Install the GitLab agent server for Kubernetes (KAS)
Offering: Self-managed
-
Introduced in GitLab 13.10, the GitLab agent server (KAS) became available on GitLab.com at
wss://kas.gitlab.com
. - Moved from GitLab Premium to GitLab Free in 14.5.
The agent server is a component installed together with GitLab. It is required to manage the GitLab agent for Kubernetes.
The KAS acronym refers to the former name, Kubernetes agent server
.
The agent server for Kubernetes is installed and available on GitLab.com at wss://kas.gitlab.com
.
If you use self-managed GitLab, by default the agent server is installed and available.
Installation options
As a GitLab administrator, you can control the agent server installation:
For Linux package installations
The agent server for Linux package installations can be enabled on a single node, or on multiple nodes at once.
By default, the agent server is enabled and available at ws://gitlab.example.com/-/kubernetes-agent/
.
Disable on a single node
To disable the agent server on a single node:
-
Edit
/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb
:gitlab_kas['enable'] = false
Configure KAS to listen on a UNIX socket
If you use GitLab behind a proxy, KAS might not work correctly. You can resolve this issue on a single-node installation, you can configure KAS to listen on a UNIX socket.
To configure KAS to listen on a UNIX socket:
-
Create a directory for the KAS sockets:
sudo mkdir -p /var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-kas/sockets/
-
Edit
/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb
:gitlab_kas['internal_api_listen_network'] = 'unix' gitlab_kas['internal_api_listen_address'] = '/var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-kas/sockets/internal-api.socket' gitlab_kas['private_api_listen_network'] = 'unix' gitlab_kas['private_api_listen_address'] = '/var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-kas/sockets/private-api.socket' gitlab_kas['env'] = { 'SSL_CERT_DIR' => "/opt/gitlab/embedded/ssl/certs/", 'OWN_PRIVATE_API_URL' => 'unix:///var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-kas/sockets/private-api.socket' }
For additional configuration options, see the GitLab Kubernetes Agent Server section of the
gitlab.rb.template
.
Enable on multiple nodes
To enable the agent server on multiple nodes:
-
For each agent server node, edit
/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb
:gitlab_kas_external_url 'wss://kas.gitlab.example.com/' gitlab_kas['api_secret_key'] = '<32_bytes_long_base64_encoded_value>' gitlab_kas['private_api_secret_key'] = '<32_bytes_long_base64_encoded_value>' gitlab_kas['private_api_listen_address'] = '0.0.0.0:8155' gitlab_kas['env'] = { 'SSL_CERT_DIR' => "/opt/gitlab/embedded/ssl/certs/", 'OWN_PRIVATE_API_URL' => 'grpc://<ip_or_hostname_of_this_host>:8155' # use grpcs:// when using TLS on the private API endpoint # 'OWN_PRIVATE_API_CIDR' => '10.0.0.0/8', # IPv4 example # 'OWN_PRIVATE_API_CIDR' => '2001:db8:8a2e:370::7334/64', # IPv6 example # 'OWN_PRIVATE_API_PORT' => '8155', # 'OWN_PRIVATE_API_SCHEME' => 'grpc', } gitlab_rails['gitlab_kas_external_url'] = 'wss://gitlab.example.com/-/kubernetes-agent/' gitlab_rails['gitlab_kas_internal_url'] = 'grpc://kas.internal.gitlab.example.com' gitlab_rails['gitlab_kas_external_k8s_proxy_url'] = 'https://gitlab.example.com/-/kubernetes-agent/k8s-proxy/'
You might not be able to specify an exact IP address or host name in the
OWN_PRIVATE_API_URL
variable. For example, if the kas host is assigned an IP dynamically.In this situation, you can configure
OWN_PRIVATE_API_CIDR
instead to set up kas to dynamically constructOWN_PRIVATE_API_URL
:- Comment out
OWN_PRIVATE_API_URL
to disable this variable. - Configure
OWN_PRIVATE_API_CIDR
to specify what network kas listens on. When you start kas, kas looks at the IP addresses the host is assigned, and uses the address that matches the specified CIDR as its own private IP address. - By default, kas uses the port from the
private_api_listen_address
parameter. ConfigureOWN_PRIVATE_API_PORT
to use a different port. - Optional. By default, kas uses the
grpc
scheme. If you use TLS on the private API endpoint, configureOWN_PRIVATE_API_SCHEME=grpcs
.
