1. Overview

There are various things to consider before deploying Cinchy v5.

The pages in this Deployment Planning section will guide you through the considerations you should think about and the prerequisites that you should implement before deploying version 5 of the Cinchy platform.

The pages in this section include:

• Deployment Architecture Overview: This page explores your two high-level options for deploying Cinchy, on Kubernetes or on VM, and why we recommend a Kubernetes deployment. It also walks you through the important decision of selecting a database to run your deployment on, as well as some sizing considerations.

  • Kubernetes Deployment Architecture: This page provides Infrastructure (for both Azure and AWS), Cluster, and Platform component overviews for Kubernetes deployments. It also guides you through considerations concerning your cluster configuration.

  • IIS Deployment Architecture: This page provides Infrastructure and Platform component overviews for IIS (VM) deployments.

• Deployment Prerequisites: This page details important prerequisites for deploying Cinchy v5.

2. Deployment Planning Checklist

We have provided the following checklist for you to use when planning for your Cinchy v5 deployment. Each item is linked to the appropriate documentation page to provide more insight and clarity.

• Will you run on Kubernetes or a VM?

WIndows IIS vs Kubernetes

Kubernetes is an open-source system that manages and automates the full lifecycle of container-based applications. You now have the ability to deploy Cinchy v5 on Kubernetes, and with it comes a myriad of features that help to simplify your deployment and enhance your scaling. Kubernetes can maximize your container capacity and easily scale up/down with your current operations.

You also have the option to run Cinchy on Microsoft IIS, which was the traditional deployment method prior to Cinchy v5. Internet Information Services (IIS) for Windows Server is a flexible, secure and manageable Web server for hosting anything on the Web.

We recommend using Kubernetes to deploy Cinchy v5, because of the robust features that you can leverage, such as improved logging and metrics. Using Kubernetes allows for a greater ability to scale your Cinchy instances as well as the ability to lower your costs by using PostgreSQL.

The main differences between a Kubernetes based deployment and an IIS deployment are:

If you will be running on Kubernetes, please review the following checklist:

• Which database will you use?

• Define your sizing.

• Define your cluster configuration.

• How many clusters will you need?

  • Will you be sharing from an existing cluster?

  • Will you be running multiple environments on a single cluster?

  • Will you be using Cinchy's recommended cluster components or your own?

• Define your object storage requirements.

  • Create an S3 compatible bucket.

• Create your SSL Certs (With the option to use Self-Signed).

• Define your Secrets Management, if desired.

• Define whether you will use Cinchy's Docker Images or your own.

  • If using Cinchy’s, pull the images.

• Access the deployment repositories and copy them into your own repo (Github or similar).

If you will be running on IIS, please review the following checklist:

• Ensure that you have an instance of SQL Server 2017+

• Ensure that you have a Windows Server 2012+ machine with IIS 7.5+ installed

• Install .net core Hosting bundle Version 6.0

  • Specifically, install: ASP.NET Core/.NET Core Runtime & Hosting Bundle

• Ensure that you review the minimum web server hardware recommendations

• Ensure that you review the minimum database server hardware recommendations

• Define your application storage requirements.

• Ensure you have access to the release binary.

1. Overview

Cinchy supports integration with any Identity Provider that issues SAML tokens (e.g. Active Directory Federation Services) for authenticating users.

It follows an SP Initiated SSO pattern where the SP will Redirect to the IdP and the IdP must submit the SAML Response via an HTTP Post to the SP Assertion Consumer Service.

Below is a diagram outlining the flow when a non-authenticated user attempt to access a Cinchy resource (Image 1).

2. Configure SAML Authentication - IIS Deployments

Cinchy must be registered with the Identity Provider. As part of that process you'll supply the Assertion Consumer Service URL, choose a client identifier for the Cinchy application, and generate a metadata XML file.

The Assertion Consumer Service URL for Cinchy is the base URL for the CinchySSO application followed by "{AcsURLModule}/Acs"

e.g. https:///<CinchySSO URL>/Saml2/Acs

e.g. https://myCinchyServer/Saml2/Acs

To enable SAML authentication within Cinchy, follow the below steps:

1. You can find the necessary metadata XML from the applicable identity provider you're using the login against. Place the metadata file in the deployment directory of the CinchySSO web application.

