Support automatically port forwarding to flux instances in a Kubernet…

…es cluster.

Simplify accessing flux instances in a Kubernetes cluster by automatically creating
port forwards, just like Helm does.

This is based on the port forward implementations from kubectl and Helm:

* https://github.com/kubernetes/helm/blob/master/pkg/kube/tunnel.go
* https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/blob/master/pkg/kubectl/cmd/portforward.go

The flow is:

* If `--url` is set, then fluxctl will connect directly to the specified URL.
* If `--token` is set, then fluxctl will connect to Weave cloud with the token.
* Otherwise, fluxctl will look for a pod in `--k8s-forward-namespace` (`default` by
  default) with the `name=flux` labels.
* If the number of pods with `name=flux` in the namespace are not exactly 1, it will
  return an error.
* It will find an empty port (by first binding to port 0 and then closing the port) and
  start a port forward on that port that forwards to the flux pod on port 3030.
* It will set the flux url to `http://127.0.0.1:$port/api/flux`.
* The port forward goroutine will get cleaned up automatically when fluxctl terminates.

Use-cases:

* Easier use of standalone flux instances.
* Discourage exposing flux apis to the internet (hopefully nobody does this).
* More easily manage large numbers of flux instances.

cmd/fluxctl/root_cmd.go

@@ -14,11 +14,13 @@ import (
 	"github.com/weaveworks/flux/api"
 	transport "github.com/weaveworks/flux/http"
 	"github.com/weaveworks/flux/http/client"
+	"github.com/justinbarrick/go-k8s-portforward"
 )
 
 type rootOpts struct {
 	URL   string
 	Token string
+	Namespace string
 	API   api.Server
 }
 
@@ -37,6 +39,7 @@ Workflow:
 
 const (
 	envVariableURL        = "FLUX_URL"
+	envVariableNamespace  = "FLUX_FORWARD_NAMESPACE"
 	envVariableToken      = "FLUX_SERVICE_TOKEN"
 	envVariableCloudToken = "WEAVE_CLOUD_TOKEN"
 )
@@ -49,7 +52,10 @@ func (opts *rootOpts) Command() *cobra.Command {
 		SilenceErrors:     true,
 		PersistentPreRunE: opts.PersistentPreRunE,
 	}
-	cmd.PersistentFlags().StringVarP(&opts.URL, "url", "u", "https://cloud.weave.works/api/flux",
+
+	cmd.PersistentFlags().StringVarP(&opts.Namespace, "k8s-forward-namespace", "f", "default",
+		fmt.Sprintf("Namespace that flux is in for creating a port forward; you can also set the environment variable %s", envVariableNamespace))
+	cmd.PersistentFlags().StringVarP(&opts.URL, "url", "u", "",
 		fmt.Sprintf("Base URL of the flux service; you can also set the environment variable %s", envVariableURL))
 	cmd.PersistentFlags().StringVarP(&opts.Token, "token", "t", "",
 		fmt.Sprintf("Weave Cloud service token; you can also set the environment variable %s or %s", envVariableCloudToken, envVariableToken))
@@ -74,11 +80,32 @@ func (opts *rootOpts) Command() *cobra.Command {
 }
 
 func (opts *rootOpts) PersistentPreRunE(cmd *cobra.Command, _ []string) error {
+	opts.Namespace = getFromEnvIfNotSet(cmd.Flags(), "k8s-forward-namespace", opts.Namespace, envVariableNamespace)
+	opts.Token = getFromEnvIfNotSet(cmd.Flags(), "token", opts.Token, envVariableToken, envVariableCloudToken)
 	opts.URL = getFromEnvIfNotSet(cmd.Flags(), "url", opts.URL, envVariableURL)
+
+	if opts.Token != "" {
+		opts.URL = "https://cloud.weave.works/api/flux"
+	} else if opts.URL == "" {
+		portforwarder, err := portforward.NewPortForwarder(opts.Namespace, map[string]string{
+			"name": "flux",
+		}, 3030)
+		if err != nil {
+			return errors.Wrap(err, "initializing port forwarder")
+		}
+
+		err = portforwarder.Start()
+		if err != nil {
+			return errors.Wrap(err, "creating port forward")
+		}
+
+		opts.URL = fmt.Sprintf("http://127.0.0.1:%d/api/flux", portforwarder.ListenPort)
+	}
+
 	if _, err := url.Parse(opts.URL); err != nil {
 		return errors.Wrapf(err, "parsing URL")
 	}
-	opts.Token = getFromEnvIfNotSet(cmd.Flags(), "token", opts.Token, envVariableToken, envVariableCloudToken)
+
 	opts.API = client.New(http.DefaultClient, transport.NewAPIRouter(), opts.URL, client.Token(opts.Token))
 	return nil
 }

site/using.md

@@ -20,46 +20,28 @@ You need to tell `fluxctl` where to find the Flux API and to make
 the pod accessible to the command-line client `fluxctl`, you
 will need to expose the API outside the cluster.
 
-A simple way to do this is to piggy-back on `kubectl port-forward`,
-assuming you can access the Kubernetes API:
+By default, fluxctl will attempt to forward to your Flux instance in the `default`
+namespace. You can also specify the namespace that your Flux instance lives in with the
+`-f` or `--k8s-forward-namespace` flag:
 
-```sh
-fluxpod=$(kubectl get pod -l name=flux -o name | awk -F / '{ print $2; }')
-kubectl port-forward "$fluxpod" 10080:3030 &
-export FLUX_URL="http://localhost:10080/api/flux"
 ```
-
-Exporting `FLUX_URL` is enough for `fluxctl` to know how to contact
-the daemon. You could alternatively supply the `--url` argument
-each time.
-
-## Flux API service
-
-Now you can easily query the Flux API:
-
-```sh
-fluxctl list-controllers --all-namespaces
+fluxctl -f default list-controllers
 ```
 
-### Local endpoint
+This setting can also be set in an environment variable (`FLUX_FORWARD_NAMESPACE`).
 
-**Beware**: this exposes the Flux API, unauthenticated, over an
-insecure channel. Do not do this _unless_ you are operating Flux
-entirely locally; and arguably, only to try it out.
+If you are not able to use the port forward to connect, you can connect by URL with
+`--url` or `FLUX_URL`:
 
-If you are running Flux locally, e.g., in minikube, you can use a
-service with a
-[`NodePort`](http://kubernetes.io/docs/user-guide/services/#type-nodeport).
+```
+fluxctl --url http://127.0.0.1:3030/ list-controllers
+```
 
-An example manifest is given in
-[flux-nodeport.yaml](../../deploy/flux-nodeport.yaml).
+## Flux API service
 
-Then you can access the API on the `NodePort`, by retrieving the port
-number (this example assumes you are using minikube):
+Now you can easily query the Flux API:
 
 ```sh
-fluxport=$(kubectl get svc flux --template '{{ index .spec.ports 0 "nodePort" }}')
-export FLUX_URL="http://$(minikube ip):$fluxport/api/flux"
 fluxctl list-controllers --all-namespaces
 ```