Getting set up

Prerequisites for the Lab

Before we dive into the Labs, you need to be able to run the provided Lab VM. It contains a Minikube cluster and all the configurations for the subsequent labs.

Internet Access
PC with at least:
- 4 Core CPU
- 8GB of RAM / 16GB recommended (16GB needed for the Istio Lab)
- 40GB of free Disk Space

Part 1 - Install Hypervisor

Before we dive into the Labs, you need to be able to run the provided Lab VM. It contains a Minikube cluster and all the configurations for the subsequent labs.

VMWare is the preferred option as it handles nested virtualization that we need for this lab very well. VirtualBox has this option in the latest releases but might prove unstable on certain PCs/Macs (especially the MacBook Pro 16’ seems to run into problems).

Option 1: Installing VMWare (preferred)

If you do not already have VMWare installed, install a 60 days trial for your OS now:

macOS VMWare
Windows VMWare

Option 2: Installing VirtualBox

If you do not already have VirtualBox installed, install it for your OS now:

It is important that you use a version equal or newer than 6.1.6!

macOS VirtualBox, VMware Fusion, HyperKit
Linux VirtualBox, KVM
Windows VirtualBox, Hyper-V

Part 2 - Download the Lab VM on your PC

The VM is an 13GB zip file that has to be downloaded.

Option 1: Download with Aspera (recommended)

The easiest way to download the file is with IBM Aspera high-speed transfer solution.

Download it here:

Aspera VMWare

Aspera VirtualBox

Aspera OVA

Option 2: Download from Google Drive (not recommended)

You can also download it from Google Drive, which is much slower.

Download it here (VirtualBox only):

Google Drive VirtualBox

Part 3 - Starting the VM

VMWare

Open the VM by double-clicking on the Training2020.vmx file.
Start the VM from the VmWare interface.

VirtualBox

IMPORTANT: There have been problems reported running VirtualBox and Docker Desktop on Mac at the same time. If you have Docker Desktop running please shut it down first, we’ll use Docker in the VM.

Open the VM by double-clicking on the Training2020.vbox file.
Start the VM from the VmWare interface.

Part 4 - Testing the VM

When the VM is up and running you can login with

User: training

Pwd: passw0rd
You can now open the Firefox browser in the VM and check that you can open a webpage (google.com for example)
Open a terminal window (in the dock)
Execute the following commands to initialize your Training Environment
```
./welcome.sh
```
``

This will
- pull the latest example code from my GitHub repository
- start minikube if not already running
- installs the registry
- installs the Network Plugin (Cilium)
- starts the Personal Training Environment
During this you will have to provide a name (your name) that will be used to show your progress in the Instructor Dashboard in order to better assist you.

If you encounter any trouble starting minikube you can try running ./reset.sh

Using your own environment

These are two methods to perform the Labs without downloading and starting the VM.

This is untested and I cannot guarantee that all the Labs will be working 100%.

Standalone installation

For installation on your local PC

1) Install the prerequisites

This describes how to setup an environment on your local PC. This is untested and I cannot guarantee that all the Labs will be working 100%.

You must have the following setup on your PC:

Minikube
Docker
Git

Clone the lab repository to your home directory

git clone https://github.com/niklaushirt/training.git
Go to the installation directory

cd ~/training/standalone
Run the preparation script

./standalone-pc.sh
Get the Cluster IP (MY-CLUSTER-IP)
```
minikube ip
```
``
You can access the PTE via
```
http://<MY-CLUSTER-IP>:31222
```
``

Cloud Installation

1) Create Kubernetes Cluster on IBM Cloud

Go to https://cloud.ibm.com
Login or create your account
Type Kubernetes in the search field and select Kubernetes Service
Select Free Cluster and click Create

Follow the instructions on the Access tab:

Download and install the CLI tools
Log in to your IBM Cloud account.
Set the Kubernetes context
Verify that you can connect

Run the following

kubectl get nodes                                                                                                                           
       
> NAME           STATUS   ROLES    AGE   VERSION
> w.x.y.z.       Ready    <none>   24d   v1.17.6+IKS

Now you’re ready to follow the next steps

2) Install the prerequisites

This describes how to setup an environment in the Cloud. This is untested and I cannot guarantee that all the Labs will be working 100%.