2. Update the values of the below app settings in the CinchySSO appsettings.json file.

• SAMLClientEntityId - The client identifier chosen when registering with the Identity Provider

• SAMLIDPEntityId - The entityID from the Identity Provider metadata XML

• SAMLMetadataXmlPath - The full path to the metadata XML file

• AcsURLModule - This parameter is needs to be configured as per your SAML ACS URL. For example, if your ACS URL looks like this "https:///<CinchySSO URL>/Saml2/Acs", then the value of this parameter should be "/Saml2"

Once SSO is enabled, the next time a user arrives at the Cinchy login screen they will see an additional button for "Single Sign-On".

3. Configure SAML Authentication - Kubernetes Deployments

1. Retrieve your metadata.xml file from the identity provider you're using the login against.

2. Navigate to your cinchy.kubernetes\environment_kustomizations_template\instance_template\idp\kustomization.yaml file.

3. Add your metadata.xml patch into your secrets where specified below as <<metadata.xml>>

4. Navigate to your devops.automation > deployment.json in your Cinchy instance.

5. Add the following fields into the .json and update them below using the metadata.xml.

6. Navigate to your kubernetes\environment_kustomizations_template\instance_template_encoded_vars\idp_appsettings_json.

7. Update the below code with your proper AppSettings and ExternalIdentityClaimSection details.

8. Run devops automation script which will populate the updated outputs into the cinchy.kubernetes repo.

9. Commit your changes and push to your source control system.

10. Navigate to your ArgoCD dashboard and refresh the idp-app to pick up your changes. It will also delete your currently running pods in order to pick up the latest secrets.

11. Once the pods are healthy, you can verify the changes by looking for the SSO Tab on your Cinchy login page.

4. User Management

Before a user is able to login through the SSO flow, the user must be set up in Cinchy with the appropriate authentication configuration.

Users in Cinchy are maintained within the Users table in the Cinchy domain. Each user in the system is configured with 1 of 3 Authentication Methods:

• Cinchy User Account - These are users that are created and managed directly in the Cinchy application. They log into Cinchy by entering their username and password on the login screen.

• Non Interactive - These accounts are intended for application use.

• Single Sign-On - These users authenticate through the SSO Identity Provider (configured using the steps above). They log into Cinchy by clicking the "Login with Single Sign-On" link on the login screen.

4.1 How to define a new SSO User

Create a new record within the Users table with the Authentication Method set to "Single Sign-On".

4.2 How to convert an existing user to SSO User

Change the Authentication Method of the existing user to "Single Sign-On".

4.3 Logging in with SSO

Once a user is configured for SSO, they can then click the "Login with Single Sign-On" link on the login page and that will then take them through the Identity Provider's authentication flow and bring them into Cinchy.

5. Automatic User Creation - IIS Deployments

Once SSO has been enabled on your instance of Cinchy, by default, any user that does not exist in the Cinchy Users table will not be able to login regardless if they are authenticated by the Identity Provider.

Enabling Automatic User Creation means that upon login, if the Identity Provider authorizes the user, an entry for this user will automatically be created in the Cinchy Users table if one does not already exist. This means that any SSO authenticated user is guaranteed to be able to access the platform.

See below for details on how to enable Automatic User Creation.

5.1 Prerequisites for Automatic User Creation

The Identity Provider configuration must include the following claims in addition to the base configuration in the SAML token response:

• First Name

• Last Name

• Email

In order to enable automatic group assignment for newly created users (which is applicable if you plan on using AD Groups), then you must also include an attribute that captures the groups that this user is a member of (e.g. memberOf field in AD)

5.2 Configuration Setup

Enabling automatic user creation requires the following changes. For IIS Deployments this will be done to the appsettings.json file in the CinchySSO web application.

1. Add ExternalClaimName attribute values under "ExternalIdentityClaimSection" in appsettings.json file. Do not add the value for "MemberOf" if you don't want to enable automatic group assignment .

2. The ExternalClaimName value must be updated to create a mapping between the attribute name in the SAML response and the required field. (e.g. http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims/givenname is the name in the SAML response for the FirstName field)

6. Further Reading

1. How to Enable TLS 1.2

1. Navigate to the CinchySSO Folder > appsettings.json file.

2. Find the following line:

3. Replace the above line with the following:

4. Navigate to the Cinchy Folder > web.config file.

5. Find the following line:

6. Replace the above line with the following:

7. You may need to restart the application pools in IIS for the changes to take effect.

Table of Contents

1. Component Diagram

The below diagram shows a high level overview of Cinchy's Infrastructure components when deploying on IIS.

2. Component Overview

Table of Contents

1. Infrastructure Configuration (On Cluster)

The below diagram shows a high level overview of a possible Infrastructure diagram with components on the cluster, however your specific configuration may vary (Image 1).

