Connector deployment modes in Application Live View

This topic tells you about the different ways in which you can deploy the connector in Tanzu Application Platform (commonly known as TAP).

Deploy the connector as a regular deployment

This is the default mode of Application Live View connector in Tanzu Application Platform. When the connector is running as a regular deployment, it observes all the applications across all the namespaces in the cluster and registers with the back end.

Deploy the connector as a Kubernetes DaemonSet

When deployed as a Kubernetes DaemonSet the connector discovers applications across all the namespaces running in a worker node of a Kubernetes cluster.

To run the connector as a DaemonSet:

1. Change the default installation settings for Application Live View connector by running:

   tanzu package available get connector.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com/VERSION-NUMBER --values-schema --namespace tap-install
   

   Where VERSION-NUMBER is the version of the package listed. For example, 1.9.0.

   For example:

   $ tanzu package available get connector.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com/1.9.0 --values-schema --namespace tap-install
    KEY                                   DEFAULT             TYPE        DESCRIPTION
    kubernetes_version                                        string      Optional: The Kubernetes Version. Valid values are '1.24.*', or ''.
   
    backend.sslDeactivated                false               boolean     Flag for whether to disable SSL.
    backend.caCertData                    cert-in-pem-format  string      CA Cert Data for ingress domain.
    backend.host                          <nil>               string      Domain used to reach the Application Live View back end. Prepend
                                                                          "appliveview" subdomain to the value if you use shared ingress. For
                                                                          example: "example.com" becomes "appliveview.example.com".
    backend.ingressEnabled                false               boolean     Flag for the connector to connect to ingress on back end.
   
    backend.port                          <nil>               number      Port to reach the Application Live View back end.
    connector.deployment.enabled          true                boolean      Flag for the connector to run in deployment mode
    connector.deployment.replicas           1                 number      Number of replicas of connector pods at any given time
    connector.namespace_scoped.enabled    false               boolean     Flag for the connector to run in namespace scope.
    connector.namespace_scoped.namespace  default             string      Namespace to deploy connector.
    kubernetes_distribution                                   string      Kubernetes distribution that this package is being installed on. Accepted
                                                                          values: ['''',''openshift''].
    activateAppLiveViewSecureAccessControl                    boolean     Optional: Configuration required to enable Secure Access Connection between App Live View components.
    activateSensitiveOperations                               boolean     Optional: Configuration to allow connector to execute sensitive operations on a running application.
   

   For more information about values schema options, see the properties listed earlier.

2. Override the deployment mode for the connector by using the following configuration values for the app-live-view-connector-values.yaml:

   appliveview_connector:
     connector:
       deployment:
         enabled: false
         replicas: 1
   

   By default, connector.deployment.enabled is set to true.

   The connector.deployment.replicas key specifies the number of replicas of connector pods running at any given time.

Deploy the connector in namespace-scoped mode

When the connector is deployed in namespace-scoped mode, it discovers applications within the namespace of a Kubernetes cluster.

To deploy the connector in namespace-scoped mode, use the following configuration values for the connector in app-live-view-connector-values.yaml:

appliveview_connector:
  connector:
    namespace_scoped:
      enabled: true
      namespace: "NAMESPACE"

Where NAMESPACE specifies the namespace for deploying the connector