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Delegate installation overview

Install the default delegate​

The inline tutorial below shows you how to install the default delegate for your Harness account. It can be either a Kubernetes delegate installed using a Helm chart, Terraform Helm Provider, and Kubernetes manifest or a Docker delegate using the docker run command. You can also review the tutorial directly here.

Install the default delegate on Kubernetes or Docker

Install Harness Delegate on Kubernetes or Docker

What is Harness Delegate?​

Harness Delegate is a lightweight worker process that is installed on your infrastructure and communicates only via outbound HTTP/HTTPS to the Harness Platform. This enables the Harness Platform to leverage the delegate to execute the CI/CD and other tasks on your behalf, without any of your secrets leaving your network.

You can install the Harness Delegate on either Docker or Kubernetes.

Install Harness Delegate​

Create a new delegate token​

Log in to the Harness Platform and go to Account Settings -> Account Resources -> Delegates. Select the Tokens tab. Select +New Token, and enter a token name, for example firstdeltoken. Select Apply. Harness Platform generates a new token for you. Select Copy to copy and store the token in a temporary file. You will provide this token as an input parameter in the next installation step. The delegate will use this token to authenticate with the Harness Platform.

Get your Harness account ID​

Along with the delegate token, you will also need to provide your Harness accountId as an input parameter during delegate installation. This accountId is present in every Harness URL. For example, in the following URL:

https://app.harness.io/ng/#/account/6_vVHzo9Qeu9fXvj-AcQCb/settings/overview

6_vVHzo9Qeu9fXvj-AcQCb is the accountId.

Now you are ready to install the delegate on either Docker or Kubernetes.

Prerequisite​

Ensure that you have access to a Kubernetes cluster. For the purposes of this tutorial, we will use minikube.

Install minikube

  • On Windows: 
choco install minikube
  • On macOS: 
brew install minikube

Now start minikube with the following config.

minikube start --memory 4g --cpus 4

Validate that you have kubectl access to your cluster.

kubectl get pods -A

Now that you have access to a Kubernetes cluster, you can install the delegate using any of the options below.

Install the Helm chart​

As a prerequisite, you must have Helm v3 installed on the machine from which you connect to your Kubernetes cluster.

You can now install the delegate using the delegate Helm chart. First, add the harness-delegate Helm chart repo to your local Helm registry.

helm repo add harness-delegate https://app.harness.io/storage/harness-download/delegate-helm-chart/
helm repo update
helm search repo harness-delegate

You can see that there are two Helm charts available. We will use the harness-delegate/harness-delegate-ng chart in this tutorial.

NAME                                    CHART VERSION   APP VERSION DESCRIPTION                                
harness-delegate/harness-delegate-ng    1.0.8           1.16.0      A Helm chart for deploying harness-delegate

Now we are ready to install the delegate. The following command installs/upgrades firstk8sdel delegate (which is a Kubernetes workload) in the harness-delegate-ng namespace using the harness-delegate/harness-delegate-ng Helm chart. 

helm upgrade -i firstk8sdel --namespace harness-delegate-ng --create-namespace \
  harness-delegate/harness-delegate-ng \
  --set delegateName=firstk8sdel \
  --set accountId=PUT_YOUR_HARNESS_ACCOUNTID_HERE \
  --set delegateToken=PUT_YOUR_DELEGATE_TOKEN_HERE \
  --set managerEndpoint=PUT_YOUR_MANAGER_HOST_AND_PORT_HERE \
  --set delegateDockerImage=harness/delegate:23.02.78306 \
  --set replicas=1 --set upgrader.enabled=false

The above command uses the default values.yaml located in the delegate-helm-chart GitHub repo. If you want change one or more values in a persistent manner instead of the command line, you can download and update the values.yaml file as per your need. You can use the updated values.yaml file as shown below.