2. AWS Infrastructure Configuration (Outside Cluster)

When deploying Cinchy version 5 on Kubernetes, you may deploy via Amazon Web Services (AWS). The below diagram shows a high level overview of a possible AWS Infrastructure with components outside the cluster, however your specific configuration may vary (Image 2).

2.1 Infrastructure Component Overview

3. Azure Infrastructure Configuration (Outside Cluster)

When deploying Cinchy version 5 on Kubernetes, you may deploy via Microsoft Azure. The below diagram shows a high level overview of possible Azure Infrastructure with components outside the cluster, however your specific configuration may vary (Image 3).

3.1 Infrastructure Component Overview

4. Cluster Level Component Overview

The following highlighted area provides a high-level overview of cluster level components used when deploying Cinchy on Kubernetes, as well as what versions they are running.

These are created once per cluster. Clients may choose to run these components outside of the cluster or replace with their own comparable components. This diagram shows them in the cluster (Image 4).

Cluster Level Components

These are created once per cluster. Clients may choose to run these components outside of the cluster or replace with their own comparable components.

• Service Mesh - Istio: All inbound traffic to your Cinchy instance is routed and handled through this component, keeping it secure and managed.

• Monitoring/Alerting - Prometheus & Grafana: Prometheus consumes metrics from the running components in your environment, which can then be visualized into user friendly graphs and dashboards by Grafana. Prometheus can also connect to third party services to provide alerting capabilities. Both Prometheus and Grafana use persistent storage.

• Logging - Opensearch and Fluentbit: All logs are captured and indexed by Opensearch in a single, easily accessible location. These logs can be queried, searched, and filtered, and Correlation IDs mean that they can also be traced across various components. These logging components take advantage of persistent storage.

• Caching - Redis: Redis is currently being used to facilitate a distributed lock using RedLock, which guarantees lock synchronizations across Cinchy instances. It is also a storage location for the execution output when running batch data syncs.

• Event Processing - Kafka: This is designed to act as the middleware that allows for messaging between components through a queuing mechanism. Kafka features persistent storage.

4.1 Cluster Configuration

There are a few things to consider about your cluster configuration before you deploy Cinchy on Kubernetes:

• How many clusters will you need?

• Will you be sharing from an existing cluster?

• Will you be running multiple environments on a single cluster?

5. Instance Component Overview

Each instance of Cinchy has the following components, which are used to either provide an experience to users/applications or connect data in/out of Cinchy. Since multiple Cinchy instances can be deployed per cluster, these components will repeat for each environment.

The following highlighted area provides a high-level overview of instance level components used when running Cinchy on Kubernetes (Image 5).

• Meta Experiences: Cinchy offers pre-packaged experiences that you can import into your Cinchy environment and use on your data network. This includes experiences like Meta-Forms and Meta-Reports.

• Connections: The Cinchy Connections experience is used to help easily create data syncs in/out of the platform. It features persistent storage.

• Data Browser: Cinchy’s Dataware platform features a Universal Data Browser that allows users to view, change, analyze, and otherwise interact with all data on the network. The Data Browser even enables non-technical business users to manage and update data, build models, and set controls, all through an easy and intuitive UI.

• Identity Provider: An Identity Provider (IdP) creates and manages user credentials and associated identity attributes. IdPs authentication services are used in Cinchy to authenticate end-users.

• Event Listener: The Event Listener is used to picks up events from connected sources during a data sync. Review Cinchy's Data Sync documentation for further information on the Event Listener. The Event Listener uses persistent storage.

• Event Stream Worker: The Event Stream Worker is used to process data picked up by the Event Listener during data syncs. Review Cinchy's Data Sync documentation for further information on the Event Stream Worker. The Event Worker uses persistent storage.

• Maintenance (Batch Jobs): Cinchy performs maintenance tasks through the CLI. This currently includes the data erasure and data compression deletions.

6. GitOps

ArgoCD is a declarative, GitOps continuous delivery tool for Kubernetes that simplifies the application deployment and lifecycle management. ArgoCD is highly recommended for deploying Cinchy, however you may also choose to use another tool.

Once you configurations are set, ArgoCD automates the deployment of the desired application states into your specified target environments. Implemented as a Kubernetes controller, it continuously monitors running applications and compares the current, live state against the desired target state (as specified in your repositories).

Certainly, presenting the information in a table can help make it easier to understand. Here's how you can structure it:

Before You Begin

Before starting with the ADFS configuration, make sure to have following information:

Having these details readily available will streamline the ADFS configuration process.

