Scaleway Installation

Plakar Control Plane is distributed for Scaleway as a QCOW2 virtual machine image. The official QCOW2 image for Scaleway can be downloaded from:

• Plakar Control Plane Downloads Page

Uploading the QCOW2 image to Scaleway Object Storage

Unlike marketplace-based deployments such as AWS AMIs, Scaleway instances cannot boot directly from an uploaded QCOW2 image. The image must first be imported into Scaleway Block Storage as a snapshot, which can then be attached as the boot volume for the instance.

Before importing the image as a snapshot, the QCOW2 file must first be uploaded to Scaleway Object Storage. Create an Object Storage bucket, then upload the QCOW2 image to the bucket.

Creating a Block Storage snapshot

Once the QCOW2 image has been uploaded, open the bucket Files page and select Import as snapshot from the object actions menu.

Scaleway will convert the QCOW2 image into a Block Storage snapshot that can later be attached as the root volume for the instance.

When importing the snapshot:

• Select the Scaleway zone where the snapshot should be created
• Select Block Storage as the snapshot type

Creating the Scaleway instance

Create a new Scaleway compute instance using the Block Storage snapshot as the boot source.

The instance must be created in the same Scaleway zone as the snapshot, otherwise the snapshot will not be available for attachment as the root volume.

Size the instance according to Appliance Sizing, which gives the CPU, memory and disks for each size of deployment. For the S tier, a configuration such as BASIC3-X4C-16G is suitable.

Select the Scaleway zone where the instance should be created, then continue to the instance configuration step.

For the instance boot image:

1. Open the My snapshots section
2. Select the Block Storage snapshot created from the QCOW2 image

The Block Storage Snapshot volume is used only as the operating system boot disk. Plakar Control Plane requires an additional persistent data volume that stores the database, logs, and all Plakar state.

Attach an additional Block Storage volume of the data disk size given in Appliance Sizing. Backups themselves are stored wherever you configure using apps.

Configuring the Appliance

An instance with a public IP and direct internet access needs no configuration. If SSH access is all you need, set it from the Scaleway console as described in SSH access and skip the cloud-init user data. For anything else, such as a proxy or a Private Network, the appliance reads its settings from Scaleway’s cloud-init user data.

SSH access

The appliance accepts SSH connections as the plakar user. Without cloud-init user data, an instance receives the SSH keys registered in its Scaleway project, in the SSH keys section of the instance creation flow.

When cloud-init user data is provided, Scaleway no longer adds the project keys. The SSH keys then have to be listed in the ssh_authorized_keys key of the user data.

ssh plakar@<instance-ip-address>

Cloud-init user data

The user data is set before the instance is created. The keys of the document are described in Appliance Configuration. If the appliance goes through a proxy or firewall, the hosts it has to reach are listed in Required outbound access.

The document below sets every key except network, which Scaleway only needs for an instance on a Private Network, as described in Private Network. Remove the keys your environment does not need, each key is optional.

#cloud-config
ssh_authorized_keys:
  - ssh-ed25519 AAAA...

proxy:
  http: http://proxy.corp.example:3128
  https: http://proxy.corp.example:3128
  no_proxy: .corp.example

registry:
  mirrors:
    docker.io: harbor.corp.example/dockerhub-proxy
    ghcr.io: harbor.corp.example/ghcr-proxy
  insecure: false

releases:
  url: https://dist.corp.example/plakar/enterprise
  version: v1.1.2

ntp:
  servers:
    - 10.20.0.1
    - ntp.corp.example

Private Network

On Scaleway, eth0 is the public interface, and a Private Network is attached as eth1. The appliance only configures eth0 by default, with DHCP, which suits an instance with a public IP.

An instance can also run without a public IP, attached to a Private Network that reaches the internet through a Scaleway Public Gateway. Nothing answers DHCP on eth0 then, and the instance does not finish booting. The user data has to tell the appliance to use DHCP on eth1 instead:

#cloud-config
network:
  ethernets:
    eth1:
      dhcp4: true

Add the network key to the rest of the user data if you set other keys. The instance then receives its address, its default route through the Public Gateway and its DNS resolver from the Private Network, provided Advertise default route is enabled on the gateway’s attachment to the network.

Such an instance is reached through a load balancer or the SSH bastion of the Public Gateway. See HTTPS access on a Private Network and SSH bastion access.

Security group

When the instance is created, Scaleway automatically attaches the default security group. For an instance with a public IP, assign both an IPv4 and an IPv6 address, then open the Security Group tab of the instance once it is running. Set the default inbound policy to drop all, then allow inbound TCP traffic on port 80, and on port 22 if you connect over SSH.

The allowed source can be your public IP address, your organization gateway or VPN address, or 0.0.0.0/0 for temporary testing access.

In production environments, adapt networking and access control to your infrastructure, for example by exposing Plakar Control Plane through a load balancer with HTTPS, restricting access to a VPN or private network, or limiting inbound traffic to trusted IP ranges.

Accessing Plakar Control Plane

Once the instance has started, Plakar Control Plane is reached from a browser at http://<public-ipv4-address> for an instance with a public IP, or through the load balancer or SSH bastion for an instance on a Private Network. For first-time installations, you will be guided through the enrollment process to:

• Register the instance with Plakar services for licensing and billing
• Create the initial administrator account

See the enrollment documentation for more details.