Deploy on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)

This article will guide you through the process of setting up a highly available SurrealDB cluster backed by TiKV on a GKE Autopilot cluster.

What is GKE?

Google Kubernetes Engine is a managed Kubernetes service offered by Google Cloud Platform. In this guide we will create a GKE Autopilot cluster, which removes the need to manage the underlying compute nodes.

What is TiKV?

TiKV is a cloud-native transactional key/value store built by PingCAP and that integrates well with Kubernetes thanks to their TiDB operator.

Prerequisites

In order for you to complete this tutorial you’ll need:

• An account on Google Cloud Platform
• The gcloud CLI installed and configured
• kubectl with gcloud integration for accessing the GKE cluster. Installation here
• helm : To install SurrealDB server and TiKV
• Surreal CLI : To interact with the SurrealDB server

Create GKE Cluster

1. Choose the target project and region. List them with these commands:

List projects and regions
gcloud projects list

gcloud compute regions list --project PROJECT_ID

2. Run the following command to create a cluster replacing the REGION and PROJECT_ID for your desired values:

Create new GKE autopilot Cluster
gcloud container clusters create-auto surrealdb-guide --region REGION --project PROJECT_ID

3. After the creation finishes, configure kubectl to connect to the new cluster:

kubectl configuration
gcloud container clusters get-credentials surrealdb-guide --region REGION --project PROJECT_ID

Deploy TiDB operator

Now that we have a Kubernetes cluster, we can deploy the TiDB operator. TiDB operator is a Kubernetes operator that manages the lifecycle of TiDB clusters deployed to Kubernetes.

You can deploy it following these steps:

1. Install CRDS:

CRDS installation
kubectl create -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pingcap/tidb-operator/v1.5.0/manifests/crd.yaml

2. Install TiDB operator Helm chart:

Helm chart installation
$ helm repo add pingcap https://charts.pingcap.org
$ helm repo update
$ helm install \
	-n tidb-operator \
    --create-namespace \
	tidb-operator \
	pingcap/tidb-operator \
	--version v1.5.0

3. Verify that the Pods are running:

Get pod status
kubectl get pods --namespace tidb-operator -l app.kubernetes.io/instance=tidb-operator
NAME                                       READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
tidb-controller-manager-56f49794d7-hnfz7   1/1     Running   0          20s
tidb-scheduler-8655bcbc86-66h2d            2/2     Running   0          20s

Create TiDB cluster

Now that we have the TiDB Operator running, it’s time to define a TiDB Cluster and let the Operator do the rest.

1. Create a local file named tikv-cluster.yaml with this content:

tikv-cluster.yaml
apiVersion: pingcap.com/v1alpha1
kind: TidbCluster
metadata:
  name: sdb-datastore
spec:
  version: v6.5.0
  timezone: UTC
  configUpdateStrategy: RollingUpdate
  pvReclaimPolicy: Delete
  enableDynamicConfiguration: true
  schedulerName: default-scheduler
  topologySpreadConstraints:
  - topologyKey: topology.kubernetes.io/zone
  helper:
    image: alpine:3.16.0
  pd:
    baseImage: pingcap/pd
    maxFailoverCount: 0
    replicas: 3
    storageClassName: premium-rwo
    requests:
      cpu: 500m
      storage: 10Gi
      memory: 1Gi
    config: |
      [dashboard]
        internal-proxy = true
      [replication]
        location-labels = ["topology.kubernetes.io/zone", "kubernetes.io/hostname"]
        max-replicas = 3
    nodeSelector:
      dedicated: pd
    tolerations:
    - effect: NoSchedule
      key: dedicated
      operator: Equal
      value: pd
    affinity:
      podAntiAffinity:
        requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
        - labelSelector:
            matchExpressions:
            - key: app.kubernetes.io/component
              operator: In
              values:
              - pd
          topologyKey: kubernetes.io/hostname
  tikv:
    baseImage: pingcap/tikv
    maxFailoverCount: 0
    replicas: 3
    storageClassName: premium-rwo
    requests:
      cpu: 1
      storage: 10Gi
      memory: 2Gi
    config: {}
    nodeSelector:
      dedicated: tikv
    tolerations:
    - effect: NoSchedule
      key: dedicated
      operator: Equal
      value: tikv
    affinity:
      podAntiAffinity:
        requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
        - labelSelector:
            matchExpressions:
            - key: app.kubernetes.io/component
              operator: In
              values:
              - tikv
          topologyKey: kubernetes.io/hostname
  tidb:
    replicas: 0