Configuration Steps in ADFS

1. Navigate to AD FS Management on your ADFS server.

2. Right-click on Relying Party Trusts and choose Add Relying Party Trust to open the Add Relying Party Trust Wizard.

3. In the wizard, select Claims Aware > Start > Select Data Source.

4. Select Enter Data About the Relying Part Manually > Next.

5. Fill in a Display Name under Specify Display Name.

6. Skip certificate configuration in Configure Certificates.

7. In Configure URL, select Enable support for the SAML 2.0 SSO Web SSO protocol.

8. Input your login URL as follows:

   Copy

   https://{your.cinchysso.url}/Saml2/Acs

9. Under Configure Identifiers, add an Identifier and press Next to complete the setup.

Set up Claim Issuance Policy

1. Right-click on the newly created Relying Party Trust (located by its Display Name) and select Edit Claim Issuance Policy.

2. Select Add Rule > Claim Rule > Send LDAP Attributes as Claims.

3. Input a Claim Rule Name.

4. In the Attribute Store, select Active Directory. Map the LDAP attributes to the corresponding outgoing claim types as shown in the table below:

1. Select Finish.

2. Select Edit Rule > View Rule Language. Copy the Claim URLs for later use in configuring your Cinchy appsettings.json. It should look like the following:

   Copy

   c:[Type == "http://schemas.microsoft.com/ws/2008/06/identity/claims/windowsaccountname", Issuer == "AD AUTHORITY"]
     => issue(store = "Active Directory",
             types = ("http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims/nameidentifier",
                       "sub",
                       "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims/givenname",
                       "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims/surname",
                       "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims/emailaddress",
                       "http://schemas.microsoft.com/ws/2008/06/identity/claims/role"),
             query = ";userPrincipalName,sAMAccountName,givenName,sn,mail,memberOf;{0}",
             param = c.Value);

3. Press OK to confirm and save.

Configuration for Cinchy

Initial setup

1. Retrieve and save the Federation Metadata XML file from the following location: https://{your.ADFS.server}/FederationMetadata/2007-06/FederationMetadata.xml.

2. If needed, use IIS Manager to establish an HTTPS connection for the Cinchy website.

3. Also establish an HTTPS connection for the SSO site. Make sure the port number aligns with the one specified in the login URL.

Configuration for appsettings.json

App Settings Section

External identity claim section

You will need to refer to the Rule Language URLs you copied from the ADFS Configuration. Replace the placeholders below with your own URLs:

{
  "AppSettings": {
    // Replace placeholders below with URLS
  },
  "ExternalIdentityClaimSection": {
    "FirstName": {
      "ExternalClaimName": "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims/givenname"
    },
    "LastName": {
      "ExternalClaimName": "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims/surname"
    },
    "Email": {
      "ExternalClaimName": "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims/emailaddress"
    },
    "MemberOf": {
      "ExternalClaimName": "http://schemas.microsoft.com/ws/2008/06/identity/claims/role"
    }
  }
}

Edit web.config

Insert the following lines within the <appSettings> section of your web.config file. Make sure to replace the {your.cinchy.url} and {your.cinchysso.url} with your Cinchy and Cinchy SSO values.

<appSettings>
  <!-- Replace placeholders below with URLS -->
  <add key="UseHttps" value="true" />
  <add key="StsAuthorityUri" value="https://{your.cinchy.url}" />
  <add key="StsRedirectUri" value="https://{your.cinchysso.url}/Account/LoginRedirect" />
  <!--  -->
</appSettings>

Table of Contents

1. Group Management

This section defines how to manage Groups.

1.1 Cinchy Groups

Cinchy Groups are containers that have Users and other Groups within them as members. They are used to provision access controls throughout the platform. Cinchy Groups enable centralized administration for access controls.

Groups are defined in the "Groups" table within the Cinchy domain. By default this table can only be managed by members of the Cinchy Administrators group. Each group has the following attributes:

1.2 How to Define a New AD Group

1. To define a new AD Group, create a new record within the Groups Table with the same name as the AD Group (using the cn attribute).

2. Set the Group Type to "AD Group".

1.3 How to Convert an Existing Group to Sync with AD

1. To convert an existing group, update the Name attribute of the existing group record to match the AD Group (using the cn attribute).

2. Set the Group Type to "AD Group".

2. Group Membership Sync

AD Groups defined in Cinchy have their members synced from AD through a batch process that leverages the Cinchy Command Line Interface (CLI).

