Install the GitLab agent server for Kubernetes (KAS) (FREE SELF)

• Introduced in GitLab 13.10, the GitLab agent server (KAS) became available on GitLab.com at wss://kas.gitlab.com.
• Moved from GitLab Premium to GitLab Free in 14.5.

The agent server is a component you install together with GitLab. It is required to manage the GitLab agent for Kubernetes.

The KAS acronym refers to the former name, Kubernetes agent server.

The agent server for Kubernetes is installed and available on GitLab.com at wss://kas.gitlab.com. If you use self-managed GitLab, you must install an agent server or specify an external installation.

Installation options

As a GitLab administrator, you can install the agent server:

• For Omnibus installations.
• For GitLab Helm Chart installations.

Or, you can use an external agent server.

For Omnibus

For Omnibus package installations:

1. To enable the agent server, edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb:

   gitlab_kas['enable'] = true

2. Reconfigure GitLab.

For additional configuration options, see the Enable GitLab KAS section of the gitlab.rb.template.

For GitLab Helm Chart

For GitLab Helm Chart installations:

1. Set global.kas.enabled to true. For example, in a shell with helm and kubectl installed, run:

   helm repo add gitlab https://charts.gitlab.io/
   helm repo update
   helm upgrade --install gitlab gitlab/gitlab \
     --timeout 600s \
     --set global.hosts.domain=<YOUR_DOMAIN> \
     --set global.hosts.externalIP=<YOUR_IP> \
     --set certmanager-issuer.email=<YOUR_EMAIL> \
     --set global.kas.enabled=true # <-- without this setting, the agent server will not be installed

2. To configure the agent server, use a gitlab.kas sub-section in your values.yaml file:

   gitlab:
     kas:
       # put your custom options here

For details, see how to use the GitLab-KAS chart.

Use an external installation

Introduced in GitLab 13.10.

Instead of installing the agent server, you can configure GitLab to use an external agent server.

If you used the GitLab Helm Chart to install GitLab, see how to configure your external agent server.

If you used the Omnibus packages:

1. Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and add the paths to your external agent server:

   gitlab_kas['enable'] = false
   gitlab_kas['api_secret_key'] = 'Your shared secret between GitLab and KAS'
   
   gitlab_rails['gitlab_kas_enabled'] = true
   gitlab_rails['gitlab_kas_external_url'] = 'wss://kas.gitlab.example.com' # User-facing URL for the in-cluster agentk
   gitlab_rails['gitlab_kas_internal_url'] = 'grpc://kas.internal.gitlab.example.com' # Internal URL for the GitLab backend

2. Reconfigure GitLab.

Troubleshooting

If you have issues while using the agent server for Kubernetes, view the service logs by running the following command:

kubectl logs -f -l=app=kas -n <YOUR-GITLAB-NAMESPACE>

In Omnibus GitLab, find the logs in /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-kas/.

You can also troubleshoot issues with individual agents.

GitOps: failed to get project information

If you get the following error message:

{"level":"warn","time":"2020-10-30T08:37:26.123Z","msg":"GitOps: failed to get project info","agent_id":4,"project_id":"root/kas-manifest001","error":"error kind: 0; status: 404"}

The project specified by the manifest (root/kas-manifest001) doesn't exist or the project where the manifest is kept is private. To fix this issue, ensure the project path is correct and that the project's visibility is set to public.

Configuration file not found

If you get the following error message:

time="2020-10-29T04:44:14Z" level=warning msg="Config: failed to fetch" agent_id=2 error="configuration file not found: \".gitlab/agents/test-agent/config.yaml\

The path is incorrect for either:

• The repository where the agent was registered.
• The agent configuration file.

To fix this issue, ensure that the paths are correct.

dial tcp <GITLAB_INTERNAL_IP>:443: connect: connection refused

If you are running self-managed GitLab and:

• The instance isn't running behind an SSL-terminating proxy.
• The instance doesn't have HTTPS configured on the GitLab instance itself.
• The instance's hostname resolves locally to its internal IP address.

When the agent server tries to connect to the GitLab API, the following error might occur:

{"level":"error","time":"2021-08-16T14:56:47.289Z","msg":"GetAgentInfo()","correlation_id":"01FD7QE35RXXXX8R47WZFBAXTN","grpc_service":"gitlab.agent.reverse_tunnel.rpc.ReverseTunnel","grpc_method":"Connect","error":"Get \"https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/internal/kubernetes/agent_info\": dial tcp 172.17.0.4:443: connect: connection refused"}

To fix this issue for Omnibus package installations, set the following parameter in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb. Replace gitlab.example.com with your GitLab instance's hostname:

gitlab_kas['gitlab_address'] = 'http://gitlab.example.com'