Configure Binarly charts

There are two custom Helm charts for Binarly On-Prem:

Secrets: Creates necessary secrets for the Binarly components.
Binarly: Deploys core On-Prem components following the ArgoCD App of Apps pattern.

Let’s describe how to configure them:

Binarly Secrets

The chart is configured in k8s/apps/binarly-secrets/values.yaml.gotmpl. At least, it’s necessary to provide the following secrets:

secrets:
  # @schema
  # type: string
  # @schema
  # -- API key for NVD. It will fill the value from $BINARLY_SECRET_NVD_API_KEY
  nvdApiKey: {{ requiredEnv "BINARLY_SECRET_NVD_API_KEY" }}

  # @schema
  # type: string
  # @schema
  # -- Integration Secret for server component. It will fill the value from $BINARLY_SECRET_SERVER_INTEGRATION_SECRET
  serverIntegrationSecret: {{ requiredEnv "BINARLY_SECRET_SERVER_INTEGRATION_SECRET" }}

Thanks to helmfile, we can easily provide those environment variables from our .envrc.local file:

## Binarly Secrets
# NOTE: Fill these secrets with the provided credentials
export BINARLY_SECRET_NVD_API_KEY=""
export BINARLY_SECRET_SERVER_INTEGRATION_SECRET=""

Ensure to fill the values accordingly. For the BINARLY_SECRET_NVD_API_KEY it should be present on the Bitwarden secrets. For the BINARLY_SECRET_SERVER_INTEGRATION_SECRET you need to generate it with the following terminal command:

openssl rand -base64 32

Ensure you keep the previous secrets in a safe place. If you loose access to the BINARLY_SECRET_SERVER_INTEGRATION_SECRET the Jira integration will be lost as the data is encrypted into the database.

Remember if you make any change to the .envrc.local file to apply again the source .envrc.local command to refresh the latest environment variables!

Now, you can render the output of the Secrets chart to quickly check what secrets are going to be created in the Kubernetes cluster:

helmfile template --selector name=secrets

The secrets will be installed in the following steps. You can also lint the Chart for any misconfiguration or issues as well:

helmfile lint --selector name=secrets

Binarly Chart

This is the main chart that contains the ArgoCD App of Apps for Binarly. Configuration is stored in k8s/apps/binarly/values.yaml.gotmpl.

Image Pull Secrets

By default, the Binarly deployment will use the authenticated registry provided by Customer Success and this is already set up. If you are using a custom registry, this can be adjusted in the binarly-repository-secrets file. imagePullSecrets should match with the binarly-registry (that is being created on the secrets chart). This will allow to access the custom Artifact Registry to be able to pull docker images:

global:
  imagePullSecrets:
    - name: binarly-registry

Ingress

basedomain is base domain name for Binarly Transparency Platform:

basedomain: "binarly.domain.com"

To configure the ingress, just tweak the following parameters:

ingress:
  # @schema
  # type: boolean
  # @schema
  # -- Enable ingress for the application
  enabled: false

  # @schema
  # type: string
  # @schema
  # -- Ingress class name to use
  className: "nginx"

  # @schema
  # type: object
  # properties:
  #   nginx:
  #     type: object
  # @schema
  # -- Annotations for the ingress resource
  annotations:
    nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-body-size: 5000m

  tls:
    # @schema
    # type: boolean
    # default: false
    # @schema
    # -- Enable TLS for the ingress resource
    enabled: false

    # @schema
    # type: boolean
    # default: false
    # @schema
    # -- Use cert-manager for TLS certificate management
    useCertManager: false

    # @schema
    # type: string
    # default: ""
    # @schema
    # -- Name of the TLS secret to use (if not using cert-manager)
    secretName: ""

  # -- Only applicable if useCertManager is enabled
  clusterIssuer:
    # @schema
    # type: string
    # default: letsencrypt
    # @schema
    # -- Name of the cluster issuer
    name: letsencrypt

    # @schema
    # type: object
    # @schema
    # -- Extra ingress annotations for cert-manager
    annotations:
      cert-manager.io/cluster-issuer: letsencrypt

    # @schema
    # type: object
    # additionalProperties: true
    # @schema
    # -- Issuer configuration for cert-manager
    issuer:
      acme:
        email: ssl@binarly.io
        privateKeySecretRef:
          name: letsencrypt-dash-acct-key
        server: https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
        solvers:
          - http01:
              ingress:
                class: nginx

