrypt, using cert-manager)

This tutorial is divided in two parts:

  • First, we will check how to expose the Traefik 2 ingress controller shipped with Kapsule with a Scaleway LoadBalancer.
  • In the second part, we will deploy a test application to expose it in HTTP with a DNS managed by Scaleway DNS, then use cert-manager to create a Let’s Encrypt certificate and expose this application securely in https.

Before you start

To complete the actions presented below, you must have:

  • A Scaleway account logged into the console
  • Owner status or IAM permissions allowing you to perform actions in the intended Organization
  • A Kubernetes Kapsule cluster with an ingress controller (Traefik 2)
  • Downloaded the corresponding kubeconfig file and ensured the kubectl is configured and working

Deploying a Load Balancer using the Easy Deploy feature

Important

You need a Kubernetes Kapsule cluster deployed with Traefik 2 to follow this tutorial. To deploy your cluster with Traefik 2, use the Easy Deploy feature.

  1. Click the Easy Deploy tab on your clusters overview page. The Easy Deploy feature displays.
  2. Click Deploy an Application. The application deployment wizard displays.
  3. Select Application Library, type Traefik in the search bar and select the Traefik 2 Ingress application.
  4. Enter the name traefik for the application and type the kube-system namespace name.
  5. Click Deploy an application to deploy the Load Balancer on your cluster.

Creating a wildcard DNS record and pointing your domain name to the IP address

We will be using the new Domains and DNS product, available on Scaleway, to create a wildcard record pointing to this IP address (the domain used in this tutorial will be “mytest.com”). A wildcard record (*.mydomain.com) allows you to point any subdomain of your domain to the configured IP address.

Tip

Traefik listens by default on ports 80 and 443 of the public IP of any node of your cluster. You can retrieve the external IP of your clusters’ nodes by running the kubectl get node -o wide command.

Verify that the domain is pointed to the IP address of your LoadBalancer:

host foobar.mytest.com
foobar.mytest.com has address 195.154.68.108

Your domain is now pointing to your LoadBalancer IP, you can resolve any of your subdomain with that IP.

Deploying a test application

In this step, we deploy a test application called “tea coffee” which is only printing tea or coffee depending on the subpath you will reach.

  1. Use kubectl to create the application 
    kubectl create -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nginxinc/kubernetes-ingress/main/examples/ingress-resources/complete-example/cafe.yaml
  2. Create an associated ingress object pointing to teacoffee.mytest.com by creating and editing the file ingress-teacoffee.yml in your favorite text editor: 
    apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
    kind: Ingress
    metadata:
      name: cafe-ingress
    spec:
      rules:
        - host: teacoffee.mytest.com
          http:
            paths:
              - path: /tea
                pathType: Prefix
                backend:
                  service:
                    name: tea-svc
                    port:
                      number: 80
              - path: /coffee
                pathType: Prefix
                backend:
                  service:
                    name: coffee-svc
                    port:
                      number: 80
  3. Run the following command to set up the configuration: 
    kubectl create -f ingress-teacoffee.yml
    ingress.networking.k8s.io/cafe-ingress created
  4. You can now use curl to send an HTTP request to this URL. Traefik 2 is working correctly with your wildcard DNS in plain, unencrypted HTTP (web unsecure). 
    curl teacoffee.mytest.com/tea
    Server address: 100.64.0.240:8080
    Server name: tea-69c99ff568-c2lc2
    Date: 29/Jun/2020:13:01:19 +0000
    URI: /tea
    Request ID: f3b7f1bcd5dd841d420236906146af9f
  5. To proceed with the tutorial, delete the ingress object created. It will be replaced in future steps. 
    kubectl delete ing cafe-ingress

Deploying Cert Manager

Cert-manager is in charge of creating Let’s Encrypt TLS certificates to make your website secure, to sum-up:

  • Create an ingress object for a specific subdomain (for instance foobar.mytest.com)
  • Let’s Encrypt must be sure that the domain belongs to you. For this reason, Let’s Encrypt requests a “challenge”, in our case, an HTTP challenge. Meaning here that Let’s Encrypt will try to reach foobar.mytest.com, and is able to see a specific hash on this page.
  • Cert-manager is serving this page for you by creating an ingress object and using an HTTP server.
  • When the challenge is ok, the certificate is created and added in a certificate object.
  • You can then use this certificate object to serve your website securely (HTTPS).
Note

Any modification to the Traefik2 deployed by Kapsule may be overwritten by the reconciliation process, consider installing it yourself for a production usage.

