Service Graph - Simplified onboarding

The onboarding process of service graph is simplified and you can onboard service graph by:

• Automatically deploying Citrix ADM agent as a Kubernetes job.

• Manually configuring service graph.

Automatically deploying Citrix ADM agent as a Kubernetes job

You can automate the onboarding process of service graph and this process automatically:

• Downloads the YAML required for the Citrix ADM agent.

• Configures the Citrix ADM agent.

• Registers the Kubernetes cluster in Citrix ADM.

• Performs the required settings to populate service graph in Citrix ADM.

Prerequisites

Ensure that you have:

• A Citrix Cloud account.

• Installed Kubernetes version 1.19 or later.

• Installed HELM version 3.x.

• Opened the required ports.

• Established the connectivity by configuring the static routes. For registering Citrix ADC MPX or VPX in Citrix ADM using the Citrix ADM agent, you must ensure to establish the connection between the cluster nodes and Citrix ADC MPX or VPX.

  Note

  In case you do not want to configure the static routes, you can configure the Citrix node controller. For more information, see https://github.com/citrix/citrix-k8s-node-controller and https://github.com/citrix/citrix-helm-charts/tree/master/citrix-node-controller.

Get the client and secret CSV file from Citrix Cloud

After you configure the agent, get the client and secret CSV file from the Citrix Cloud page:

1. Log on to citrix.cloud.com

2. Click the Home icon and select Identity and Access Management

   

3. From the API Access tab, enter a secure client name and click Create Client.

   

4. ID and Secret is generated. Click Download and save the CSV file.

   

5. On the Kubernetes main node, run the following command to create an authorization token using the ID and secret: wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/citrix/citrix-helm-charts/master/generate_token.py

   python3 generate_token.py --accessID=<accessID> --accessSecret=<accessSecret>

   Note

   The authorization token is valid only for 1-hour.

You can configure:

• Citrix ADM agent by creating an automatic secret

Or

• Citrix ADM agent by creating a manual secret

Configure the Citrix ADM by creating an automatic secret

Deploy Citrix ADM agent using the helm chart

Run the following commands in the Kubernetes main node to deploy the Citrix ADM agent:

helm repo add citrix https://citrix.github.io/citrix-helm-charts

helm install citrix-adm citrix/adm-agent-onboarding --namespace <namespace> --set token=<Token>

The Citrix ADM agent is deployed, and the cluster is registered to the Citrix ADM. When you create the agent using the automatic secret, it also enables you to deploy the adm-agent-helper, along with the Citrix ADM agent that can create the Kubernetes Secret containing the Citrix ADM agent credentials.

This process happens automatically when the namespace is labeled as citrix-cpx=enabled. Run the following command on the Kubernetes main node:

kubectl label namespace <namespace> citrix-cpx=enabled

Note

If you want not to deploy adm-agent-helper, you can create the login secret manually for the Citrix ADM agent.

Register Citrix ADC VPX/MPX with Citrix ADM

Note

You can register the Citrix ADC VPX/MPX in Citrix ADM only for additional benefit.

To register the Citrix ADC VPX/MPX with Citrix ADM, you must establish the connectivity between Citrix ADC VPX or MPX and cluster nodes, by configuring the static routes. You can ignore this process if you have configured Citrix-node-controller.

You must create a Kubernetes secret containing the Citrix ADC VPX/MPX login credentials in the namespace. After this process, the Citrix ADM agent onboarding is started.

kubectl create secret generic nslogin --from-literal=username=<username> --from-literal=password=<adc-password> -n <namespace>

You must set the management IP address of Citrix ADC VPX/MPX as an environment variable: adc.IP.

helm repo add citrix https://citrix.github.io/citrix-helm-charts

helm install citrix-adm citrix/adm-agent-onboarding --namespace <namespace> --set adc.IP=<ADC ManagementIP>,adc.loginSecret=nslogin --set token=<Token>

Note

Ensure that the management HTTP port adc.mgmtHTTPPort and HTTPS port adc.mgmtHTTPSPort as 80 and 443 are open.

