Create Your First App
Learn how to package an app for BYOC distribution.
This guide walks you through packaging an AWS EKS Traefik whomami
application and deploying it to an Install.
This App Config can be found in a GitHub repository.
Prerequisites
- Set up a Nuon organization. You will need a working Nuon org.
- Set up an AWS account. This is the account you will create the install in.
What You Will Create
This tutorial will walk you through creating the following:
- An App
- A Whoami component
- An Install, using our AWS EKS sandbox
You can alternatively clone the example-app-configs
repository which includes the eks-simple
App Config versus creating each config file manually. This guide is meant to explain the concepts behind each config file, so you can create your own App Configs in the future.
Configure App
To configure the app, you will create several TOML config files. In each section below we will provide you with configuration snippets for the app itself as well as it’s components.
Create App
Define the app itself and give it a name.
This will create the app in app.nuon.co
You should see the new App in the dashboard.
Inputs
Inputs are customer-specific configs that are entered when you install the App in the customer’s cloud account. They will be displayed in the Dashboard UI. Inputs are optional.
In the App root directory, create a file named inputs.toml
and add the following:
This Input defines a subdomain for the Whoami service that will be deployed in the customer’s AWS account. The customer will be prompted to enter this value when they create an Install of the App. It will default to whoami
, but the customer can change it to whatever they want.
Sandbox
Nuon provides a set of Nuon Managed Sandboxes that can be used to provision the infrastructure needed for your app.
The aws-eks-sandbox
will provide everything you need to run an EKS, from the EKS cluster down to the VPC.
Your App references these Sandboxes in the sandbox.toml
file.
In the App root directory, create a file named sandbox.toml
and add the following:
With enable_nuon_dns
set to true
, the Sandbox will create a Route53 DNS zone for the install, allowing you to access the services deployed in the customer’s AWS account using a Nuon-managed domain. The config uses the Install ID as the subdomain, which will be unique for each install.
The Sandbox expects variables, some of which are defined in the vars
section while others are defined in the sandbox.tfvars
file.
In the App root directory, create a file named sandbox.tfvars
and add the following:
Notice you can manage compute costs by setting the min_size
, max_size
, and desired_capacity
of the EKS cluster.
Components
Components are the building blocks of your App and where a software vendor’s application is installed on top of the Sandbox infrastructure.
In this example, we will create a Component to install Traefik’s Whoami service, a Tiny Go webserver that prints OS information and HTTP request headers.
In the App root directory, create directory called components
and within it, a file named whoami.toml
and add the following:
You will also need ALB and Certificate components to expose the Whoami service to the internet.
In the components
directory, create a file named alb.toml
and add the following:
In the components directory, create a file named certificate.toml
and add the following:
Actions
Actions are used to perform operations on your App, such as healthchecks or running kubectl
commands.
In the App root directory, create directory called actions
and within it, a file named simple_action.toml
and add the following to create a random secret in the whoami
namespace:
Other Configuration Files
Look at the eks-simple
App Config in the example-app-configs
repository for the remaining and required directory structure and files. The files created above are marked in **.
Sync App Config to Nuon
You now have a complete Nuon App Config.
This is a good place to stop and sync it to Nuon.
Make sure you are in the root directory of your app, then run:
Select the App in the Dashboard, and you should now see the updated Inputs, Sandbox, Components, and Runner configuration.
Create an Install
Click the Create Install button in the top right corner of the App page in the Dashboard. Give your Install a name choosethe AWS Region.
Notice the Inputs you defined in the inputs.toml
file are displayed here, allowing the customer to enter their own values.
After entering the Inputs, click the Create Install button at the bottom of the page to start the Workflow including the creation of an AWS CloudFormation stack link for the customer to open in their AWS account.
Monitoring Installs
As soon as you kick off the install provisioning, you should see the new install’s workflow in the dashboard.
Create the CloudFormation Stack in AWS
Click or copy the CloudFormation link to open it in your AWS account. You will need to log in to your AWS account if you are not already logged in. This creates a VPC, required policies that Nuon expects, an Autoscaling Group, a VM with Docker and a container that installs the Nuon Build Runner in your AWS account, which will be used to provision the Install of your App. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, accept the defaults, and click the Create Stack button.
Monitor the CloudFormation Stack creation in AWS
Monitor the CloudFormation stack creation in the AWS console. This will take a few minutes to complete. You can also pull up the AWS EC2 console and see the EC2 VM appear at some point with the install Id in its name. The Nuon Dashboard will not provide feedback until the Runner is up and connected to Nuon.
Monitor the Remainder of the Install Workflow
If plan steps require approvals, you will need to approve them in the Dashboard. You can also monitor the progress of the install in the Dashboard.
In the AWS console, you can see the EKS cluster being created.
In the AWS console, you can see the Application Load Balancer being created and the Target Group being created for the Whoami service.
Inspect the Install
When the install has provisioned, and the deploys have completed, copy the install ID from the UI and curl the API to verify it’s running.
You should see a response similar to the following:
Deprovision the Install
Nuon is mindful of your public cloud spend, so provide the following deprovisioning steps. Deprovisioning the Install is a two-step process. First, you need to deprovision the Install in the Nuon Dashboard, which will deprovision the resources to install your App. Once that is completed successfully, you then need to delete the CloudFormation stack in the AWS console, which removes the Build Runner by destroying the EC2 VM, ASG, and VPC.
Be sure to back up any data you want to keep before deprovisioning the Install, as this will delete all resources created by the Install.
Manually Deprovision the Install
If deprovisioning the Install in the Dashboard fails, there is a error-destroy.sh
script in the Nuon Managed Sandboxes repository that you can use to manually deprovision the Install. This script will remove all resources created by the Install, including the EKS cluster, ALB, certificates, and Route53 DNS records.
You still have to delete the CloudFormation stack in the AWS console after running this script to remove the Build Runner, ASG, EC2 VM, and VPC.
Wrapping Up and Next Steps
Congratulations, you just deployed a BYOC app to AWS! A few suggestions for where to go next:
- Check out our Release Management guide to learn how to update installs.
- Dig into our App Configuration guide to learn how to configure more complex apps.
- Share your installer with a friend and have them install your app in their AWS account.