Also, from the previous configuration for the ingress, you can select if you want to use a custom TLS certificate, or to use cert-manager with the Let's Encrypt known as ACME by setting to true the key useCertManager. cert-manager suppors many certificate provider issuers and not only ACME as we can see from the list here. You can tweak the issuer section to match any of the cert-manager issuers providers to be able to customize to your specific settings. Don’t forget to configure the keycloak ingress (ensure, for the hostname to start with auth and the basedomain you have configured before):

keycloak:
  # @schema
  # type: string
  # @schema
  # -- Name of the keycloak hostname to use. Ensure it matches with keycloakHelmChart.ingress.hostname.
  hostname: "auth"

keycloakHelmChart:
  chart:
    values:
      ingress:
        # @schema
        # type: boolean
        # @schema
        # -- Enable ingress for the application.
        enabled: true

        # @schema
        # type: string
        # @schema
        # -- Ingress class name to use. For now only nginx is supported.
        ingressClassName: nginx

        # @schema
        # type: boolean
        # @schema
        # -- Enable tls for the application.
        tls: true

        # @schema
        # type: string
        # @schema
        # -- Name of the keycloak hostname to use. Ensure it matches with your basedomain.
        hostname: "auth.binarly.domain.com"

        # @schema
        # type: object
        # additionalProperties: true
        # @schema
        # -- Issuer annotations for the cluster.
        annotations:
          cert-manager.io/cluster-issuer: letsencrypt

If you are using a custom clusterIssuer.issuer just ensure to change the ingressAnnotations for both clusterIssuer.ingressAnnotations and keycloakHelmChart.chart.values.annotations to match with the new cerfiticate provider.

Currently, we expect both Binarly dashboard and auth to use the same basedomain. If you have your own Certifcate Authority, you’ll need your own certificates for dashboard.{{basedomain}} and auth.{{basedomain}}.

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

By default all access is managed via Keycloak. To enable RBAC, you can set the following values:

auth:
  enableRBAC: true
  enableRBACMiddleware: true

dashboard:
  appConfigData:
    features:
      rbac: true

To read more about RBAC in the Binarly application, please see the dedicated page.

Air Gapped Environment

The Binarly Application will work in an air-gapped environment with a few caveats:

There must be an internal registry capable of hosting images and charts.
Chart addresses must be updated to use the internal registry.
Image repository fields must be overwritten to use the internal registry.
One component of the Binarly Application (Vulnerability Database) requires internet access to fetch vulnerability data.

Internal Registry

The registry in use should be populated with the contents of the private Binarly registry provided by Customer Success. The exact contents will be communicated prior to the installation.

Chart and Image Addresses

The chart address need to be updated in two places:

The repositories section of the helmfile.d/*.yaml.gotmpl file.
In the envrc.local file.

Vulnerability Database

The Vulnerability Database component of the Binarly Application requires internet access to fetch vulnerability data. This can be achieved by setting up a proxy server that allows the Vulnerability Database to access the internet, and passing this config in k8s/apps/binarly/values.yaml.gotmpl:

vdb:
  env:
    http_proxy: "http://proxy:port"
    https_proxy: "http://proxy:port"

Configure Third-Party Charts

The Binarly Installation comes with a set of third-party charts, more information in considerations. These charts are configured in the k8s/apps/{chart name} directory.

ArgoCD

Improve password security for admin user

By default, and if the Helm chart values are not changed from default settings, ArgoCD will create automatically the initial admin user with the following credentials:

Username: admin
Password: A randomized string of 10 characters.

The password secret is stored in the argocd namespace within the following secret name: argocd-initial-admin-secret. We recommend though, to change the password of the account to improve the security settings of your cluster with a size of 32 characters. To do so there are two ways:

Configure ArgoCD Helm chart

The other option is to directly configure the ArgoCD Helm chart, to deploy it with our password. We can do it like it follows:

Configure the k8s/apps/argocd/values.yaml to include a hashed password like it follows (ensure you have installed htpasswd and openssl cli tools):

configs:
   secret:
      # -- Bcrypt hashed admin password
      ## Argo expects the password in the secret to be bcrypt hashed. You can create this hash with
      ## export ARGOCD_PASSWORD="$(openssl rand -base64 32)"
      ## htpasswd -nbBC 15 "" "${ARGOCD_PASSWORD}" | tr -d ':\n' | sed 's/$2y/$2a/'
      ## and copy the resulting string inside `argocdServerAdminPassword`
      argocdServerAdminPassword: "{bcrypt hashed password from htpasswd command}"

