SambaStack Prerequisites Guide - SambaNova Documentation

This section outlines the prerequisites for deploying SambaStack and guides you through obtaining the necessary credentials and configurations.

SambaStack on-prem
SambaStack hosted

User Prerequisites for SambaStack Install

Before installation, ensure the following requirements are in place.

Certificates and DNS

You must provide:

Two TLS certificates for the API and UI endpoints
Two DNS names corresponding to those endpoints

SambaNova collects hardware prerequisites (such as load balancer configuration) and OS configuration requirements (such as NTP servers) through the SambaNova site survey. Contact your SambaNova representative for details.

TLS Requirements

Provide valid TLS certificates for both FQDNs:

api.<your-domain> — certificate and private key
ui.<your-domain> — certificate and private key

Certificate Guidelines

Certificates must be issued by a trusted Certificate Authority (CA) such as Let’s Encrypt, DigiCert, or your organization’s internal CA
Self-signed certificates are not recommended for production environments
You may provide either:
- Two individual certificates (one for each hostname), or
- A single wildcard certificate (e.g., *.example.com) covering both

Kubernetes install

See the Kubernetes requirement and specification in the table below.

Requirement	Specification
Kubernetes version	v1.30+ (recommended)
Control planes	Core Services Rack (CSR) includes 3 control planes for SambaStack
Data planes	SambaRack worker nodes serve as data planes

Required tools

Ensure the following tools are installed on your workstation:

What SambaNova provides

SambaNova provides the following resources at handover (post runtime installation).

Helm chart OCI registry URLs

Two Helm chart OCI registry URLs and version to deploy:

Chart	Registry URL
SambaStack Base	`oci://<REGISTRY_URL>/sambastack/sambastack-base`
SambaStack	`oci://<REGISTRY_URL>/sambastack/sambastack`

SambaNova provides the full registry URL and version number during handover. Contact your SambaNova representative for access credentials.

Version numbers change with new chart releases. Check with your SambaNova representative for the current installation version.

Configuration files

Sample sambastack.yaml file for your deployment

Google Cloud service account

A pre-configured Google Cloud service account is provided. This configuration is used to create:

Image Pull Secret
Artifact reader secret

Detailed steps are provided in the Setup guide.

Prerequisites

Before installing SambaStack hosted:

Install kubectl.
Configure valid Kubeconfig credentials

Kubeconfig credentials

To interact with the cluster, you need valid kubeconfig credentials. SambaNova provides this file and the associated base64-encoded password.

Save the provided kubeconfig file securely (e.g., ~/kube/).
Decode the base64-encoded password and save it to a YAML file.

       echo <PASSWORD> | base64 -d > <credentials-file-name>.yaml

Store both the password and kubeconfig file securely and do not share them with unauthorized users; the password is required to access cluster nodes.

Export the kubeconfig path:

       export KUBECONFIG=~/path/to/<credentials-file-name>.yaml

Example kubeconfig structure

The following sample kubeconfig file shows how clusters, users, and contexts are defined for Kubernetes authentication and access.

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: Config
    clusters:
      - name: default
        cluster:
          certificate-authority-data: <redacted>
          server: https://<cluster-endpoint>
    users:
      - name: sambastack-admin
        user:
          token: <redacted>
    contexts:
      - name: default
        context:
          cluster: default
          user: sambastack-admin
          namespace: default
    current-context: default

Kubeconfig fields

Keyword	Description
apiVersion / kind	Defines the type of Kubernetes config.
clusters	Contains cluster names, endpoints, and certificate authority information.
users	Specifies users and their authentication method (e.g., token).
contexts	Maps a user to a cluster and may include a default namespace.
current-context	The active context used by `kubectl`.

Overview

Installation

Service Administration

Resources

Prerequisites

User Prerequisites for SambaStack Install

Certificates and DNS

TLS Requirements

Certificate Guidelines

Kubernetes install

Required tools

What SambaNova provides

Helm chart OCI registry URLs

Configuration files

Google Cloud service account

Prerequisites

Kubeconfig credentials

Example kubeconfig structure

Kubeconfig fields

Overview

Installation

Service Administration

Resources

​User Prerequisites for SambaStack Install

​Certificates and DNS

​TLS Requirements

​Certificate Guidelines

​Kubernetes install

​Required tools

​What SambaNova provides

​Helm chart OCI registry URLs

​Configuration files

​Google Cloud service account

​Prerequisites

​Kubeconfig credentials

​Example kubeconfig structure

​Kubeconfig fields

User Prerequisites for SambaStack Install

Certificates and DNS

TLS Requirements

Certificate Guidelines

Kubernetes install

Required tools

What SambaNova provides

Helm chart OCI registry URLs

Configuration files

Google Cloud service account

Prerequisites

Kubeconfig credentials

Example kubeconfig structure

Kubeconfig fields