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Deploy the platform

The Tenzir Platform is the control plane that manages Tenzir Nodes. The platform also provides a web interface to explore data, create pipelines, and build dashboards.

Sovereign Edition Required

Tenzir offers a free and cloud-hosted version of the Tenzir Platform at app.tenzir.com. This guide explains how to run the platform on your own premises using the Sovereign Edition.

Download the Platform​

Start with downloading the latest Tenzir Platform release and unpack the archive.

Set Up Docker Registry Access​

As part of your distribution, you were provided an authentication token (YOUR_DOCKER_TOKEN below) to fetch the Docker images. Log in with the token as follows:

echo YOUR_DOCKER_TOKEN | docker login ghcr.io -u tenzir-distribution --password-stdin

Configure the Platform​

You need to configure a few external services to run the platform, such as a HTTP reverse proxy, an identity provider, and a state database.

Scroll down to the configuration options and populate a .env file with your individual settings.

Run the Platform​

After you configured all services, choose a pre-canned deployment template from the examples directory:

❯ tree examples
.
├── localdev
│   ├── docker-compose.yaml
│   └── env.example
└── onprem
    ├── docker-compose.yaml
    └── env.example

Change into one of these directories and start the platform in the foreground with

docker compose up

or docker compose up --detach to run it in the background.

❯ docker compose up
[+] Running 5/5
 ✔ Container compose-app-1                Running
 ✔ Container compose-websocket-gateway-1  Running
 ✔ Container compose-seaweed-1            Running
 ✔ Container compose-platform-1           Running
Attaching to app-1, platform-1, postgres-1, seaweed-1, websocket-gateway-1
platform-1           | {"event": "connecting to postgres", "level": "debug", "ts": "2024-04-10T10:13:20.205616Z"}
platform-1           | {"event": "connected to postgres", "level": "debug", "ts": "2024-04-10T10:13:20.210667Z"}
platform-1           | {"event": "created table", "level": "info", "ts": "2024-04-10T10:13:20.210883Z"}
platform-1           | {"event": "connecting to postgres", "level": "debug", "ts": "2024-04-10T10:13:20.217700Z"}
platform-1           | {"event": "connected to postgres", "level": "debug", "ts": "2024-04-10T10:13:20.221194Z"}
platform-1           | {"event": "creating a table", "level": "info", "ts": "2024-04-10T10:13:20.221248Z"}
platform-1           | {"event": "connecting to postgres", "level": "debug", "ts": "2024-04-10T10:13:20.221464Z"}
platform-1           | {"event": "connected to postgres", "level": "debug", "ts": "2024-04-10T10:13:20.224226Z"}
app-1                | Listening on 0.0.0.0:3000
websocket-gateway-1  | {"event": "connecting to postgres", "level": "debug", "ts": "2024-04-10T10:15:37.033632Z"}
websocket-gateway-1  | {"event": "connected to postgres", "level": "debug", "ts": "2024-04-10T10:15:37.038510Z"}
websocket-gateway-1  | {"event": "created table", "level": "info", "ts": "2024-04-10T10:15:37.042555Z"}
websocket-gateway-1  | {"host": "0.0.0.0", "port": 5000, "common_env": {"base_path": "", "tenzir_proxy_timeout": 60.0}, "local_env": {"store": {"postgres_uri": "postgresql://postgres:postgres@postgres:5432/platform"}, "tenant_manager_app_api_key": "d3d185cc4d9a1bde0e07e24c2eb0bfe9d2726acb3a386f8882113727ac6e90cf", "tenant_manager_tenant_token_encryption_key": "CBOXE4x37RKRLHyUNKeAsfg8Tbejm2N251aKnBXakpU="}, "event": "HTTP server running", "level": "info", "ts": "2024-04-10T10:15:37.045244Z"}
...

It may take up to a minute for all services to be fully available.

Manage the Platform​

We provide a command-line utility that simplifies managing users, organizations, workspaces, and nodes.

Install the tenzir-platform package from PyPI.

You must provide the following environment variables for interacting with the platform through the CLI:

TENZIR_PLATFORM_CLI_API_ENDPOINT=api.platform.example:5000
TENZIR_PLATFORM_CLI_OIDC_ISSUER_URL=YOUR_OIDC_ISSUER_URL
TENZIR_PLATFORM_CLI_OIDC_CLIENT_ID=YOUR_OIDC_CLIENT_ID

Read our documentation on the Tenzir Platform CLI to learn more about managing your platform deployment.

Update the Platform​

To update to the latest platform version, pull the latest images:

docker compose pull

Configuration Options​

The platform requires some external services that must be installed and configured separately by setting several environment variables described below.

HTTP Reverse Proxy​

The platform uses four URLs that require a HTTP reverse proxy. These URLs may be mapped to the same or different hostnames.

  1. The URL that the user's browser connects to, e.g., app.platform.example. This serves a web frontend where the user can interact with the platform.
  2. The URL that the nodes connect to, e.g., nodes.platform.example. Tenzir Nodes connect to this URL to establish long-running WebSocket connections.
  3. The URL that the platform's S3-compatible blob storage is accessible at, e.g., downloads.platform.example. When using the Download button the platform generates download links under this URL.
  4. The URL that the Tenzir Platform CLI connects to, e.g., api.platform.example.

