Step 1: Obtain the SPIRE Binaries

Pre-built SPIRE releases can be found on the SPIRE downloads page. The tarballs contain both server and agent binaries.

If you wish, you may also build SPIRE from source.

Step 2: Install the Server and Agent

This introductory guide describes how to install the server and agent on the same node. On a typical production deployment you will have the server installed on one node and one or more agents installed on distinct nodes.

To install the server and agent:

1. Obtain the latest tarball from the SPIRE downloads page and then extract it into the /opt/spire directory using the following commands:

   wget https://github.com/spiffe/spire/releases/download/v1.2.3/spire-1.2.3-linux-x86_64-glibc.tar.gz
   tar zvxf spire-1.2.3-linux-x86_64-glibc.tar.gz
   sudo cp -r spire-1.2.3/. /opt/spire/
   

2. Add spire-server and spire-agent to your $PATH for convenience:

   sudo ln -s /opt/spire/bin/spire-server /usr/bin/spire-server
   sudo ln -s /opt/spire/bin/spire-agent /usr/bin/spire-agent
   

Step 3: Configure the Agent

Once the SPIRE Agent has been installed, you need to configure it for your environment. See Configuring SPIRE for details about how to configure SPIRE, in particular Node Attestation and Workload Attestation.

Note that the SPIRE Agent must be restarted once its configuration has been modified for changes to take effect.

If you haven’t already, see Install SPIRE Server to learn how to install the SPIRE Server.

Installing SPIRE Agents on Kubernetes

To install SPIRE Agents on Kubernetes, you:

1. Create the agent service account
2. Create the agent configmap
3. Create the agent daemonset

See the following sections for details.

Step 1: Create Agent Service Account

Apply the agent-account.yaml configuration file to create a service account named spire-agent in the spire namespace:

$ kubectl apply -f agent-account.yaml

To allow the agent read access to the kubelet API to perform workload attestation, a ClusterRole must be created that confers the appropriate entitlements to Kubernetes RBAC, and that ClusterRoleBinding must be associated with the service account created in the previous step.

1. Create a ClusterRole named spire-agent-cluster-role and a corresponding ClusterRoleBinding by applying the agent-cluster-role.yaml configuration file:

   $ kubectl apply -f agent-cluster-role.yaml
   

2. To confirm successful creation, verify that the ClusterRole appears in the output of the following command:

   $ kubectl get clusterroles --namespace spire | grep spire
   

Step 2: Create Agent Configmap

Apply the agent-configmap.yaml configuration file to create the agent configmap. This is mounted as the agent.conf file that determines the SPIRE Agent’s configuration.

$ kubectl apply -f agent-configmap.yaml

The agent-configmap.yaml file specifies a number of important directories, notably /run/spire/sockets and /run/spire/config. These directories are bound in when the agent container is deployed.

Follow the Configuring SPIRE section for full details on how to configure the SPIRE Agent, in particular Node Attestation and Workload Attestation.

Note that the a SPIRE Agent must be restarted once its configuration has been modified for changes to take effect.

Step 3: Create Agent Daemonset

Agents are deployed as a daemonset and one runs on each Kubernetes worker instance.

Deploy the SPIRE agent by applying the agent-daemonset.yaml configuration.

$ kubectl apply -f agent-daemonset.yaml

This creates a daemonset called spire-agent in the spire namespace and starts up a spire-agent pod along side spire-server, as demonstrated in the output of the following two commands:

$ kubectl get daemonset --namespace spire

NAME          DESIRED   CURRENT   READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   NODE SELECTOR   AGE
spire-agent   1         1         1       1            1           <none>          6m45s

$ kubectl get pods --namespace spire

NAME                           READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
spire-agent-88cpl              1/1     Running   0          6m45s
spire-server-0                 1/1     Running   0          103m

When the agent deploys, it binds the volumes summarized in the following table:

Where next?

If you haven’t already, see Install SPIRE Server to learn how to install the SPIRE Server.

Once you’ve installed SPIRE Server and Agents, consider reviewing the guide on Configuring the SPIRE Server and Agents.