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Part 2: Blueprint

What Will You Do

  • Create an external-dns namespace and publish to your cluster
  • Create and configure a repository to dynamically pull the desired version of the External DNS Helm chart
  • Create a custom catalog that dynamically syncs the versions from the External DNS Helm repo
  • Create an External DNS add-on
  • Create a blueprint containing the External DNS add-on
  • Apply the newly created blueprint to the EKS cluster

Step 1: Create Namespace

We will deploy the External DNS controller to the external-dns namespace. We will create this in our project and take over management of the external-dns namespace on the EKS cluster.

  • Click on Infrastructure -> Namespaces
  • Click New Namespace
  • Enter "external-dns" in the "Name" section
  • For "Type" Select "Wizard" from the dropdown
  • Click "SAVE"
  • Click "SAVE & GO TO PLACEMENT"
  • Select the specific cluster
  • Click "SAVE & GO TO PUBLISH"
  • Select "PUBLISH"
  • Select "EXIT" once namespace has published

Namespace

Step 2: Create External DNS Helm Repo

Configure the repo endpoint so that the controller can automatically retrieve the required Helm chart directly from the public repository.

  • Click on Integrations -> Repository
  • Create New Repository -> Provide a name such as "external-dns" and Select "Helm" for Type
  • Enter "https://kubernetes-sigs.github.io/external-dns/" for Endpoint and Select "Internet" for Reachability.

Add Metallb Helm Repository

  • Optionally, you can validate the correct configuration of the repository by clicking on the validate option

Validate Metallb Helm Repository

Step 3: Create Catalog

We will now create a custom catalog using the previously created repository.

  • Click on "Catalog"
  • Click on "MANAGE CATALOGS"
  • Click on the "CUSTOM CATALOGS" tab
  • Click on ""+ New Catalog"
  • In the Name section enter "external-dns"
  • Select "external-dns" for the repository
  • Enable "Auto Sync Catalog"

New Catalog

  • Click on "Sync Catalog" and refresh the page, the external-dns helm chart and versions will populate

Sync Catalog

Step 4: Create Add-on

In this step we will create a custom add-on from our External DNS catalog.

  • Click on Infrastructure -> Add-Ons
  • Click on "Create New Add-on from Catalog"
  • Select the "external-dns" add-on
  • Select the latest version
  • Select "Create Add-on"
  • Enter "external-dns" for the name
  • Enter "external-dns" for the namespace

Add-on

  • Click on "CREATE"

Custom Values

External DNS supports many providers and options that can be enabled in a custom values file. For this exercise we will use the following file.

  • Copy the following contents to a file called "external-dns-values.yaml"
sources:
  - service
  - ingress

policy: sync

registry: txt
txtOwnerId: "kubernetes"
txtPrefix: ""
txtSuffix: ""

domainFilters: []

provider: aws

extraArgs:
  - --aws-zone-type=public

New Version

  • Click on "New Version"
  • Enter a version name, for this add-on we will user "v0.0.1"
  • Upload the file "external-dns-values.yaml" we created earlier
  • Click on "Save Changes"

Addon Version

Step 5: Create Blueprint

In this step, you will create a custom cluster blueprint with the External DNS add-on.

  • Click on Infrastructure -> Blueprints
  • Select "New Blueprint"
  • Enter "external-dns" for the Name
  • Select "Custom Blueprint" for the Type
  • Click on "SAVE"

External DNS BP 1

  • Enter a Version Name such as "v0.1.0"
  • Set the "Base Blueprint" to the latest Version
  • Set "Drift Action" to "BlockAndNotify"
  • Click on "Configure Add-ons"
  • Add the add-on created in the previous step

External DNS BP 2

  • Click on "SAVE CHANGES"

New Blueprint 3

  • Click on "SAVE CHANGES"

New Blueprint 4

Step 6: Apply Blueprint

Now, we are ready to apply the newly created custom blueprint to our MKS cluster.

  • Select Infrastructure -> Clusters
  • Click on the gear icon on the far right of the EKS cluster
  • Update blueprint and select the new blueprint and version
  • Select "SAVE AND PUBLISH"

Update Blueprint 5

In a few minutes, all the k8s resources matching the custom cluster blueprint will become operational on the cluster.

Update Blueprint 6

Notice that the cluster's blueprint name and version match what you created in the prior step.

Update Blueprint 7

Next Steps

You are now ready to move on to the next part of the recipe where you will create a workload and provision a Load Balancer.