helm upgrade -i firstk8sdel --namespace harness-delegate-ng --create-namespace \
  harness-delegate/harness-delegate-ng \
  -f values.yaml \
  --set delegateName=firstk8sdel \
  --set accountId=PUT_YOUR_HARNESS_ACCOUNTID_HERE \
  --set delegateToken=PUT_YOUR_DELEGATE_TOKEN_HERE \
  --set managerEndpoint=PUT_YOUR_MANAGER_HOST_AND_PORT_HERE \
  --set delegateDockerImage=harness/delegate:23.02.78306 \
  --set replicas=1 --set upgrader.enabled=false

Replace the PUT_YOUR_MANAGER_HOST_AND_PORT_HERE variable with the Harness Manager Endpoint noted below. For Harness SaaS accounts, you can find your Harness Cluster Location on the Account Overview page under the Account Settings section of the left navigation. For Harness CDCE, the endpoint varies based on the Docker vs. Helm installation options.

Harness Cluster LocationHarness Manager Endpoint on Harness Cluster
SaaS prod-1https://app.harness.io
SaaS prod-2https://app.harness.io/gratis
SaaS prod-3https://app3.harness.io
CDCE Dockerhttp://<HARNESS_HOST> if Docker Delegate is remote to CDCE or http://host.docker.internal if Docker Delegate is on same host as CDCE
CDCE Helmhttp://<HARNESS_HOST>:7143 where HARNESS_HOST is the public IP of the Kubernetes node where CDCE Helm is running

Verify delegate connectivity​

Select Continue. After the health checks pass, your delegate is available for you to use. Select Done and verify your new delegate is listed.

Helm chart & Terraform Helm provider​

Delegate Available

Kubernetes manifest​

Delegate Available

Docker​

Delegate Available

You can now route communication to external systems in Harness connectors and pipelines by selecting this delegate via a delegate selector.

Troubleshooting​

The delegate installer provides troubleshooting information for each installation process. If the delegate cannot be verified, select Troubleshoot for steps you can use to resolve the problem. This section includes the same information.

Harness asks for feedback after the troubleshooting steps. You are asked, Did the delegate come up?

If the steps did not resolve the problem, select No, and use the form to describe the issue. You'll also find links to Harness Support and to Delegate docs.

Use the following steps to troubleshoot your installation of the delegate using Helm.

  1. Verify that Helm is correctly installed:

    Check for Helm:

    helm

    And then check for the installed version of Helm:

    helm version

    If you receive the message Error: rendered manifests contain a resource that already exists..., delete the existing namespace, and retry the Helm upgrade command to deploy the delegate.

    For further instructions on troubleshooting your Helm installation, go to Helm troubleshooting guide.

  2. Check the status of the delegate on your cluster:

    kubectl describe pods -n <namespace>

  3. If the pod did not start, check the delegate logs:

    kubectl logs -f <harnessDelegateName> -n <namespace>

    If the state of the delegate pod is CrashLoopBackOff, check your allocation of compute resources (CPU and memory) to the cluster. A state of CrashLoopBackOff indicates insufficent Kubernetes cluster resources.

  4. If the delegate pod is not healthy, use the kubectl describe command to get more information:

    kubectl describe <pod_name> -n <namespace>

The default delegate image, denoted by the yy.mm.xxxxx image tag, includes a set of pre-installed 3rd-party custom binaries for convenience. You can find the list of these binaries here. If you are concerned about the security vulnerabilities that potentially come with these pre-installed binaries, our recommendation is to use the minimal delegate noted below.

Install minimal delegate with 3rd party custom binaries​

The minimal delegate image, denoted by the yy.mm.xxxxx.minimal image tag, does not include any pre-installed 3rd-party custom binaries for ensuring the lowest footprint and hence lowest number of security vulnerabilities.

Use INIT_SCRIPT​

This option installs the 3rd party custom binaries on a delegate container instance without changing the delegate image itself. Below is an inline tutorial that shows you how to use this option. You can also review the tutorial directly here.

Use INIT_SCRIPT

Delegates are packaged with third-party SDKs that support Kubernetes, Helm, and other Harness-integrated tools. The SDKs are included on the delegate image as binary files; depending on the tool, multiple versions are included.

