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Chapter 13. Creating a site on a local system using the Skupper CLI

Using the skupper command-line interface (CLI) allows you to create and manage Skupper sites from the context of the current user.

A typical workflow is to create a site, link sites together, and expose services to the application network.

A local system includes Docker, Podman or Linux system.

If you require more than one site, specify a unique namespace when using skupper, for example skupper --namespace second-site ....

13.1. Checking the Skupper CLI and environment
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Installing the skupper command-line interface (CLI) provides a simple method to get started with Skupper.

  1. Follow the instructions for Installing Skupper.

  2. Verify the installation. 

    skupper version

COMPONENT               VERSION
cli                     2.1.1
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  3. For podman sites:

    Make sure the Podman socket is available. To enable it: 

    systemctl --user enable --now podman.socket
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    Enable lingering to ensure the site persists over logouts: 

    loginctl enable-linger <username>
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Prerequisites

  • The skupper CLI is installed.

Procedure

  1. Set the SKUPPER_PLATFORM for type of site you want to install:

    • podman
    • docker
    • linux

  2. Install the controller for Podman and Docker sites: 

    skupper system install
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    This runs a container to support site, link and service operations. This feature is not available on Linux local system sites (systemd).

  3. Create a site: 

    skupper site create <site-name>
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    For example: 

    skupper site create my-site

Waiting for status...
Site "my-site" is ready.
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    While the site is created, the site is not running at this point. To run the site: 

    skupper system start
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By default, all sites are created with the namespace default. On non-Kubernetes sites, you can create multiple sites per-user by specifying a namespace, for example you can create multiple sites with different platforms as follows: 

skupper site create systemd-site -p linux -n linux-ns
skupper site create docker-site -p docker -n docker-ns
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Prerequisites

  • The skupper CLI is installed.

Procedure

  1. Enter the following command to delete a site: 

    skupper site delete <sitename>
skupper system stop
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  2. You can also uninstall the controller after deleting all existing sites: 

    skupper system uninstall
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Sometimes, you might want to create all the configuration for a site and apply it automatically to a remote host. To support this, Skupper allows you create a .tar.gz file with all the required files and an install.sh script to start the remote site.

Prerequisites

  • The skupper CLI is installed. The CLI is not required on the remote site.

Procedure

  1. Set the SKUPPER_PLATFORM for type of site you want to install:

    • podman
    • docker
    • linux

  2. Install the controller for Podman and Docker sites: 

    skupper system install
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    This runs a container to support site, link and service operations. This feature is not available on Linux local system sites (systemd).

  3. Create a site: 

    skupper site create <site-name>
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    For example: 

    skupper site create remote-site

Waiting for status...
Site "remote-site" is ready.
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    While the site is created, the site is not running and that is not a requirement for this usecase.

  4. Create the bundle: 

     skupper system generate-bundle remote-site
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    The output shows the location of the generated .tar.gz file, for example: 

    Site "remote-site" has been created (as a distributable bundle)
Installation bundle available at: /home/user/.local/share/skupper/bundles/remote-site.tar.gz
Default namespace: default
Default platform: podman
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  5. Transfer the bundle file to the remote location and uncompress the file in an appropriate location: 

    tar -xzvf remote-site.tar.gz
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  6. Start the site: 

    install.sh
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    The site is now running, you can verify with skupper site status if the CLI is installed at that location.

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