Install Application Live View

This topic tells you how to install Application Live View from the Tanzu Application Platform (commonly known as TAP) package repository.

Overview of Application Live View installation

Application Live View includes four packages you must install. The following table lists these packages and shows the Tanzu Application Platform profiles each package is included in.

Package	Profiles	Details
Application Live View APIServer (`apiserver.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com`)	Full, Iterate, Run	Installed in the `appliveview-tokens-system` namespace
Application Live View back end (`backend.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com`)	Full, View	Installed with Tanzu Developer Portal in the `app-live-view` namespace
Application Live View connector (`connector.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com`)	Full, Iterate, Run	Installed as a DaemonSet in the `app-live-view-connector` namespace
Application Live View conventions (`conventions.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com`)	Full, Iterate, Build	Installed in the `app-live-view-conventions` namespace

For more information about these packages, see Application Live View internal architecture.

Note
Follow the steps in this topic if you do not want to use a profile to install Application Live View. For more information about profiles, see About Tanzu Application Platform components and profiles.

Prerequisites

Before installing Application Live View:

Complete all prerequisites to install Tanzu Application Platform. For more information, see Prerequisites.
Install Cartographer Conventions, which is bundled with Supply Chain Choreographer as of v0.5.3. To install, see Installing Supply Chain Choreographer. For more information, see Cartographer Conventions.

Install Application Live View

You can install Application Live View in single cluster or multicluster environment:

Single cluster: All Application Live View components are deployed in a single cluster. The user can access Application Live View plug-in information of the applications across all the namespaces in the Kubernetes cluster. This is the default mode of Application Live View.
Multicluster: In a multicluster environment, the Application Live View back end component is installed only once in a single cluster and exposes a RSocket registration for the other clusters using Tanzu shared ingress. Each cluster continues to install the connector as a DaemonSet. The connectors are configured to connect to the central instance of the Application Live View back end.

The improved security and access control secures the communication between the Application Live View components. For more information, see Configure security and access control in Application Live View.

Install Application Live View back end

To install Application Live View back end:

List version information for the package by running:

tanzu package available list backend.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com --namespace tap-install

For example:

$ tanzu package available list backend.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com --namespace tap-install

- Retrieving package versions for backend.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com...
  NAME                                  VERSION        RELEASED-AT
  backend.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com  1.9.0          2024-03-22T00:00:00Z

Create the file app-live-view-backend-values.yaml using the following information:
Single-cluster environment

For a single-cluster environment, the Application Live View back end is exposed through the Kubernetes cluster service.
By default, ingress is deactivated for Application Live View back end. You do not have to change your app-live-view-backend-values.yaml file in this step.

Multicluster environment
For a multicluster environment, set the flag ingressEnabled to true for the Application Live View back end to be exposed on the ingress domain.
```
appliveview:
  ingressEnabled: true
```
Profile install using shared ingress domain key
If you are using a Tanzu Application Platform profile installation and the top-level key shared.ingress_domain is set in the tap-values.yaml, the back end is automatically exposed through the shared ingress.
To override the shared ingress for Application Live View in a multicluster environment, use the following values:
```
appliveview:
  ingressEnabled: true
  ingressDomain: ${INGRESS-DOMAIN}
```
Where INGRESS-DOMAIN is the top-level domain you use for the tanzu-shared-ingress service’s external IP address. The appliveview subdomain is prepended to the value provided.
Configure TLS in your app-live-view-backend-values.yaml file:
Activate TLS with self-signed certificate
To enable TLS for Application Live View back end using a self-signed certificate:
1. Create the app-live-view namespace and the TLS secret for the domain. You must do this before installing the Tanzu Application Platform packages in the cluster so that the HTTPProxy is updated with the TLS secret. To create a TLS secret, run:
  
  kubectl create -n app-live-view secret tls alv-cert --cert=CERT-FILE --key=KEY-FILE
  
  Where:
  
  SECRET-NAME is the name you want for the TLS secret for the domain, for example, alv-cert.
  
  CERT-FILE is a .crt file that contains the PEM encoded server certificate.
  
  KEY-FILE is a .key file that contains the PEM encoded server private key.
2. Provide the following properties in your app-live-view-backend-values.yaml:
  
  appliveview: ingressEnabled: true tls: namespace: "NAMESPACE" secretName: "SECRET-NAME"
  
  Where:
  
  NAMESPACE is the targeted namespace of TLS secret for the domain.
  