Ensure you save the $ARGOCD_PASSWORD safely, otherwise you won’t be able to access ArgoCD with the admin credentials, unless you redeploy the chart.
Once ArgoCD is running and deployed in your Kubernetes cluster, the password secret is stored inside the argocd-secret (instead of the argocd-initial-admin-secret secret).
kubectl get secret argocd-secret -n argocd -o jsonpath="{.data.admin\.password}" | base64 -d

What happens if I forgot my admin password? In this particular case, you can always generate a new admin password, update the k8s/apps/argocd/values.yaml and perform a helmfile apply --selector name=argocd to update your ArgoCD instance with the fix.

Use ArgoCD CLI

This entails deploying ArgoCD (by just following this guide) and once up and running:

Install the ArgoCD CLI on your system as per the official docs guide
Connect ArgoCD CLI to your ArgoCD instance
Use the argocd account update-password CLI command as stated in their docs.

What happens if I forgot my admin password? This guide will help you to troubleshoot it.

Configuring ArgoCD Ingress with Ingress-Nginx and TLS

There are two main approaches to configure the ingress:

Option 1: SSL-Passthrough

This method allows exposing the Argo CD API server with a single ingress rule and hostname:

Open k8s/apps/argocd/values.yaml
Add or modify the server.ingress section:

server:
  ingress:
    enabled: true
    ingressClassName: nginx
    hostname: argocd.binarly.domain.com
    annotations:
      nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/ssl-passthrough: "true"
      nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/backend-protocol: "HTTPS"
    tls: true

Ensure the nginx-ingress-controller is running with the --enable-ssl-passthrough flag. Modify the k8s/apps/ingress-nginx/values.yaml to contain:
controller: extraArgs: enable-ssl-passthrough: true

Option 2: SSL Termination at Ingress Controller

For this option, you need to provide your own TLS certificate.

Open k8s/apps/argocd/values.yaml

server:
   ingress:
      enabled: true
      ingressClassName: nginx
      hosts:
         - argocd.binarly.domain.com
      annotations:
         nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/force-ssl-redirect: "true"
         nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/backend-protocol: "HTTP"
      tls:
         - hosts:
            - argocd.binarly.domain.com
         secretName: argocd-ingress-http

Enable insecure mode for the ArgoCD server:
params: server.insecure: true

ArgoCD supports more configuration options to configure the ingress. We recommend you visiting ArgoCD official documentation guide for more information.

MetalLB

Include into the repositories list the Helm registry:

repositories:
  - name: metallb
    url: "https://metallb.github.io/metallb"

Now, add the chart to the list of releases:

releases:
  - name: metallb
    namespace: metallb
    createNamespace: true
    chart: metallb/metallb
    version: "0.14.8"
    labels:
      name: metallb
      kind: base
    values:
      - ./k8s/apps/metallb/values.yaml

Create the folder and the file at the path ./k8s/apps/metallb/values.yaml.
Customize the values.yaml according to your necessities by following MetalLB instructions.
Continue with the rest of the instructions.

​Configure Binarly charts

​Binarly Secrets

​Binarly Chart

​Image Pull Secrets

​Ingress

​Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

​Air Gapped Environment

​Internal Registry

​Chart and Image Addresses

​Vulnerability Database

​Configure Third-Party Charts

​ArgoCD

​Improve password security for admin user

​Configure ArgoCD Helm chart

​Use ArgoCD CLI

​Configuring ArgoCD Ingress with Ingress-Nginx and TLS

​Option 1: SSL-Passthrough

​Option 2: SSL Termination at Ingress Controller

​MetalLB

Configure Binarly charts

Binarly Secrets

Binarly Chart

Image Pull Secrets

Ingress

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

Air Gapped Environment

Internal Registry

Chart and Image Addresses

Vulnerability Database

Configure Third-Party Charts

ArgoCD

Improve password security for admin user

Configure ArgoCD Helm chart

Use ArgoCD CLI

Configuring ArgoCD Ingress with Ingress-Nginx and TLS

Option 1: SSL-Passthrough

Option 2: SSL Termination at Ingress Controller

MetalLB