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Install Pomerium using Helm

This guide will show you how to deploy Pomerium with Helm on Kubernetes.

danger

After re-evaluating the complexity required to both use and manage Helm for Pomerium, we've opted not to continue updating our Helm chart. Instead we've created a simpler deployment method, which you can read about on our Kubernetes Quickstart page.

Prerequisites​

  • Install kubectl.

  • Install helm.

  • A Kubernetes provider.

    • A cluster, with your local kubectl authorized to interact with it. The cluster configuration and node pool will depend on your provider and the scope of your project.

    • Export the configuration file from your Kubernetes host and export it to your KUBECONFIG environment variable (usually by placing it in ~/.kube).

      See Organizing Cluster Access Using kubeconfig Files for more information.

    • A namespace in the cluster for Pomerium. This document assumes the namespace pomerium, which you can create with kubectl create namespace pomerium.

  • A configured identity provider.

  • A domain space. The steps below use *.localhost.pomerium.io as a placeholder value. We have set DNS records for this domain space to point to 127.0.0.1 (localhost), so you can use this domain space when testing Pomerium locally.

  • TLS certificates. If you don't yet have a production environment with trusted certificates, this page will cover using mkcert to create locally trusted certificates, and cert-manager to manage them in the cluster.

  • A Postgres database.

tip

This configuration installs Postgres as the data broker service. While this isn't strictly required when running Pomerium by itself, it is necessary for Pomerium Enterprise, and still highly recommended if not.

The configuration detailed below uses the Pomerium Ingress Controller. See our Ingress Controller doc for more detailed information and configuration options.

Certificates​

This setup uses mkcert to generate certificates that are trusted by your local web browser for testing, and cert-manager to manage them. If you already have a certificate solution, you can skip the steps below and move on to the next stage.

Install mkcert​

After installing mkcert, confirm the presence and names of your local CA files:

mkcert -install
The local CA is already installed in the system trust store! 👍
The local CA is already installed in the Firefox and/or Chrome/Chromium trust store! 👍

ls "$(mkcert -CAROOT)"
rootCA-key.pem  rootCA.pem

The output of mkcert -install may vary depending on your operating system.

Install and Configure cert-manager​

If you haven't already, install cert-manager and create a CA issuer. You can follow their docs (listed below) or use the steps provided:

  1. Create a namespace for cert-manager:

    kubectl create namespace cert-manager

  2. Add the jetstack.io repository and update Helm:

    helm repo add jetstack https://charts.jetstack.io
    helm repo update

  3. Install cert-manager to your cluster:

    helm install cert-manager jetstack/cert-manager --namespace cert-manager --create-namespace \
    --version v1.4.0 --set installCRDs=true

  4. Confirm deployment with kubectl get pods --namespace cert-manager:

    kubectl get pods --namespace cert-manager
    NAME                                       READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
    cert-manager-5d7f97b46d-8g942              1/1     Running   0          33s
    cert-manager-cainjector-69d885bf55-6x5v2   1/1     Running   0          33s
    cert-manager-webhook-8d7495f4-s5s6p        1/1     Running   0          33s

  5. In your Pomerium namespace, create a Kubernetes secret for the rootCA-key file in your local CA root:

    kubectl create secret tls pomerium-tls-ca --namespace=pomerium \
    --cert="$(mkcert -CAROOT)/rootCA.pem" --key="$(mkcert -CAROOT)/rootCA-key.pem"

  6. Define an Issuer configuration in issuer.yaml:

    apiVersion: cert-manager.io/v1
    kind: Issuer
    metadata:
      name: pomerium-issuer
      namespace: pomerium
    spec:
      ca:
        secretName: pomerium-tls-ca

  7. Apply and confirm:

    kubectl apply -f issuer.yaml
    issuer.cert-manager.io/pomerium-issuer created

    kubectl get issuers.cert-manager.io --namespace pomerium
    NAME              READY   AGE
    pomerium-issuer   True    10s

