This page will guide you through the installation of software components that are required to get the Akamas Server installed on a machine. Please read the Akamas dependencies for a detailed list of these software components for each specific OS.

While some links to official documentation and installation resources are provided here, please make sure to refer to your internal system engineering department to ensure that your company deployment processes and best practices are correctly matched.

Dependencies Setup

As a preliminary step before installing any dependency, it is strongly suggested to create a user named akamas on your machine hosting Akamas Server.

Docker

Follow the reference documentation to install docker on your system.

Docker installation guide: https://docs.docker.com/engine/install

Docker compose is already installed since Docker 23+. To install it on previous versions of Docker follow this installation guide: https://docs.docker.com/compose/install/

AWS CLI v2: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide

Verify dependencies

As a quick check to verify that all dependencies have been correctly installed, you can run the following commands

• Docker:

  Copy

  docker run hello-world

• Docker compose :

  Copy

  docker compose --version

• AWS CLI:

  Copy

  aws --version

Before installing the Akamas Server please make sure to review all the following requirements:

• Hardware requirements

• Software requirements

• Network requirements

Akamas is deployed as a set of containerized services running on Docker and managed via Docker Compose. In the online installation mode, the latest version of the Akamas Docker Compose file and all the images required by Docker can be downloaded from the AWS ECR repository.

In case the Akamas Server is behind a proxy server please also read how to setup Akamas behind a Proxy.

Get Akamas Docker artifacts

It is suggested first to create a directory akamas in the home directory of your user, and then run the following command to get the latest compose file:

cd ~
mkdir akamas
cd akamas
curl -O https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/akamas/compose/3.3.1/docker-compose.yml

Configure Akamas environment variables

To configure Akamas, you should set the following environment variables:

• AKAMAS_CUSTOMER: the customer name matching the one referenced in the Akamas license.

• AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: the access key for pulling the Akamas images

• AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: the secret access key for pulling the Akamas images

• AWS_DEFAULT_REGION: Unless specified by the support team keep the value to us-east-2

• AKAMAS_BASE_URL: the endpoint in the Akamas APIs that will be used to interact with the CLI, typically https://<akamas server DNS address>

To avoid losing your environment variables for future upgrades, it is suggested to keep them in the .env file, stored in the same directory as the docker-compose.yml:

# Required variables
AKAMAS_CUSTOMER=<your name or your organization name>
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=<your access key id>
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=<your secret access key>
AKAMAS_BASE_URL=https://<akamas server DNS address>
AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=us-east-2

# Optional variables
# Database passwords
DEFAULT_DATABASE_PASSWORD=
KEYCLOAK_DATABASE_PASSWORD=${DEFAULT_DATABASE_PASSWORD:-akamas_keycloak}
ANALYZER_DATABASE_PASSWORD=${DEFAULT_DATABASE_PASSWORD:-akamas_analyzer}
CAMPAIGN_DATABASE_PASSWORD=${DEFAULT_DATABASE_PASSWORD:-akamas_campaign}
LICENSE_DATABASE_PASSWORD=${DEFAULT_DATABASE_PASSWORD:-akamas_license}
OPTIMIZER_DATABASE_PASSWORD=${DEFAULT_DATABASE_PASSWORD:-akamas_optimizer}
ORCHESTRATOR_DATABASE_PASSWORD=${DEFAULT_DATABASE_PASSWORD:-akamas_orchestrator}
SYSTEM_DATABASE_PASSWORD=${DEFAULT_DATABASE_PASSWORD:-akamas_system}
TELEMETRY_DATABASE_PASSWORD=${DEFAULT_DATABASE_PASSWORD:-akamas_telemetry}

Start Akamas

To log into AWS ECR and pull the most recent Akamas container images you also need to set the AWS authentication variables (AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, AWS_DEFAULT_REGION) with the values provided by Akamas Customer Support Services. You can leverage the .env file previously created with the following command:

source ./.env
aws ecr get-login-password --region us-east-2 | docker login -u AWS --password-stdin https://485790562880.dkr.ecr.us-east-2.amazonaws.com

You can start installing Akamas server by running the following AWS CLI commands:

docker compose up -d

This section describes how to setup an Akamas Server behind a proxy server and to allow Docker to connect to the Akamas repository on AWS ECR.

Configure Docker daemon

First, create the /etc/systemd/system/docker.service.d directory if it does not already exists. Then create or update the /etc/systemd/system/docker.service.d/http-proxy.conf file with the variables listed below, taking care of replacing <PROXY> with the address and port (and credentials if needed) of your target proxy server:

[Service]
Environment="HTTP_PROXY=<PROXY>"
Environment="HTTPS_PROXY=<PROXY>"

Once configured, flush the changes and restart Docker with the following commands:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl restart docker

For more details, refer to the official documentation page: Control Docker with systemd.

Configure the Akamas containers

To allow the Akamas services to connect to addresses outside your intranet, the Docker instance needs to be configured to forward the proxy configuration to the Akamas containers.

Update the ~/.docker/config.json file adding the following field to the JSON, taking care to replace <PROXY> with the address (and credentials if needed) of your target proxy server:

{
  # ...
  "proxies": {
    "default": {
      "httpProxy": "<PROXY>",
      "httpsProxy": "<PROXY>",
      "ftpProxy": "<PROXY>",
      "noProxy": "localhost,127.0.0.1,/var/run/docker.sock,database,optimizer,campaign,analyzer,telemetry,log,elasticsearch,metrics,system,license,store,orchestrator,airflow-db,airflow-webserver,kong-database,kong,user-service,keycloak,logstash,kibana,akamas-ui,grafana,prometheus,node-exporter,cadvisor,konga,benchmark"
    }
  }
}

For more details, refer to the official documentation page: Configure Docker to use a proxy server.

Run Akamas

Set the following variables to configure your working environment, taking care to replace <PROXY> with the address (and credentials if needed) of your target proxy server:

export HTTP_PROXY='<PROXY>'
export HTTPS_PROXY='<PROXY>'

Once configured, you can log into the ECR repository through the AWS CLI and start the Akamas services manually.

