CLI Quickstart

Overview

This is a guide on how to get Plural running using our CLI. If you prefer an in-browser Cloud Shell experience with all the dependencies loaded, check out our Quickstart Guide for Cloud Shell here. You can see the process in the video here or follow the instructions step-by-step, especially for unique cloud providers:

Prerequisites

You will need the following things to successfully get up and running with Plural:

• A cloud account: Plural will deploy directly into your cloud provider of choice. We currently support AWS, GCP and Azure. Follow this guide to make sure it's set up correctly.
• Your cloud provider CLI installed and configured: Plural will leverage your cloud provider's CLI tooling in places. If need to install the cloud provider CLI, or aren't sure if it's properly configured you can follow this guide.
• A GitHub/GitLab account: Plural manages the state of your infrastructure using a git-ops workflow, so you'll need an account with a version control management system. Follow the instructions in our GitOps resources for more information.

Install Plural CLI

The Plural CLI and its dependencies are available using a package manager for your system. For Mac, we recommend using Homebrew. For other operating systems, curl and our Docker image should work universally.

brew install pluralsh/plural/plural

VSN=$(curl --silent -qI https://github.com/pluralsh/plural-cli/releases/latest | awk -F '/' '/^location/ {print  substr($NF, 1, length($NF)-1)}')
curl -L -o plural.tgz 'https://github.com/pluralsh/plural-cli/releases/download/${VSN}/plural-cli_${VSN#v}_Darwin_arm64.tar.gz'
tar -xvf plural.tgz
chmod +x plural
mv plural /usr/local/bin/plural

Create your Plural Repo

Plural stores all configuration artifacts within a Git repository that we will create on your behalf. Run this command within the directory that you want to store your configuration in:

plural init

The Plural CLI will then guide you through a workflow using GitHub/GitLab OAuth to create a repository on your behalf.

Along the plural init workflow, we will set the Git attributes to configure encryption and configure your cloud provider for this installation.

You will also be asked whether you want to use Plural's domain service and if so, what you want the subdomain to be. We recommend that you use our DNS service if you don't have any security reasons that prevent you from doing so. The hostname that you configure with us will determine where your applications are hosted. For example, if you enter singular.onplural.sh, your applications will be available at $APP_NAME.singular.onplural.sh.

This process will generate a workspace.yaml file at the root of your repo that stores your cloud provider configuration information.

Install Plural Applications

To view the applications you can install on Plural, head to this link.

Once you've selected your applications, you can install Plural bundles using our interactive GUI. To start the GUI, run:

plural install

You should see a window pop up like the below:

You can then follow a guided flow to select and configure your applications.

Alternatively, you can run plural repos list on the CLI or Cloud Shell and find the bundle name specific to your cloud provider.

Run plural bundle list <app-name> to find installation commands and information about each application available for install. For example, to list the bundle information for the Plural console, a powerful Kubernetes control plane:

Here's what we get from running plural bundle list console:

+-------------+--------------------------------+----------+--------------------------------+
|    NAME     |          DESCRIPTION           | PROVIDER |        INSTALL COMMAND         |
+-------------+--------------------------------+----------+--------------------------------+
| console-aws | Deploys console on an EKS      | AWS      | plural bundle install console  |
|             | cluster                        |          | console-aws                    |
+-------------+--------------------------------+----------+--------------------------------+

To install applications on Plural, run:

plural bundle install <app-name> <bundle-name>

We can try this out by installing the Plural Console:

plural bundle install console console-aws

plural bundle install console console-gcp

plural bundle install console console-azure

As of CLI version 0.6.19, the bundle name can be inferred from primary bundles, optionally shortening the command to:

plural bundle install console

After running the install command, you will be asked a few questions about how your app will be configured, including whether you want to enable Plural OIDC (single sign-on). Unless you don't wish to use Plural as an identity provider due to internal company security requirements, you should enter (Y). This will enable you to use your existing app.plural.sh login information to access Plural-deployed applications. This will add an extra layer of security for applications without built-in authentication.

Ultimately all the values you input at this step will be stored in a file called context.yaml at the root of your repo.

Build and Deploy your Kubernetes Cluster and Applications

With all bundles installed, run:

plural build
plural deploy --commit "initial deploy"

This will generate all deployment artifacts in the repo, then deploy them in dependency order.

It is common for plural deploy to take a fair amount of time, as is the case with most Terraform and cloud infrastructure deployments. Network disconnects can cause potential issues as a result. If you're running on a spotty network, or would like to step out while it's running we recommend running it in tmux.

Once plural deploy has completed, you should be ready to log in to your application at {app-name}.{domain-name}.

And you are done! You now have a fully-configured Kubernetes cluster and are free to install applications on it to your heart's content. If you want to take down any of your individual applications, run plural destroy <APP-NAME>. If you're just testing us out and want to take down the entire thing, run plural destroy.