Deploy Bufstream to AWS with RDS for PostgreSQL

This page walks you through installing Bufstream into your AWS deployment, using PostgreSQL for metadata storage. See the AWS configuration page for defaults and recommendations about resources, replicas, storage, and scaling.

Data from your Bufstream cluster never leaves your network or reports back to Buf.

Prerequisites

To deploy Bufstream on AWS, you need the following before you start:

A Kubernetes cluster (v1.27 or newer)
An S3 bucket
An RDS for PostgreSQL instance (v14.x or newer).
A Bufstream role, with read/write permission to the S3 bucket above.
Helm (v3.12.0 or newer)

If you don't yet have your AWS environment, you'll need the following:

For the EKS cluster
- AmazonEC2FullAccess
- A custom policy including eks:*, since there's no default AWS EKS policy including it.
For the S3 bucket
- AmazonS3FullAccess
For the RDS for PostgreSQL instance
- AmazonRDSFullAccess
For the Bufstream role
- IAMFullAccess

Create an EKS cluster

Create an EKS cluster if you don't already have one. An EKS cluster involves many settings that vary depending on your use case. See the official documentation for details.

Set up Workload Identity Federation for Bufstream role

You can authenticate to S3 with access keys, or you can use Kubernetes Workload Identity Federation with either OIDC or EKS Pod Identity. We recommend using EKS Pod Identity. See the official documentation:

Create an S3 Bucket

If you don't already have one, you need the AmazonS3FullAccess role. To create a new S3 bucket, you need the AmazonS3FullAccess role.

$ aws s3api create-bucket \
  --bucket <bucket-name> \
  --region <region> \
  --create-bucket-configuration LocationConstraint=<region>

Create an RDS for PostgreSQL instance

$ aws rds create-db-instance \
    --db-instance-identifier <instance-name> \
    --db-instance-class db.c6gd.xlarge \
    --engine postgres \
    --engine-version 17 \
    --master-username postgres \
    --master-user-password <postgres password> \
    --allocated-storage 20 \
    --vpc-security-group-ids <security-group-ids> \
    --db-subnet-group-name <db-subnet-group-name> \
    --db-name bufstream

Create a Bufstream role and policy

You'll need the IAMFullAccess role.

EKS Pod Identity (recommended)OIDC providerAccess key pair

$ aws iam create-role \
  --role-name BufstreamRole \
  --assume-role-policy-document file://<(echo '{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
      {
        "Effect": "Allow",
        "Principal": {
          "Service": "pods.eks.amazonaws.com"
        },
        "Action": [
          "sts:AssumeRole",
          "sts:TagSession"
        ],
        "Condition": {
          "StringEquals": {
            "aws:SourceAccount": "<aws-account-id>"
          },
          "ArnEquals": {
            "aws:SourceArn": "<eks-cluster-arn>"
          }
        }
      }
    ]
  }')

$ aws eks create-pod-identity-association \
  --cluster-name <cluster-name> \
  --namespace bufstream \
  --service-account bufstream-service-account \
  --role-arn <role-arn>

Refer to the OIDC provider guide for details

$ aws iam create-role \
  --role-name BufstreamRole \
  --assume-role-policy-document file://<(echo '{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
      {
        "Effect": "Allow",
        "Principal": {
          "Federated": "<oidc-provider-arn>"
        },
        "Action": [
          "sts:AssumeRoleWithWebIdentity"
        ],
        "Condition": {
          "StringEquals": {
            "<oidc-url>:aud" : "sts.amazonaws.com",
            "<oidc-url>:sub" : "system:serviceaccount:bufstream:bufstream-service-account"
          }
        }
      }
    ]
  }')

Refer to the guide on creating and managing user access keys.

