Running Kubernetes in an Air‑Gapped Environment With Spinifex

Description and use

Spinifex enables offline deployment of a fully functional, AWS‑compatible Kubernetes (EKS) platform on isolated hardware, eliminating the need for internet connectivity or proxy workarounds.

Problem

Deploying Kubernetes in environments without internet access is difficult because components expect to pull images, reach package repositories, and communicate with cloud APIs.

Outcome

Spinifex allows secure, offline deployment of Kubernetes and EKS clusters, eliminating the need for internet connectivity or proxy setups.

Workflow

• 1. On a connected machine, download Spinifex release tarball, setup script, and checksum.
• 2. Pre‑download required APT packages with apt install --download-only and store .deb files.
• 3. Download AWS CLI v2 installer and a cloud image (e.g., Debian 13 qcow2).
• 4. Copy all artifacts (tarball, packages, AWS CLI, images) to USB media in organized folders.
• 5. On the air‑gapped target, mount USB, install APT packages from local cache using dpkg -i and apt-get install --no-download.
• 6. Install AWS CLI from the USB archive and run Spinifex installer with flags to use local tarball and skip remote downloads.
• 7. Run setup-ovn.sh to configure networking, initialize Spinifex without telemetry, and start services.
• 8. Import cloud images with spx admin images import.
• 9. Verify installation by querying AWS CLI for instance types and images.
• 10. Create EKS clusters using standard AWS CLI commands, ensuring required node images are imported first.

Evidence

Spinifex installs without internet access, using a release tarball and pre‑staged packages transferred on USB media, and it provides an AWS‑compatible EKS implementation

Source

The Spinifex platform, covering the AWS gateway, compute, block storage, object storage, networking, and IAM, installs and runs with no internet connectivity at all

Source