Skip to main content
Version: 3.12.0

ChaosCenter Advanced Installation


Prerequisites​

  • Kubernetes 1.17 or later

  • A Persistent volume of 20GB

note

Recommend to have a Persistent volume(PV) of 20GB, You can start with 1GB for test purposes as well. This PV is used as persistent storage to store the chaos config and chaos-metrics in the Portal. By default, litmus install would use the default storage class to allocate the PV. Provide this value

Installation​

Users looking to use Litmus for the first time have two options available to them today. One way is to use a hosted Litmus service like Harness Chaos Engineering SaaS. Alternatively, users looking for some more flexibility can install Litmus into their own Kubernetes cluster.

Users choosing the self-hosted option can refer to our Install and Configure docs for installing alternate versions and more detailed instructions.

Installation of Self-Hosted Litmus can be done using either of the below methods:
  • Helm3 chart
  • Kubectl yaml spec file

  • Refer to the below details for Self-Hosted Litmus installation.
    note

    With 3.9.0 release, Cluster scope installation is deprecated. Now Namespaced mode is the only supported and standard installation mode.

    Install Litmus using Helm​

    The helm chart will install all the required service account configuration and ChaosCenter.

    The following steps will help you install Litmus ChaosCenter via helm.

    Step-1: Add the litmus helm repository​

    helm repo add litmuschaos https://litmuschaos.github.io/litmus-helm/
    helm repo list

    Step-2: Create the namespace on which you want to install Litmus ChaosCenter​

    • The ChaosCenter can be placed in any namespace, but for this scenario we are choose litmus as the namespace.
    kubectl create ns litmus

    Step-3: Install Litmus ChaosCenter​

    helm install chaos litmuschaos/litmus --namespace=litmus --set portal.frontend.service.type=NodePort

    Note: If your Kubernetes cluster isn't local, you may want not to expose Litmus via NodePort. If so, remove --set portal.frontend.service.type=NodePort option. To connect to Litmus UI from your laptop, you can use port-forward svc/chaos-litmus-frontend-service 9091:9091. Then you can use your browser and open 127.0.0.1:9091.

    • Litmus helm chart depends on bitnami/mongodb helm chart, which uses a mongodb image not supported on ARM. If you want to install Litmus on an ARM-based server, please replace the default one with your custom mongodb arm image as shown below.

      helm install chaos litmuschaos/litmus --namespace=litmus \
      --set portal.frontend.service.type=NodePort \
      --set mongodb.image.registry=<put_registry> \
      --set mongodb.image.repository=<put_image_repository> \
      --set mongodb.image.tag=<put_image_tag>
    Expected Output
    NAME: chaos
    LAST DEPLOYED: Tue Jun 15 19:20:09 2021
    NAMESPACE: litmus
    STATUS: deployed
    REVISION: 1
    TEST SUITE: None
    NOTES:
    Thank you for installing litmus 😀

    Your release is named chaos and its installed to namespace: litmus.

    Visit https://docs.litmuschaos.io to find more info.

    Note: Litmus uses Kubernetes CRDs to define chaos intent. Helm3 handles CRDs better than Helm2. Before you start running a chaos experiment, verify if Litmus is installed correctly.

    Install Litmus using kubectl​

    In this method the users need to install mongo first via helm and then apply the installation manifest. Follow the instructions here.

    Install mongo​

     helm repo add bitnami https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami

    Mongo Values

      auth:
    enabled: true
    rootPassword: "1234"
    # -- existingSecret Existing secret with MongoDB(&reg;) credentials (keys: `mongodb-passwords`, `mongodb-root-password`, `mongodb-metrics-password`, ` mongodb-replica-set-key`)
    existingSecret: ""
    architecture: replicaset
    replicaCount: 3
    persistence:
    enabled: true
    volumePermissions:
    enabled: true
    metrics:
    enabled: false
    prometheusRule:
    enabled: false

    # bitnami/mongodb is not yet supported on ARM.
    # Using unofficial tools to build bitnami/mongodb (arm64 support)
    # more info: https://github.com/ZCube/bitnami-compat
    #image:
    # registry: ghcr.io/zcube
    # repository: bitnami-compat/mongodb
    # tag: 6.0.5
    helm install my-release bitnami/mongodb --values mongo-values.yml -n <NAMESPACE> --create-namespace

    Litmus supports for HTTP and HTTPS mode of installation.

