Anonymizing Using Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

• 1: Set up Protegrity Anonymization API on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
• 2: Preparing the Base Machine
• 3: Creating a Kubernetes Cluster
• 4: Accessing the AKS Cluster
• 5: Uploading the Image to the Azure Container Registry
• 6: Setting up NGINX Ingress Controller
• 7: Using Custom Certificates in Ingress
• 8: Updating the Configuration Files
• 9: Deploying the Protegrity Anonymization API to the AKS Cluster
• 10: Viewing Protegrity Anonymization API Using REST

1 - Set up Protegrity Anonymization API on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

To set up and use the Protegrity Anonymization API on Azure, follow the steps provided in this section.

• Preparing the Base Machine

• Creating a Kubernetes Cluster

• Accessing the Cluster

• Use the following link to upload the Docker image to the Azure container registry (ACR) for running the Protegrity Anonymization API in AKS.
  Uploading the Image to the Azure Container Registry

• Complete the steps provided in the following link to create an Azure disk and obtain the subscription ID.
  Creating an Azure Disk

• Complete the steps provided in the following link for installing the NGINX Ingress Controller on the base machine.
  Setting up NGINX Ingress Controller

• Protegrity Anonymization API uses certificates for secure communication with the client. You can use the certificates provided by Protegrity or use your own certificates. Complete the configurations provided in the following link to use your custom certificates with the Ingress Controller.
  Using Custom Certificates in Ingress

• Use the template files provided in the following link to specify the AKS settings for the Protegrity Anonymization API.
  Updating the Configuration Files

• Deploy the pods using the steps in the following link.
  Deploying the Protegrity Anonymization API to the AKS Cluster

• Use the following link for viewing the Protegrity Anonymization API service and pod details after you have successfully deployed the Protegrity Anonymization API.
  Viewing Protegrity Anonymization API Using REST

2 - Preparing the Base Machine

Install the Azure CLI and log in to your account to work with Protegrity Anonymization API on the Azure Cloud.

1. Install and initialize the Azure CLI on your system.

   For more information about the installation steps, refer to How to install the Azure CLI.

2. Log in to your account using the following command from a command prompt.

   az login
   

3. Sign in to your account.

   The configuration complete message appears.

   {
       "cloudName": "AzureCloud",
       "homeTenantId": 
       "id":
       "isDefault": true,
       "managedByTenants": [
           {
               "tenantId":
           }
       ],
       "name": "Azure Cloud Platform",
       "state": "Enabled",
       "tenantId": 
       "user": {
           "name":
           "type": "user"
       }
   }
   

4. Install Kubectl version 1.34, which is the command line interface for Kubernetes.

   Kubectl enables you to run commands from the Linux instance so that you can communicate with the Kubernetes cluster.

   For more information about installing kubectl, refer to Set up Kubernetes tools on your computer.

5. Install the Helm client version 3.8.2 for working with Kubernetes clusters.

   For more information about installing the Helm client, refer to Installing Helm.

3 - Creating a Kubernetes Cluster

This section describes how to create a Kubernetes Cluster on Azure.

Note: The steps listed in this procedure for creating a Kubernetes cluster are for reference use. If you have an existing Kubernetes cluster or want to create a Kubernetes cluster based on your own requirements, then you can directly navigate to the section Accessing the AKS Cluster to connect your Kubernetes cluster and the Linux instance.

To create a Kubernetes cluster:

1. Log in to the Azure environment.

2. Click the Portal menu icon.

   The Portal menu appears.

3. Navigate to All Services > Kubernetes services.

   The Kubernetes Services screen appears.

4. Click Add and click Add Kubernetes cluster.

   The Create Kubernetes cluster screen appears.

5. In the Resource group field, select the required resource group.

6. In the Kubernetes cluster name field, specify a name for your Kubernetes cluster.

   Retain the default values for the remaining settings.

7. Click Review + create to validate the configuration.

8. Click Create to create the Kubernetes cluster.

   The Kubernetes cluster is created.

4 - Accessing the AKS Cluster

Connect to the cloud service using the steps in this section.

1. Log in to the Linux instance and run the following command to connect your Base machine to the Kubernetes cluster.

   az aks get-credentials --resource-group <Name_of _Resource_group> --name <Name_of Kubernetes_Cluster>
   

   The Base machine is now connected with the Kubernetes cluster. You can now run commands using the Kubernetes command line interface (kubectl) to control the nodes on the Kubernetes cluster.

2. Validate whether the cluster is up by running the following command.

   kubectl get nodes
   

   The command lists the Kubernetes nodes available in your cluster.