By default, Akamas uses the following ports for its UI:

• 80 (HTTP)

• 443 (HTTPS)

Depending on the configuration of your environment, you may want to change the default settings: to do so, you’ll have to update the Akamas docker-compose file.

Inside the docker-compose.yml file, scroll down until you come across the akamas-ui service. There you will find a specification as follows:

  akamas-ui:
    ports:
      - "443:443"
      - "80:80"

Update the YAML file by remapping the UI ports to the desired ports of the host.

  akamas-ui:
    ports:
      - "<YOUR_HTTPS_PORT_OF_CHOICE>:443"
      - "<YOUR_HTTP_PORT_OF_CHOICE>:80"

In case you were running Akamas with host networking, you are allowed to bind different ports in the container itself. In order to do so you can expand the docker-compose service by adding a couple of environment variables like this:

  akamas-ui:
    environment:
      - HTTP_PORT=<HTTP_CONTAINER_PORT>
      - HTTPS_PORT=<HTTPS_CONTAINER_PORT>
    ports:
      - "<YOUR_HTTPS_PORT_OF_CHOICE>:<HTTP_CONTAINER_PORT>"
      - "<YOUR_HTTP_PORT_OF_CHOICE>:<HTTPS_CONTAINER_PORT>"

Finally, apply the new configuration after updating the AKAMAS_BASE_URL environment variable to match the new protocol or port.

Akamas is deployed as a set of containerized services running on Docker and managed via Docker Compose. The latest version of the Akamas Docker Compose file and all the images required by Docker can be downloaded from the AWS ECR repository.

Two installation modes are available:

• online installation mode, in case the Akamas Server has access to the Internet - installation behind a proxy server is also supported.

• offline installation mode, in case the Akamas Server does not have access to the Internet.

Akamas is based on a microservices architecture where each service is deployed as a container and communicates with other services via REST APIs. Akamas can be deployed on a dedicated machine (Akamas Server) or on a Kubernetes cluster.

The following figure represents the high-level Akamas architecture.

Interact with Akamas

Users can interact with Akamas via either the Graphical User Interface (GUI), Command-Line Interface (CLI), or Application Programmatic Interface (API).

Both the GUI and CLI leverage HTTP/S APIs which pass through an API gateway (based on Kong), which also takes care of authenticating users by interacting with Akamas access management and routing requests to the different services.

The Akamas CLI can be invoked on either the Akamas Server itself or on a different machine (e.g. a laptop or another server) where the Akamas CLI has been installed.

Repositories

Akamas data is securely stored in different databases:

• time series data gathered from telemetry providers are stored in Elasticsearch;

• application logs are also stored in Elasticsearch;

• data related to systems, studies, workflows, and other user-provided data are stored in a Postgres database.

Notice: both Postgres and Elasticsearch and any other service included within Akamas are provided by Akamas as part of the Akamas installation package.

Services

Core Services

The following Spring-based microservices represent Akamas core services:

• System Service: holds information about metrics, parameters, and systems that are being optimized

• Campaign Service: holds information about optimization studies, including configurations and experiments

• Metrics Service: stores raw performance metrics (in Elasticsearch)

• Analyzer Service: automates the analysis of load tests and provides related functionalities such as smart windowing

• Telemetry Service: takes care of integrating different data sources by supporting multiple Telemetry Providers

• Optimizer Service: combines different optimization engines to generate optimized configurations using ML techniques

• Orchestrator Service: manages the execution of user-defined workflows to drive load tests

• User Service: takes care of user management activities such as user creation or password changes

• License Service: takes care of license management activities, optimization pack, and study export.

Ancillary Services

Akamas also provides advanced management features like logging, self-monitoring, licensing, user management, and more.

Operating System

The following table provides a list of the supported operating systems and their versions.

On RHEL systems Akamas containers might need to be run in privileged mode depending on how Docker was installed on the system.

Software packages

The following table provides a list of the required Software Packages (also referred to as Akamas dependencies) together with their versions.

The exact version of these prerequisites is listed in the following table:

Read more about how to set up Akamas dependencies.

Akamas user

To install and run Akamas it is recommended to create a dedicated user (usually "akamas"). The Akamas user is not required to be in the sudoers list but can be added to the docker (dockeroot) group so it can run docker and docker-compose commands.

Make sure that the Akamas user has the read, write, and execute permissions on /tmp. If your environment does not allow writing to the whole /tmp folder, please create a folder /tmp/build and assign read and write permission to the Akamas user on that folder.

Issues when installing Docker

Centos 7 and RHEL 7

Notice: this distro features a known issue since Docker default execution group is named dockerroot instead of docker . To make docker work edit (or create) /etc/docker/daemon.json to include the following fragment:

After editing or creating the file, please restart Docker and then check the group permission of the Docker socket (/var/run/docker.sock), which should show dockerroot as a group:

Then, add the newly created akamas user to the dockerroot group so that it can run docker containers:

and check the akamas user has been correctly added to dockerroot group by running:

Issues when running AWS CLI

In case of issues in logging in through AWS CLI, when executing the following command:

Please check that:

• Environment variables AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, AWS_DEFAULT_REGION are correctly set

• AWS CLI version is 2.0+

Issue when starting Akamas services

Akamas failed to start some services

Please notice that the very first time Akamas is started, up to 30 minutes might be required to initialize the environment.

In case the issue persists you can run the following command to identify which service is not able to start up correctly

License service unable to access docker socket

In some systems, the Docker socket, usually located in /var/run/docker.sock can not be accessed within a container. This causes Akamas to signal this behavior by reporting the Access Denied error in the license service logs.

To overcome this limitation edit the docker-compose.yaml file adding the line privileged: true to the following services:

• License

• Optimizer

• Telemetry

• Airflow

The following is a sample configuration where this change is applied to the license service:

Finally, you can issue the following command to apply these changes

Missing Akamas Customer variable

You can easily inspect which value of this variable has been used when starting Akamas by running the following command on the Akamas server:

If you find out that the value is not the one you expect, you can update the .env file and then start again the license service by running:

Once Akamas is up and running you can re-install your license.