    Advanced installation (HTTPS based and CORS rules apply)​

    1. Generate TLS certificates: You can provide your own certificates or can generate using this bash script.

    2. Create secret

      kubectl create secret generic tls-secret --from-file=ca.crt=ca.crt --from-file=tls.crt=tls.crt --from-file=tls.key=tls.key -n <NAMESPCACE>
    3. Applying the manifest file will install all the required service account configuration and ChaosCenter in namespaced scope.

    kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/litmuschaos/litmus/3.12.0/chaoscenter/manifests/litmus-installation.yaml -n <NAMESPACE>

    Verify your installation​

    Verify if the frontend, server, and database pods are running​

    • Check the pods in the namespace where you installed Litmus:

      kubectl get pods -n litmus
      Expected Output
      NAME                                       READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
      litmusportal-server-6fd57cc89-6w5pn 1/1 Running 0 57s
      litmusportal-auth-server-7b596fff9-5s6g5 1/1 Running 0 57s
      litmusportal-frontend-55974fcf59-cxxrf 1/1 Running 0 58s
      my-release-mongodb-0 1/1 Running 0 63s
      my-release-mongodb-1 1/1 Running 0 63s
      my-release-mongodb-2 1/1 Running 0 62s
      my-release-mongodb-arbiter-0 1/1 Running 0 64s

    • Check the services running in the namespace where you installed Litmus:

      kubectl get svc -n litmus
      Expected Output
      NAME                                  TYPE           CLUSTER-IP     EXTERNAL-IP      PORT(S)                         AGE
      chaos-exporter ClusterIP 10.68.45.7 <none> 8080/TCP 23h
      litmusportal-auth-server-service NodePort 10.68.34.91 <none> 9003:32368/TCP,3030:31051/TCP 23h
      litmusportal-frontend-service NodePort 10.68.43.68 <none> 9091:30070/TCP 23h
      litmusportal-server-service NodePort 10.68.33.242 <none> 9002:32455/TCP,8000:30722/TCP 23h
      my-release-mongodb-arbiter-headless ClusterIP None <none> 27017/TCP 23h
      my-release-mongodb-headless ClusterIP None <none> 27017/TCP 23h
      workflow-controller-metrics ClusterIP 10.68.33.65 <none> 9090/TCP 23h

    Accessing the ChaosCenter​

    To setup and login to ChaosCenter expand the available services just created and copy the PORT of the litmusportal-frontend-service service

    kubectl get svc -n litmus
    Expected Output
    NAME                               TYPE        CLUSTER-IP     EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)                         AGE
    litmusportal-frontend-service NodePort 10.43.79.17 <none> 9091:31846/TCP 102s
    litmusportal-server-service NodePort 10.43.30.54 <none> 9002:31245/TCP,8000:32714/TCP 101s
    litmusportal-auth-server-service NodePort 10.43.81.108 <none> 9003:32618/TCP,3030:31899/TCP 101s
    mongo-service ClusterIP 10.43.227.10 <none> 27017/TCP 101s
    mongo-headless-service ClusterIP None <none> 27017/TCP 101s

    Note: In this case, the PORT for litmusportal-frontend-service is 31846. Yours will be different.

    Once you have the PORT copied in your clipboard, simply use your IP and PORT in this manner <NODEIP>:<PORT> to access the Litmus ChaosCenter.

    For example:

    https://172.17.0.3:31846/

    Where 172.17.0.3 is my NodeIP and 31846 is the frontend service PORT. If using a LoadBalancer, the only change would be to provide a <LoadBalancerIP>:<PORT>. Learn more about how to access ChaosCenter with LoadBalancer

    NOTE: With advanced installation CORS rules are applied, once manifest is applied frontend loadbalancer IP needs to be added in the ALLOWED_ORIGINS environment in both auth and graphql server deployment.

    You should be able to see the Login Page of Litmus ChaosCenter. The default credentials are

    Username: admin
    Password: litmus

    By default you are assigned with a default project with Owner permissions.

    Learn more​