2.1 Execution Flow

The sync operation performs the following high-level steps:

1. Fetches all Cinchy registered AD Groups using a Saved Query.

2. Retrieves the usernames of all members for each AD Group. The default attribute for username that is retrieved is "userPrincipalName", but configurable as part of the sync process.

3. For each AD Group, it loads the users that are both a member in AD and exist in the Cinchy Users table (matched on the Username) into the "Users" attribute of the Cinchy Groups table.

2.2 Dependencies

1. The Cinchy CLI Model must be installed in your instance of Cinchy. See here for more details.

2. An instance of the Cinchy CLI must be available to execute the sync.

3. A task scheduler is required to perform the sync on a regular basis (e.g. Autosys).

2.3 Configuration Steps

2.3.1 Create a Saved Query to retrieve AD Groups from Cinchy

1. Create a new query within Cinchy with the below CQL to fetch all AD Groups from the Groups table. The domain & name assigned to the query will be referenced in the subsequent step.

SELECT [Name]
FROM [Cinchy].[Cinchy].[Groups]
WHERE [Group Type] = 'AD Group' 
AND [Deleted] IS NULL

2.3.2 Create the Sync Config

1. Copy the below XML into a text editor of your choice and update the attributes listed in the table below the XML to align to your environment specific settings.

2. Once complete, create an entry with the config in your Data Sync Configurations table (part of the Cinchy CLI model).

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16" ?>
<BatchDataSyncConfig name="AD_GROUP_SYNC" version="1.0.0" xmlns="http://www.cinchy.co">
  <Parameters />
  <LDAPDataSource objectCategory="group" ldapserver="LDAP:\\activedirectoryserver.domain.com" username="encryptedUsername" password="encryptedPassword" >
    <Schema>
      <Column name="cn" ordinal="1" dataType="Text" maxLength="5000" isMandatory="false" validateData="false" trimWhitespace="true" description=""/>
      <Column name="member.userPrincipalName" ordinal="2" dataType="Text" maxLength="200" isMandatory="false" validateData="false" trimWhitespace="true" description=""/>
    </Schema>
    <Filter>
      lookup('Domain Name','Query Name')
    </Filter>
  </LDAPDataSource>
  <CinchyTableTarget model="" domain="Cinchy" table="Groups" suppressDuplicateErrors="false">
    <ColumnMappings>
      <ColumnMapping sourceColumn="cn" targetColumn="name" />
      <ColumnMapping sourceColumn="member.userPrincipalName" targetColumn="Users" linkColumn="Username" />
    </ColumnMappings>
    <SyncKey>
      <SyncKeyColumnReference name="name" />
    </SyncKey>
	<ChangedRecordBehaviour type="UPDATE" />
    <DroppedRecordBehaviour type="IGNORE" />
  </CinchyTableTarget>
</BatchDataSyncConfig>

2.3.3 Sync Execution & Scheduling

1. The below CLI command (see here for additional information on the syncdata command) should be used to execute the sync.

2. Update the command parameters (described in the table below) with your environment specific settings.

3. Execution of this command can be scheduled at your desired frequency using your scheduler of choice.

dotnet Cinchy.CLI.dll syncdata -s cinchyAppServer -u username -p "encryptedPassword" -m "Model" -f "AD_GROUP_SYNC" -d "TempDirectory" 

Parameters

3. High Number of Groups in ADFS

If you are syncing someone with a lot of ADFS groups, the server may reject the request for the header being too large. If you are able to login as a user with a few groups in ADFS but run into an error with users with a lot of ADFS groups (regardless of if those ADFS groups are in Cinchy), you will need to make the following changes:

3.1 Update the Server Max Request Header Size

1. Follow the instructions outlined in this document.

3.2 CinchySSO App Settings

1. In your CinchySSO app settings, you will also need to increase the max size of the request, as follows:

"AppSettings": {
  ...
  "MaxRequestHeadersTotalSize": {max size in bytes},
  "MaxRequestRequestBufferSize": {max size in bytes, use same as above},
  "MaxRequestBodySize": -1
}

Table of Contents

1. General Kubernetes Deployment Prerequisites

The following is a list of steps that are required prior to deploying Cinchy v5 on Kubernetes.

1.1 Download your Tools

The following tools should be installed on the machine where the deployment will run:

• Terraform

• Kubectl (v1.23.0+)

• .NET Core 6.0.x

• Bash (Git Bash may be used on Windows)

1.2 Creating your Domains

All of your Cinchy environments will need a domain for each of the following:

• ArgoCD

• Opensearch

• Grafana

This is done through your specific domain registrar (for example: GoDaddy, Google Domains, etc.)