$ aws iam create-policy \
  --policy-name BufstreamS3 \
  --policy-document file://<(echo '{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
      {
        "Effect": "Allow",
        "Action": [
          "s3:GetObject",
          "s3:PutObject",
          "s3:DeleteObject",
          "s3:ListBucket",
          "s3:AbortMultipartUpload"
        ],
        "Resource": [
          "arn:aws:s3:::<bucket-name>",
          "arn:aws:s3:::<bucket-name>/*"
        ]
      }
    ]
  }')

$ aws iam attach-role-policy \
  --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::<aws-account-id>:policy/BufstreamS3 \
  --role-name BufstreamRole

Create a namespace

Create a Kubernetes namespace in the k8s cluster for the bufstream deployment to use:

$ kubectl create namespace bufstream

Deploy Bufstream

1. Authenticate `helm`

To get started, authenticate helm with the Bufstream OCI registry using the keyfile that was sent alongside this documentation. The keyfile should contain a base64 encoded string.

$ cat keyfile | helm registry login -u _json_key_base64 --password-stdin \
  https://us-docker.pkg.dev/buf-images-1/bufstream

2. Configure Bufstream's Helm values

Bufstream is configured using Helm values that are passed to the bufstream Helm chart. To configure the values:

Create a Helm values file named bufstream-values.yaml, which is required by the helm install command in step 5. This file can be in any location, but we recommend creating it in the same directory where you run the helm commands.
Add the values from the steps below to the bufstream-values.yaml file. Skip to Install the Helm chart for a full example chart.

Configure object storage

Bufstream requires S3-compatible object storage.

EKS Pod Identity (recommended)OIDC providerAccess key pair

Bufstream attempts to acquire credentials from the environment using EKS Pod Identity.

To configure storage, set the following Helm values, filling in your S3 variables:

bufstream-values.yaml

storage:
  use: s3
  s3:
    bucket: <bucket-name>
    region: <region>
    # forcePathStyle: false # Optional, use path-style bucket URLs (http://s3.amazonaws.com/BUCKET/KEY)
    # endpoint: "https://example.com" # Optional

The k8s service account to create the pod identity association for is named bufstream-service-account.

Bufstream attempts to acquire credentials from the environment using the OIDC provider.

To configure storage, set the following Helm values, filling in your S3 variables:

bufstream-values.yaml

bufstream:
  serviceAccount:
    annotations:
      eks.amazonaws.com/role-arn: arn:aws:iam::<aws-account-id>:role/BufstreamRole
storage:
  use: s3
  s3:
    bucket: <bucket-name>
    region: <region>
    # forcePathStyle: false # Optional, use path-style bucket URLs (http://s3.amazonaws.com/BUCKET/KEY)
    # endpoint: "https://example.com" # Optional

The k8s service account to create the pod identity association for is named bufstream-service-account.

Alternatively, you can use an access key pair.

Create a k8s secret containing the s3 access secret key:

$ kubectl create secret --namespace bufstream generic bufstream-storage \
  --from-literal=secret_access_key=<s3 secret access key>

Add the accessKeyId to the configuration:

bufstream-values.yaml

storage:
  use: s3
  s3:
    accessKeyId: "AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE"
    secretName: bufstream-storage
    bucket: <bucket-name>
    region: <region>
    # forcePathStyle: false # Optional, use path-style bucket URLs (http://s3.amazonaws.com/BUCKET/KEY)
    # endpoint: "https://example.com" # Optional

Configure PostgreSQL

Get the endpoint address of the PostgreSQL instance:

$ aws rds describe-db-instances --db-instance-identifier=<instance-name> --query='DBInstances[0].Endpoint.Address'

Create a secret with the DSN to connect to the PostgreSQL instance:

kubectl create secret --namespace bufstream generic bufstream-postgres \
      --from-literal=dsn='postgresql://postgres:<postgres-user-password>@<endpoint-address>:5432/bufstream?sslmode=require'

Then, configure Bufstream to connect to PostgreSQL:

bufstream-values.yaml

metadata:
  use: postgres
  postgres:
    secretName: bufstream-postgres

Note that using the postgres user password is not recommended for production and a separate user should be used instead. Read the AWS RDS docs for more details.

3. Install the Helm chart

Proceed to the zonal deployment steps if you want to deploy Bufstream with zone-aware routing. If not, follow the instructions below to deploy the basic Helm chart.

