Install Server

This guide walks through deploying the Admiral server using the official Helm chart. Start with demo mode to get a working instance in minutes, then see Server Deployment for production planning.

Architecture overview

An Admiral deployment consists of these components:

Demo mode deployment

Demo mode provisions all dependencies as in-cluster services using a single demo-values.yaml file. It's designed for evaluation, local development, and learning the platform.

What you'll get

• A single-node Kubernetes cluster via KinD
• Admiral Server with debug logging and profiling enabled
• PostgreSQL and MinIO running as Helm subcharts
• Dex configured with a static demo user
• NGINX ingress routing everything through http://admiral.127.0.0.1.nip.io

Automated setup

The fastest path is the included make dev target, which runs the full setup script:

git clone https://github.com/admiral-platform/admiral-helm.git
cd admiral-helm
make dev

This single command:

1. Creates a KinD cluster named admiral (or reuses an existing one)
2. Installs the NGINX ingress controller
3. Builds Helm chart dependencies (PostgreSQL, MinIO)
4. Installs Admiral with demo-values.yaml

When it completes, you'll see:

===========================================
  Admiral is ready!
===========================================

  URL: http://admiral.127.0.0.1.nip.io

  Demo credentials:
    Email:    admin@example.com
    Password: shipitnow

Manual setup

If you prefer to run each step yourself or need to customize the process:

kind create cluster --name admiral --config kind/cluster.yaml

kind: Cluster
apiVersion: kind.x-k8s.io/v1alpha4
nodes:
  - role: control-plane
    image: kindest/node:v1.32.3
    labels:
      ingress-ready: "true"
    extraPortMappings:
      - containerPort: 80
        hostPort: 80
        protocol: TCP
      - containerPort: 443
        hostPort: 443
        protocol: TCP

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes/ingress-nginx/main/deploy/static/provider/kind/deploy.yaml

kubectl rollout status deployment ingress-nginx-controller \
  --namespace ingress-nginx \
  --timeout=120s

helm dependency build charts/admiral

helm upgrade --install admiral charts/admiral \
  -f charts/admiral/demo-values.yaml \
  --namespace default \
  --wait \
  --timeout 5m

Demo values explained

The demo-values.yaml file enables all built-in components with lightweight resource limits:

# Ingress: routes traffic through NGINX on a nip.io hostname
ingress:
  enabled: true
  className: nginx
  host: admiral.127.0.0.1.nip.io

# Server: debug logging and profiling for development
server:
  logLevel: debug
  enablePprof: true

# Database: built-in PostgreSQL with minimal storage
postgresql:
  enabled: true
  auth:
    password: "shipitnow"
  persistence: 512Mi

# Object storage: built-in MinIO with minimal storage
minio:
  enabled: true
  rootPassword: "shipitnow"
  persistence: 512Mi

# Authentication: Dex with a static demo user
oauth2:
  demoPassword: "shipitnow"

dex:
  enabled: true
  resources:
    requests:
      cpu: 25m
      memory: 32Mi

# Server resource limits
admiral:
  resources:
    requests:
      cpu: 50m
      memory: 64Mi
    limits:
      memory: 256Mi

Sign in

1. Open http://admiral.127.0.0.1.nip.io in your browser
2. Click Log in with Email
3. Enter the demo credentials:
   • Email: admin@example.com
   • Password: shipitnow

kubectl get secret admiral-oauth2 \
  -o jsonpath='{.data.dex-demo-password}' | base64 -d; echo

Verify the deployment

Check that all pods are running:

kubectl get pods

You should see pods for Admiral Server, PostgreSQL, MinIO, and Dex, all in Running status.

Verify the API is responding:

curl -s http://admiral.127.0.0.1.nip.io/healthz

Tear down

When you're done evaluating:

make dev-down

Or manually:

kind delete cluster --name admiral

What's next

• Bootstrap your first cluster. Connect a Kubernetes cluster to Admiral by deploying the cluster agent.
• Server Deployment. Plan and configure a production-grade deployment with external services.
• Authentication Model. Understand how OIDC, tokens, and access control work together.