1.3 SSL Certs

You will need to have valid SSL Certs ready when you deploy Cinchy v5. This should be a wildcard certificate if ArgoCD will be exposed via a subdomain (preferred). Without the wildcard certificate, accessing ArgoCD's portal requires a port forward to be created using kubectl on demand.

You also have the option to use Self-Signed Certs in Kubernetes deployments. Find more information here.

1.4 Secrets Management

Secrets management is optional, however Cinchy recommends it for securely storing and accessing secrets that will be used in the deployment process. Cinchy currently supports:

• Amazon Secrets Manager

• Azure Key Vault

1.5 Single Sign-On

This is optional, but if you would like to set up single sign-on for use in your Cinchy v5 environments, please review the documentation here.

1.6 Docker Images

You have the option to either use Cinchy's Docker images or your own. If you would like to use Cinchy's, please follow the section below to access them.

1.6.1 Accessing Cinchy's Docker images

You will pull Docker images from Cinchy's AWS Elastic Container Registry (ECR).

To gain access to Cinchy's Docker images, you will need login credentials to the ECR. You can gain these by contacting Cinchy Support.

1.7 Create your Repositories

The following four Git repositories must be created. Any source control platform supporting Git may be used, e.g. Gitlab, Azure DevOps, Github

• cinchy.terraform: This repo contains all Terraform configurations.

• cinchy.argocd: This repo contains all ArgoCD configurations.

• cinchy.kubernetes: This repo contains cluster and application component deployment manifests.

• cinchy.devops.automations: This repo contains the single configuration file and binary utility that maintains the contents of the above three repositories.

1.8 Access to Cinchy Artifacts

You will need to access and download the Cinchy artifacts prior to deployment.

To access the Kubernetes artifacts:

1. Access the Cinchy Releases table. Please contact Cinchy Support if you do not have the access credentials necessary.

2. Navigate to the release you wish to deploy

3. Download the .zip file(s) listed under the Kubernetes Artifacts column

4. Check the contents of each of the directories into their respective repository.

2. Kubernetes Deployments (Azure Specific Requirements)

The following prerequisites are required if you are deployment Cinchy v5 on Azure.

• Terraform Backend Requirements:

  • A resource group that will contain the Azure Blob Storage with the terraform state.

  • A storage account and container (Azure Blob Storage) for persisting terraform state.

• The Azure CLI should be installed on the machine where the deployment will be run. It must be set to the correct profile/login

• The deployment template has the option of either leveraging an existing resource group or creating a new one:

  • If an existing resource group is preferred, the prerequisite requires the following be provisioned in advance of the deployment:

    • The resource group.

    • A VNet within the resource group.

    • A single subnet. It's important that the address range be sufficient for all executing processes within the cluster, e.g. a CIDR ending with /22 to provide a range of 1024 IPs.

  • If a new resource group is preferred, all resources will be automatically provisioned.

• The quota limit of the Total Regional vCPUs and the Standard DSv3 Family vCPUs (or equivalent) must provide sufficient availability for the required number of vCPUs (minimum of 24).

• An AAD user account to connect to Azure, which has the necessary privileges to create resources in any existing resource groups and the ability to create a resource group (if required).

3. Kubernetes Deployments (AWS Specific Requirements)

The following prerequisites are required if you are deployment Cinchy v5 on AWS.

• Terraform Backend Requirements:

  • An S3 bucket that will contain the terraform state.

• The AWS CLI should be installed on the machine where the deployment will be run. It must be set to the correct profile/login

• The template has the option of either leveraging an existing VPC or creating a new one:

  • If an existing VPC is preferred, the prerequisite requires the following be provisioned in advance of the deployment:

    • The VPC. It's important that the address range be sufficient for all executing processes within the cluster, e.g. a CIDR ending with /21 to provide a range of 2048 IPs.

    • 3 Subnets (one per AZ). It's important that the address range be sufficient for all executing processes within the cluster, e.g. a CIDR ending with /23 to provide a range of 512 IPs.

    • If the subnets are private, a NAT Gateway is required to enable node group registration with the EKS cluster.

  • If a new VPC is preferred, all resources will be automatically provisioned.

• The limit of the Running On-Demand All Standard vCPUs must provide sufficient availability for the required number of vCPUs (minimum of 24).

• An IAM user account to connect to AWS which has the necessary privileges to create resources in any existing VPC and the ability to create a VPC (if required).

• The SSL certificate must be imported into AWS Certificate Manager (or a new certificate can be requested via AWS Certificate Manager).