After following the steps above, the set of Helm values should be similar to the example below:

EKS Pod Identity (recommended)OIDC providerAccess key pair

bufstream-values.yaml

storage:
  use: s3
  s3:
    bucket: <bucket-name>
    region: <region>
metadata:
  use: postgres
  postgres:
    secretName: bufstream-postgres

bufstream-values.yaml

bufstream:
  serviceAccount:
    annotations:
      eks.amazonaws.com/role-arn: arn:aws:iam::<aws-account-id>:role/BufstreamRole
storage:
  use: s3
  s3:
    bucket: <bucket-name>
    region: <region>
metadata:
  use: postgres
  postgres:
    secretName: bufstream-postgres
observability:
  metrics:
    exporter: "PROMETHEUS"

The k8s service account to create the pod identity association for is named bufstream-service-account.

bufstream-values.yaml

storage:
  use: s3
  s3:
    bucket: <bucket-name>
    region: <region>
    accessKeyId: "AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE"
    secretName: bufstream-storage
metadata:
  use: postgres
  postgres:
    secretName: bufstream-postgres
observability:
  metrics:
    exporter: "PROMETHEUS"

Using the bufstream-values.yaml Helm values file, install the Helm chart for the cluster and set the correct Bufstream version:

$ helm install bufstream oci://us-docker.pkg.dev/buf-images-1/bufstream/charts/bufstream \
  --version "<version>" \
  --namespace=bufstream \
  --values bufstream-values.yaml

If you change any configuration in the bufstream-values.yaml file, re-run the Helm install command to apply the changes.

Network load balancer

To access the Bufstream cluster from outside the Kubernetes cluster, create an AWS Network Load Balancer (NLB). The easiest way to create an NLB is to use the AWS Load Balancer Controller. Once the controller is successfully installed in the EKS cluster, add the following configuration to bufstream-values.yaml file:

bufstream-values.yaml

bufstream:
  service:
    type: LoadBalancer
    annotations:
      service.beta.kubernetes.io/aws-load-balancer-type: "external"
      service.beta.kubernetes.io/aws-load-balancer-nlb-target-type: "ip"
      service.beta.kubernetes.io/aws-load-balancer-scheme: "internal"

Run the helm upgrade command for Bufstream:

$ helm upgrade bufstream oci://us-docker.pkg.dev/buf-images-1/bufstream/charts/bufstream \
  --version "<version>" \
  --namespace=bufstream \
  --values bufstream-values.yaml

Check the progress of the NLB creation using the following command:

$ kubectl describe service bufstream

Once the NLB is created, use the following commands to get its DNS name and more details:

# save the dns name into a variable
$ NLBDNSNAME=$(kubectl -n bufstream get service bufstream -o "jsonpath={.status.loadBalancer.ingress[*].hostname}")
# print the dns name
$ echo "$NLBDNSNAME"
# show more details like arn of the created NLB:
$ aws elbv2 describe-load-balancers --query "LoadBalancers[?DNSName=='${NLBDNSNAME}']"

The Bufstream cluster needs to advertise its public address to the connecting clients. Make sure the address advertised is the same as the one that the clients are connecting to by adding the following configuration to bufstream-values.yaml:

bufstream-values.yaml

kafka:
  publicAddress:
    host: <dns name of the NLB address>
    port: 9092

Run the helm upgrade command for Bufstream to update the public address:

$ helm upgrade bufstream oci://us-docker.pkg.dev/buf-images-1/bufstream/charts/bufstream \
  --version "<version>" \
  --namespace=bufstream \
  --values bufstream-values.yaml

Deploy Bufstream with zone-aware routing

1. Specify a list of target zones

First, specify a list of target zones in a ZONES variable, which are used for future commands.

$ ZONES=(<zone1> <zone2> <zone3>)

2. Create EKS Pod Association for all zones

If you're using EKS Pod association, you'll need to create a pod association for each service account in each zone.

