Installing Ascender

Overview

Ascender is installed using the ascender-install tool, which automates deployment across multiple Kubernetes platforms. The installer uses Ansible under the hood, driven by a single configuration file (custom.config.yml) that defines your deployment.

Getting Started

Clone the ascender-install repository and create your configuration file:

git clone https://github.com/ctrliq/ascender-install.git
cd ascender-install

Create a custom.config.yml with the settings for your deployment. Use default.config.yml as a reference for all available options. Do not copy it wholesale as it contains settings for every platform and will need to be heavily edited.

Quick Start: K3s

K3s is the fastest way to get Ascender running. Set kube_install: true and the installer will set up a single-node K3s cluster and deploy Ascender on it. No pre-existing Kubernetes required.

Minimum system requirements:

• 2 CPUs
• 8 GB memory (4 GB if not installing Ascender Pro)
• 20 GB free in /var
• Rocky Linux 8 or 9

Replace <SERVER-IP> with your server's IP address throughout.

Generate a self-signed TLS certificate. Run this from inside the ascender-install directory. The certificate files will be created there so the installer can locate them automatically:

openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout ascender.key -out ascender.crt -days 365 -nodes \
  -subj "/CN=ascender.<SERVER-IP>.nip.io" \
  -addext "subjectAltName=DNS:ascender.<SERVER-IP>.nip.io"

Create custom.config.yml:

k8s_platform: k3s
k8s_lb_protocol: https
kube_install: true
download_kubeconfig: true
k3s_master_node_ip: "<SERVER-IP>"

tls_crt_path: "{{ playbook_dir }}/../ascender.crt"
tls_key_path: "{{ playbook_dir }}/../ascender.key"

ASCENDER_HOSTNAME: <ascender.<SERVER-IP>.nip.io>
ASCENDER_NAMESPACE: ascender
ASCENDER_ADMIN_USER: admin
ASCENDER_ADMIN_PASSWORD: "<change-me>"
ASCENDER_VERSION: 25.3.5
ASCENDER_OPERATOR_VERSION: 2.19.4

ascender_garbage_collect_secrets: true
ascender_setup_playbooks: true

Run these commands on the server where K3s will be installed. The default inventory file uses localhost, so no changes are needed. Run the installer:

sudo ./setup.sh

A successful install ends with:

ASCENDER SUCCESSFULLY SETUP

Verify the pods are running:

kubectl get pods -n ascender

Access the Ascender web UI at https://ascender.<SERVER-IP>.nip.io. The nip.io hostname resolves automatically with no DNS or /etc/hosts changes needed.

To include Ascender Pro in this deployment, add LEDGER_INSTALL: true and the required registry credentials to your custom.config.yml before running setup.sh. See the Ascender Pro installation guide for the full variable reference.

RKE2

RKE2 is a strong option for production deployments and supports running on RLC-Hardened for environments that require additional security hardening. Unlike K3s, the installer does not create the RKE2 cluster. You set it up first, then run the Ascender installer against it. See the RKE2 guide for both single-node and HA cluster setup, or the RKE2 Offline Install guide for air-gapped environments.

Cloud Platforms

Each cloud platform has its own prerequisites (CLI tools, IAM configuration, DNS zones) and platform-specific variables. See the dedicated guides:

• Installing on EKS (Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service)
• Installing on GKE (Google Kubernetes Engine)
• Installing on AKS (Azure Kubernetes Service)

Cloud installs require Rocky Linux 9 and the appropriate CLI tool authenticated on the install server.

Other Platforms

DKP requires a single additional variable:

OCP (OpenShift) follows the common configuration. Refer to default.config.yml for any OCP-specific defaults.

Upgrading

To upgrade an existing Ascender installation, pull the latest installer first to pick up any bug fixes, then update ASCENDER_VERSION (and ASCENDER_OPERATOR_VERSION if needed) in your custom.config.yml and re-run:

git pull
sudo ./setup.sh

The installer handles the upgrade process through the Ascender Operator.

Configuration Reference

Kubernetes Platform

Offline Install

These variables are used for air-gapped or offline deployments on K3s and RKE2.

Ascender Application

The following variable is optional and enables Ascender Automation Mesh:

Execution Environments (Optional)

To pull additional container images for use as Execution Environments, add the ee_images list to your configuration:

ee_images:
  - name: <my-custom-ee>
    image: <registry.example.com/namespace/my-custom-ee:latest>
  - name: <another-ee>
    image: <registry.example.com/namespace/another-ee:2.0>

Each entry requires a name (informal label) and image (full registry path with optional tag).

TLS Configuration

Required when k8s_lb_protocol is set to https. On cloud platforms (EKS, GKE, AKS), certificate handling may differ (see the platform-specific guides).

Ascender Pro (Optional)

Ascender Pro provides analytics, reporting, and log aggregation for Ascender. Set LEDGER_INSTALL to true to include it in your deployment. See the Ascender Pro Installation Guide for full configuration details, or contact us if you're interested in getting access.

See the Ascender Pro installation guide for full configuration, registry setup, post-install steps (logging integration, license activation), and scaling options.

External PostgreSQL (Optional)

By default, Ascender deploys its own PostgreSQL instance. To use an external PostgreSQL server instead, uncomment and set the following variables:

Storage for the built-in PostgreSQL instance is configurable on new installs only:

Artifacts Directory