Other issues

Running in your data center

The following table provides the minimal hardware requirements for the virtual or physical machine used to install the Akamas server in your data center.

Running on AWS EC2

To run Akamas on an AWS Instance you need to create a new virtual machine based on one of the supported operating systems. You can refer to for step-by-step instructions on creating the instance.

As shown in the following diagram, you can create the Akamas instance in the same AWS region, Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), and private subnet as your own already existing EC2 machines and by creating/configuring a new security group that allows communication between your application instances and Akamas instance. The inbound/outbound rules of this security group must be configured as explained in the Networking Requirements section of this page.

It is recommended to use an m6a.xlarge instance with at least 70GB of disks of type GP2 or GP3 and select the latest LTS version of Ubuntu.

Supported AWS Regions

Akamas can be run in any EC2 region.

You can find the latest version supported for your preferred region .

AWS Service Limits

Before installing Akamas on an AWS Instance please make sure to meet your AWS service limits (please refer to the official AWS documentation ).

Preliminary steps

Please make sure to read the section before installing Akamas.

Before installing Akamas, please follow these steps:

Installation steps

Please follow these steps to install the Akamas Server:

Please also read the section on how to and how to . Finally, read the relevant sections of to integrate Akamas into your specific ecosystem.

Internet access

Internet access is required for Akamas online installation and updated procedures and allows retrieving the most updated Akamas container images from the Akamas private Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR).

If internet access is not available for policies or security reasons, Akamas installation and updates can be executed offline.

Internet access from the Akamas server is not mandatory but it’s strongly recommended.

Ports

The following table provides a list of the ports on the Akamas server that have to be reachable by Akamas administrators and users to properly operate the system.

In the specific case of AWS instance and customer instances sharing the same VPC/Subnet inside AWS, you should:

• open all of the ports listed in the table above for all inbound URLs (0.0.0.0/32) on your AWS security group

• open outbound rules to all traffic and then attach this AWS security group (which must reside inside a private subnet) to the Akamas machine and all customer application AWS machines

Preliminary steps

Before installing Akamas, please follow these steps:

Installation steps

Please follow these steps to install the Akamas application:

Please also read the section on how to . Finally, read the relevant sections of to integrate Akamas into your specific ecosystem.

Akamas APIs and UI use plain HTTP when they are first installed. To enable the use of HTTPS you will need to:

1. Ask your security team to provide you with a valid certificate for your server. The certificate usually consists of two files with ".key" and ".pem" extensions. You will need to provide the Akamas server DNS name.

2. Create a folder named "certs" in the same directory as Akamas' docker-compose file;

3. Copy the ".key" and ".pem" files in the created "certs" folder and rename them to "akamas.key" and "akamas.pem" respectively. Make sure that the files belong to the same user and group you use to run Akamas.

4. Restart two Akamas services by running the following commands:

After the containers reboot is complete you will be able to access the UI over HTTPS from your browser:

Setup CLI to use HTTPS

Now that your Akamas server is configured to use HTTPS you can update the Akamas CLI configuration in order to use the secure protocol.

If you have not yet installed the Akamas CLI follow the in order to install it. If you already have the CLI available, you can run the following command:

You will be prompted to enter some input, please value it as follows:

You can test the connection by running:

It should return ‘OK’, meaning that Akamas has been properly configured to work over HTTPS.

This page describes the requirements that should be fulfilled by the user when installing or managing an Akamas installation on Kubernetes. The software below is usually installed on the user's workstation or laptop.

Kubectl

Kubectl must be installed and configured to interact with the desired cluster. Refer to the to set up the client.

To interact with the Kubernetes APIs, you will need , preferably with a version matching the cluster. To check both the client and cluster versions, run the following:

Helm

Installing Akamas requires or higher. To check the version, run the following:

Privileged access

Akamas uses Elasticsearch to store logs and time series. When running Akamas on Kubernetes, Elasticsearch is installed automatically using the official Elasticsearch helm chart. This chart required running an init container with privileged access to set up a configuration on the Elasticsearch pod host. If running such a container is not permitted in your environment, you can add the following snippet to the akamas.yaml file when installing Akamas to disable this feature.

Before installing the Akamas please make sure to review all the following requirements:

Before starting the installation, make sure the are met.

Create the configuration file

Akamas on Kubernetes is provided as a set of templates packaged in a chart archive managed by .

To proceed with the installation, you need to create a Helm Values file, called akamas.yaml in this guide, containing the mandatory configuration values required to customize your application. The following template contains the minimal set required to install Akamas:

You can also download the template file running the following snippet:

Replace in the file the following placeholders:

• AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: the AWS credentials for pulling the Akamas images

• CUSTOMER_NAME: customer name provided with the Akamas license

• ADMIN_PASSWORD: initial administrator password

Start the installation

With the configuration file you just created (and the new variables you added to override the defaults), you can start the installation with the following command:

This command will create the Akamas resources within the specified namespace. You can define a different namespace by changing the argument --namespace <your-namespace>

An example output of a successful installation is the following:

Check the installation

To monitor the application startup, run the command kubectl get pods. After a few minutes, the expected output should be similar to the following:

At this point, you should be able to access the Akamas UI using the endpoint specified in the akamasBaseUrl, and interact through the Akamas CLI with the path /akapi.

Akamas is deployed as a set of containerized services running on Docker and managed via Docker Compose. In the offline installation mode, the latest version of the Akamas Docker Compose file and all the images required by Docker cannot be downloaded from the AWS ECR repository.

Get Akamas Docker artifacts

Get in contact with Akamas Customer Services to get the latest versions of the Akamas artifacts uploaded to a location of your choice on the dedicated Akamas Server.

Akamas installation artifacts will include:

• images.tar.gz: a tarball containing Akamas main images.

• docker-compose.yml: docker-compose file for Akamas.

• akamas: the binary file of the Akamas CLI that will be used to verify the installation.