  1. Modify the default Traefik 2 daemonset running on Kapsule to do that, add --entrypoints.websecure.http.tls in the cmd stanza. 
    kubectl edit ds traefik -n kube-system
    daemonset.apps/traefik edited
    []
            - --global.checknewversion
            - --global.sendanonymoususage
            - --entryPoints.traefik.address=:9000
            - --entryPoints.web.address=:8000
            - --entryPoints.websecure.address=:8443
            - --entrypoints.websecure.http.tls
            - --api.dashboard=true
            - --ping=true
            - --providers.kubernetescrd
            - --providers.kubernetesingress
    []
  2. Delete the existing Traefik pods in order to get the new arguments. 
    kubectl -n kube-system delete pod -l app.kubernetes.io/name=traefik
  3. Use the command below to install cert-manager and its needed CRD (Custom Resource Definitions): 
    kubectl apply --validate=false -f https://github.com/jetstack/cert-manager/releases/download/v1.7.2/cert-manager.yaml
    customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/certificaterequests.cert-manager.io created
    customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/certificates.cert-manager.io created
    customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/challenges.acme.cert-manager.io created
    customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/clusterissuers.cert-manager.io created
    customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/issuers.cert-manager.io created
    customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/orders.acme.cert-manager.io created
    namespace/cert-manager created
    serviceaccount/cert-manager-cainjector created
    serviceaccount/cert-manager created
    serviceaccount/cert-manager-webhook created
    clusterrole.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/cert-manager-cainjector created
    clusterrole.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/cert-manager-controller-issuers created
    clusterrole.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/cert-manager-controller-clusterissuers created
    clusterrole.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/cert-manager-controller-certificates created
    clusterrole.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/cert-manager-controller-orders created
    clusterrole.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/cert-manager-controller-challenges created
    clusterrole.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/cert-manager-controller-ingress-shim created
    clusterrole.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/cert-manager-view created
    clusterrole.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/cert-manager-edit created
    clusterrolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/cert-manager-cainjector created
    clusterrolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/cert-manager-controller-issuers created
    clusterrolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/cert-manager-controller-clusterissuers created
    clusterrolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/cert-manager-controller-certificates created
    clusterrolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/cert-manager-controller-orders created
    clusterrolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/cert-manager-controller-challenges created
    clusterrolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/cert-manager-controller-ingress-shim created
    role.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/cert-manager-cainjector:leaderelection created
    role.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/cert-manager:leaderelection created
    role.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/cert-manager-webhook:dynamic-serving created
    rolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/cert-manager-cainjector:leaderelection created
    rolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/cert-manager:leaderelection created
    rolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/cert-manager-webhook:dynamic-serving created
    service/cert-manager created
    service/cert-manager-webhook created
    deployment.apps/cert-manager-cainjector created
    deployment.apps/cert-manager created
    deployment.apps/cert-manager-webhook created
    mutatingwebhookconfiguration.admissionregistration.k8s.io/cert-manager-webhook created
    validatingwebhookconfiguration.admissionregistration.k8s.io/cert-manager-webhook created

Creating the Let’s Encrypt issuer

  1. Create a cluster issuer that allow you to specify:

    • the Let’s Encrypt server, if you want to replace the production environment with the staging one.
    • the mail used by Let’s Encrypt to warn you about certificate expiration.

    Copy and paste the following configuration in the file cluster-issuer.yaml using your favorite text editor:

    apiVersion: cert-manager.io/v1
    kind: ClusterIssuer
    metadata:
      name: letsencrypt-prod
    spec:
      acme:
        # You must replace this email address with your own.
        # Let's Encrypt will use this to contact you about expiring
        # certificates, and issues related to your account.
        email: mymail@test.com
        server: https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
        privateKeySecretRef:
          # Secret resource used to store the account's private key.
          name: issuer-account-key
        # Add a single challenge solver, HTTP01
        solvers:
          - http01:
              ingress:
                class: traefik

  2. Use kubectl to apply the configuration:

    kubectl create -f cluster-issuer.yaml
    clusterissuer.cert-manager.io/letsencrypt-prod created

Creating and using a Let’s Encrypt certificate to serve your website in HTTPS

In this step you will create the Let’s Encrypt certificate by specifying:

  • The secret name where the certificate will be stored.
  • The subdomain for which you want to create a certificate.
  • The issuer created before (letsencrypt-prod).

