Control Center in Kubernetes

Create a Kubernetes Project

A Kubernetes project is a Kubernetes namespace with additional configuration properties and enables a community of users to isolate the GridGain Control Center from other applications and users. Additional information on Kubernetes projects can be found here.

Create a new Kubernetes project:

kubectl create namespace gridgain-control-center
kubectl config set-context --current --namespace=gridgain-control-center

Once the project is created, you can perform regular project operations such as kubectl get namespace to view the full list of projects and oc status to view the status of the newly created gridgain-control-center project.

Create the Control Center Backend Container

Create the Control Center backend container. Remember to specify the correct image tag for your version of GridGain Control Center.

Create the Configuration File

Create the backend container configuration file control-center-backend-sts.yaml. See an example below.

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: StatefulSet
metadata:
  name: backend
  namespace: gridgain-control-center
spec:
  replicas: 1
  serviceName: backend
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: backend
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: backend
    spec:
      containers:
        name: backend-container
        image: gridgain/control-center-backend:2024.3
        imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
        resources:
          requests:
            ephemeral-storage: "2Gi"
          limits:
            ephemeral-storage: "4Gi"
          ports:
            containerPort: 3000
            protocol: TCP
            name: cc-web
          env:
            name: JVM_OPTS
            value: "-server -Xms1g -Xmx2g -XX:+AlwaysPreTouch -XX:+UseG1GC -XX:+ScavengeBeforeFullGC"
          volumeMounts:
            mountPath: /opt/gridgain-control-center/work
            name: control-center-storage
  volumeClaimTemplates:
    metadata:
      name: control-center-storage
      spec:
        accessModes: [ "ReadWriteOnce" ]
        resources:
          requests:
            storage: 10Gi

Define initContainers in the Configuration File (Optional)

When the persistentVolume is created, its owner is root. The default user inside the GridGain container is different, which may case a permission issue when the container tries to write to the above persistentVolume. To prevent this from happening, you can define initContainers in your configuration file. See an example below.

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: StatefulSet
metadata:
  name: backend
  namespace: gridgain-control-center
spec:
  replicas: 1
  serviceName: backend
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: backend
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: backend
    spec:
      securityContext:
        runAsUser: 10001
        runAsGroup: 10001
        fsGroup: 10001
      initContainers:
        - name: init
          image: alpine
          command: ["sh", "-c", "chown -R 10001:10001 /opt/gridgain-control-center/work"]
          volumeMounts:
            - mountPath: /opt/gridgain-control-center/work
              name: control-center-storage
          securityContext:
            runAsUser: 0
            runAsGroup: 0
      containers:
        - name: backend-container
          image: gridgain/control-center-backend:2023.3.1
          imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
          env:
            - name: JVM_OPTS
              value: ""
          volumeMounts:
            - mountPath: /opt/gridgain-control-center/work
              name: control-center-storage
  volumeClaimTemplates:
    - metadata:
        name: control-center-storage
      spec:
        accessModes: [ "ReadWriteOnce" ]
        resources:
          requests:
            storage: 10Gi

Create the Container

Once your configuration file has been created, run the following command to create the container:

kubectl apply -f control-center-backend-sts.yaml

Create Control Center Backend Service

Create a Kubernetes service to route network traffic to the Control Center backend. The service will act as a LoadBalancer for the Control Center backend.

Create the backend service configuration file control-center-backend-service.yaml:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: backend
  namespace: gridgain-control-center
spec:
  type: LoadBalancer
  selector:
    app: backend
  ports:
   - name: control-center-web
     port: 3000
     protocol: TCP
     targetPort: 3000

Optionally, to introduce a custom ignite-config.xml file:

Add the following to the config map:

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: contro-center-backend-configmap
  labels:
data:
  ignite-config.xml: |
<content_of_ignite-config.xml>

Add the ConfigMap name in the volumes section of the StatefulSet:

volumes:
  - configMap:
       name: contro-center-backend-configmap
    name: ignite-config

Mount the config map to a specific path:

volumeMounts:
  - mountPath: /opt/gridgain-control-center/config/ignite-config.xml
    name: ignite-config
    subPath: ignite-config.xml

Run the following command to create the service:

kubectl apply -f control-center-backend-service.yaml

Create a ConfigMap for Control Center Frontend

A ConfigMap is a key-value store that lives as a Kubernetes object. ConfigMaps allow you to modify application behavior without having to recreate the Docker image.