Import Docker images

A preliminary step in the offline installation mode is to import the shipped Docker images by running the following commands in the same directory where the tar files have been stored:

Mind that this import procedure could take some time!

Configure Akamas environment variables

To configure Akamas, you should set the following environment variables:

• AKAMAS_CUSTOMER: the customer name matching the one referenced in the Akamas license.

• AKAMAS_BASE_URL: the endpoint in the Akamas APIs that will be used to interact with the CLI, typically https://<akamas server DNS address>

To avoid losing your environment variables for future upgrades, it is suggested to keep them in the .env file, stored in the same directory as the docker-compose.yml:

Run installation

To start Akamas you can now simply navigate into the akamas folder and run a docker-compose command:

You may get the following error:

• Ubuntu

• RHEL

The Akamas CLI allows users to invoke commands against the Akamas dedicated machine (Akamas Server). The Akamas CLI can also be installed on a different system than the Akamas Server.

Prerequisites

Linux and Windows operating systems are supported for installing Akamas CLI.

Installation steps

The Akamas CLI can be installed and configured in two simple steps:

Refer to the section to modify the CLI ports the Akamas Server is listening to. Section provides instructions on how to interact with Akamas via a proxy server.

Before starting the installation, make sure the requirements are met.

Configure the registry

If your cluster is in an air-gapped network or is unable to reach the Akamas image repository, you need to copy the required images to your private registry.

The procedure described here leverages your local environment to upload the images. Thus, to interact between the Akamas and private registry, it requires Docker to be installed and configured.

Transfer the Docker images

The offline installation requires you to pull the images and migrate them to your private registry. In the following command replace the chart version to download the related list of images:

curl -sO  http://helm.akamas.io/images/1.3.0/image-list

Once the import is complete, you must re-tag and upload the images. Run the following snippet, replacing <REGISTRY_URL> with the actual URL of the private registry:

NEW_REGISTRY="<REGISTRY_URL>"
while read IMAGE; do
    REGISTRY=$(echo "$IMAGE" | cut -d '/' -f 1)
    REPOSITORY=$(echo "$IMAGE" | cut -d ':' -f 1 | cut -d "/" -f2-)
    TAG=$(echo "$IMAGE" | cut -d ':' -f 2)

    NEW_IMAGE="$NEW_REGISTRY/$REPOSITORY:$TAG"
    echo "Migrating $IMAGE to $NEW_IMAGE"

    docker pull "$IMAGE"
    docker tag "$IMAGE" "$NEW_IMAGE"
    docker push "$NEW_IMAGE"
done <image-list

This process could last several minutes, once the upload is complete, you can proceed with the next steps.

Create the configuration file

Akamas on Kubernetes is provided as a set of templates packaged in a chart archive managed by Helm.

To proceed with the installation, you must create a Helm Values file, called akamas.yaml in this guide, containing the mandatory configuration values required to customize your application. The following template contains the minimal set required to install Akamas:

# Akamas customer name. Must match the value in the license (required)
akamasCustomer: <CUSTOMER_NAME>

# Akamas administrator password. If not set a random password will be generated
akamasAdminPassword: <ADMIN_PASSWORD>

# The URL that will be used to access Akamas, for example 'http://akamas.kube.example.com' (required)
akamasBaseUrl: <INSTANCE_HOSTNAME>

# The URL of your private registry
global:
  imageRegistry: <REGISTRY_URL>

postgresql:
  image:
    registry: <REGISTRY_URL>
elasticsearch:
  image: <REGISTRY_URL>/akamas/elastic/elasticsearch

Replace in the file the following placeholders:

• CUSTOMER_NAME: customer name provided with the Akamas license

• ADMIN_PASSWORD: initial administrator password

• INSTANCE_HOSTNAME: the URL that will be used to expose the Akamas installation, for example https://akamas.k8s.example.com when using an Ingress, or http//:localhost:9000 when using port-forwarding. Refer to Accessing Akamas for the list of the supported access methods and a reference for any additional configuration required.

• REGISTRY_URL: the URL for the private registry used in the transfer process above

Configure the authentication

This section describes how to configure the authentication to your private registry. If your registry does not require any authentication, skip directly to the installation section.

To authenticate to your private registry, you must manually create the Secret required to pull the images. If the registry uses basic authentication, you can create the credentials in the namespace by running the following command:

kubectl create secret docker-registry registry-token \
  --namespace akamas \
  --docker-server=<REGISTRY_URL> \
  --docker-username=<USER> \
  --docker-password=<PASSWORD>

Otherwise, you can leverage any credential already configured on your machine by running the following command:

kubectl create secret docker-registry registry-token \
  --namespace akamas \
  --from-file=.dockerconfigjson=<PATH/TO/.docker/config.json>

Start the installation

From a machine that can reach the endpoint, run the following command to download the chart:

helm pull --repo http://helm.akamas.io/charts --version '1.3.0' akamas

The command downloads the latest version chart version as an archive named akamas-<version>.tgz. The file can be transferred to the machine where the installation will be run. Replace akamas/akamas with the download package in the following commands.

If you wish to see and override the values that Helm will use to install Akamas, you may execute the following command.

helm show values akamas-<version>.tgz

Now, with the configuration file you just created (and the new variables you added to override the defaults), you can start the installation with the following command:

helm upgrade --install \
  --create-namespace --namespace akamas \
  -f akamas.yaml \
  akamas akamas-<version>.tgz

This command will create the Akamas resources within the specified namespace. You can define a different namespace by changing the argument --namespace <your-namespace>

An example output of a successful installation is the following:

Release "akamas" does not exist. Installing it now.
NAME: akamas
LAST DEPLOYED: Thu Sep 21 10:39:01 2023
NAMESPACE: akamas
STATUS: deployed
REVISION: 1
NOTES:
Akamas has been installed

NOTES:
Akamas has been installed

To get the initial password use the following command:

kubectl get secret akamas-admin-credentials -o go-template='{{ .data.password | base64decode }}'

Check the installation

To monitor the application startup, run the command kubectl get pods. After a few minutes, the expected output should be similar to the following:

