CX Deployment on Kubernetes

This document illustrates the procedure and steps to deploy Expertflow CX-core on Kubernetes.

Before you begin, verify

Installed Kubernetes. If not, see Deployment Planning
Have already setup storage. If not yet, see Storage Solution - Getting Started

Prepare for CX Deployment

Step 1: Clone the Expertflow CX repository

CODE

git clone -b CX-4.4 https://efcx:RecRpsuH34yqp56YRFUb@gitlab.expertflow.com/cim/cim-solution.git

BASH

cd cim-solution/kubernetes

Step 2: Create Namespaces

Create a namespace expertflow for all Expertflow components

Run the following command on the control-plane node.

BASH

kubectl create namespace expertflow

Create a namespace ef-external for all the external elements of the Expertflow CX solution such as Mongo, Redis, MinIO, etc.

Run the following command on the control-plane node.

CODE

kubectl create namespace ef-external

Step 3: Apply Image Pull secret

Run the following commands for applying ImagePullSecrets of Expertflow CX images.

BASH

kubectl apply -f pre-deployment/registryCredits/ef-imagePullSecret-expertflow.yaml

BASH

kubectl apply -f pre-deployment/registryCredits/ef-imagePullSecret-ef-external.yaml

Step 4: Update FQDN

Expertflow CX should be accessible by a fully qualified domain name. Assign the FQDN that resolves to the control plane node or KubeVIP.

Replace <FQDN> with your FQDN for Expertflow CX and run this command.

BASH

sed -i 's/devops[0-9]*.ef.com/<FQDN>/g' cim/ConfigMaps/* pre-deployment/grafana/* pre-deployment/keycloak/* cim/Ingresses/nginx/* cim/Ingresses/traefik/*

Setup SQL Database

Expertflow CX requires any of the following PostgreSQL for Expertflow CX deployment for storing configuration data.

PostgreSQL RECOMMENDED

Skip this step if you already have any of the other two databases in your environment.

If you do not have PostgreSQL in your environment, create ConfigMap of PostgreSQL to create necessary databases and preload it with bootstrap configurations.

CODE

kubectl -n ef-external  create configmap ef-postgresql-license-manager-cm --from-file=./pre-deployment/licensemanager/licensemanager.sql

BASH

helm upgrade --install=true --wait=true --timeout=10m0s --debug --namespace=ef-external --values=external/bitnami/postgresql/values.yaml ef-postgresql external/bitnami/postgresql

For managed Postgres, see Using Managed PostgreSQL for configuring PostgreSQL for Expertflow CX.

Deploy CX External Components

Expertflow CX requires the following 3rd party components.

Redis	Key-Values based Caching engine, used by most of the EF-CX components.
MongoDB	NoSQL Database, maintains and serves as primary back store for EF-CX solution.
Minio	S3 compliant object storage.
KeyCloak	Realm based auth management tool.

You may use them from your existing environment or from a cloud provider .

Setup KeyCloak

KeyCloak is used as the centralized authentication and authorization component for Expertflow CX. Follow these steps to setup KeyCloak.

On the master node, create a global ConfigMap for KeyCloak. Change the hostname and other parameters before applying this command in ef-keycloak-configmap.yaml file:
BASH
```
kubectl apply -f pre-deployment/keycloak/ef-keycloak-configmap.yaml
```

Now, deploy KeyCloak by running the following command

BASH

helm upgrade --install=true --wait=true --timeout=10m0s --debug --namespace=ef-external --values=external/bitnami/keycloak/values.yaml keycloak external/bitnami/keycloak/

Check the KeyCloak installation status. You can check the status of deployment by using the following command:
BASH
```
kubectl -n ef-external rollout status sts keycloak
```

Setup MongoDB

Expertflow CX using MongoDB for storing all CX events, activities, and some configuration data as well.

Skip this step if you already have MongoDB in your environment that can be used by Expertflow CX. For using MongoDB from a managed environment, see Using Managed MongoDB for necessary configurations.

Deploy MongoDB by running the following command.

BASH

helm upgrade --install=true --wait=true --timeout=10m0s --debug --namespace=ef-external --values=external/bitnami/mongodb/values.yaml mongo external/bitnami/mongodb/

Check the MongoDB deployment status by running the following command:
BASH
```
kubectl -n ef-external rollout status sts mongo-mongodb
```

Setup MinIO

Expertflow CX using MinIO for storing files exchanged between agents, customers, and/or bots. Install using Helm using following command:

CODE

helm upgrade --install=true --wait=true --timeout=10m0s --debug --namespace=ef-external --values=external/bitnami/minio/values.yaml minio external/bitnami/minio/

BASH

kubectl apply -f scripts/minio-helper.yaml

CODE

kubectl -n ef-external --timeout=90s wait --for=condition=ready pod minio-helper

CODE

kubectl -n ef-external cp post-deployment/data/minio/bucket/default minio-helper:/tmp/

CODE

kubectl -n ef-external cp scripts/icon-helper.sh minio-helper:/tmp/

CODE

kubectl -n ef-external exec -it minio-helper -- /bin/sh /tmp/icon-helper.sh

CODE

kubectl delete -f scripts/minio-helper.yaml

Setup Redis

CX uses Redis for storing active system state of most of the CX objects. Run the following command to deploy Redis.