  SECRET-NAME is the name of TLS secret for the domain.
  
  You can edit the values to suit your project needs or leave the default values as is.
  
  When ingressEnabled is true, the HTTPProxy object is created in the cluster.
3. Verify the HTTPProxy object with the TLS secret by running:
  
  kubectl get httpproxy -A
  
  Expected output:
  
  NAMESPACE NAME FQDN TLS SECRET STATUS STATUS DESCRIPTION app-live-view appliveview appliveview.192.168.42.55.nip.io app-live-view/alv-cert valid Valid HTTPProxy
Activate TLS using ClusterIssuer
To enable TLS for Application Live View back end using ClusterIssuer:
1. Set the ingressEnabled key to true for TLS to be enabled on Application Live View back end using ClusterIssuer. This key is set to false by default.
  
  appliveview: ingressEnabled: true
  
  TLS is then automatically enabled on Application Live View back end using the shared ClusterIssuer. The appliveview-cert certificate is generated by default and its issuerRef points to the .ingress_issuer value. The ingress_issuer key consumes the value shared.ingress_issuer from tap-values.yaml by default if you don’t specify the ingress_issuer in tap-values.yaml.
  
  When ingressEnabled is true, HTTPProxy object is created in the cluster and also appliveview-cert certificate is generated by default in the app_live_view namespace. Here, the secretName appliveview-cert stores this certificate.
2. To verify the HTTPProxy object with the secret, run:
  
  kubectl get httpproxy -A
  
  Expected output:
  
  NAMESPACE NAME FQDN TLS SECRET STATUS STATUS DESCRIPTION app-live-view appliveview appliveview.192.168.42.55.nip.io appliveview-cert valid Valid HTTPProxy
3. To verify the Application Live View pages in a multicluster setup, set the appropriate connector configuration in your run cluster as listed in Install Application Live View connector later in this topic.
Deactivate TLS
By default, Tanzu Application Platform installs and uses a self-signed CA as its ingress issuer for all components. If you don’t specify the ingress_issuer in tap-values.yaml, the ingress_issuer key consumes the value shared.ingress_issuer from tap-values.yaml. This automatically enables TLS validation on Application Live View back end.
To deactivate TLS validation on Application Live View back end do one of the following:
- While VMware discourages it, you can deactivate the ingress issuer by setting shared.ingress_issuer: to "" in tap-values.yaml. For example:
  
  ... shared: ingress_issuer: ""
- Set ingress_issuer to "" in app-live-view-backend-values.yaml. For example:
  
  appliveview: ... ingress_issuer: ""

(Optional) View additional changes you can make in your app-live-view-backend-values.yaml file by running:

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

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

For example:

$ tanzu package available get backend.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com/1.9.0 \
    --values-schema \
    --namespace tap-install

  KEY                      DEFAULT          TYPE        DESCRIPTION
  tls.namespace            <nil>            string      The targeted namespace for secret consumption by the HTTPProxy.

  tls.secretName           <nil>            string      The name of secret for consumption by the HTTPProxy.

  ingressDomain            tap.example.com  string      Domain to be used by the HTTPProxy ingress object. The "appliveview"
                                                        subdomain will be prepended to the value provided. For example:
                                                        "example.com" would become "appliveview.example.com".
  ingressEnabled           false            boolean     Flag for whether or not to create an HTTPProxy for ingress.

  ingress_issuer                            string      Cluster issuer to be used in App Live View Backend.
  kubernetes_distribution                   string      Kubernetes distribution that this package is being installed on. Accepted
                                                        values: ['''',''openshift'']
  kubernetes_version                        string      Optional: The Kubernetes Version. Valid values are '1.24.*', or ''

  server.tls.crt                            string      TLS cert file
  server.tls.enabled       false            boolean     Flag to enable tls on backend
  server.tls.key                            string      TLS key file

Install the Application Live View back end package by running:

tanzu package install appliveview \
  --package backend.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com \
  --version VERSION-NUMBER \
  --namespace tap-install \
  --values-file app-live-view-backend-values.yaml

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

For example:

$ tanzu package install appliveview \
    --package backend.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com \
    --version 1.9.0 \
    --namespace tap-install \
    --values-file app-live-view-backend-values.yaml

- Installing package 'backend.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com'
| Getting namespace 'tap-install'
| Getting package metadata for 'backend.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com'
| Creating service account 'appliveview-tap-install-sa'
| Creating cluster admin role 'appliveview-tap-install-cluster-role'
| Creating cluster role binding 'appliveview-tap-install-cluster-rolebinding'
| Creating package resource
| Package install status: Reconciling

Added installed package 'appliveview' in namespace 'tap-install'

The Application Live View back end component is deployed in app-live-view namespace by default.