NAME                           READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
airflow-6ffbbf46d8-dqf8m       3/3     Running   0          5m
analyzer-67cf968b48-jhxvd      1/1     Running   0          5m
campaign-666c5db96-xvl2z       1/1     Running   0          5m
database-0                     1/1     Running   0          5m
elasticsearch-master-0         1/1     Running   0          5m
keycloak-66f748d54-7l6wb       1/1     Running   0          5m
kibana-6d86b8cbf5-6nz9v        1/1     Running   0          5m
kong-7d6fdd97cf-c2xc9          1/1     Running   0          5m
license-54ff5cc5d8-tr64l       1/1     Running   0          5m
log-5974b5c86b-4q7lj           1/1     Running   0          5m
logstash-8697dd69f8-9bkts      1/1     Running   0          5m
metrics-577fb6bf8d-j7cl2       1/1     Running   0          5m
optimizer-5b7576c6bb-96w8n     1/1     Running   0          5m
orchestrator-95c57fd45-lh4m6   1/1     Running   0          5m
store-5489dd65f4-lsk62         1/1     Running   0          5m
system-5877d4c89b-h8s6v        1/1     Running   0          5m
telemetry-8cf448bf4-x68tr      1/1     Running   0          5m
ui-7f7f4c4f44-55lv5            1/1     Running   0          5m
users-966f8f78-wv4zj           1/1     Running   0          5m

At this point, you should be able to access the Akamas UI using the endpoint specified in the akamasBaseUrl, and interact through the Akamas CLI with the path /akapi.

If you haven't already, you can update your configuration file to use a different type of service to expose Akamas' endpoints. To do so, pick from the Accessing Akamas the configuration snippet for the service type of your choice, add it to the akamas.yaml file, update the akamasBaseUrl value, and re-run the installation command to update your Helm release.

The CLI is used to interact with an akamas server. To initialize the configuration of the Akamas CLI you can run the command:

akamas init config

and follow the wizard to provide the required information such as the server IP.

Here is a summary of the configuration wizard options.

Api address [http://localhost:8000]: https://<akamas-hostname>:<ui-port>/akapi
Workpace [default]: default
Verify SSL: [True]: True
Is external certificate CA required? [y/N]: N

This configuration can be changed at any time (see how to change the CLI config).

After this step, the Akamas CLI can be used to login to the Akamas server, by issuing the following command:

akamas login

and providing the credentials as requested.

To interact with your Akamas instance, you need the UI and API Gateway to be accessible from outside the cluster.

Kubernetes offers different options to expose a service outside of the cluster. The following is a list of the supported ones, with examples of how to configure them to work in your chart release:

• Port Forwarding

• Ingress

Port Forwarding

By default, Akams uses Cluster IPs for its services, allowing communication only inside the cluster. Still, you can leverage Kubectl's port-forward to create a private connection and expose any internal service on your local machine.

This solution is suggested to perform quick tests without exposing the application or in scenarios where cluster access to the public is not allowed.

Set akamasBaseUrl to http://localhost:9000 in your Helm Values file, and install or update your Akamas deployment using the Helm command. Once the rollout is complete, open a tunnel to the UI with the following command:

kubectl port-forward service/ui 9000:http

As long as the port-forwarding is running, you will be able to interact with the UI through the tunnel; you can also interact through the Akamas CLI by configuring the URL http://localhost:9000/akapi.

Refer to the official kubernetes documentation for more details about port-forwarding.

Ingress

An Ingress is a Kubernetes object that provides service access, load balancing, and SSL termination to Kubernetes services.

To expose the Akamas UI through an Ingress, configure the Helm Values file by configuring akamasBaseUrl with the host of the Ingress (e.g.: https://akamas.kube.example.com), and by adding the snippet below:

ingress:
  enabled: true
  tls:
    - secretName: "<SECRET_NAME>"  # secret containing the certificate and key data
  annotations: {}  # optional

Here is a description of the fields:

• enabled: set to true to enable the Ingress

• tls: configure secretName with the name of the Secret containing the TLS certificate for the hostname configured in akamasBaseUrl. This secret must be created manually before applying the configuration (see TLS Secrets on the Kubernetes documentation) or managed by a certificate issuer configured in the namespace.

• annotations: optional, provide any additional annotation required in your deployment. If your cluster leverages any certificate issuer (such as cert-manager), you can add here the annotations required to interact with the issuer.

Re-run the install command to update the configuration. Once the rollout is complete, you will be able to access the UI using the URL specified in akamasBaseUrl and interact with the CLI using ${akamasBaseUrl}/api.

Refer to the official kubernetes documentation for more details on Ingresses.

Akamas is deployed on your Kubernetes cluster through a Helm chart, and all the required images can be downloaded from the AWS ECR repository.

Two installation modes are available:

• online installation, in case the Kubernetes cluster can access the Internet.

• offline installation, in case the Kubernetes cluster does not have access to the Internet or you need to use a private image registry.

Linux

To get Akamas CLI installed on Linux, run the following commands:

curl -o akamas_cli https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/akamas/cli/$(curl -s https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/akamas/cli/stable.txt)/linux_64/akamas
sudo mv akamas_cli /usr/local/bin/akamas
chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/akamas

You can now run the Akamas CLI following by running the akamas command.

In some installations, the /usr/local/bin folder is not present in the PATH environment variable. This prevents you from using akamas without specifying the complete file location. To fix this issue you can add an entry to the PATH system environment variable or move the executable to another folder in your PATH.

Auto-completion

To enable auto-completion on Linux systems with a bash shell (requires bash 4.4+), run the following commands:

curl -O https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/akamas/cli/$(curl -s https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/akamas/cli/stable.txt)/linux_64/akamas_autocomplete.sh
mkdir -p ~/.akamas
mv akamas_autocomplete.sh ~/.akamas
echo '. ~/.akamas/akamas_autocomplete.sh' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Windows

To install the Akamas CLI on Windows run the following command from Powershell:

Invoke-WebRequest "https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/akamas/cli/$($(Invoke-WebRequest https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/akamas/cli/stable.txt | Select-Object -Expand Content) -replace '\n', '')/win_64/akamas.exe" -OutFile akamas.exe

You can now run the Akamas CLI by running .\akamas in the same folder.