4. IIS Deployment Prerequisites

The following is a list of steps that are required prior to deploying Cinchy v5 on IIS

4.1 Access the Artifacts

You will need to access and download the Cinchy binary prior to deployment:

• Access the Cinchy Releases table. Please contact Cinchy Support if you do not have the access credentials necessary.

• Navigate to the release you wish to deploy

• Download the files listed under the Component Artifacts column. This should include zip files for:

  • Cinchy Platform

  • Cinchy Connections

  • Cinchy Event Listener

  • Cinchy Maintenance CLI and CLI (optional)

  • Cinchy Meta-Forms (optional)

4.2 General Requirements

1. An instance of SQL Server 2017+

2. A Windows Server 2012+ machine with IIS 7.5+ installed

3. Install .net core Hosting bundle Version 6.0

   • Specifically, install: ASP.NET Core/.NET Core Runtime & Hosting Bundle

4.3 System Requirements

Minimum Web Server Hardware Recommendations

• 2 x 2 GHz Processor

• 8 GB RAM

• 4 GB Hard Disk storage available

Minimum Database Server Hardware Recommendations

• 4 x 2 GHz Processor

• 12 GB RAM

• Hard disk storage dependent upon use case. Note that Cinchy maintains historical versions of data and performs soft deletes which will add to the overall storage requirements.

4.4 Clustering

Clustering considerations are applicable to both the Web and Database tiers in the Cinchy deployment architecture.

The web tier can be clustered by introducing a load balancer and scaling web server instances horizontally. Each node within Cinchy uses an in-memory cache of metadata information, and expiration of cached elements is triggered upon data changes that would impact that metadata. Data changes processed by one node wouldn't immediately be known to other nodes without establishing connectivity between them. For this reason the nodes must be able to communicate over either http or https through an IP based binding on the IIS server that allows cache expiration messages to be broadcast. The port used for this communication is different from the standard port that is used by the application when a domain name is involved. Often for customers this means that a firewall port must be opened on these servers.

The database tier relies on standard MS SQL Server failover clustering capabilities.

4.5 Scaling Considerations

The web application is responsible for all interactions with Cinchy be it through the UI or connectivity from an application. It interprets/routes incoming requests, handles serialization/deserialization of data, data validation, enforcement of access controls, and the query engine to transform Cinchy queries into the physical representation for the database. The memory footprint for the application is fairly low as caching is limited to metadata, but the CPU utilization grows with request volume and complexity (e.g. insert / update operations are more complex than select operations). As the user population grows or request volume increases from batch processes / upstream system API calls there may be a need to add nodes.

The database tier relies on a persistence platform that scales vertically. As the user population grows and request volume increases from batch processes / upstream system API calls the system may require additional CPU / Memory. Starting off in an environment that allows flexibility (e.g. a VM) would be advised until the real world load can be profiled and a configuration established. On the storage side, Cinchy maintains historical versions of records when changes are made and performs soft deletes of data which will add to the storage requirements. The volume of updates occurring to records should be considered when estimating the storage size.

4.6 Backups

Outside of log files there is no other data generated & stored on the web servers by the application, which means backups are generally centered around the database. Since the underlying persistence platform is a MS SQL Server, this relies on standard procedures for this platform.

Table of Contents

1. Kubernetes vs IIS

When choosing to deploy Cinchy version 5, you must decide whether to deploy via Kubernetes or on a VM (IIS).

Kubernetes is an open-source system that manages and automates the full lifecycle of container-based applications. You now have the ability to deploy Cinchy v5 on Kubernetes, and with it comes a myriad of features that help to simplify your deployment and enhance your scaling. Kubernetes can maximize your container capacity and easily scale up/down with your current operations.

• Grafana, Opensearch, Opensearch Dashboard: Working together, these three applications provide a visual logging dashboard for all of the information coming in from your database pods. This streamlines your search for information by putting the control into your hands and compiling your logs in one easy to access place — you can now easily write a query against all of your logs, in all of your environments. You will have access to a default configuration out of the box, but you can also customize your dashboards as well.

• Prometheus: With the Kubernetes addition, you now have access to Prometheus for your metrics dashboard. Prometheus records real-time metrics in a time series database used for event monitoring and alerting. You can then create custom dashboards to display your data in an easy to use visual that makes reporting on your metrics easy, and even set up push alerts based on your custom needs.

You also have the option to run Cinchy on Microsoft IIS, which was the traditional deployment method prior to Cinchy v5. Internet Information Services (IIS) for Windows Server is a flexible, secure and manageable Web server for hosting anything on the Web.