2. Create the TiDB cluster:

Apply cluster def
kubectl apply -f tikv-cluster.yaml

3. Check the cluster status and wait until it’s ready:

Get status for cluster
kubectl get tidbcluster
NAME             READY   PD                  STORAGE   READY   DESIRE   TIKV                  STORAGE   READY   DESIRE   TIDB                  READY   DESIRE   AGE
sdb-datastore   True    pingcap/pd:v6.5.0   10Gi      3       3        pingcap/tikv:v6.5.0   10Gi      3       3        pingcap/tidb:v6.5.0           0        5m

Deploy SurrealDB

Now that we have a TiDB cluster running, we can deploy SurrealDB using the official Helm chart.

The deployment will use the latest SurrealDB Docker image and make it accessible on the internet.

1. Get the TiKV PD service URL:

get TiKV URL
kubectl get svc/sdb-datastore-pd
NAME       TYPE        CLUSTER-IP     EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)    AGE
sdb-datastore-pd   ClusterIP   10.96.208.25   <none>        2379/TCP   10h

export TIKV_URL=tikv://sdb-datastore-pd:2379

2. Install the SurrealDB Helm chart with the TIKV_URL defined above and with auth disabled so we can create the initial credentials:

Install Helm chart
helm repo add surrealdb https://helm.surrealdb.com
$ helm repo update
$ helm install \
    --set surrealdb.path=$TIKV_URL \
    --set surrealdb.auth=false \
    --set ingress.enabled=true \
    --set image.tag=latest \
    surrealdb-tikv surrealdb/surrealdb

3. Wait until the Ingress resource has an ADDRESS assigned:

Wait for Ingress ADDRESS
kubectl get ingress surrealdb-tikv
NAME             CLASS    HOSTS   ADDRESS         PORTS   AGE
surrealdb-tikv   <none>   *       34.160.82.177   80      5m

4. Connect to the cluster and define the initial credentials:

Connect then define user
$ export SURREALDB_URL=http://$(kubectl get ingress surrealdb-tikv -o json | jq -r .status.loadBalancer.ingress[0].ip)
$ surreal sql -e $SURREALDB_URL
> DEFINE USER root ON ROOT PASSWORD 'StrongSecretPassword!' ROLES OWNER;

5. Verify you can connect to the database with the new credentials:

Connect as defined user
$ surreal sql -u root -p 'StrongSecretPassword!' -e $SURREALDB_URL
> INFO FOR ROOT
[{ accesses: {  }, namespaces: {  }, nodes: { "0e87c953-68d7-40e1-9090-3dfc404af25e": 'NODE 0e87c953-68d7-40e1-9090-3dfc404af25e SEEN 1742869518357 ACTIVE' }, system: { available_parallelism: 14, cpu_usage: 4.321133613586426f, load_average: [2.2265625f, 2.2138671875f, 2.044921875f], memory_allocated: 13428527, memory_usage: 154812416, physical_cores: 14, threads: 32 }, users: { root: "DEFINE USER root ON ROOT PASSHASH '...' ROLES OWNER DURATION FOR TOKEN 1h, FOR SESSION NONE" } }]

5. Now that the initial credentials have been created, enable authentication:

Update SurrealDB Helm chart
helm upgrade \
    --set surrealdb.path=$TIKV_URL \
    --set surrealdb.auth=true \
    --set ingress.enabled=true \
    --set image.tag=latest \
    surrealdb-tikv surrealdb/surrealdb

Cleanup

Run the following commands to delete the Kubernetes resources and the GKE cluster:

Cleanup command
kubectl delete tidbcluster sdb-datastore
helm uninstall surrealdb-tikv
helm -n tidb-operator uninstall tidb-operator
gcloud container clusters delete surrealdb-guide --region REGION --project PROJECT_ID