5 - Uploading the Image to the Azure Container Registry

Use the information in this section to upload the Docker image to the Azure Container Registry (ACR) for running the Protegrity Anonymization API in AKS.

Note: For more information about creating the Azure Container Registry, refer to Create an Azure container registry using the Azure portal.

To install the Protegrity Anonymization API:

1. Log in to the machine as an administrator to install the Protegrity Anonymization API.

2. Install Docker using the steps provided at https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/.

3. Configure Docker to push the Protegrity Anonymization API images to the Azure Container Registry (ACR) by running following command:

   docker login <Container_registry_name>.azurecr.io
   

4. Obtain and extract the Protegrity Anonymization files to a directory on your system.

   a. Download and extract the ANON-API_RHUBI-ALL-64_x86-64_Generic.K8S_1.4.1.14.tgz files from the .tgz archive.
   - anonrestapi_1.4.1.14.tgz
   - cluster-autoscaler-autodiscover.yaml
   - cluster-aws.yaml
   - dependent_images.tgz

   b. Extract the anonrestapi_1.4.1.14.tgz files from the .tgz archive.
   - Anon_logs.sh
   - README.md
   - anonapi_1.4.1.14.tgz
   - anonapi_helm_1.4.1.14.tgz
   - contractual.csv

   > **Note**: Do not extract the `anonapi_1.4.1.14.tgz` package. This file must be loaded directly into Docker using the docker load command.  
   

5. Navigate to the directory where the following image packages are located.

   • dependent_images.tgz
   • anonapi_1.4.1.14.tgz

6. Load the Docker image into Docker by using the following command:

   a. Load the dependent images.

   docker load < dependent_images.tgz
   

   b. Load the Protegrity Anonymization API image.

   docker load < anonapi_1.4.1.14.tgz
   

7. List the images that are loaded by using the following command:

   docker images
   

8. Tag the image to the ACR repository by using the following command:

   docker tag <Container image>:<Tag> <Container registry path>/<Container image>:<Tag>
   

   For example:

   docker tag ANON-API_1.4.1.14:anon_AZ <container_registry_name>.azurecr.io/anon:anon_AZ
   

9. Push the tagged image to the ACR by using the following command:

   docker push <Container_regitry_path>/<Container_image>:<Tag>
   

   For example:

   docker push <container_registry_name>.azurecr.io/anon:anon_AZ
   

   Note: Ensure that the appropriate path for the image registry along with the tag is updated in the values.yaml file.

The image is loaded to the ACR and is ready for deployment.

6 - Setting up NGINX Ingress Controller

Complete the steps provided here for installing the NGINX Ingress Controller on the base machine.

1. Login to the base machine and open a command prompt.

2. Create a namespace where the NGINX Ingress Controller needs to be deployed using the following command.

   kubectl create namespace <Namespace name>
   

   For example,

   kubectl create namespace nginx
   

3. Add the repository from where the Helm charts for installing the NGINX Ingress Controller must be fetched using the following command.

   helm repo add stable https://charts.helm.sh/stable
   helm repo add ingress-nginx https://kubernetes.github.io/ingress-nginx
   

4. Install the NGINX Ingress Controller using Helm charts using the following command.

   helm install nginx-ingress --namespace <Namespace name> --set controller.replicaCount=1 --set controller.nodeSelector."beta\.kubernetes\.io/os"=linux --set defaultBackend.nodeSelector."beta\.kubernetes\.io/os"=linux ingress-nginx/ingress-nginx --set controller.publishService.enabled=true --set controller.ingressClassResource.name=<NGINX ingress class name> --set podSecurityPolicy.enabled=true --set rbac.create=true --set controller.extraArgs.enable-ssl-passthrough="true" --set controller.service.annotations."service\.beta\.kubernetes\.io/azure-load-balancer-internal"=\"true\" --version 4.3.0
   

   For example,

   helm install nginx-ingress --namespace nginx --set controller.replicaCount=1 --set controller.extraArgs.enable-ssl-passthrough="true" --set controller.nodeSelector."beta\\.kubernetes\\.io/os"=linux --set defaultBackend.nodeSelector."beta\\.kubernetes\\.io/os"=linux ingress-nginx/ingress-nginx --set controller.publishService.enabled=true --set controller.ingressClassResource.name=nginx-anon --set podSecurityPolicy.enabled=true --set rbac.create=true --set controller.service.annotations."service\\.beta\\.kubernetes\\.io/azure-load-balancer-internal"=\\"true\\" --version 4.3.0
   

   For more information about the various configuration parameters for installing the NGINX Ingress Helm charts, refer to values.yaml file.