We recommend using Kubernetes to deploy Cinchy v5, because of the robust features that you can leverage, such as improved logging and metrics. Using Kubernetes allows for a greater ability to scale your Cinchy instances as well as the ability to lower your costs by using PostgreSQL.

2. Choosing a Database

Before deploying Cinchy v5, you must select which database you want to use.

The following list outlines which databases we support for Kubernetes Deployments.

For IIS Deployments please review the architecture requirements here.

2.1 Microsoft SQL Server

2.1.1 MS SQL Server

• Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system. As a database server, it is a software product with the primary function of storing and retrieving data as requested by other software applications—which may run either on the same computer or on another computer across a network.

• Resource limits

2.1.2 Azure SQL Database

• Microsoft Azure SQL Database is a managed cloud database provided as part of Microsoft Azure. It runs on a cloud computing platform, and access to it is provided as a service. Managed database services take care of scalability, backup, and high availability of the database.

• Differences between Azure SQL and Azure Managed SQL

• Resource Limits

2.1.3 Azure Managed SQL Instance

• SQL Managed Instance is a managed, always up-to-date SQL instance in the cloud that combines broad SQL Server engine compatibility with the benefits of a fully managed PaaS.

• Differences between Azure SQL and Azure Managed SQL

• Resource Limits

2.2 Amazon Aurora

Amazon Aurora

• Amazon Aurora (Aurora) is a fully managed relational database engine that's compatible with MySQL and PostgreSQL. It combines the speed and reliability of high-end commercial databases with the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of open-source databases. Aurora is part of the managed database service Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS). Amazon RDS is a web service that makes it easier to set up, operate, and scale a relational database in the cloud.

• Resource Limits

2.3 PostgreSQL

2.3.1 PostgreSQL

• PostgreSQL is a free and open-source relational database management system emphasizing extensibility and SQL compliance. PostgreSQL comes with features aimed to help developers build applications, administrators to protect data integrity and build fault-tolerant environments, and help you manage your data no matter how big or small the dataset.

2.3.2 AWS RDS for PostgreSQL

• Amazon RDS makes it easy to set up, operate, and scale PostgreSQL deployments in the cloud. With Amazon RDS, you can deploy scalable PostgreSQL deployments with cost-efficient and resizable hardware capacity. Amazon RDS manages complex and time-consuming administrative tasks such as PostgreSQL software installation and upgrades; storage management; replication for high availability and read throughput; and backups for disaster recovery. Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL gives you access to the capabilities of the familiar PostgreSQL database engine.

• Resource Limits

2.3.3 Azure PostgreSQL Database

• This is a fully managed and intelligent Azure Database for PostgreSQL. Enjoy high availability with a service-level agreement (SLA) up to 99.99 percent, AI-powered performance optimization, and advanced security. A fully managed database that automates maintenance, patching, and updates. Provision in minutes and independently scale compute or storage in seconds.

• Resource Limits

3. Sizing Considerations and Requirements

Prior to deploying Cinchy version 5, you need to define your sizing requirements.

3.1 Sizing

3.1.1 Kubernetes Sizing

Cluster sizing recommendations vary and are dependant on a myriad of deployment factors. We have provided the following very general sizing recommendations, but encourage you to explore more personalized options.

CPU: 8 Cores

Memory: 32GB Ram

Number of Servers: 3

AWS: m5.2xlarge

Azure: D8 v3

3.1.2 IIS Sizing

For sizing recommendations and prerequisites concerning an IIS deployment, please review the documentation found here.

3.2 Application Storage Requirements

If you are choosing to deploy Cinchy v5 on IIS, then you need to ensure that your VM disks have enough application storage to run your clusters.

3.3 Object Storage Requirements

Cinchy supports both Amazon S3 and Azure Blob Storage.

If you are using Terraform for your Kubernetes deployment, you will need to set up a new S3 compatible bucket to manually to store your state file. You will also need a bucket for Connections, to store error files created during data syncs.

You will create your two S3 compatible buckets using either Amazon or Azure. Ensure that you use the following convention when naming your buckets so that the automation script runs correctly: <org>-<component>-<cluster>. These bucket names will be referenced in your configuration files when you deploy Cinchy on Kubernetes.

Example Terraform Bucket: cinchy-terraform-state

Example Connection Bucket: cinchy-connections-cinchy-nonprod

There is no sizing definitions, as S3 provides unlimited scalability and it charges only for what you use/how much you store on it.

• How to set up an Amazon S3 bucket

• How to set up Azure Blob Storage