Before creating the Control Center frontend container, you must first create the ConfigMap.

Create the ConfigMap configuration file control-center-frontend-configmap.yaml:

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: control-center-config
  namespace: gridgain-control-center
data:
   control-center.conf: |-
    upstream backend {
      server backend:3000;
    }

    server {
      listen 8008;
      server_name _;

      set $ignite_console_dir /data/www;

      root $ignite_console_dir;

      error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html;

      location / {
        try_files $uri /index.html = 404;
      }

      location /api/v1 {
        proxy_pass http://backend;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $http_host;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_pass_header X-XSRF-TOKEN;
      }

      location /agents {
        proxy_pass http://backend;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
        proxy_set_header Origin http://backend;
      }

      location /browsers {
        proxy_pass http://backend;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
        proxy_set_header Origin http://backend;
        proxy_pass_header X-XSRF-TOKEN;
      }

      location = /50x.html {
        root $ignite_console_dir/error_page;
      }
    }

Apply the Control Center backend configmap to the gridgain-control-center project using the following command:
kubectl apply -f control-center-frontend-configmap.yaml

Create the Control Center Frontend Container

After the ConfigMap has been applied to the project, create the Control Center frontend container. Remember to specify the correct image tag for your version of GridGain Control Center.

Create the container configuration file control-center-frontend-deployment.yaml:

# An example of a Kubernetes configuration for Control Center deployment.
apiVersion: v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
 name: control-center-frontend
 namespace: gridgain-control-center
 labels:
   app: frontend
spec:
 containers:
 - name: frontend-container
   image: gridgain/control-center-frontend:2023.1
   imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
   ports:
   - containerPort: 8008
     protocol: TCP
   volumeMounts:
   - mountPath: /etc/nginx/control-center.conf
     name: control-center-config
     subPath: control-center.conf
 volumes:
   - name: control-center-config
     configMap:
       name: control-center-config
       items:
       - key: control-center.conf
         path: control-center.conf

Run the following command to create the container:

kubectl apply -f control-center-frontend-deployment.yaml

Create Control Center Frontend Service

Create a Kubernetes service to route network traffic to the Control Center frontend service.

Create the service configuration file control-center-frontend-service.yaml:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: frontend
  namespace: gridgain-control-center
spec:
  type: LoadBalancer
  selector:
    app: frontend
  ports:
   - name: control-center-web
     port: 8008
     protocol: TCP
     targetPort: 8008

Run the following command to create the service which will act as a LoadBalancer for the Control Center frontend service:
kubectl apply -f control-center-frontend-service.yaml

Set JVM Options

You can additionally set JVM options to improve Control Center performance in high-throughput environments. The example below uses the same configuration as above, but also sets some JVM options:

# An example of a Kubernetes configuration for Control Center deployment.
apiVersion: v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
 name: control-center-frontend
 namespace: gridgain-control-center
 labels:
   app: frontend
spec:
 containers:
 - name: frontend-container
   image: gridgain/control-center-frontend:2023.1
   imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
   env:
   - name: JVM_OPTS
     value: "-server -XX:+AggressiveOpts -XX:MaxPermSize=256m"
   ports:
   - containerPort: 8008
     protocol: TCP
   volumeMounts:
   - mountPath: /etc/nginx/control-center.conf
     name: control-center-config
     subPath: control-center.conf
 volumes:
   - name: control-center-config
     configMap:
       name: control-center-config
       items:
       - key: control-center.conf
         path: control-center.conf

Expose the Control Center Frontend Service and Get Routes to the Application

Get the deployed Control Center frontend LoadBalancer service IP using the following command:
$ kubectl get svc frontend
Finally, access the Control Center frontend UI using one of the returned external IPs.

Create the First Admin Account

If this is your first time launching Control Center, you can create an initial Admin account by using details in the Control Center output. Using the example configurations in this document, the default port of the frontend container will be 8008. The Admin creation URL will look like the following:

http://<IP of frontend service>:8008/auth/signup?adminToken=<TOKEN ID as listed in log files>

Connect a Cluster

When configuring the cluster to connect to Control Center, remember to use the URL to the frontend service with the correct port. In the above examples, the port is 8008. For example:

management.sh -uri http://<frontend.gridgain-control-center>:8008/

Next Steps

Change Configuration Parameters - make sure you optimize the disk space utilization
Add a License
Connect a GridGain or Apache Ignite Cluster

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Last updated on May 06, 2025