Configure the Citrix ADM agent by creating a manual secret

Citrix ADC CPX requires Citrix ADM agent login credentials for registering itself to Citrix ADM. You can manually set the namespace to deploy the Citrix ADC CPX.

kubectl create secret generic admlogin --from-literal=username=nsroot --from-literal=password=<adm-agent-password> -n <namespace>

After you create the secret, you can use the following command to configure the Citrix ADM agent.

helm install citrix-adm citrix/adm-agent-onboarding --namespace <namespace> --set admAgent.loginSecret=admlogin --set token=<Token>

Register Citrix ADC VPX/MPX with Citrix ADM

To register the Citrix ADC VPX/MPX with Citrix ADM, you must establish the connectivity between Citrix ADC VPX or MPX and cluster nodes, by configuring the static routes. You can ignore this process if you have configured Citrix-node-controller.

After configuring the static routes, you must create a Kubernetes secret containing the Citrix ADC VPX/MPX login credentials in the namespace. After this process, the Citrix ADM agent onboarding is started.

kubectl create secret generic nslogin --from-literal=username=<username> --from-literal=password=<adc-password> -n <namespace>

You must set the management IP address of Citrix ADC VPX/MPX as an environment variable: adc.IP.

helm repo add citrix https://citrix.github.io/citrix-helm-charts

helm install citrix-adm citrix/adm-agent-onboarding --namespace <namespace> --set adc.IP=<ADC ManagementIP>,adc.loginSecret=nslogin --set token=<Token>

Note

Ensure that the management HTTP port adc.mgmtHTTPPort and HTTPS port adc.mgmtHTTPSPort as 80 and 443 are open.

After you configure the mentioned steps, service graph starts to populate within 15 minutes duration. In Citrix ADM, navigate to Applications > Service Graph and then click Microservices to view service graph.

Examples:

• To generate service graph with Service Mesh Lite, see Service graph example.

• To generate service graph of Citrix integration with Istio Service Mesh, see Service graph with Citrix ADC Observability and Citrix ADM.

Manually configuring service graph

You can populate service graph manually by:

• Configuring the Citrix ADM agent as a microservice in the Kubernetes cluster.

• Completing the other workflows such as registering cluster, adding instances, and enabling licensing and detailed TCP and Web transactions.

  Note

  If you want to use an existing Citrix ADM agent or configure an on-premises Citrix ADM agent using a hypervisor, follow the procedures at Setting up service graph to populate the service graph.

1. Navigate to Applications > Service Graph and select the Microservices tab.

   You can view the microservices cluster is not configured. Click the option to configure.

   

2. Select Custom Deployment.

3. Select the deployment type.

4. Select Microservices as the application type.

5. Click Next to set up the agent.

6. In the Download Agent Microservice page, specify the following parameters:

   1. Application ID – A string id to define the service for the agent in the Kubernetes cluster and distinguish this agent from other agents in the same cluster.

   2. Password – Specify a password for CPX to use this password to onboard CPX to Citrix ADM through the agent.

   3. Confirm Password – Specify the same password for confirmation.

      Note

      You must not use the default password (nsroot).

   4. Click Submit.

7. Click Download YAML File or Download Helm Chart.

8. In the Kubernetes main mode, save the downloaded YAML file and run the following command to register the agent:

   kubectl create -f <yaml file>

   For example, kubectl create -f testing.yaml

   The agent is successfully created.

9. Click Register Agent.

   

   The page loads for a few seconds and displays the registered agent.

10. Ensure if the agent is present in the list and click Next.

    

11. You must register the cluster. Click Add More Clusters and specify the following parameters:

    1. Name - Specify a name of your choice.

    2. API Server URL - You can get the API Server URL details from the Kubernetes main node.

       1. On the Kubernetes main node, run the command kubectl cluster-info.

          

       2. Enter the URL that displays for “Kubernetes main is running at.”

    3. Authentication Token - Specify the authentication token. The authentication token is required to validate access for communication between Kubernetes cluster and Citrix ADM. To generate an authentication token:

       On the Kubernetes main node:

       1. Use the following YAML to create a service account:

          apiVersion: v1
          kind: ServiceAccount
          metadata:
            name: <name>
            namespace: <namespace>
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