To invoke the akamas CLI from any folder, create a akamas folder (such as C:\Program Files\akamas), and move there the akamas.exe file. Then, add an entry to the PATH system environment variable with the value C:\Program Files\akamas. Now, you can invoke the CLI from any folder, by simply running the akamas command.

The Akamas CLI can be accessed by simply running the akamascommand.

Verify the CLI

You can verify that the CLI was installed correctly by running this command:

akamas version

which should show an output similar to this one

Akamas CLI: 2.9.0
Akamas platform: 3.3.1

At any time, you can see available commands and options with:

akamas --help

For the full list of Akamas commands please refer to the section CLI reference.

The Akamas CLI supports interacting with the API server through an HTTP/HTTPS proxy server.

To enable access via an HTTP proxy, set the environment variable HTTP_PROXY. From the following snippet, replace proxy_ip and proxy_port with the desired values.

export HTTP_PROXY="http://<proxy_ip>:<proxy_port>"

Then, run the akamas command to verify access.

akamas status debug

Access through an HTTPS proxy can be set by using the environment variable HTTPS_PROXY instead of HTTP_PROXY.

The CLI configuration contains the information required to communicate with the akamas server. It can be easily created and updated with a configuration wizard. This page describes the main options of the Akamas CLI and how to modify them. If your Akamas instance is installed with Kubernetes, ensure the UI service is configured correctly.

API Address

The CLI, as well as the UI, interacts with the akamas server via APIs. The apiAddress configuration contains the information required to communicate with the server.

Docker

The Akamas Server provides different listeners to interact with APIs:

• an HTTP listener on port 80 under the path /akapi

• an HTTP listener on port 8000

• an HTTPS listener on port 443 under the path /akapi

• an HTTPS listener on port 8443

Depending on your networking setup you can either use the listeners on ports 80 and 443 which are also used for the UI or directly interact with the API gateway on ports 8000 and 8443. If you are unsure about your network setup we suggest you start with the HTTPS listener on port 443.

For improved security, it is recommended to configure CLI communications with the Akamas Server over HTTPS. Notice that you need to have a valid certificate installed on your Akamas server (at least a self-signed one) to enable HTTPS communication between CLI and the Akamas Server.

Changing CLI protocol

The CLI can be configured either directly via the CLI itself or via the YAML configuration file akamasconf.

Using the CLI

Issue the following command to change the configuration of the Akamas CLI:

akamas init config

and then follow the wizard to provide the required CLI configuration:

• enable HTTPS communications:

Api address [http://localhost:8000]: https://<akamas server dns name>:443/akapi
Workspace [default]: Workspace1
Login method (local, oauth2) [local]: local
Verify SSL: [True]: True
Is external certificate CA required? [y/N]: N

• enable HTTP communications:

Api address [http://localhost:8000]: http://<akamas server DNS name>:80
Workspace [default]: Workspace1
Login method (local, oauth2) [local]: local

Please notice that by default Akamas CLI expects a valid SSL certificate. If you are using a self-signed certificate or a not valid one you can set the Verify SSL variable to false. This will mimic the behavior of accepting an invalid HTTPS certificate on your favorite browser.

Using the akamasconf file

Create a file and name it akamasconf to be located at the following locations:

• Linux: ~/.akamas/akamasconf

• Windows: C:\Users\<username>\.akamas (where C: is the drive where the OS is installed)

The file location can be customized by setting an $AKAMASCONF environment variable.

Here is an example akamasconf file provided as a sample:

apiAddress: http[s]://<akamas server dns name>:80[443]/akapi
verifySsl: [true|false]
workspace: default

You may find helpful some of the commands listed in the sections below.

Read database passwords

By default, access to each service database is assigned to a user with randomly generated passwords. For example, to read the campaign service database password, execute the following command:

kubectl get secret database-user-credentials -o go-template='{{ .data.campaign | base64decode }}'

The username for the campaign service can be found in the configuration file under each service section. To read the username for the campaign service set during the installation, launch the following command:

helm get values akamas --all --output json | jq '.campaign.database.user'

You can connect to the campaign_service database with the user and password above.

If you want to show all the passwords, execute this command:

kubectl get secret database-user-credentials -o go-template='{{range $k,$v := .data}} {{printf "%s: %s\n" $k ( $v |base64decode ) }}{{end}}'

Running Akamas' studies requires a valid license.

To install a license get in touch with Akamas Customer Service to receive:

• the Akamas license file

• your "customer name" to configure in the variable AKAMAS_CUSTOMER for Docker installations or akamasCustomer for Kubernetes installations

• the URL to configure in the AKAMAS_BASE_URL variable for Docker installations

• login credentials

Once you have this information, you can issue the following commands:

cd <your bundle files location>
akamas install license <license file you have been provided>

kubectl get secret -n <NAMESPACE> akamas-admin-credentials -o go-template='{{.data.password | base64decode}}'

Akamas offers, as an additional container, a toolbox that contains the Akamas CLI executable, along with some other useful command-line tools such as kubectl, Helm, vim, docker cli, jq, yq, git, gzip, zip, OpenSSH, ping, cURL, and wget. It can be executed along akamas services, in the same network, for docker-compose installation, or in the akamas namespace for Kubernetes installations.

This toolbox aims to:

• allowing users to interact with Akamas without the need to install Akamas CLI on their systems

• providing the Akamas' workflows with an environment where to run scripts and persist artifacts when no other options (e.g. a dedicated host) are available

Docker compose installation

By setting the following options in the .env file, you can configure your toolbox by enabling SSH password authentication (only key-based authentication will be available otherwise) and by setting a login password:

ALLOW_PASSWORD=true
CUSTOM_PASSWORD=yourPassword

To start the toolbox container just issue the following command:

docker compose --profile toolbox up -d

If you want to keep the toolbox running also after a complete restart you can also add the following line to your .env file: COMPOSE_PROFILES=toolbox

Accessing the toolbox on Docker

To access the toolbox on docker you can issue the following command:

docker exec -it toolbox bash

You will be provided with a shell inside the toolbox where you can interact with Akamas. Please read the work folder section below for more information on how to persist scripts and data on the toolbox upon restart and upgrades.