5. Check the status of the nginx-ingress release and verify that all the deployments are running accurately using the following command.

   kubectl get pods -n <Namespace name>
   

   For example,

   kubectl get pods -n nginx
   

   Note: The pod name should be noted. It is required as a parameter in the next step.

6. View the logs on the Ingress pod using the following command.

   kubectl logs pod/<pod-name> -n <Namespace name>
   

7. Obtain the external IP of the nginx service by executing the following command.

   kubectl get service --namespace <Namespace name>
   

   For example,

   kubectl get service -n nginx
   

   Note: The IP should be noted. It is required for configuring the Protegrity Anonymization API SDK.

7 - Using Custom Certificates in Ingress

Protegrity Anonymization API uses certificates for secure communication with the client. You can use the certificates provided by Protegrity or use your own certificates. Complete the configurations provided in this section to use your custom certificates with the Ingress Controller.

Ensure that the certificates and keys are in the .pem format.

Note: Skip the steps provided in this section if you want to use the default Protegrity certificates for the Protegrity Anonymization API.

1. Log in to the Base Machine where Ingress is configured and open a command prompt.

2. Copy your certificates to the Base Machine.

   Note: Verify the certificates using the commands provided in the section Working with Certificates.

3. Create a Kubernetes secret of the server certificate using the following command. The namespace used must be the same where the Protegrity Anonymization API application is to be deployed.

   kubectl create secret --namespace <namespace-name> generic <secret-name> --from-file=tls.crt=<path_to_certificate>/<certificate-name> --from-file=tls.key=<path_to_certificate>/<certificate-key>
   

   For example,

   kubectl create secret --namespace anon-ns generic anon-protegrity-tls --from-file=tls.crt=/tmp/cust_cert/anon-server-cert.pem --from-file=tls.key=/tmp/cust_cert/anon-server-key.pem
   

4. Create a Kubernetes secret of the CA certificate using the following command. The namespace used must be the same where the Protegrity Anonymization API application is to be deployed.

   kubectl create secret --namespace <namespace-name> generic <secret-name> --from-file=ca.crt=<path_to_certificate>/<certificate-name>
   

   For example,

   kubectl create secret --namespace anon-ns generic ca-protegrity --from-file=ca.crt=/tmp/cust_cert/anon-ca-cert.pem
   

5. Open the values.yaml file.

6. Add the following host and secret code for the Ingress configuration at the end of the values.yaml file.

   ## Refer section in documentation for setting up and configuring NGINX-INGRESS before deploying the application.
   ingress:
     ## Add host section with the hostname used as CN while creating server certificates.
     ## While creating the certificates you can use *.protegrity.com as CN and SAN used in below example
     host: **anon.protegrity.com**                  # Update the host according to your server certificates.
   
     ## To terminate TLS on the Ingress Controller Load Balancer.
     ## K8s TLS Secret containing the certificate and key must also be provided.
     secret: **anon-protegrity-tls**                # Update the secretName according to your secretName.
   
     ## To validate the client certificate with the above server certificate
     ## Create the secret of the CA certificate used to sign both the server and client certificate as shown in example below
     ca_secret: **ca-protegrity**                    # Update the ca-secretName according to your secretName.
   
     ingress_class: nginx-anon
   

   Note: Ensure that you replace the host, secret, and ca_secret attributes in the values.yaml file with the values as per your certificate.

   For more information about using custom certificates, refer to Updating the Configuration Files.

8 - Updating the Configuration Files

Use the template files provided to specify the AKS settings for the Protegrity Anonymization API.

1. Create the Protegrity Anonymization API namespace using the following command.

   kubectl create namespace <name>
   

   Note: Update and use the from the values.yaml file that is present in the Helm chart.

2. Extract and update the files in the ANON-API_HELM_1.4.1.14.tgz package.

   The ANON-API_HELM_1.4.1.14.tgz package contains the values.yaml file that must be modified as per your requirements. It also contains the templates directory with yaml files.

   Note: Ensure that the necessary permissions for updating the files are assigned to the .yaml files.

3. Update the values.yaml file.

   Note: For more information about the values.yaml file, refer to values.yaml.

   a. Specify a namespace for the pods.

   ```
   namespace:
     name: **anon-ns**                # Update the namespace if required.
   ```
   

   b. Specify the node name and zone information for the node as a prerequisite for the database pod and the Anon-Storage (S3 bucket) pod. Use the node name which is running in the same zone where the AKS is created.