Install Pomerium​

  1. Set your kubectl context to the Pomerium namespace:

    kubectl config set-context --current --namespace=pomerium

  2. Create certificate configurations for Pomerium. Our example is named pomerium-certificates.yaml, to differentiate from a configuration file for Pomerium Enterprise, if you choose to install it later:

    pomerium-console-certificate.yaml
    apiVersion: cert-manager.io/v1
    kind: Certificate
    metadata:
      name: pomerium-cert
      namespace: pomerium
    spec:
      secretName: pomerium-tls
      issuerRef:
        name: pomerium-issuer
        kind: Issuer
      usages:
        - server auth
        - client auth
      dnsNames:
        - pomerium-proxy.pomerium.svc.cluster.local
        - pomerium-authorize.pomerium.svc.cluster.local
        - pomerium-databroker.pomerium.svc.cluster.local
        - pomerium-authenticate.pomerium.svc.cluster.local
        - authenticate.localhost.pomerium.io
        # TODO - If you're not using the Pomerium Ingress controller, you may want a wildcard entry as well.
        #- "*.localhost.pomerium.io" # Quotes are required to escape the wildcard
    ---
    tip

    If you already have a domain space for Pomerium with a certificate solution, use it in place of .localhost.pomerium.io.

  3. Apply the certificate configuration, and confirm:

    kubectl apply -f pomerium-certificates.yaml
    kubectl get certificate
    NAME                    READY   SECRET                 AGE
    pomerium-cert           True    pomerium-tls           10s

  4. Create a values file for Helm to use when installing Pomerium. Our example is named pomerium-values.yaml.

        {' '}

        {' '}
        <PomeriumValues />

        :::tip The options required in the `authenticate.idp` block will vary depending on your [identity provider].

        If you changed the `*.localhost.pomerium.io` value in `pomerium-certificates.yaml` update `config.rootDomain` to match, omitting the `*`. :::

            <details>

        <summary>Default Certificate</summary>

    <div>

    If you're using a single wildcard certificate for all routes managed by Pomerium, you can set it in an annotation for the ingress controller.

        Add a block defining the default certificate to `pomerium-values.yaml`:

        ```yaml
        ingressController:
        ingressClassResource:
          defaultCertSecret: 'namespace/certSecretName'
        ```

        Now when defining ingresses you need not specify individual certificates, as documented in our example service below.

               </div>

         </details>

  5. Add Pomerium's Helm repo:

    helm repo add pomerium https://helm.pomerium.io

  6. Install Pomerium to the cluster:

    helm upgrade --install pomerium pomerium/pomerium --values ./pomerium-values.yaml

Define a Test Service​

  1. So that we can create a valid test route, add Bitnami's Helm repo to pull nginx from:

    helm repo add bitnami https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami

  2. Update Helm:

    helm repo update

  3. Install nginx to the cluster:

    helm upgrade --install nginx bitnami/nginx --set service.type=ClusterIP

  4. Create a new Ingress manifest (example-ingress.yaml) for our test service:

    apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
    kind: Ingress
    metadata:
      name: hello
      annotations:
        cert-manager.io/issuer: pomerium-issuer
        ingress.pomerium.io/policy: '[{"allow":{"and":[{"domain":{"is":"example.com"}}]}}]'
    spec:
      ingressClassName: pomerium
      rules:
      - host: hello.localhost.pomerium.io
        http:
          paths:
          - backend:
              service:
                name: nginx
                port:
                  name: http
            path: /
            pathType: Prefix
      tls:
      - hosts:
        - hello.localhost.pomerium.io
        secretName: hello.localhost.pomerium.io-tls

  5. Apply the nginx Ingress manifest to the cluster:

    kubectl apply -f example-ingress.yaml

If you are installing Pomerium with a valid domain name and certificates, update your DNS records to point to the external IP address of the pomerium-proxy service:

kubectl get svc pomerium-proxy
NAME             TYPE           CLUSTER-IP       EXTERNAL-IP      PORT(S)                        AGE
pomerium-proxy   LoadBalancer   10.128.117.25    192.0.2.20       443:30006/TCP,9090:30707/TCP   2m37s

For development and testing, you can use kubectl to create a local proxy:

sudo -E kubectl --namespace pomerium port-forward service/pomerium-proxy 443:443

Open a browser and navigate to hello.localhost.pomerium.io.

You can also navigate to the special pomerium endpoint hello.localhost.pomerium.io/.pomerium/ to see your current user details.

currently logged in user

Next Steps​

Congratulations on installing Pomerium to your Kubernetes cluster!