BASH

helm upgrade --install=true --wait=true --timeout=10m0s --debug --namespace=ef-external --values=external/bitnami/redis/values.yaml redis external/bitnami/redis/

Setup Realtime Reports

Expertflow CX uses Grafana for business and solution monitoring. Business monitoring dashboards are embedded inside AgentDesk that provide real-time statistics for both agents and supervisors.

See Setup Grafana for embedded dashboards for details.

Setup Historical Reports

Expertflow CX uses Apache Superset for historical reports.

Setup Rasa for AI

See RASA-X Deployment for how to use Rasa for 3rd party bot assistance.

Setup ActiveMQ

Expertflow CX uses ActiveMQ for message queuing between CX core components. To deploy ActiveMQ as a StatefulSet run

CODE

kubectl apply -f cim/StatefulSet/ef-amq-statefulset.yaml

Wait for the AMQ StatefulSet to be ready

CODE

kubectl wait pods ef-amq-0 -n ef-external --for condition=Ready --timeout=600s

Deploy CX-Core Components

CX Conversation Controller controls all conversations. See Controller Scripting Guide for details.

Setup default translation file for AgentDesk.

CODE

kubectl -n expertflow  create configmap ef-app-translations-cm --from-file=pre-deployment/app-translations/unified-agent/i18n

Apply Conversation Controller ConfigMaps

BASH

kubectl -n expertflow create configmap ef-conversation-controller-actions-cm --from-file=pre-deployment/conversation-Controller/actions
kubectl -n expertflow create configmap ef-conversation-controller-actions-utils-cm --from-file=pre-deployment/conversation-Controller/utils
kubectl -n expertflow create configmap ef-conversation-controller-actions-pycache-cm --from-file=pre-deployment/conversation-Controller/__pycache__

Apply all configurations in the ConfigMaps folder using:
CODE
```
kubectl apply -f cim/ConfigMaps/
```
Create services for all deployment EF components
CODE
```
kubectl apply -f cim/Services/
```
Apply all the Deployment manifests
CODE
```
kubectl apply -f cim/Deployments/
```
Before proceeding to the the next steps, wait for all the solution components to be up and ready.
BASH
```
kubectl -n expertflow get pods
```

Team Announcement CronJob

Run the following command to setup team announcement CronJob.

It requires the solution be up and running.

BASH

kubectl apply -f pre-deployment/team-announcement/

Setup SSL Certificates

Expertflow CX ships with self-signed certificates for all the ingresses. To use your own SSL certificates you will need to generate a secret with the certificate files. You must have private.key and server.crt files in pre-deployment/certificates.

For expertflow namespace:

CODE

kubectl -n expertflow create secret tls ef-ingress-tls-secret \
--key pre-deployment/certificates/server.key \
--cert pre-deployment/certificates/server.crt

For ef-external namespace:

CODE

kubectl -n ef-external create secret tls ef-ingress-tls-secret \
--key pre-deployment/certificates/server.key \
--cert pre-deployment/certificates/server.crt

Setup Ingress Routes

For RKE2-based Ingresses using Ingress-Nginx Controller

BASH

kubectl apply -f cim/Ingresses/nginx/

K3S based deployments are deprecated and will not be supported in the future releases

For K3S based Ingresses using Ingress-Traefik Controller

BASH

kubectl apply -f cim/Ingresses/traefik/

Configurations

Import default keyCloak realm for essential KeyCloak resources, permissions, and authentication configurations.
Configure and import historical report templates in Apache Superset.
For customer channel configuration, see customer channels.
For Rasa configuration, follow this guide.
For CX-Voice Component deployment this guide.
For CRM Events deployment follow this guide

Customer Widget configuration

Create a pre-chat form in unified admin. Refer to this guide.
For Customer Identification in CX via customer widget click here.

The customer widget is now capable of calling the deployment of CIM from within the URL

CODE

https://{FQDN}/customer-widget/#/widget?widgetIdentifier=<widget-identifier>&serviceIdentifier=<service-identifier>

For the chat history, use the following URL

CODE

https://{FQDN}/customer-widget/widget-assets/chat-transcript/