$ for ZONE in $ZONES; do
  aws eks create-pod-identity-association \
    --cluster-name <cluster-name> \
    --namespace bufstream \
    --service-account bufstream-service-account-${ZONE} \
    --role-arn <role-arn>
done

3. Create Helm values files for each zone

Then, use this script to iterate through the availability zones saved in the ZONES variable and create a Helm values file for each zone:

$ for ZONE in $ZONES; do
  cat <<EOF > "bufstream-${ZONE}-values.yaml"
nameOverride: bufstream-${ZONE}
name: bufstream-${ZONE}
zone: ${ZONE}
bufstream:
  serviceAccount:
    name: bufstream-service-account-${ZONE}
  deployment:
    replicaCount: 2
    affinity:
      nodeAffinity:
        requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
          nodeSelectorTerms:
          - matchExpressions:
            - key: topology.kubernetes.io/zone
              operator: In
              values:
              - ${ZONE}
kafka:
  publicAddress:
    host: bufstream-${ZONE}.bufstream.svc.cluster.local
    port: 9092
EOF
done

Using the example ZONES variable above creates three values files: bufstream-<zone1>-values.yaml, bufstream-<zone2>-values.yaml and bufstream-<zone3>-values.yaml. However, Bufstream is available in all AWS regions, so you can specify AZs in any region such as us-east-1, us-west-2 or eu-central-2 in the variable.

4. Install the Helm chart for each zone

After following the steps above and creating the zone-specific values files, the collection of Helm values should be structurally similar to the example below:

bufstream-values.yaml

storage:
  use: s3
  s3:
    bucket: <bucket-name>
    region: <region>
metadata:
  use: postgres
  postgres:
    secretName: bufstream-postgres
observability:
  metrics:
    exporter: "PROMETHEUS"

bufstream-_zone1_-values.yaml

nameOverride: bufstream-<zone1>
name: bufstream-<zone1>
bufstream:
  serviceAccount:
    name: bufstream-service-account-<zone1>
  deployment:
    replicaCount: 2
    affinity:
      nodeAffinity:
        requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
          nodeSelectorTerms:
          - matchExpressions:
            - key: topology.kubernetes.io/zone
              operator: In
              values:
              - <zone1>
kafka:
  publicAddress:
    host: bufstream-<zone1>.bufstream.svc.cluster.local
    port: 9092

To deploy a zone-aware Bufstream using the bufstream-values.yaml Helm values file, install the Helm chart for the cluster, set the target Bufstream version, and supply the ZONES variable:

$ for ZONE in $ZONES; do
  helm install "bufstream-${ZONE}" oci://us-docker.pkg.dev/buf-images-1/bufstream/charts/bufstream \
    --version "<version>" \
    --namespace=bufstream \
    --values bufstream-values.yaml \
    --values "bufstream-${ZONE}-values.yaml"
done

If you change any configuration in the bufstream-values.yaml file, re-run the Helm install command to apply the changes.

5. Create a regional service for the cluster

Create a regional service which creates a bootstrap address for Bufstream across all the zones.

$ cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  labels:
    bufstream.buf.build/cluster: bufstream
  name: bufstream
  namespace: bufstream
spec:
  type: ClusterIP
  ports:
  - name: connect
    port: 8080
    protocol: TCP
    targetPort: 8080
  - name: admin
    port: 9089
    protocol: TCP
    targetPort: 9089
  - name: kafka
    port: 9092
    protocol: TCP
    targetPort: 9092
  selector:
    bufstream.buf.build/cluster: bufstream
EOF

Running CLI commands

Once you've deployed, you can run the Bufstream CLI commands directly using kubectl exec bufstream <command> on the running Bufstream pods. You don't need to install anything else.

Deploy Bufstream to AWS with RDS for PostgreSQL

Prerequisites

Create an EKS cluster

Set up Workload Identity Federation for Bufstream role

Create an S3 Bucket

Create an RDS for PostgreSQL instance

Create a Bufstream role and policy

Create a namespace

Deploy Bufstream

1. Authenticate helm

2. Configure Bufstream's Helm values

Configure object storage

Configure PostgreSQL

3. Install the Helm chart

Network load balancer

Deploy Bufstream with zone-aware routing

1. Specify a list of target zones

2. Create EKS Pod Association for all zones

3. Create Helm values files for each zone

4. Install the Helm chart for each zone

5. Create a regional service for the cluster

Running CLI commands

1. Authenticate `helm`