Setup Mender server on proxmox

General Discussions
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1

I want to setup a Mender server on my proxmox cluster that runs other infrastructure services in my production environment.

By reading the docs, I have the following doubts from the docs:

a) Considering the latest Mender 6.3 version, I understand that I need to install Kubernetes, Minio and then the Mender Server, correct ?

b) About mongo, should I install at the same VM directly? How can I tell Mender where to find my mongo database/credentials?

c) Is it possible to install version 6.3 using Docker for production? I see in version 6.3 that docs mention only Kibernetes for production…

b) Will Mender run on a Debian 12 VM or to I need to explicitely install Ubuntu on my VM?

d) There is something in the documentation that is not clear for me: “The Mender backend is available for the x86 architecture only.”… What does that exactly means in terms of my Proxmox VM - any specific configuration?

Thanks in advance for the answers.

2

Hello @renato
some answers:

a) Kubernetes is now the only supported platform for mender. If you want to setup it in Proxmox, I’d suggest using a fat VM and install K3s in it, then install Mender as per the documentation.
b) It’s your choice based on your needs. For evaluation purposes you could use the MongoDB packaged inside the Mender helm chart. See here
c) Version 3.6.3 :wink: . It’s not supported, but it’s up to you: have a look at the Integration repo: here you can find a testing-purpose docker compose setup
d) Debian is fine. If you follow the doc on newer openssl versions you could experience an issue: in that case use the -traditional flag:

openssl genpkey -algorithm RSA -pkeyopt rsa_keygen_bits:3072 | openssl rsa -traditional -out device_auth.key
openssl genpkey -algorithm RSA -pkeyopt rsa_keygen_bits:3072 | openssl rsa -traditional -out useradm.key

e) x86, x86_64, AMD64, you name it :wink: . This means you cannot use arm (yet). If you have an Intel/AMD processor on your Proxmox host, you’re good to go!

3

Thanks for the responses…

About Mongo, is a requirement to have it installed or I can have the server running only with Minio as an S3 repository?

What exactly mender-helmet purpose and is used for?

4

Hello @renato ,
Mongo is a requirement: without it Mender doesn’t work.

What exactly mender-helmet purpose and is used for?

You mean the Mender Helm Chart? It’s a helm chart to deploy Mender on K8s

5

Still confused about mongo…

Do I need to do a manual install of mongo at the VM on linux or is it installed directly inside the mender server package and there is nothing to be done - it will come bundled?

6

In the Helm chart, if you set:

# Using default values from https://artifacthub.io/packages/helm/bitnami/mongodb
mongodb:
  enabled: true

it installs a bundled MongoDB package. In that case, please notice in that case that you have to not set the global.mongodb.URL entry:

global:
  mongodb:
    URL: ""

If you want to bring your own MongoDB, no problem either. If you install MongoDB from the same VM where k3s is installed, you have to ensure to reach it from inside the k3s cluster. You can use a test pod to check for mongodb connectivity, for example:

kubectl run -it debug -n default --image=rtsp/mongosh --restart=Never -- bash

And then try to connect to your MongoDB service. When validated, you can provide the same connection string in the mender values.yaml file global.mongodb.URL or by using global.mongodb.existingSecret.