Harness provides a "minimal" delgate image that does not include third-party SDKs. You can use YAML to configure the minimal delegate image for the installation of the tools and versions you select. You can install software on the delegate using the INIT_SCRIPT environment variable.

For a list of the SDK versions that are certified for different types of deployments, go to Delegate-required SDKs.

Use cases​

The primary use cases for customization of the delegate image include:

  • Vulnerability scans detect unresolved vulnerabilities in older binary versions. You want to use binaries that reduce your attack surface.

  • You're interested in using tools that Harness does not include on the delegate image.

The remainder of this topic explains the process.

note

The toolset you install on the delegate minimal image must include the SDKs that Harness requires to perform tasks.

Edit the delegate YAML​

To install a delegate, you download its YAML file and run it in your environment.

Before you run the delegate, edit the YAML file to change the following:

  • Delegate environment variables
  • Delegate image

Add Harness-required SDKs​

In the delegate container spec, use the INIT_SCRIPT environment variable to download the certified SDK versions that Harness requires.

The SDKs you need to add depend on the type of deployment. For a list of the SDK versions that are certified for different types of deployments, go to Delegate-required SDKs.

For more information on how to use the INIT_SCRIPT environment variable, go to Build custom delegate images with third-party tools.

Example Kubernetes manifest with required SDK downloads​

The following delegate YAML contains examples of downloads for all Harness-required SDKs.

You can edit the YAML to include only the SDKs and versions Harness requires for your deployment type.

...   
        - name: DELEGATE_TYPE  
          value: "KUBERNETES"  
        - name: DELEGATE_NAMESPACE  
          valueFrom:  
            fieldRef:  
              fieldPath: metadata.namespace  
        - name: INIT_SCRIPT  
          value: |  
              
            ## Kubectl   
            curl -L0 https://dl.k8s.io/release/v1.24.3/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl -o kubectl  
            chmod +x ./kubectl  
            mv kubectl /usr/local/bin/
              
            ## Helm V3  
            curl -L0 https://get.helm.sh/helm-v3.9.2-linux-amd64.tar.gz -o helm-v3.9.2.tar.gz  
            tar -xvzf helm-v3.9.2.tar.gz  
            chmod +x ./linux-amd64/helm  
            mv ./linux-amd64/helm /usr/local/bin/ 
  
            ## Kustomize  
            curl -L0 https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kustomize/releases/download/kustomize%2Fv4.5.4/kustomize_v4.5.4_linux_amd64.tar.gz -o kustomize_v4.5.4.tar.gz  
            tar -xvzf kustomize_v4.5.4.tar.gz  
            chmod +x ./kustomize  
            mv kustomize /usr/local/bin/
  
            ## OpenShift OC  
            curl -L0 https://mirror.openshift.com/pub/openshift-v4/clients/oc/latest/linux/oc.tar.gz -o oc.tar.gz  
            tar -xvzf oc.tar.gz  
            chmod +x ./oc  
            mv oc /usr/local/bin/ 
              
            ## go-template   
            mkdir -p /opt/harness-delegate/client-tools/go-template/v0.4.1/  
            curl -L0 https://app.harness.io/public/shared/tools/go-template/release/v0.4.1/bin/linux/amd64/go-template -o go-template  
            chmod +x ./go-template  
            mv go-template /usr/local/bin/
              
            curl -L https://get.helm.sh/chartmuseum-v0.14.0-linux-amd64.tar.gz -o chartmuseum-v0.14.tar.gz  
            tar xzvf chartmuseum-v0.14.tar.gz  
            chmod +x ./linux-amd64/chartmuseum  
            mv ./linux-amd64/chartmuseum /usr/local/bin/ 
              
            cd /opt/harness-delegate  
...

You can modify the export PATH as needed using the following command:

export PATH=/opt/harness-delegate/custom-client-tools/:<path>

Add your custom tools​

In the delegate container spec, use the INIT_SCRIPT environment variable to download any additional tools you want to add.

See also​

Build a custom image​

This option installs the 3rd party custom binaries on a new custom delegate image that uses the Harness minimal delegate image as its base image. Below is an inline tutorial that shows you how to use this option. You can also review the tutorial directly here.

