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Managing the Workload Protection agent in a Kubernetes cluster by using a HELM chart

Managing the Workload Protection agent in a Kubernetes cluster by using a HELM chart

You can use a Helm chart to install, upgrade, and delete a Workload Protection agent on a Kubernetes cluster.

Before you begin

  • Install the IBM Cloud CLI (ibmcloud), Kubernetes Service plug-in (ibmcloud oc), and IBM Cloud Container Registry plug-in (ibmcloud cr).

  • Install the latest release of the version 3 Helm CLI on your local machine.

    Helm 3.6 or later is required.

    Helm is a Kubernetes package manager that uses Helm charts to define, install, and upgrade complex Kubernetes apps in your cluster. Helm charts package the specifications to generate YAML files for Kubernetes resources that build your app. These Kubernetes resources are automatically applied in your cluster and assigned to a version by Helm. You can also use Helm to specify and package your own app and let Helm generate the YAML files for your Kubernetes resources.

  • Check that you have access and permissions to deploy the Workload Protection agent on the cluster.

  • Verify the ibm-observe namespace is available in your cluster. The agent is deployed in this namespace.

    You can run the following command to create the namespace: kubectl create namespace ibm-observe

Deploy an agent

Complete the following steps to deploy an agent by using Helm:

Step 1. Set up the Sysdig Helm repository

Add the Workload Protection Helm repository to your Helm instance.

Complete the following steps:

  1. Set the cluster context.

    ibmcloud ks cluster config --cluster <CLUSTER_NAME>
    
  2. Add the Helm repository.

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

    If you get the following error:

    helm repo add sysdig https://charts.sysdig.com    --debug
    Error: context deadline exceeded
    helm.go:84: [debug] context deadline exceeded
    

    Run the following command and retry adding the Helm repository.

    rm $HOME/Library/Preferences/helm/repositories.lock
    
  3. Update the repos to retrieve the latest versions of all Helm charts.

    helm repo update
    
  4. List the Helm charts that are currently available for the Sysdig repo.

    helm search repo sysdig
    
  5. Verify that the Helm chart sysdig/sysdig-deploy is listed.

Step 2. Create the values yaml file

Define a yaml file and include the values to deploy the Workload Protection agent and the Secure components that you plan to deploy. For example, name the file agent-values-monitor-secure.yaml.

The following yaml is a template that you can use to configure the Workload Protection agent and the Secure components. You can customize the file by removing or commenting with # the sections that are not required for your agent deployment.

global:
  clusterConfig:
    name: CLUSTER_NAME
  sysdig:
    accessKey: SERVICE_ACCESS_KEY
  kspm:
    deploy: true
agent:
  image:
    registry: icr.io
  slim:
    enabled: true
    image:
      repository: ext/sysdig/agent-slim
    kmoduleImage:
      repository: ext/sysdig/agent-kmodule
  collectorSettings:
    collectorHost: INGESTION_ENDPOINT
nodeAnalyzer:
  secure: 
    vulnerabilityManagement:
      newEngineOnly: true
  nodeAnalyzer:
    runtimeScanner: 
      settings:
        eveEnabled: true
    deploy: true
    apiEndpoint: API_ENDPOINT
    benchmarkRunner:
      deploy: false
kspmCollector:
  apiEndpoint: API_ENDPOINT

Where

  • CLUSTER_NAME is the name of the cluster where you are deploying the agent.
  • SERVICE_ACCESS_KEY is the Workload Protection instance access key.
  • INGESTION_ENDPOINT is the instance's ingestion endpoint. For example, ingest.us-east.security-compliance-secure.cloud.ibm.com
  • API_ENDPOINT is the instance's API endpoint. For example, us-east.security-compliance-secure.cloud.ibm.com

Step 3. Install the Helm chart

To deploy the agent, the Secure components, or both, you must install the sysdig/sysdig-deploy chart. You can install the chart by using a variables yaml file like the one that you configured in the previous step, or you can configure the variables directly.