You must provide the following environment variables to the platform:

# The domain under which the platform frontend is reachable. Must include the
# `http://` or `https://` scheme.
TENZIR_PLATFORM_DOMAIN=https://app.platform.example
 
# The endpoint to which Tenzir nodes should connect. Must include the `ws://`
# or `wss://` scheme.
TENZIR_PLATFORM_CONTROL_ENDPOINT=wss://nodes.platform.example
 
# The URL at which the platform's S3-compatible blob storage is accessible at.
TENZIR_PLATFORM_BLOBS_ENDPOINT=https://downloads.platform.example
 
# The URL at which the platform's S3-compatible blob storage is accessible at.
TENZIR_PLATFORM_API_ENDPOINT=https://api.platform.example

Identity Provider (IdP)​

You can configure the Tenzir Platform to use an external Identity Provider.

IdP Requirements​

To use an external identity provider, ensure it supports the OIDC protocol, including the OIDC Discovery extension, and configure it to provide valid RS256 ID tokens.

Set up the external identity provider by creating two clients (also called Applications in Auth0 or App Registrations in Microsoft Entra) named tenzir-app and tenzir-cli.

The tenzir-app client is used for logging into the Tenzir Platform in the web browser.

  • The Authorization Code flow must be enabled.
  • The allowed redirect URLs must include https://app.platform.example/login/oauth/callback.
  • The client secret should be noted down so it can be added to the configuration of the Tenzir Platform in the next step.

The tenzir-cli client is used to authenticate with the tenzir-platform CLI.

  • The Device Code flow must be enabled.
  • If the identity provider does not return an id_token for the device code flow, then the returned access_token must be in JWT format.

You may want to to run CLI commands in environments where no user is available to perform the device code authorization flow, for example when running CLI commands as part of a CI job.

In this case, you can set up another client with the Client Credentials flow enabled. The access_token obtained from this client must be in JWT format. The CLI can make use of the client credentials flow by using the tenzir-platform auth login --non-interactive option.

Platform Configuration​

You must provide the following environment variables for the OIDC provider configuration used for logging into the platform:

TENZIR_PLATFORM_OIDC_PROVIDER_NAME=example-idp
TENZIR_PLATFORM_OIDC_PROVIDER_ISSUER_URL=https://my.idp.example
 
TENZIR_PLATFORM_OIDC_CLI_CLIENT_ID=tenzir-cli
 
TENZIR_PLATFORM_OIDC_APP_CLIENT_ID=tenzir-app
TENZIR_PLATFORM_OIDC_APP_CLIENT_SECRET=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

You must provide the following environment variable containing a JSON object with the OIDC issuer and audiences that should be accepted by the platform.

TENZIR_PLATFORM_OIDC_TRUSTED_AUDIENCES='{"https://my.idp.example": ["tenzir-cli", "tenzir-app"]}'

You must configure the set of admin users in your platform instance. An admin user is a user who is permitted to run the tenzir-platform admin CLI command.

The TENZIR_PLATFORM_OIDC_ADMIN_RULES setting contains a JSON list of access rules that determine who is considered an admin for this platform instance. If any of the provided rules match, the user is considered to be an admin. The example rule grants admin access to all users with a valid and signed id_token containing the fields {"tenzir/org": "TenzirPlatformAdmins"}.

TENZIR_PLATFORM_OIDC_ADMIN_RULES='[{"organization_claim": "tenzir/org", "organization": "TenzirPlatformAdmins", "auth_fn": "auth_organization"}]'

See the documentation on Access Rules for more information about the possible types of rules and their syntax. Use the -d option of the CLI to generate valid JSON objects that you can enter here.

PostgreSQL Database​

A PostgreSQL database stores the internal state of the platform.

You must provide the following environment variables:

TENZIR_PLATFORM_POSTGRES_USER=YOUR_POSTGRES_USER
TENZIR_PLATFORM_POSTGRES_PASSWORD=YOUR_POSTGRES_PASSWORD
TENZIR_PLATFORM_POSTGRES_DB=YOUR_POSTGRES_DB
TENZIR_PLATFORM_POSTGRES_HOSTNAME=YOUR_POSTGRES_HOSTNAME

TLS Settings​

We strongly recommend using signed TLS certificates which are trusted by the machines running the Tenzir Nodes.

However, it can sometimes be necessary to use self-signed certificates for the Tenzir Platform. in this situation we recommend the creation of a local certificate authority, e.g., using the trustme project. This approach has the advantage of not requiring the client to disable TLS certificate validation, thus preventing man-in-the-middle attacks when compared to a self-signed certificate..

If that is not possible, a self-signed certificate can be generated using openssl by following this procedure.

Node Settings​

On the node, in order to trust a custom CA certificate, the following option needs to point to a CA certificate file in PEM format without password protection:

TENZIR_PLATFORM_CACERT=/path/to/ca-certificate.pem

If you want to use a self-signed TLS certificate, you need to disable TLS certificate validation by setting:

TENZIR_PLATFORM_SKIP_PEER_VERIFICATION=true

Note that these settings only apply to the connection that is established between the node and the platform, not to any TLS connections that may be created by running pipelines on the node.