Build a custom image

Harness Manager installs and configures delegates with the binaries that most CI/CD pipelines require. In some cases, however, a preconfigured image isn’t the right fit. For example, preconfigured images can:

  • Introduce the vulnerabilities of the binaries they include.
  • Restrict you to the use of the included third-party tools and versions.

This document explains how you can:

  • Build and host a custom delegate image that includes the tools you select.
  • Use your custom delegate in CI/CD pipelines.

Select the delegate image​

You can build on either of the following Harness-provided images.

ImageDescription
Harness Delegate Docker imageA publicly available Docker image providing Harness Delegate.
Harness Minimal Delegate Docker imageA minimal delegate image available in Docker Hub at https://hub.docker.com/r/harness/delegate/tags.

Use the last published yy.mm.xxxxx version of the minimal image from the Docker repository.

Build the delegate image​

When you build a custom delegate image, you modify the image you select with user privileges and binaries. This section explains the build script used for the process. In this example, the script builds a custom image for deployment by Kubernetes and by Terraform.

The first lines of the script provide information about the base image and user privileges. This example uses the minimal image with delegate minor version 77029.

FROM harness/delegate:22.10.77029.minimal  
USER root

The delegate container is granted root user privileges.

The first RUN block installs or updates the unzip and yum-utils tools. The --nodocs option prevents the installation of documentation on the image.

RUN microdnf update \  
  && microdnf install --nodocs \  
    unzip \  
    yum-utils

The second RUN block uses the yum utility to create a configuration file for the HashiCorp repository, and then uses the microdnf package manager to install the required Terraform components:

RUN yum-config-manager --add-repo https://rpm.releases.hashicorp.com/RHEL/hashicorp.repo \  
  && microdnf install -y terraform

The final RUN block retrieves the Kubernetes kubectl command-line tool that is required to manipulate clusters. The Linux chmod +x instruction makes the utility executable:

RUN mkdir /opt/harness-delegate/tools && cd /opt/harness-delegate/tools \  
  && curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl> -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl" && chmod +x kubectl 

The final instruction defines the Linux $PATH environment variable that provides the location of the tools to be installed:

ENV PATH=/opt/harness-delegate/tools/:$PATH

The complete script is as follows:

FROM harness/delegate:22.10.77029.minimal  
USER root  
  
RUN microdnf update \  
  && microdnf install --nodocs \  
    unzip \  
    yum-utils  
  
RUN yum-config-manager --add-repo https://rpm.releases.hashicorp.com/RHEL/hashicorp.repo \  
  && microdnf install -y terraform     
  
RUN mkdir /opt/harness-delegate/tools && cd /opt/harness-delegate/tools \  
  && curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl" && chmod +x kubectl   
  
ENV PATH=/opt/harness-delegate/tools/:$PATH

Upload the image to Docker Hub​

The next step is to upload your custom image to Docker Hub. For information on working with Docker repositories, see Manage repositories in the Docker documentation.

Modify the delegate manifest​

Before you can deploy a delegate, you must:

  • Update the image path to the repository location of the custom image.
  • Suspend delegate auto-upgrade functionality.

Delegate auto-upgrade is not compatible with custom images.

Upgrade the image path​

Open the delegate manifest file and locate the container spec (spec.containers). Change the image path to reflect the repository location of your uploaded image as shown in the following YAML.

 spec:  
     terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 600  
     restartPolicy: Always  
     containers:  
     - image: example/org:custom-delegate  
       imagePullPolicy: Always  
       name: delegate  
       securityContext:  
         allowPrivilegeEscalation: false  
         runAsUser: 0   

For purposes of this example, the image was uploaded to example/org:custom-delegate.

Suspend delegate auto-upgrade​

Before you deploy a custom delegate, you must suspend its auto-upgrade functionality. This step prevents your image from being automatically upgraded and the installed binaries removed. 

