Installation

Garden Enterprise is installed via the kots kubectl plugin. In short, you'll run kubectl kots install garden-enterprise and provide the required environment configuration through the admin console—a web application that runs locally.

But before proceeding, you must make sure to have all the items from the Requirements page ready.

You should also review the Environment Configuration guide and make sure you have all the required configuration values at hand.

There's no need to worry though, aborting an installation and starting anew is possible with one click, and you can modify your environment configuration at any time. And if you're unsure of anything or have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to your dedicated account manager. We're here to help 🙂

Installing Garden Enterprise

Before proceeding, make sure you have your Kubernetes context set to the context of the cluster that should run Garden Enterprise (you can also pass it as an option to kubectl via the --context flag).

Prepare Environment Variables

Make sure you have all the required values for the environment configuration at hand. In particular you'll need to generate a public/private key pair. These keys will be provided to Garden Enterprise and Vault during the installation process.

You can use the following command to generate a self-signed public/private key pair:

openssl req -x509 -nodes -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout key.pem -out cert.pem -days 365

Install Garden Enterprise

Then run:

kubectl kots install garden-enterprise

You'll be asked into what namespace to install Garden Enterprise. The default is garden-enterprise.

You'll also be asked for a password to the admin console. Make sure to note your password as you'll need it later.

Once you've provided your input, the admin console web application will start on your localhost. Please visit the application at the given path in your browser.

It'll start by asking you to upload your Garden Enterprise license.

Upload Your Enterprise License

By now you should have received your Garden Enterprise License. Upload it via the admin console.

Configure Your Environment

After uploading the license, you'll be asked to provide the relevant configuration for your Garden Enterprise installation. These are the configuration options from the Environment Configuration guide. Note that you can modify these at any time.

If you're using the Vault instance that's bundled with Garden Enterprise, you should not provide any values for the Vault Configuration section. You'll add these later.

Please refer to our guide on the monitoring services that are optionally bundled with Garden Enterprise if you're unsure what to select in the Monitoring Services section.

Once you've filled in all the required values, click the Continue button in the admin console UI. This will trigger a series of pre-flight checks that validate that the Kubernetes cluster is compatible with Garden Enterprise's requirements. Once that's done, click Continue again. The actual deployment may take a few minutes.

Initialize Bundled Vault (Optional)

This step is only required if you're using the Vault instance that's bundled with Garden Enterprise.

Please see the Vault Set Up guide for detailed instructions on how to initialize Vault and obtain the Vault Role ID and the Vault Secret ID.

Once you have those, go back to the admin console and select the Config page. Add the App Role ID and Secret ID to the appropriate fields and click Save Config at the bottom of the page.

Disable Replicated Auto-Update Checks (Optional)

We recommend disabling the Replicated auto-update checks for reasons discussed in the link.

Next Steps

Now that you've installed Garden Enterprise, it's time to log in and add your first project!