Kubernetes installation

Follow the usual guide for installing Akamas on Kubernetes, adding the following variables to your akamas.yaml file:

toolbox:
  enabled: true
  sshPassword:
    # enable SSH password authentication. If 'false', only key-based access
    # will be allowed
    enabled: false
    # configure the password for the toolbox user. If not provided, an
    # autogenerated password will be used
    override:

Then, you can launch the usual helm upgrade --install ... command to run the pod, as described in the#start-the-installation (online) or #start-the-installation (offline) sections.

Accessing the toolbox on Kubernetes

When it's deployed to Kubernetes, you may access this toolbox in two ways:

• via kubectl

• via SSH command

Kubectl access

Accessing is as simple as:

kubectl exec -it deployment/toolbox -- bash

SSH access

For this type of access, you need to retrieve the SSH login password (if enabled) or key. To fetch them, run the following commands:

# Get the password
kubectl exec deployment/toolbox -- cat /home/akamas/password
# Get the key
kubectl exec deployment/toolbox -- cat /home/akamas/.ssh/id_rsa

With this info, you can leverage the toolbox to run commands in your workflows, like in the following example:

name: hello-workflow
tasks:
  - name: Say Hello
    operator: Executor
    arguments:
      command: echo 'Hello Akamas'
      host:
        hostname: toolbox
        username: akamas
        password: d48020ab71be6a07

You can also access the toolbox by port-forwarding from your local machine (on port 2222 in our example). Run the following kubectl command:

kubectl port-forward service/toolbox 2222:22

On another terminal, run:

ssh akamas@localhost -p 2222

and answer yes to the question, then insert the akamas password to successfully SSH access the toolbox (see example below):

$ ssh akamas@localhost -p 2222
The authenticity of host '[localhost]:2222 ([127.0.0.1]:2222)' can't be established.
ED25519 key fingerprint is SHA256:34GXnmRz1YjWr2TTpUpJmRoHYck0NzeAxni2L857Exs.
This key is not known by any other names
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])? yes
Warning: Permanently added '[localhost]:2222' (ED25519) to the list of known hosts.
akamas@localhost's password:
Welcome to Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS (GNU/Linux 5.10.178-162.673.amzn2.x86_64 x86_64)

 * Documentation:  https://help.ubuntu.com
 * Management:     https://landscape.canonical.com
 * Support:        https://ubuntu.com/advantage

This system has been minimized by removing packages and content that are
not required on a system that users do not log into.

To restore this content, you can run the 'unminimize' command.

The programs included with the Ubuntu system are free software;
the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.

Ubuntu comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by
applicable law.

akamas@toolbox-6dd8b7f898-8xwzf:~$

Work directory

If you need to store Akamas artifacts, scripts, or any other file that requires persistence, you can use the /work directory, which persists across restarts. This is the default working directory at login time.

Akamas might collect anonymized usage information on running optimizations. Collection and tracking are disabled by default and can be manually enabled.

Docker installation

External tracking is managed through the following environment variables:

• AKAMAS_TRACKER_URL: the target URL for all tracking info.

• AKAMAS_TRACKING_OPT_OUT: when set to 1, disables anonymous data collection.

Tracking for a running instance can be enabled by editing the AKAMAS_TRACKING_OPT_OUT variable in the docker-compose.yaml file.

To enable tracking set the variable to the following value:

AKAMAS_TRACKING_OPT_OUT=0

Then issue the command:

docker compose up -d

Kubernetes installation

External tracking is managed through the field trackingOptOut in the Values file. To enable tracking set trackingOptOut to 0 as in the following example and upgrade the installation:

awsAccessKeyId: "YOUR_ACCESSKEY_ID"
awsSecretAccessKey: "YOUR_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY"

trackingOptOut: 0

Kubernetes version

Running Akamas requires a cluster running Kubernetes version 1.24 or higher.

Resources requirements

Akamas can be deployed in three different sizes depending on the number of concurrent optimization studies that will be executed. If you are unsure about which size is appropriate for your environment we suggest you start with the small one and upgrade to bigger ones as you expand the optimization activity to more applications.

The tables below report the required resources both for requests and limits that should be available in the cluster to use Akamas.

Small

The small tier is suited for environments that need to support up to 10 concurrent optimization studies

Storage requirements

The cluster must provide the definition of a Storage Class so that the application installation can leverage Persistent Volume Claims to dynamically provision the volumes required to persist data.

For more information on this topic refer to Kubernetes' official documentation.

Permissions

To install and run Akamas cluster level permissions are not required. This is the minimal set of namespaced rules.

- apiGroups: ["", "apps", "policy", "batch", "networking.k8s.io", "events.k8s.io/v1", "rbac.authorization.k8s.io"]
  resources:
    - configmaps
    - cronjobs
    - deployments
    - events
    - ingresses
    - jobs
    - persistentvolumeclaims
    - poddisruptionbudgets
    - pods
    - pods/log
    - rolebindings
    - roles
    - secrets
    - serviceaccounts
    - services
    - statefulsets
  verbs: ["get", "list", "create", "delete", "patch", "update", "watch"]

Networking

Networking requirements depend on how users interact with Akamas. Services can be exposed via Ingress or using kubectl as a proxy. Refer to Accessing Akamas for a more detailed description of the available options.

This page provides a walkthrough to configure Azure Active Directory as an external identity provider for Akamas users.

Configure the App registration

To integrate Akamas with your Active Directory, you first need a dedicated App registration in your Azure Organization. If you want to use an existing registration, skip to Get the client configuration; to create a new one, refer to the following sub-section.

Create a new App registration

To create a new registration, navigate to "App registrations" in your Azure portal and select "New registration" and specify the following:

• a name for the application

• the account type that best suits your use case

Complete the creation by clicking on "Register".