To suspend auto-upgrade, in the delegate manifest, locate the CronJob resource. In the resource spec, set the suspend field to true as shown in the following YAML:

apiVersion: batch/v1beta1  
kind: CronJob  
metadata:  
 labels:  
   harness.io/name: custom-del-upgrader-job  
 name: custom-del-upgrader-job  
 namespace: harness-delegate-ng  
spec:  
 suspend: true  
 schedule: "0 */1 * * *"  
 concurrencyPolicy: Forbid  
 startingDeadlineSeconds: 20

Example manifest file​

For the complete file, expand the following example.

Example manifest

apiVersion: v1  
kind: Namespace  
metadata:  
 name: harness-delegate-ng  
   
---  
   
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1  
kind: ClusterRoleBinding  
metadata:  
 name: harness-delegate-ng-cluster-admin  
subjects:  
 - kind: ServiceAccount  
   name: default  
   namespace: harness-delegate-ng  
roleRef:  
 kind: ClusterRole  
 name: cluster-admin  
 apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io  
   
---  
   
apiVersion: v1  
kind: Secret  
metadata:  
 name: custom-del-account-token  
 namespace: harness-delegate-ng  
type: Opaque  
data:  
 DELEGATE_TOKEN: ""  
   
---  
   
# If delegate needs to use a proxy, please follow instructions available in the documentation  
# https://developer.harness.io/docs/first-gen/firstgen-platform/account/manage-delegates/configure-delegate-proxy-settings/  
   
apiVersion: apps/v1  
kind: Deployment  
metadata:  
 labels:  
   harness.io/name: custom-del  
 name: custom-del  
 namespace: harness-delegate-ng  
spec:  
 replicas: 1  
 selector:  
   matchLabels:  
     harness.io/name: custom-del  
 template:  
   metadata:  
     labels:  
       harness.io/name: custom-del  
     annotations:  
       prometheus.io/scrape: "true"  
       prometheus.io/port: "3460"  
       prometheus.io/path: "/api/metrics"  
   spec:  
     terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 600  
     restartPolicy: Always  
     containers:  
     - image: foobar/org:custom-delegate  
       imagePullPolicy: Always  
       name: delegate  
       securityContext:  
         allowPrivilegeEscalation: false  
         runAsUser: 0  
       ports:  
         - containerPort: 8080  
       resources:  
         limits:  
           cpu: "0.5"  
           memory: "2048Mi"  
         requests:  
           cpu: "0.5"  
           memory: "2048Mi"  
       livenessProbe:  
         httpGet:  
           path: /api/health  
           port: 3460  
           scheme: HTTP  
         initialDelaySeconds: 10  
         periodSeconds: 10  
         failureThreshold: 2  
       startupProbe:  
         httpGet:  
           path: /api/health  
           port: 3460  
           scheme: HTTP  
         initialDelaySeconds: 30  
         periodSeconds: 10  
         failureThreshold: 15  
       envFrom:  
       - secretRef:  
           name: custom-del-account-token  
       env:  
       - name: JAVA_OPTS  
         value: "-Xms64M"  
       - name: ACCOUNT_ID  
         value:   
       - name: MANAGER_HOST_AND_PORT  
         value: https://app.harness.io/gratis  
       - name: DEPLOY_MODE  
         value: KUBERNETES  
       - name: DELEGATE_NAME  
         value: custom-del  
       - name: DELEGATE_TYPE  
         value: "KUBERNETES"  
       - name: DELEGATE_NAMESPACE  
         valueFrom:  
           fieldRef:  
             fieldPath: metadata.namespace  
       - name: INIT_SCRIPT  
         value: ""  
       - name: DELEGATE_DESCRIPTION  
         value: ""  
       - name: DELEGATE_TAGS  
         value: ""  
       - name: NEXT_GEN  
         value: "true"  
       - name: CLIENT_TOOLS_DOWNLOAD_DISABLED  
         value: "true"  
       - name: LOG_STREAMING_SERVICE_URL  
         value: "https://app.harness.io/gratis/log-service/"  
   
---  
   
apiVersion: v1  
kind: Service  
metadata:  
 name: delegate-service  
 namespace: harness-delegate-ng  
spec:  
 type: ClusterIP  
 selector:  
   harness.io/name: custom-del  
 ports:  
   - port: 8080  
   
