Deploy Dapr on a Kubernetes cluster

Install with Dapr CLI

You can install Dapr on a Kubernetes cluster using the Dapr CLI.

Prerequisites

• Install:
  • Dapr CLI
  • kubectl
• Create a Kubernetes cluster with Dapr. Here are some helpful links:
  • Set up KiNd Cluster
  • Set up Minikube Cluster
  • Set up Azure Kubernetes Service Cluster
  • Set up GKE cluster
  • Set up Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service

Installation options

You can install Dapr from an official Helm chart or a private chart, using a custom namespace, etc.

Install Dapr from an official Dapr Helm chart

The -k flag initializes Dapr on the Kubernetes cluster in your current context.

1. Verify the correct “target” cluster is set by checking kubectl context (kubectl config get-contexts).

   • You can set a different context using kubectl config use-context <CONTEXT>.

2. Initialize Dapr on your cluster with the following command:

   dapr init -k
   

   Expected output

   ⌛  Making the jump to hyperspace...
   
   ✅  Deploying the Dapr control plane to your cluster...
   ✅  Success! Dapr has been installed to namespace dapr-system. To verify, run "dapr status -k" in your terminal. To get started, go here: https://aka.ms/dapr-getting-started
   

3. Run the dashboard:

   dapr dashboard -k
   

   If you installed Dapr in a non-default namespace, run:

   dapr dashboard -k -n <your-namespace>
   

Install Dapr from the offical Dapr Helm chart (with development flag)

Adding the --dev flag initializes Dapr on the Kubernetes cluster on your current context, with the addition of Redis and Zipkin deployments.

The steps are similar to installing from the Dapr Helm chart, except for appending the --dev flag to the init command:

dapr init -k --dev

Expected output:

⌛  Making the jump to hyperspace...
ℹ️  Note: To install Dapr using Helm, see here: https://docs.dapr.io/getting-started/install-dapr-kubernetes/#install-with-helm-advanced

ℹ️  Container images will be pulled from Docker Hub
✅  Deploying the Dapr control plane with latest version to your cluster...
✅  Deploying the Dapr dashboard with latest version to your cluster...
✅  Deploying the Dapr Redis with latest version to your cluster...
✅  Deploying the Dapr Zipkin with latest version to your cluster...
ℹ️  Applying "statestore" component to Kubernetes "default" namespace.
ℹ️  Applying "pubsub" component to Kubernetes "default" namespace.
ℹ️  Applying "appconfig" zipkin configuration to Kubernetes "default" namespace.
✅  Success! Dapr has been installed to namespace dapr-system. To verify, run `dapr status -k' in your terminal. To get started, go here: https://aka.ms/dapr-getting-started

After a short period of time (or using the --wait flag and specifying an amount of time to wait), you can check that the Redis and Zipkin components have been deployed to the cluster.

kubectl get pods --namespace default

Expected output:

NAME                              READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
dapr-dev-zipkin-bfb4b45bb-sttz7   1/1     Running   0          159m
dapr-dev-redis-master-0           1/1     Running   0          159m
dapr-dev-redis-replicas-0         1/1     Running   0          159m
dapr-dev-redis-replicas-1         1/1     Running   0          159m
dapr-dev-redis-replicas-2         1/1     Running   0          158m 

Install Dapr from a private Dapr Helm chart

Installing Dapr from a private Helm chart can be helpful for when you:

• Need more granular control of the Dapr Helm chart
• Have a custom Dapr deployment
• Pull Helm charts from trusted registries that are managed and maintained by your organization

Set the following parameters to allow dapr init -k to install Dapr images from the configured Helm repository.

export DAPR_HELM_REPO_URL="https://helm.custom-domain.com/dapr/dapr"
export DAPR_HELM_REPO_USERNAME="username_xxx"
export DAPR_HELM_REPO_PASSWORD="passwd_xxx"

Install in high availability mode

You can run Dapr with three replicas of each control plane pod in the dapr-system namespace for production scenarios.

dapr init -k --enable-ha=true

Install in custom namespace

The default namespace when initializing Dapr is dapr-system. You can override this with the -n flag.

dapr init -k -n mynamespace

Disable mTLS

Dapr is initialized by default with mTLS. You can disable it with:

dapr init -k --enable-mtls=false

Wait for the installation to complete

You can wait for the installation to complete its deployment with the --wait flag. The default timeout is 300s (5 min), but can be customized with the --timeout flag.

dapr init -k --wait --timeout 600

Uninstall Dapr on Kubernetes with CLI

Run the following command on your local machine to uninstall Dapr on your cluster:

dapr uninstall -k

In the Dapr CLI, you can switch to using Mariner-based images with the --image-variant flag.

dapr init -k --image-variant mariner