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Version: 1.2.0

Using a Certificate Issuer

Epinio comes with multiple cert-manager cluster issuers for creating certificates:

  • epinio-ca (default)
  • letsencrypt-production
  • selfsigned-issuer

The issuer will be used for both, the Epinio API endpoint and workloads (i.e. pushed applications).

Choosing a Different Issuer​

When installing Epinio with helm, you can choose between those issuers by using the global.tlsIssuer helm variable.

It's also possible to create a cert-manager cluster issuer in the cluster, before installing Epinio and referencing it by name when installing.

Cluster Issuer for ACME DNS Challenge​

For example to use Letsencrypt with a DNS challenge, which supports wildcards and private IPs, create this cluster issuer after installing cert-manager:

apiVersion: cert-manager.io/v1
kind: ClusterIssuer
metadata:
  name: dns-staging
spec:
  acme:
    server: https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
    privateKeySecretRef:
      name: example-issuer-account-key
    solvers:
    - dns01:
        cloudflare:
          email: user@example.com
          apiKeySecretRef:
            name: cloudflare-apikey-secret
            key: apikey
      selector:
        dnsNames:
        - 'example.com'
        - '*.example.com'

Note: This uses the Letsencrypt staging endpoint for testing. More information in the cert-manager ACME docs.

You can then install Epinio with the global.tlsIssuer pointing to the new cluster issuer:

helm install epinio epinio/epinio --set global.tlsIssuer=dns-staging ...(other values here)

Cluster Issuer for Existing Private CA​

According to the instructions from https://cert-manager.io/docs/configuration/ca/, follow these steps:

Create Secret With CA Cert and Key​

If you don't already have a private CA, use a tool like openssl or easy-rsa to create it.

The following oneliner creates a CA:

openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 -sha256 -days 3650 -nodes \
  -keyout example.key -out example.crt -subj "/CN=*.yourdomainhere.org"

IMPORTANT: make sure the CN field matches the domain you are planning to use with Epinio

Create a Kubernetes secret from the CA, in the cert-manager namespace.

kubectl create secret -n cert-manager tls private-ca-secret \
  --cert=./example.crt --key=./example.key

The cert-manager documentation has more details about this.

Create ClusterIssuer​

Then create the cluster issuer:

apiVersion: cert-manager.io/v1
kind: ClusterIssuer
metadata:
  name: private-ca
spec:
  ca:
    secretName: private-ca-secret

Install Epinio​

Use the global.tlsIssuer variable to choose your cluster issuer:

helm install --set global.tlsIssuer=private-ca epinio epinio/epinio --global.domain=epinio.yourdomainhere.org

Background on Cert Manager and Issuers​

Cert manager watches for a certificate resource and uses the referenced cluster issuer to generate a certificate. The certificate is stored in a secret, in the namespace the certificate resources was created in. An ingress resource can then use that secret to set up TLS.

Example:

  1. The Epinio installation creates a certificate resource in epinio namespace
apiVersion: cert-manager.io/v1alpha2
kind: Certificate
metadata:
  name: epinio
  namespace: epinio
spec:
  commonName: epinio.172.27.0.2.omg.howdoi.website
  dnsNames:
  - epinio.172.27.0.2.omg.howdoi.website
  issuerRef:
    kind: ClusterIssuer
    name: epinio-ca
  secretName: epinio-tls
  1. cert-manager creates the 'epinio-tls' secret, using the referenced cluster issuer 'epinio-ca'
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
type: kubernetes.io/tls
metadata:
  annotations:
    cert-manager.io/alt-names: epinio.172.27.0.2.omg.howdoi.website
    cert-manager.io/certificate-name: epinio
    cert-manager.io/common-name: epinio.172.27.0.2.omg.howdoi.website
    cert-manager.io/ip-sans: ""
    cert-manager.io/issuer-group: ""
    cert-manager.io/issuer-kind: ClusterIssuer
    cert-manager.io/issuer-name: epinio-ca
    cert-manager.io/uri-sans: ""
  name: epinio-tls
  namespace: epinio
data:
  ca.crt: ...
  tls.crt: ...
  tls.key: ...
  1. Epinio creates an ingress resource
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/ingress.class: traefik
    traefik.ingress.kubernetes.io/router.entrypoints: websecure
    traefik.ingress.kubernetes.io/router.middlewares: epinio-epinio-api-auth@kubernetescrd
    traefik.ingress.kubernetes.io/router.tls: "true"
  labels:
    app.kubernetes.io/name: epinio
  name: epinio
  namespace: epinio
spec:
  rules:
  - host: epinio.172.27.0.2.omg.howdoi.website
    http:
      paths:
      - backend:
          service:
            name: epinio-server
            port:
              number: 80
        path: /
        pathType: ImplementationSpecific
  tls:
  - hosts:
    - epinio.172.27.0.2.omg.howdoi.website
    secretName: epinio-tls

Epinio Push​

The same is true for applications, epinio push creates a certificate in the app's workspace and cert-manager creates a secret for the app's ingress.