Onboard Dapr cluster

Conductor is a Dapr management service where a single Kubernetes cluster is the primary unit of management. To fully onboard a Kubernetes cluster to Conductor requires:

• Connectivity to Diagrid Cloud
• Installation of the Conductor agent
• Installation of the Dapr control plane

This walkthrough will show you how to easily onboard your first cluster to Conductor via the console experience.

Prerequisites

Make sure you have reviewed the Cluster prerequisites and have an existing Kubernetes cluster that meets the onboarding requirements.

If you would prefer to onboard your cluster via the Kubernetes operator which is supported for Conductor Enterprise or the Diagrid CLI supported in all plans, feel free to skip this tutorial.

Getting started

Enterprise

1. Log in to the Conductor console using your existing account credentials, or select Sign up if you do not have an existing account.

2. Select the + Connect Cluster button on the Clusters console view.

3. Provide a unique name for the cluster and select the appropriate Kubernetes distribution. If the distribution is not listed, select Other. For Cluster Type, if you are in the trial phase, only the Non Production is available. Otherwise, the number of available cluster types is dictated by your Conductor contract.

Free

1. Log in to the Conductor console using your existing account credentials, or select Sign up if you do not have an existing account.

2. Select the + Connect Cluster button on the Clusters console view.

3. Provide a unique name for the cluster and select the appropriate Kubernetes distribution. By default, Local is selected, which targets a local Kubernetes cluster used for development purposes. Change the distribution as needed and if your target is not available, select Other.

   Local dependencies

   When targeting a Local Kubernetes cluster, you will have the option to install the Kubernetes Metrics Server into your cluster as part of the onboarding process which is required for the Conductor agent to run successfully.

   

Configuring Dapr

info

If Dapr is not already installed on your cluster, configuring Dapr management via Conductor will install the control plane as part of the cluster connection process. If Dapr is already installed on your cluster, you can still allow Conductor to begin managing the Dapr control plane installation.

Enterprise

For a deep-dive into all Dapr configuration options, visit Dapr under Cluster Configuration.

1. Enable Install Dapr to allow Conductor to configure the Dapr control plane on your cluster.

2. Select the latest available Dapr version. Conductor will either perform a fresh Dapr installation, or ensure your existing control plane is running on the version selected here.

3. Enable Automatically sync Dapr Config to ensure Conductor always reconciles your cluster configuration to match what is specified via the Dapr configuration settings in Conductor.

   

4. Enable Rollout All Applications to ensure a rolling restart of the Dapr sidecars in the cluster is performed as a result of any Conductor initiated Dapr control plane changes, including Dapr upgrades.

5. Keep the Dev helm chart selected. This helm chart is used in the Dapr control plane installation/upgrade process and is optimized for Non Production clusters. Default requests and limits are set for all Dapr control plane pods, and High-Availability mode is disabled.

Free

1. Enable Install Dapr to allow Conductor to configure the Dapr control plane on your cluster.

2. Select the latest available Dapr version. Conductor will either perform a fresh Dapr installation, or ensure your existing control plane is running on the version selected here.

3. Enable Rollout All Applications to ensure a rolling restart of the Dapr sidecars in the cluster is performed as a result of any Conductor initiated Dapr control plane changes, including Dapr upgrades.

Configuring Conductor Agent

Enterprise

For a deep-dive into all Agent configuration options, visit Dapr under Cluster Configuration.

1. Enable Automatically Upgrade Agent to ensure your Conductor agent is always up-to-date.

2. Keep all advanced agent configuration as is, unless you are running on an ARM-based cluster, there may be specific tolerations and labels required. See the document "Install Conductor on ARM-based clusters" for specific guidance.

Free

By default, the Conductor agent will be updated automatically and no configuration is required.

Connecting your cluster

1. Once you have completed the above steps, select the Create button. This will generate all of the Kubernetes manifests needed to install the Conductor agent and kick off the Dapr control plane actions specified in the Configuring Dapr section.

2. Copy the generated command and run it against the Kubernetes API server on your cluster.

3. Select the Done button to return to the cluster dashboard. Your cluster connection should appear, and the agent status should go from Offline to Online once the agent is successfully running.

Next steps

With your first cluster up-and-running, it's time to dive into the cluster and application insights provided by Conductor!

Don't have a Dapr application running on your cluster yet? Check out the Conductor Pizza Store sample or the Dapr quickstarts to get inspired and start gaining Conductor insights into Dapr from day one!