---  
   
kind: Role  
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1  
metadata:  
 name: upgrader-cronjob  
 namespace: harness-delegate-ng  
rules:  
 - apiGroups: ["batch", "apps", "extensions"]  
   resources: ["cronjobs"]  
   verbs: ["get", "list", "watch", "update", "patch"]  
 - apiGroups: ["extensions", "apps"]  
   resources: ["deployments"]  
   verbs: ["get", "list", "watch", "create", "update", "patch"]  
   
---  
   
kind: RoleBinding  
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1  
metadata:  
 name: custom-del-upgrader-cronjob  
 namespace: harness-delegate-ng  
subjects:  
 - kind: ServiceAccount  
   name: upgrader-cronjob-sa  
   namespace: harness-delegate-ng  
roleRef:  
 kind: Role  
 name: upgrader-cronjob  
 apiGroup: ""  
   
---  
   
apiVersion: v1  
kind: ServiceAccount  
metadata:  
 name: upgrader-cronjob-sa  
 namespace: harness-delegate-ng  
   
---  
   
apiVersion: v1  
kind: Secret  
metadata:  
 name: custom-del-upgrader-token  
 namespace: harness-delegate-ng  
type: Opaque  
data:  
 UPGRADER_TOKEN: "NjUxM2FlZWUxODVhMjUyZDdjMDYxNTRmMjU4YWRjYWM="  
   
---  
   
apiVersion: v1  
kind: ConfigMap  
metadata:  
 name: custom-del-upgrader-config  
 namespace: harness-delegate-ng  
data:  
 config.yaml: |  
   mode: Delegate  
   dryRun: false  
   workloadName: custom-del  
   namespace: harness-delegate-ng  
   containerName: delegate  
   delegateConfig:  
     accountId: gVcEoNyqQNKbigC_hA3JqA  
     managerHost: https://app.harness.io/gratis  
   
---  
   
apiVersion: batch/v1beta1  
kind: CronJob  
metadata:  
 labels:  
   harness.io/name: custom-del-upgrader-job  
 name: custom-del-upgrader-job  
 namespace: harness-delegate-ng  
spec:  
 suspend: true  
 schedule: "0 */1 * * *"  
 concurrencyPolicy: Forbid  
 startingDeadlineSeconds: 20  
 jobTemplate:  
   spec:  
     template:  
       spec:  
         serviceAccountName: upgrader-cronjob-sa  
         restartPolicy: Never  
         containers:  
         - image: harness/upgrader:latest  
           name: upgrader  
           imagePullPolicy: Always  
           envFrom:  
           - secretRef:  
               name: custom-del-upgrader-token  
           volumeMounts:  
             - name: config-volume  
               mountPath: /etc/config  
         volumes:  
           - name: config-volume  
             configMap:  
               name: custom-del-upgrader-config

Deploy the delegate​

You can deploy the delegate from Harness Manager or by applying the modified delegate manifest file to your cluster.

You can confirm the successful deployment and registration of the delegate in Harness Manager. Check the delegate information to ensure that auto-upgrade is not enabled.

Create pipelines​

You can use your registered delegate to run Kubernetes and Terraform pipelines.

For information about creating a Kubernetes pipeline, see Kubernetes deployment tutorial.

For information about creating a Terraform Plan, see Provision with the Terraform Apply Step.

Configure options​

Network proxy​

This option is detailed in this document.

CI-specific variables​

This option is detailed in this document.

Custom certificates​

This option is detailed in this document.

Additional installation approaches​

Install Docker delegate to Amazon ECS Fargate​

The Docker delegate can be installed into Amazon ECS Fargate using this instructions provided in this document.

Install a legacy Kubernetes delegate​

The legacy Kubernetes delegate, denoted latest container image tag, is used primarily in Harness FirstGen had the auto-upgrade setting ON by default and did not have the flexibility to turn OFF this setting if needed. This type of delegate is now deprecated for new Harness accounts. Here is a document that shows how to install a legacy Kubernetes delegate.