   ```
   ## Prerequisite for setting up Database and S3 bucket Pod.
   ## This is to handle any new DB pod getting created that uses the same persistence storage in case the running Database pod gets disrupted.
   ## This persistence also helps persist Anon-storage data.
   persistence:
   ## Update storageClassName based on the PV/PVC/Storage config.
   storageClassName:          # Example: managed-premium for Azure, standard for AWS EKS, gp2 for AWS EC2, standard for GCP.
   fsType: ext4
   
   ## This section is required if the image is getting pulled from the Azure Container Registry
   ## create image pull secrets and specify the name here.
   ## remove the [] after 'imagePullSecrets:' once you specify the secrets
   #imagePullSecrets: []
   #  - name: regcred
   
   ## This section is required if the S3 bucket image is getting pulled from the Azure Container Registry instead of Public Repo
   ## create image pull secrets and specify the name here.
   ## remove the [] after 'imagePullSecrets:' once you specify the secrets
   #minioImagePullSecrets: []
   #  - name: regcred
   ```
   

   3. Update the repository information in the file. The Anon-Storage pod uses the S3 bucket Docker image quay.io/minio/minio:RELEASE.2025-04-03T14-56-28Z, which is pulled from the Public repository.

      image:
          minio_repo: quay.io/minio/minio                    # Public repo path for Minio Image.
          minio_tag: RELEASE.2025-04-03T14-56-28Z            # Tag name for Minio image.
          repository: <Repo_path>                            # Repo path for the Container Registry in Azure, AWS.
          anonapi_tag: <AnonImage_tag>                       # Tag name of the ANON-API Image.
          database_tag: <DatabaseImage_tag>                  # Tag name of the ANON-API Image.
      
          pullPolicy: Always
      

      Note: Ensure that you update the repository and anonapi_tag according to your container registry.

   4. S3 bucket uses access keys and secrets for performing file operations. Protegrity provides a default set of credentials that are stored as part of the secret storage-creds. If you are creating your own secret, then, update the existingSecret section.

      storage:
          ## Refer the following command for creating your own secret.
          ## CMD: kubectl create secret generic my-minio-secret --from-literal=rootUser=foobarbaz --from-literal=rootPassword=foobarbazqux
          existingSecret: ""                # Supply your secret Name for ignoring below default credentials.
          bucket_name: "anonstorage"        # Default bucket name for S3 bucket
          secret:
              name: "storage-creds"           # Secret to access minio-server
              access_key: "anonuser"          # Access key for minio-server
              secret_key: "protegrity"        # Secret key for minio-server
      

4. Extract the values.yaml Helm chart from the package.

5. Uncomment the following parameters and update the secret name in the values.yaml file.

   ## This section is required if the image is getting pulled from the Azure Container Registry
   ## create image pull secrets and specify the name here.
   ## remove the [] after 'imagePullSecrets:' once you specify the secrets
   #imagePullSecrets: []
   #  - name: regcred
   

6. Perform the following steps for the communication between the Kubernetes cluster and the Azure Container Registry.

   a. Run the following command from a command prompt to log in.

   ```
   docker login
   ```
   

   b. Specify your ACR access credentials.

9 - Deploying the Protegrity Anonymization API to the AKS Cluster

Deploy the pods using the steps in the following section.

1. Run the following command to deploy the pods.

   helm install <helm-name> /<path_to_helm> -n <namespace>
   

2. Verify that the necessary pods and services are configured and running.

   1. Run the following command to verify the information for accessing the Protegrity Anonymization API externally on the cluster. The port mapping for accessing the UI is displayed after running the command.

      kubectl get service -n <namespace>
      

   2. Run the following command to verify the deployment.

      kubectl get deployment -n  <namespace>
      

   3. Run the following command to verify the pods created.

      kubectl get pods -n <namespace>
      

   4. Run the following command to verify the pods.

      kubectl get pods -o wide -n <namespace>
      

3. Execute the following command to obtain the IP address of the service.

   kubectl get ingress -n <namespace>
   

The container is now ready to process Protegrity Anonymization API requests.

10 - Viewing Protegrity Anonymization API Using REST

Use the URLs provided here for viewing the Protegrity Anonymization API service and pod details after you have successfully deployed the Protegrity Anonymization API.

You need to map the IP address of Ingress in the hosts file with the host name set in the Ingress configuration.

For more information about updating the hosts file, refer to step 2 of the section Enabling Custom Certificates From SDK.

1. Open a web browser.

2. Use the following URL to view basic information about the Protegrity Anonymization API.

   https://anon.protegrity.com/

3. Use the following URL to view the Swagger UI. The various Protegrity Anonymization APIs are visible on this page.

   https://anon.protegrity.com/pty/anonymization/api/v2/ui

4. Use the following URL to view the contractual information for the Protegrity Anonymization API.

   https://anon.protegrity.com/about