Installation

To get started with the Varnish Helm Chart, make sure Helm is already installed.

Adding Varnish Helm Chart repository

To add the Varnish Helm Chart repository to Helm:

$ helm repo add varnish https://packagecloud.io/varnishplus/60/helm --username <token> --password does-not-matter

Replace <token> with your Varnish Enterprise’s PackageCloud token.

Creating an Image Pull Secret

A pull secret must also be created to allow the Kubernetes cluster to download from the Varnish Docker repository.

Create a file named dockerconfig.json with the following content:

{
  "auths": {
    "https://quay.io": {
      "username": "<username>",
      "password": "<password>"
    }
  }
}

Replace <username> and <password> with your Varnish Docker image’s Quay.io credentials.

Then either use Kustomize or create the secret file manually.

Using Kustomize

To generate varnish-pull-secret using Kustomize, create a varnish-pull-secret directory and move dockerconfig.json into it:

$ mkdir -p varnish-pull-secret/
$ mv dockerconfig.json varnish-pull-secret/

Then create varnish-pull-secret/kustomization.yaml:

---
apiVersion: kustomize.config.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: Kustomization
secretGenerator:
  - name: varnish-pull-secret
    files:
      - .dockerconfigjson=dockerconfig.json
    type: kubernetes.io/dockerconfigjson

Once varnish-pull-secret/kustomization.yaml is created, it can now be deployed onto the cluster:

$ kubectl apply -k varnish-pull-secret

Note: Kustomize will create a secret with a unique name depending on the content of the secret file.

Manually

To manually generate varnish-pull-secret.yaml, run the following command:

$ DOCKERCONFIG_JSON_BASE64=$(base64 -w 0 < dockerconfig.json)
# on macOS, you may need to use base64 -b 0 < dockerconfig.json instead

$ cat <<EOF > varnish-pull-secret.yaml
---
apiVersion: v1
type: kubernetes.io/dockerconfigjson
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: varnish-pull-secret
data:
  .dockerconfigjson: $DOCKERCONFIG_JSON_BASE64
EOF

Once varnish-pull-secret.yaml is created, it can now be deployed onto the cluster:

$ kubectl apply -f varnish-pull-secret.yaml

Creating a Varnish Controller license secret

A license is required to use Varnish Controller.

Obtain license.lic from the customer portal and either use Kustomize or create the secret file manually.

Using Kustomize

To generate varnish-controller-license using Kustomize, create varnish-controller-license directory and put license.lic in it.

$ mkdir varnish-controller-license
$ mv license.lic varnish-controller-license

Then create varnish-controller-license/kustomization.yaml:

---
apiVersion: kustomize.config.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: Kustomization
secretGenerator:
  - name: varnish-controller-license
    files:
      - license.lic=license.lic

Once varnish-controller-license/kustomization.yaml is created, it can now be deployed onto the cluster:

$ kubectl apply -k varnish-controller-license

Note that Kustomize will create a secret with a unique name depending on the content of the secret file.

Manually

To manually generate varnish-controller-license.yaml, run the following command:

$ LICENSELIC_JSON_BASE64=$(base64 -w 0 < license.lic)
# on macOS, you may need to use base64 -b 0 < license.lic instead

$ cat <<EOF > varnish-controller-license.yaml
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: varnish-controller-license
data:
  license.lic: $LICENSELIC_JSON_BASE64
EOF

Once varnish-controller-license.yaml is created, it can now be deployed onto the cluster:

$ kubectl apply -f varnish-controller-license.yaml

Deploying Varnish Controller

Create values.yaml for Varnish Controller with basic configuration:

---
global:
  imagePullSecrets:
    - name: varnish-pull-secret

brainz:
  licenseSecret: varnish-controller-license

ui:
  enabled: true

  ingress:
    enabled: true
    hosts:
      - host: varnish-controller.example.com
        paths: []

Deploy Varnish Controller:

$ helm install -f values.yaml varnish-controller varnish/varnish-controller

If a DNS record for varnish-controller.example.com is pointed to the Kubernetes Ingress, Varnish Controller should now be accessible from varnish-controller.example.com.

To retrieve the default admin password, run the following command:

kubectl get secrets -o jsonpath="{.data.varnish-admin-password}" varnish-controller-credentials | base64 --decode

Integrating with Varnish Enterprise

Integrating Varnish Controller with Varnish Enterprise requires running a Varnish Controller Agent as a sidecar to Varnish Enterprise. See also the Integrating Varnish Controller with Varnish Enterprise section in Varnish Enterprise Helm Chart.