Verify the Application Live View back end package installation by running:

tanzu package installed get appliveview -n tap-install

For example:

$ tanzu package installed get appliveview -n tap-install

\ Retrieving installation details for appliveview...
NAME:                    appliveview
PACKAGE-NAME:            backend.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com
PACKAGE-VERSION:         1.9.0
STATUS:                  Reconcile succeeded
CONDITIONS:              [{ReconcileSucceeded True  }]
USEFUL-ERROR-MESSAGE:

Verify that STATUS is Reconcile succeeded.

Install Application Live View connector

To install Application Live View connector:

List version information for the package by running:

tanzu package available list connector.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com --namespace tap-install

For example:

$ tanzu package available list connector.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com --namespace tap-install

- Retrieving package versions for connector.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com...
  NAME                                    VERSION        RELEASED-AT
  connector.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com  1.9.0          2024-03-22T00:00:00Z

Create the file app-live-view-connector-values.yaml using the following details:
Single-cluster environment

For a single-cluster environment, the Application Live View connector connects to the cluster-local Application Live View back end to register the applications.
By default, ingress is deactivated for connector. You do not have to change your app-live-view-connector-values.yaml file in this step.

Multicluster environment
For a multicluster environment, set the flag ingressEnabled to true for the Application Live View connector to connect to the Application Live View back end by using the ingress domain. For example:
```
appliveview_connector:
  backend:
    ingressEnabled: true
```
Profile install using shared ingress domain key
If you are using a Tanzu Application Platform profile installation and the top-level key shared.ingress_domain is set in the tap-values.yaml, the Application Live View connector and Application Live View back end are configured to communicate through ingress. The Application Live View connector then uses the shared.ingress_domain to reach the back end.
To override the shared ingress for Application Live View in a multicluster environment, use the following values:
```
appliveview_connector:
  backend:
    host: appliveview.INGRESS-DOMAIN
```
Where INGRESS-DOMAIN is the top-level domain the Application Live View back end exposes by using tanzu-shared-ingress for the connectors in other clusters to reach the Application Live View back end. Prepend the appliveview subdomain to the provided value.
Configure TLS in your app-live-view-connector-values.yaml. Choose a tab depending on how you configured TLS in Install Application Live View back end earlier.
Configure TLS with self-signed certificate
The backend.sslDeactivated is set to false by default. Set the CA certificate for the ingress domain in the backend.caCertData key for SSL validation as follows:
```
appliveview_connector:
  backend:
    ...
    caCertData: |-
      -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
      MIIGMzCCBBugAwIBAgIJALHHzQjxM6wMMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBDQUAMGcxCzAJBgNV
      BAgMAk1OMRQwEgYDVQQHDAtNaW5uZWFwb2xpczEPMA0GA1UECgwGVk13YXJlMRMw
      -----END CERTIFICATE-----
```
Configure TLS using ClusterIssuer
To enable TLS using ClusterIssuer:
1. Retrieve the certificate from the HTTPProxy secret by running the following command in the view cluster:
  
  kubectl get secret appliveview-cert -n app-live-view -o yaml | yq '.data."ca.crt"' | base64 -d
2. Set the following connector configuration in the run cluster:
  
  appliveview_connector: backend: ingressEnabled: true sslDeactivated: false host: appliveview.INGRESS-DOMAIN caCertData: |- -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- MIIGMzCCBBugAwIBAgIJALHHzQjxM6wMMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBDQUAMGcxCzAJBgNV BAgMAk1OMRQwEgYDVQQHDAtNaW5uZWFwb2xpczEPMA0GA1UECgwGVk13YXJlMRMw -----END CERTIFICATE-----
  
  Where:
  
  caCertData is the certificate you retrieved from the HTTPProxy secret exposed by the Application Live View back end in the view cluster.
  
  host is the backend host in the view cluster.
Deactivate TLS
If TLS is not enabled for the INGRESS-DOMAIN in the Application Live View back end, set backend.sslDeactivated to true. For example:
```
appliveview_connector:
  backend:
    ...
    sslDeactivated: true
```
Note
The sslDisabled key is deprecated and has been renamed to sslDeactivated.