Get the client configuration

On the "Overview" page of the application, note the following values:

• Application (client) ID

• OpenID Connect metadata document (found in the "Endpoints" side panel)

Furthermore, in the "Certificates & secrets" section, create a new Client secret and note its value.

With these values, we can now complete the provider configuration in the Keycloak console.

Create the Identity provider

Access the Identity providers section for the "akamas" realm in the Keycloak administration console, as described on the page Configure an external identity provider, and select "OpenID Connect v1.0" to start creating the new provider.

Here, specify an alias for the client ("microsoft" in our case) and optionally the display name used in the login page ("Microsoft").

In the "OpenID Connect settings" section, configure the following fields using the values from the app registration in the Azure portal:

• "Discovery endpoint": populate with the URL of the "OpenID Connect metadata document". This box should become green upon successful validation.

• "Client ID": populate with the "Application (client) ID" from the app's overview page

• "Client Secret": populate with the value of the generated secret

Complete the configuration by clicking "Add". You will land on the detail page of the new provider: here, copy the value of the redirect URI.

Complete the app registration

Back to the app registration in the Azure portal, navigate to the "Authentication" section. Add the "Web" platform (if not already present).

Finally, add to the list of redirect URIs the one from the previous step.

You have now configured Akamas to delegate to Azure your users' login.

Configure the default Akamas roles

The final setup step is to instruct Akamas to associate the default roles with the users automatically. This way, users will be added to the default workspace with read and write permissions the first time they log in.

On the Keycloak console, on the provider's details page, navigate to "Mappers":

Now, add the following configurations.

User role

• Name: User role

• Mapper type: Hardcoded role

• Role: USER

Default Workspace Read

• Name: Default Workspace Read

• Mapper type: Hardcoded role

• Role: WS_ac8481d3-d031-4b6a-8ae9-c7b366f027e8_R

Default Workspace Write

• Name: Default Workspace Write

• Mapper type: Hardcoded role

• Role: WS_ac8481d3-d031-4b6a-8ae9-c7b366f027e8_W

Test the integration

Visit the installation's login page to check that the new authentication method is displayed and works correctly.

This page provides a walkthrough to configure Google as an external identity provider for Akamas users.

Configure the App registration

To integrate Akamas with your Google Workspace, you first need a project with a dedicated OAuth client. Log in to your Google Developer Console, and navigate to the "Credentials" page of "API & Services".

Configure the Consent Screen

If the "Credentials" page displays a warning box reminding you to configure the consent screen, you first need to create an app. Click the enclosed button to start the wizard.

Follow the wizard to configure the consent screen according to your company's policies. For more details, refer to Configure the OAuth consent screen on the official documentation.

Once the configuration is complete, return to the "Credentials" page.

Create the OAuth client

Click the "Create Credentials" link on top, and select "OAuth Client ID".

Configure the client as follows:

• "Application Type": select "Web application"

• "Name": populate with the name of the new client

• "Authorized redirect URIs": leave it blank, as you will fill it in a later step

Once you click "Create" the console will show you a confirmation pop-up containing the client's configuration. Note the Client ID and the Client Secret.

Create the Identity provider

Access the Identity providers section for the "akamas" realm in the Keycloak administration console, as described on the page Configure an external identity provider, and select "Google" to start creating the new provider.

Configure the following fields using the values from the OAuth client you just created:

• "Client ID": fill in the id of the client

• "Client Secret": fill in the secret of the client

To complete the configuration, note the "Redirect URI" value and click "Add".

Complete the app registration

Back to the Google Developer Console, on the "Credentials" page, open the newly created client and add the URI from the previous step to the list of "Authorized redirect URIs".

Configure the default Akamas roles

The final setup step is to instruct Akamas to associate the default roles with the users automatically. This way, users will be added to the default workspace with read and write permissions the first time they log in.

On the Keycloak console, on the provider's details page, navigate to "Mappers":

Now, add the following configurations.

User role

• Name: User role

• Mapper type: Hardcoded role

• Role: USER

Default Workspace Read

• Name: Default Workspace Read

• Mapper type: Hardcoded role

• Role: WS_ac8481d3-d031-4b6a-8ae9-c7b366f027e8_R

Default Workspace Write

• Name: Default Workspace Write

• Mapper type: Hardcoded role

• Role: WS_ac8481d3-d031-4b6a-8ae9-c7b366f027e8_W

Test the integration

Visit the installation's login page to check that the new authentication method is displayed and works correctly.

To configure an external identity provider, access the Keycloak administration console exposed on the /auth page of your installation; for example, https://app.akamas.io/auth.

Now log into the Administration Console using the admin user. The password for such a user can be retrieved in different ways, depending on the installation method:

• Kubernetes. A custom password can be specified during the installation by providing a value keycloak.adminPassword in the helm chart. If this value was left unspecified, you can retrieve the auto-generated password with the following command:

kubectl get secret keycloak-admin-credentials \
  -o go-template='{{ .data.KEYCLOAK_ADMIN_PASSWORD | base64decode }}'

Note that you might need to provide the namespace in which Akamas have been installed using the flag -n namespace

• Docker.

  A custom password can be specified during the installation by providing a value for the variable KEYCLOAK_ADMIN_PASSWORD in the environment or in the docker-compose file. if during the installation you didn't specify the value, you can retrieve the auto-generated password with the following command:

docker exec -it keycloak cat /config/keycloak_admin | cut -d '|' -f1

Once logged in, select the akamas realm from the dropdown menu and navigate to the Identity providers section.

From here on, the steps required to proceed with the configuration vary depending on the provider you are integrating with. Select yours from the guides below:

• Azure Active Directory

• Google

Run the following command to verify the correct startup and initialization of Akamas:

akamas status

When all services have been started this command will return an "OK" message. Please notice that it might take a few minutes for Akamas to start all services.

To check that also UI is properly working please access the following URL:

http://<akamas server name here>

You will see the Akamas login form:

Please notice that it is impossible to log into Akamas before a license has been installed. Read here how to Install an Akamas license.