- Comment out
Agent server node settings
Setting | Description |
---|---|
gitlab_kas['private_api_listen_address']
| The address the agent server listens on. Set to 0.0.0.0 or to an IP address reachable by other nodes in the cluster.
|
gitlab_kas['api_secret_key']
| The shared secret used for authentication between KAS and GitLab. The value must be Base64-encoded and exactly 32 bytes long. |
gitlab_kas['private_api_secret_key']
| The shared secret used for authentication between different KAS instances. The value must be Base64-encoded and exactly 32 bytes long. |
OWN_PRIVATE_API_URL
| The environment variable used by KAS for service discovery. Set to the hostname or IP address of the node you’re configuring. The node must be reachable by other nodes in the cluster. |
gitlab_kas_external_url
| The user-facing URL for the in-cluster agentk . Can be a fully qualified domain or subdomain, 1 or a GitLab external URL. 2 If blank, defaults to a GitLab external URL.
|
gitlab_rails['gitlab_kas_external_url']
| The user-facing URL for the in-cluster agentk . If blank, defaults to the gitlab_kas_external_url .
|
gitlab_rails['gitlab_kas_external_k8s_proxy_url']
| The user-facing URL for Kubernetes API proxying. If blank, defaults to a URL based on gitlab_kas_external_url .
|
gitlab_rails['gitlab_kas_internal_url']
| The internal URL the GitLab backend uses to communicate with KAS. |
Footnotes:
- For example,
wss://kas.gitlab.example.com/
. - For example,
wss://gitlab.example.com/-/kubernetes-agent/
.
For GitLab Helm Chart
See how to use the GitLab-KAS chart.
Kubernetes API proxy cookie
-
Introduced in GitLab 15.10 with feature flags named
kas_user_access
andkas_user_access_project
. Disabled by default. - Feature flags
kas_user_access
andkas_user_access_project
enabled in GitLab 16.1. - Feature flags
kas_user_access
andkas_user_access_project
removed in GitLab 16.2.
KAS proxies Kubernetes API requests to the GitLab agent with either:
To authenticate with user credentials, Rails sets a cookie for the GitLab frontend.
This cookie is called _gitlab_kas
and it contains an encrypted
session ID, like the _gitlab_session
cookie.
The _gitlab_kas
cookie must be sent to the KAS proxy endpoint with every request
to authenticate and authorize the user.
Troubleshooting
If you have issues while using the agent server for Kubernetes, view the service logs by running the following command:
kubectl logs -f -l=app=kas -n <YOUR-GITLAB-NAMESPACE>
In Linux package installations, find the logs in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-kas/
.
You can also troubleshoot issues with individual agents.
GitOps: failed to get project information
If you get the following error message:
{"level":"warn","time":"2020-10-30T08:37:26.123Z","msg":"GitOps: failed to get project info","agent_id":4,"project_id":"root/kas-manifest001","error":"error kind: 0; status: 404"}
The project specified by the manifest (root/kas-manifest001
)
doesn’t exist or the project where the manifest is kept is private. To fix this issue,
ensure the project path is correct and that the project’s visibility is set to public.
Configuration file not found
If you get the following error message:
time="2020-10-29T04:44:14Z" level=warning msg="Config: failed to fetch" agent_id=2 error="configuration file not found: \".gitlab/agents/test-agent/config.yaml\
The path is incorrect for either:
- The repository where the agent was registered.
- The agent configuration file.
To fix this issue, ensure that the paths are correct.
dial tcp <GITLAB_INTERNAL_IP>:443: connect: connection refused
If you are running self-managed GitLab and:
- The instance isn’t running behind an SSL-terminating proxy.
- The instance doesn’t have HTTPS configured on the GitLab instance itself.
- The instance’s hostname resolves locally to its internal IP address.
When the agent server tries to connect to the GitLab API, the following error might occur:
{"level":"error","time":"2021-08-16T14:56:47.289Z","msg":"GetAgentInfo()","correlation_id":"01FD7QE35RXXXX8R47WZFBAXTN","grpc_service":"gitlab.agent.reverse_tunnel.rpc.ReverseTunnel","grpc_method":"Connect","error":"Get \"https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/internal/kubernetes/agent_info\": dial tcp 172.17.0.4:443: connect: connection refused"}
To fix this issue for Linux package installations,
set the following parameter in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb
. Replace gitlab.example.com
with your GitLab instance’s hostname:
gitlab_kas['gitlab_address'] = 'http://gitlab.example.com'