Installation

This guide walks you through installing Stratos on your Kubernetes cluster using Helm.

Prerequisites

Kubernetes Cluster

• Kubernetes 1.26 or later
• kubectl configured with cluster admin access
• Helm 3.x installed
• For AWS: An EKS cluster or self-managed cluster on EC2

AWS Requirements

• AWS CLI configured with appropriate credentials
• IAM permissions for EC2 operations (see AWS Setup)
• An IAM instance profile for worker nodes

Network Requirements

• Subnets where Stratos can launch instances
• Security groups allowing kubelet communication (port 10250)
• Route to the Kubernetes API server

Installation Steps

Step 1: Install with Helm

Install Stratos using the OCI Helm chart from GitHub Container Registry:

helm install stratos oci://ghcr.io/stratos-sh/charts/stratos \
  --namespace stratos-system --create-namespace \
  --set clusterName=my-cluster

This installs:

• Custom Resource Definitions (NodePool, AWSNodeClass)
• The controller deployment
• RBAC resources (ServiceAccount, ClusterRole, ClusterRoleBinding)

Verify the controller is running:

kubectl -n stratos-system get pods

Expected output:

NAME                       READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
stratos-5d4f6b7c8-x2k9l   1/1     Running   0          30s

Step 2: Configure AWS Credentials

The controller needs AWS credentials to manage EC2 instances.

Option 1: IRSA (Recommended for EKS)

Use IAM Roles for Service Accounts:

eksctl create iamserviceaccount \
  --cluster=your-cluster \
  --namespace=stratos-system \
  --name=stratos \
  --role-name=stratos-controller-role \
  --attach-policy-arn=arn:aws:iam::YOUR_ACCOUNT:policy/stratos-policy \
  --approve

Or pass the role ARN via Helm:

helm install stratos oci://ghcr.io/stratos-sh/charts/stratos \
  --namespace stratos-system --create-namespace \
  --set clusterName=my-cluster \
  --set serviceAccount.annotations."eks\.amazonaws\.com/role-arn"=arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/stratos-controller-role

Option 2: Environment Variables

For testing, you can pass AWS credentials via Helm values:

helm install stratos oci://ghcr.io/stratos-sh/charts/stratos \
  --namespace stratos-system --create-namespace \
  --set clusterName=my-cluster \
  --set extraEnv[0].name=AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID \
  --set extraEnv[0].valueFrom.secretKeyRef.name=aws-credentials \
  --set extraEnv[0].valueFrom.secretKeyRef.key=access-key-id \
  --set extraEnv[1].name=AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY \
  --set extraEnv[1].valueFrom.secretKeyRef.name=aws-credentials \
  --set extraEnv[1].valueFrom.secretKeyRef.key=secret-access-key

warning

Avoid using static credentials in production. Use IRSA or instance profiles instead.

Verify Installation

Check that the controller is ready:

kubectl -n stratos-system logs deployment/stratos

You should see:

INFO    starting stratos controller    {"version": "v0.0.1"}
INFO    starting manager

Helm Values Reference

Key values you can configure:

Value	Default	Description
clusterName	""	Required. Kubernetes cluster name for instance tagging
cloudProvider	aws	Cloud provider: aws or fake
image.repository	ghcr.io/stratos-sh/stratos	Controller image
image.tag	Chart appVersion	Image tag
replicaCount	1	Number of controller replicas
leaderElect	true	Enable leader election for HA
syncPeriod	30s	Reconciliation interval
serviceAccount.annotations	{}	SA annotations (e.g. IRSA role ARN)
resources	100m/128Mi req, 500m/256Mi lim	Resource requests and limits
extraEnv	[]	Additional environment variables
extraArgs	[]	Additional controller arguments

Upgrading

helm upgrade stratos oci://ghcr.io/stratos-sh/charts/stratos \
  --namespace stratos-system \
  --set clusterName=my-cluster

Uninstallation

To remove Stratos:

# Delete all NodePools first (this terminates managed instances)
kubectl delete nodepools --all

# Uninstall the Helm release
helm uninstall stratos --namespace stratos-system

warning

Deleting NodePools will terminate all managed instances. Ensure workloads are migrated first.

Next Steps

• Configuration - Configure the controller
• Quickstart - Create your first NodePool