You can edit the values to suit your project needs or leave the default values as is.

Using the HTTP proxy either on 80 or 443 based on SSL config exposes the back end service running on port 7000. The connector connects to the back end on port 80/443 by default. Therefore, you are not required to explicitly configure the port field.

(Optional) View additional changes you can make in your app-live-view-connector-values.yaml file 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 earlier. 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
  backend.caCertData                      cert-in-pem-format  string    CA Cert Data for ingress domain
  backend.host                            <nil>               string    Domain to be used to reach the application live view backend. Prepend
                                                                        "appliveview" subdomain to the value if you are using shared ingress. For
                                                                        example: "example.com" would become "appliveview.example.com".
  backend.ingressEnabled                  false               boolean   Flag for the connector to connect to ingress on backend

  backend.port                            <nil>               number    Port to reach the application live view backend
  backend.sslDeactivated                  false               boolean   Flag for whether or not to deactivate ssl
  backend.sslDisabled                     false               boolean   The key sslDisabled has been deprecated in TAP 1.4.0 and will be removed in TAP
                                                                        1.X+Y.0 of TAP, please migrate to the key sslDeactivated
  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'']
  kubernetes_version                                          string    Optional: The Kubernetes Version. Valid values are '1.24.*', or ''

  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

By default, the connector is deployed as a Kubernetes Deployment. You can override the default settings to run the connector in DaemonSet mode or a Namespace-scope mode. For more information, see Connector deployment modes in Application Live View.

Install the Application Live View connector package by running:

tanzu package install appliveview-connector \
  --package connector.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com \
  --version VERSION-NUMBER \
  --namespace tap-install \
  --values-file app-live-view-connector-values.yaml

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

For example:

$ tanzu package install appliveview-connector \
    --package connector.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com \
    --version 1.9.0 \
    --namespace tap-install \
    --values-file app-live-view-connector-values.yaml

| Installing package 'connector.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com'
| Getting namespace 'tap-install'
| Getting package metadata for 'connector.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com'
| Creating service account 'appliveview-connector-tap-install-sa'
| Creating cluster admin role 'appliveview-connector-tap-install-cluster-role'
| Creating cluster role binding 'appliveview-connector-tap-install-cluster-rolebinding'
- Creating package resource
/ Package install status: Reconciling

Added installed package 'appliveview-connector' in namespace 'tap-install'

The connector is configured to connect to the central instance of the back end. The Application Live View connector component is deployed in app-live-view-connector namespace by default.

Verify the Application Live View connector package installation by running:

tanzu package installed get appliveview-connector -n tap-install

For example:

$ tanzu package installed get appliveview-connector -n tap-install

| Retrieving installation details for appliveview-connector...
NAME:                    appliveview-connector
PACKAGE-NAME:            connector.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com
PACKAGE-VERSION:         1.9.0
STATUS:                  Reconcile succeeded
CONDITIONS:              [{ReconcileSucceeded True  }]
USEFUL-ERROR-MESSAGE:

Verify that STATUS is Reconcile succeeded.

Install Application Live View conventions

To install Application Live View conventions:

List version information for the package by running:

tanzu package available list conventions.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com --namespace tap-install

For example:

$ tanzu package available list conventions.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com --namespace tap-install

- Retrieving package versions for conventions.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com...
  NAME                                      VERSION        RELEASED-AT
  conventions.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com  1.9.0          2024-03-22T00:00:00Z

(Optional) View the changes you can make to the default installation settings by running:

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

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

For example:

$ tanzu package available get conventions.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com/1.9.0 \
    --values-schema \
    --namespace tap-install

  KEY                               DEFAULT             TYPE     DESCRIPTION
  kubernetes_distribution                               string  Kubernetes distribution that this package is installed on. Accepted values: ['''',''openshift''].
  kubernetes_version                                    string  Optional: The Kubernetes Version. Valid values are '1.24.*', or ''.

(Optional) Create a file named app-live-view-conventions-values.yaml to override the default installation settings using the information output in the previous step.

Install the Application Live View conventions package.