  1. Create and edit a file mycert.yaml as follows:

    apiVersion: cert-manager.io/v1
    kind: Certificate
    metadata:
      name: teacoffee-cert
      namespace: default
    spec:
      commonName: teacoffee.mytest.com
      secretName: teacoffee-cert
      dnsNames:
        - teacoffee.mytest.com
      issuerRef:
        name: letsencrypt-prod
        kind: ClusterIssuer

  2. Apply the configuration using kubectl:

    kubectl create -f mycert.yaml
    certificate.cert-manager.io/teacoffee-cert created

  3. Check the certificate has been correctly created (you should see “Ready” in the condition):

    kubectl describe certificate -n default teacoffee-cert
    Spec:
      Common Name:  teacoffee.mytest.org
      Dns Names:
        teacoffee.mytest.org
      Issuer Ref:
        Kind:       ClusterIssuer
        Name:       letsencrypt-prod
      Secret Name:  teacoffee-cert
    Status:
      Conditions:
        Last Transition Time:  2021-02-24T16:50:42Z
        Message:               Certificate is up to date and has not expired
        Reason:                Ready
        Status:                True
        Type:                  Ready
      Not After:               2021-05-25T15:50:41Z
      Not Before:              2021-02-24T15:50:41Z
      Renewal Time:            2021-04-25T15:50:41Z
      Revision:                1
    Events:
      Type    Reason     Age   From          Message
      ----    ------     ----  ----          -------
      Normal  Requested  11m   cert-manager  Created new CertificateRequest resource "teacoffee-cert-4271191437"
      Normal  Issued     48s   cert-manager  Certificate issued successfully

  4. Create a Standard Ingress, with TLS enabled (with the name of the secret created by the creation of the certificate, in our case: teacoffee-cert). To do so create file mysite.yaml, copy the following content into it and run kubectl with the collowing command: kubectl create -f mysite.yaml

    apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
    kind: Ingress
    metadata:
      name: testcoffee
      namespace: default
      annotations:
        traefik.ingress.kubernetes.io/router.entrypoints: websecure
    spec:
      tls:
        - secretName: teacoffee-cert
      rules:
        - host: teacoffee.mytest.com
          http:
            paths:
              - path: /tea
                pathType: Prefix
                backend:
                  service:
                    name: tea-svc
                    port:
                      number: 80
              - path: /coffee
                pathType: Prefix
                backend:
                  service:
                    name: coffee-svc
                    port:
                      number: 80

  5. Check your website is accessible in HTTPS:

    curl -v https://teacoffee.mytest.com/tea
    *   Trying 195.154.68.108...
    * TCP_NODELAY set
    * Connected to teacoffee.mytest.com (195.154.68.108) port 443 (#0)
    * successfully set certificate verify locations:
    *   CAfile: /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
      CApath: /etc/ssl/certs
    [..]
    * Server certificate:
    *  subject: CN=teacoffee.mytest.com
    *  start date: Jun 29 12:46:04 2020 GMT
    *  expire date: Sep 27 12:46:04 2020 GMT
    *  subjectAltName: host "teacoffee.mytest.com" matched cert's "teacoffee.mytest.com"
    *  issuer: C=US; O=Let's Encrypt; CN=Let's Encrypt Authority X3
    *  SSL certificate verify ok.
    [..]
    > GET /tea HTTP/2
    > Host: teacoffee.mytest.com
    > User-Agent: curl/7.58.0
    > Accept: */*
    >
    [..]
    Server address: 100.64.0.240:8080
    Server name: tea-69c99ff568-c2lc2
    Date: 29/Jun/2020:13:52:42 +0000
    URI: /tea
    Request ID: b7a45b7b20bd712df75f8ce8596db50d
    * Connection #0 to host teacoffee.mytest.com left intact

  6. Access the Traefik 2 dashboard by using this command:

    kubectl port-forward -n kube-system $(kubectl get pods -n kube-system --selector "app.kubernetes.io/name=traefik" --output=name | head -n 1) 9000:9000

  7. You can then access the Traefik 2 dashboard with this address: http://127.0.0.1:9000/dashboard/. (Note the trailing /.)

To go further, you might be interested in the following pages:

  • Letsencrypt
  • Traefik 2
  • cert-manager
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