Micro Learning Series: ENT CLI

1. Simplify App Development on Kubernetes
2. Quickstart Environment → This lesson
3. Packaging and Deployment
4. Working With Multiple Environments
5. Exporting Components
6. Utilities & Diagnostics

1. Enhancing Developer Productivity
2. Quickstart Environment → This lesson
3. Packaging and Deployment
4. Working with Multiple Environments
5. Micro Frontend & Microservice Generation
6. Component Repository
7. Utilities & Diagnostics

What You’ll Learn

In this lesson, we’ll use ENT CLI to quickly spin up an instance of Entando.

Getting Ready for the Install

KUBERNETES 

Entando is a runtime and development platform for Kubernetes. The Entando platform can run on any Kubernetes distribution and can be installed on OpenShift as well as public cloud Kubernetes providers like Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Google Kubernetes Engine, and Tanzu Kubernetes Grid.

For the quickstart environment, ENT will install a single node Kubernetes cluster on a Linux VM so you can see the full capabilities of the platform. If you haven’t installed Multipass, check out our lesson in the Micro Learning Fundamentals series for a primer on how it works. Multipass is a tool that creates lightweight Ubuntu VMs in seconds.

Install Entando

Let’s use the quickstart command to spin up a new instance of Entando.

ent quickstart "entando" "quickstart" --simple --release="v6.3.2" --debug=1 --with-vm --yes

What Gets Installed?

ENT CLI will automatically download the required software and have everything up and running in ~15 minutes. Here’s an outline of what gets installed.

1. Linux VM
2. Lightweight Kubernetes (k3s)
3. Helm Deployment

Kubernetes will read the Helm deployment and download the Entando images to set up your application. This includes:

1. A custom Kubernetes operator to automate the installation and configuration of your application.
2. An identity management server for centralized authentication.
3. The cluster infrastructure Entando uses to call Kubernetes services.
4. The administrative interface to build and design your application.
5. A private repository to share frontend components, backend components, and content templates across one or more Entando applications.

Entando Pods Running On Kubernetes

Entando Operator	entando-operator	The first pod that’s installed is the operator. It listens to custom events, and automates the installation of the different components that make up an Entando application.
Entando Identity Management	quickstart-kc-server-deployment	The identity management provider is installed next. This manages the authentication of individual frontend and backend components as well as the overall Entando application.
Entando Cluster Infrastructure	quickstart-eci-k8s-svc-deployment	The cluster infrastructure supports backend calls to Kubernetes services, sets up ingresses, and automatically wires frontend and backend components together.
Entando App Engine	quickstart-server-deployment	Entando App Engine exposes all of the backend Entando APIs. The App Engine also serves the pages in your application to the end user.
Entando App Builder	quickstart-ab-deployment	Entando App Builder provides the UI to build and design apps via a drag and drop interface. The App Builder is a React application that calls backend services from the Entando App Engine to build out your content and pages.
Entando Component Repository	quickstart-cm-deployment	Entando Component Repository contains design templates, micro frontends, microservices, and other components that you can use to customize your Entando application.

Kicking the Tires

When the quickstart environment is up and running, let’s check out what got installed. One very handy feature of ENT is that it gives a very clear indicator of when the application is ready to go.

 

> ECR endpoint is registered.. open.. AND READY         (http://quickstart-entando.192.168.64.40.nip.io/digital-exchange/)

> APB endpoint is registered.. open.. AND READY         (http://quickstart-entando.192.168.64.40.nip.io/app-builder/)

> APP endpoint is registered.. open.. AND READY         (http://quickstart-entando.192.168.64.40.nip.io/entando-de-app/)

 

|

|   █████████████████

|

|         READY

|

|   █████████████████

|

|  The Entando app is ready at the address:

|

|       http://quickstart-entando.192.168.64.40.nip.io/entando-de-app/

|
When READY, copy and paste the URL provided by ENT in your browser.

What’s Next?

This just scratches the surface of what ENT can do. In the next lesson, we’ll learn how ENT helps you package frontend and backend code changes so you can easily deploy them to Kubernetes.

(Entando packages frontend and backend components into bundles.)

A DEEPER LOOK 

If you want a deeper look at what gets installed in the quickstart environment, check out Micro Learning: Quickstart Environment Deep Dive. It covers:

ent quickstart args & options

Entando Helm deployment

Entando Docker images

Entando custom resource definitions

Entando persistent volumes

Additional Resources

https://www.entando.com/
https://dev.entando.org/

Maximize the potential of your Kubernetes stack with Entando.

Entando is the leading modular application platform for building enterprise web apps on Kubernetes.

Our platform integrates trusted open source technologies and extends their functionality to give you a cohesive and streamlined developer experience with easy-to-use patterns. From deploying on Kubernetes to creating modular backend and frontend architectures using your current technologies, Entando helps you at every layer of the stack. 
Entando is open source with available enterprise support and services.

Begin developing on the platform today, and get a quote to see how our team can help your enterprise build better apps, sites, and portals––faster.