Default values

To install Application Live View conventions with the default settings, run:

tanzu package install appliveview-conventions \
  --package conventions.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com \
  --version VERSION-NUMBER \
  --namespace tap-install

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

For example:

$ tanzu package install appliveview-conventions \
    --package conventions.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com \
    --version 1.9.0 \
    --namespace tap-install

- Installing package 'conventions.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com'
| Getting namespace 'tap-install'
| Getting package metadata for 'conventions.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com'
| Creating service account 'appliveview-conventions-tap-install-sa'
| Creating cluster admin role 'appliveview-conventions-tap-install-cluster-role'
| Creating cluster role binding 'appliveview-conventions-tap-install-cluster-rolebinding'
- Creating package resource
\ Package install status: Reconciling

Added installed package 'appliveview-conventions' in namespace 'tap-install'

Overriding values

To install Application Live View conventions while overriding the default settings, run:

tanzu package install appliveview-conventions \
  --package conventions.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com \
  --version VERSION-NUMBER \
  --namespace tap-install \
  --values-file app-live-view-conventions-values.yaml

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

Verify the package install for Application Live View conventions package by running:

tanzu package installed get appliveview-conventions -n tap-install

For example:

$ tanzu package installed get appliveview-conventions -n tap-install

| Retrieving installation details for appliveview-conventions...
NAME:                    appliveview-conventions
PACKAGE-NAME:            conventions.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com
PACKAGE-VERSION:         1.9.0
STATUS:                  Reconcile succeeded
CONDITIONS:              [{ReconcileSucceeded True  }]
USEFUL-ERROR-MESSAGE:

Verify that STATUS is Reconcile succeeded.

Install Application Live View APIServer

To install Application Live View APIServer:

List version information for the package by running:

tanzu package available list apiserver.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com --namespace tap-install

For example:

$ tanzu package available list apiserver.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com --namespace tap-install

- Retrieving package versions for apiserver.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com...
  NAME                                    VERSION       RELEASED-AT
  apiserver.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com  1.9.0         2024-03-22T00:00:00Z

(Optional) View the changes you can make to the default installation settings by running:

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

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

For example:

$ tanzu package available get apiserver.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com/1.9.0 \
    --values-schema \
    --namespace tap-install \

  KEY                               DEFAULT             TYPE     DESCRIPTION
  kubernetes_distribution                               string  Kubernetes distribution that this package is installed on. Accepted values: ['''',''openshift''].
  kubernetes_version                                    string  Optional: The Kubernetes Version. Valid values are '1.24.*', or ''.

(Optional) Create a file named app-live-view-apiserver-values.yaml to override the default installation settings using the information output in the previous step.

Install the Application Live View APIServer package.

Default values

To install Application Live View APIServer with the default settings, run:

tanzu package install appliveview-apiserver \
  --package apiserver.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com \
  --version VERSION-NUMBER \
  --namespace tap-install

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

For example:

$ tanzu package install appliveview-apiserver \
    --package apiserver.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com \
    --version 1.9.0 \
    --namespace tap-install

- Installing package 'apiserver.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com'
| Getting namespace 'tap-install'
| Getting package metadata for 'apiserver.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com'
- Creating package resource
\ Package install status: Reconciling

Added installed package 'appliveview-apiserver' in namespace 'tap-install'

Overriding values

To install Application Live View APIServer while overriding the default settings, run:

tanzu package install appliveview-apiserver \
  --package apiserver.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com \
  --version VERSION-NUMBER \
  --namespace tap-install \
  --values-file app-live-view-apiserver-values.yaml

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

Verify the package install for Application Live View APIServer package by running:

tanzu package installed get appliveview-apiserver -n tap-install

For example:

$ tanzu package installed get appliveview-apiserver -n tap-install

| Retrieving installation details for appliveview-apiserver...
NAME:                    appliveview-apiserver
PACKAGE-NAME:            apiserver.appliveview.tanzu.vmware.com
PACKAGE-VERSION:         1.9.0
STATUS:                  Reconcile succeeded
CONDITIONS:              [{ReconcileSucceeded True  }]
USEFUL-ERROR-MESSAGE:

Verify that STATUS is Reconcile succeeded.

The Application Live View UI plug-in is part of Tanzu Developer Portal. To access the Application Live View UI, see Application Live View in Tanzu Application Platform GUI.

Deprecation notice for the sslDisabled key

The appliveview_connector.backend.sslDisabled key has been replaced by appliveview_connector.backend.sslDeactivated.