Run the following command to install the agent by using the helm chart and the variables yaml file:

helm install -n ibm-observe sysdig-agent sysdig/sysdig-deploy -f agent-values-monitor-secure.yaml

Run the following command to install the agent by using the helm chart and setting the variables:

helm install sysdig-agent sysdig/sysdig-deploy --namespace ibm-observe --create-namespace\
    --set global.sysdig.accessKey=<SERVICE_ACCESS_KEY> \
    --set agent.collectorSettings.collectorHost=<INGESTION_ENDPOINT> \
    --set nodeAnalyzer.nodeAnalyzer.apiEndpoint=<API_ENDPOINT> \
    --set nodeAnalyzer.nodeAnalyzer.runtimeScanner.settings.eveEnabled=true \
    --set nodeAnalyzer.secure.vulnerabilityManagement.newEngineOnly=true \
    --set global.kspm.deploy=true \
    --set nodeAnalyzer.nodeAnalyzer.benchmarkRunner.deploy=false \
    --set global.clusterConfig.name=<CLUSTER_NAME> \
    --set kspmCollector.apiEndpoint=<API_ENDPOINT> \
    --set agent.image.registry=icr.io \
    --set agent.slim.image.repository=ext/sysdig/agent-slim \
    --set agent.slim.kmoduleImage.repository=ext/sysdig/agent-kmodule

Where

  • CLUSTER_NAME is the name of the cluster where you are deploying the agent.
  • SERVICE_ACCESS_KEY is the Workload Protection instance access key.
  • INGESTION_ENDPOINT is the instance's ingestion endpoint.
  • API_ENDPOINT is the instance's API endpoint.

For example, for the US-East region, a sample Helm installation looks as follows:

helm install sysdig-agent sysdig/sysdig-deploy --namespace ibm-observe \
    --set global.sysdig.accessKey=<ENTER_YOUR_ACCESS_KEY> \
    --set agent.collectorSettings.collectorHost=ingest.us-east.security-compliance-secure.cloud.ibm.com \
    --set nodeAnalyzer.nodeAnalyzer.apiEndpoint=us-east.security-compliance-secure.cloud.ibm.com  \
    --set global.kspm.deploy=true \
    --set nodeAnalyzer.nodeAnalyzer.benchmarkRunner.deploy=false \
    --set global.clusterConfig.name=mycluster-au-syd \
    --set kspmCollector.apiEndpoint=us-east.security-compliance-secure.cloud.ibm.com \
    --set agent.image.registry=icr.io \
    --set agent.slim.image.repository=ext/sysdig/agent-slim \
    --set agent.slim.kmoduleImage.repository=ext/sysdig/agent-kmodule

If you encounter the following error: Error: INSTALLATION FAILED: Kubernetes cluster unreachable: xxxxxx failed to refresh token: oauth2: cannot fetch token: 400 Bad Request, set your cluster context and try again.

Update an agent

To update the agent version by using Helm, complete the following steps:

  1. Update the chart.

    helm repo update
    
  2. Find the values yaml file that you used to deploy the agent and modify the agent.image.tag with the version of the agent that you want to deploy.

  3. Upgrade the agent.

    helm upgrade -n ibm-observe sysdig-agent sysdig/sysdig-deploy -f agent-values-monitor-secure.yaml
    

Remove an agent

To delete the agent by using Helm, you must uninstall the chart.

Complete the following steps:

  1. List the charts that are installed.

    helm list -n ibm-observe
    

    The output of the command lists charts as follows:

    NAME        	NAMESPACE  	REVISION	UPDATED                             	STATUS  	CHART              	APP VERSION
    sysdig-agent	ibm-observe	1       	2023-03-24 15:02:58.408108 +0100 CET	deployed	sysdig-deploy-1.6.3
    
  2. Uninstall the chart.

    helm delete sysdig-agent  -n ibm-observe
    

    In terms of Helm, sysdig-agent is the name of the release.

    If you forget to include the namespace in the command, you get the following error: Error: uninstall: Release not loaded: sysdig-agent: release: not found.