Requirements

• Harness:
  • Docker Desktop minimum version 4.3.1 (72247)
    • 4 GB memory and 2 CPUs
    • Docker Compose (included in Docker Desktop)
    • Kubernetes is installed and running (a new installation of Docker Desktop might need to have Kubernetes enabled in its Settings).
• Quickstart:
  • Github account.
  • Minikube minimum version v1.22.0 installed locally.

Architecture Summary

Harness Community Edition has two main components:

• Harness Manager: Harness Manager is where your CD configurations are stored and your pipelines are managed. After you install Harness, you sign up in the Manager at http://localhost/#/signup. Pipeline are triggered manually in the Harness Manager or automatically in response to Git events, schedules, new artifacts, and so on.
  Harness Manager is available either as SaaS (running in the Harness cloud) or as On-Prem (running in your infrastructure).
• Harness Delegate: The Harness Delegate is a software service you install in your environment that connects to the Harness Manager and performs tasks using your container orchestration platforms, artifact repositories, etc. You can install a Delegate inline when setting up connections to your resources or separately as needed. This guide will walk you through setting up a Harness Delegate inline.

Installation

🕘 5-12m

1. Make sure your system meets the Requirements above.
2. Clone the Harness Git repo into your local directory:

git clone git@github.com:harness/harness-cd-community.git

3. Change directory to the harness folder:

cd harness-cd-community/docker-compose/harness

4. Build and run Harness using Docker Compose:

docker-compose up -d

Note: The first download can take 3–12 mins (downloading images and starting all containers). You won't be able to sign up until all the required containers are up and running.

5. Run the following command to start the Harness Manager:

docker-compose run --rm proxy wait-for-it.sh ng-manager:7090 -t 180

6. Wait until you see that ng-manager is available:

wait-for-it.sh: ng-manager:7090 is available after 66 seconds

7. In browser, go to the URL http://localhost/#/signup.
8. Enter an email address and password and click Sign up.

You'll see a message like:

Welcome John Smith, let's get you started!

You're now using Harness!

The next section walks you through setting up and running a simple CD Pipeline using a public manifest and Docker image.

CD Pipeline Quickstart

🕘 10m

1. In Harness, click Projects.
2. Click Create a Project.
3. In About the Project, in Name, enter quickstart, and then click Save and Continue.
4. In Invite Collaborators, click Save and Continue. Your new project appears. Let's add a CD Pipeline.
5. Click the new project.
6. In Modules, click Continuous Delivery.
7. Click Create a Pipeline.
8. In Create new Pipeline, enter the name quickstart, and then click Start. Your new Pipeline is started! Let's add a CD stage.
9. Click Add Stage.
10. In Select stage type, click Deploy.
11. In Stage Name, enter deploy, and then click Set Up Stage. The new stage appears. Now we'll set up the Service, Infrastructure, and Execution for the stage.
12. In Specify Service, click New Service.
13. In New Service, enter the name nginx, and then click Save.
14. In Manifests, click Add Manifest.
15. Select K8s Manifest, and click Continue.
16. In Select K8sManifest Store, click GitHub, and then click New GitHub Connector.
17. The Git Connector settings appear. Enter the following settings.

• Name: enter a name for the Connector.
• URL Type: select Repository.
• Connection Type: select HTTP.
• Git Repository URL: enter https://github.com/kubernetes/website.
• Username and password: Enter the username and password for your Github account. You'll have to create a Harness secret for the password.

18. Click Continue.
19. In Set Up Delegates, click Install new Delegate. The Delegate wizard appears.
20. Click Kubernetes, and then click Continue.
21. Enter a name for the Delegate, like quickstart, click the Laptop size.
22. Click Continue.
23. Click Download Script. The YAML file for the Kubernetes Delegate will download to your computer as an archive.
24. Open a terminal and navigate to where the Delegate file is downloaded.
25. Start minkube if it is not already started: minikube start. We'll use the default namespace for our deployment, but you can use another existing namespace.
26. Next, install the Harness Delegate using the harness-delegate.yaml file you just downloaded. In the terminal running minikube, run this command (you can see this command in the Delegate wizard):

kubectl apply -f harness-delegate.yaml

The successful output is something like this:

% kubectl apply -f harness-delegate.yaml
namespace/harness-delegate unchanged
clusterrolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/harness-delegate-cluster-admin unchanged
secret/k8s-quickstart-proxy unchanged
statefulset.apps/k8s-quickstart-sngxpn created
service/delegate-service unchanged

27. In Harness, click Verify. It will take a few minutes to verify the Delegate. Once it is verified, close the wizard.
28. Back in Set Up Delegates, you can select the new Delegate.
29. In the list of Delegates, select the Connect using Delegates with the following Tags option.
30. Enter the tag of the new Delegate and click Save and Continue. When you are done, the Connector is tested.
31. Click Continue.
32. In Manifest Details, enter the following settings:

• Manifest Identifier: enter nginx.
• Git Fetch Type: select Latest from Branch.
• Branch: enter main.
• File/Folder path: content/en/examples/application/nginx-app.yaml This is the path from the repo root.

33. Test the connection and click Submit. The manifest is now listed.
34. Click Next at the bottom of the Service tab. Now that the artifact and manifest are defined, you can define the target cluster for your deployment.
35. In Infrastructure Details, in Specify your environment, click New Environment.
36. In New Environment, enter a name such as quickstart, select Non-Production, and click Save. The new Environment appears.
37. In Infrastructure Definition, click Kubernetes.
38. In Cluster details, in Connector, click Select a connector.
39. Click New Connector. The Kubernetes Cluster Connector appears.
40. In Kubernetes Cluster Connector, enter a name like quickstart and click Continue.
41. In Details, select Use the credentials of a specific Harness Delegate. We will select the Delegate next. Click Continue.
42. Select the Kubernetes Delegate you added earlier using its Tags, and then click Save and Continue. Harness verifies the Connector.
43. Click Finish.
44. Select the new Connector and then click Apply Selected.
45. Back in Cluster Details, in Namespace, enter the target namespace for the deployment. For example, default. You can use any namespace in your target cluster.

The target infrastructure is complete. Now we can add our stage steps.

46. Click Next to move onto Execution.