Chapter 11. Installation & Debugging
Step-by-step installation requirements, environment preparation, and debugging procedures
A successful authorization system installation requires careful preparation of the target environment, systematic execution of the installation sequence, and thorough validation of each component before proceeding to the next. This chapter provides the complete installation requirements, a phased installation procedure, and a structured debugging guide for the most common installation and configuration issues encountered in production deployments.
The installation process is organized into four phases: Environment Preparation, Core Component Deployment, Integration Configuration, and Validation & Go-Live. Each phase has specific prerequisites, success criteria, and rollback procedures. The debugging section provides diagnostic commands, log locations, and resolution steps for the most frequently encountered issues.
11.1 Installation Requirements Overview
Figure 11.1: Authorization System Installation Environment — Professional deployment setup showing Kubernetes Helm chart deployment at 87% progress, Terraform plan with all checks passed, Grafana monitoring dashboard with green metrics, Docker container health status (26 running, 0 failed), and deployment phase whiteboard with PREP → TEST → PROD pipeline
11.2 Environment Prerequisites
Before beginning the installation, verify that all environment prerequisites are met. Attempting to install without meeting these prerequisites is the most common cause of installation failures and will result in incomplete or unstable deployments.
| Prerequisite Category | Requirement | Minimum Specification | Recommended Specification | Verification Command |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kubernetes Cluster | Kubernetes Version | 1.24+ | 1.28+ (LTS) | kubectl version --short |
| Node Count (Production) | 3 nodes (1 control plane + 2 workers) | 5+ nodes (HA control plane) | kubectl get nodes |
|
| Node Resources (per worker) | 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 100 GB SSD | 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM, 200 GB NVMe SSD | kubectl describe node |
|
| Database | PostgreSQL Version | 13+ | 15+ with connection pooling (PgBouncer) | psql --version |
| Database Resources | 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 50 GB SSD | 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 200 GB SSD (with replicas) | SELECT version(); |
|
| Redis Cache | Redis Version | 6.2+ | 7.0+ (Redis Cluster mode) | redis-cli --version |
| Redis Resources | 1 vCPU, 2 GB RAM (single node) | 3-node cluster, 2 vCPU / 4 GB RAM each | redis-cli INFO server |
|
| Networking | Ingress Controller | NGINX Ingress 1.5+ | NGINX Ingress with WAF module | kubectl get pods -n ingress-nginx |
| TLS Certificates | Valid TLS cert for all endpoints | Wildcard cert + cert-manager for auto-renewal | openssl s_client -connect host:443 |
|
| Message Queue | Kafka Version | 2.8+ (3-broker cluster) | 3.5+ with Schema Registry | kafka-broker-api-versions.sh |
| Identity Provider | OIDC/SAML IdP | Any OIDC-compliant IdP with SCIM 2.0 | Okta, Azure AD, or Keycloak with HA | Test OIDC discovery endpoint |
11.3 Installation Procedure
| Phase | Step | Action | Success Criteria | Est. Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phase 1: Environment Prep | 1.1 | Create Kubernetes namespace and RBAC for authorization system service accounts | Namespace created; service accounts have least-privilege roles | 30 min |
| 1.2 | Provision PostgreSQL database; create schema and initial seed data | Database accessible; schema version matches expected; seed data loaded | 1 hour | |
| 1.3 | Deploy Redis cluster; configure auth and TLS | Redis cluster healthy; AUTH required; TLS verified | 30 min | |
| 1.4 | Configure Kafka topics and Schema Registry schemas | Topics created with correct partitions and retention; schemas registered | 30 min | |
| Phase 2: Core Deployment | 2.1 | Deploy PDP Engine via Helm chart; configure replica count and resource limits | All PDP pods Running; health check endpoint returns 200 | 45 min |
| 2.2 | Deploy Role Catalog Service; load initial role templates | Role Catalog API accessible; default roles loaded | 30 min | |
| 2.3 | Deploy Audit Pipeline; configure Kafka consumer and storage backend | Audit events flowing to storage; no consumer lag | 30 min | |
| 2.4 | Deploy Admin Console; configure admin user and initial policies | Admin Console accessible; admin login successful; default policies active | 45 min | |
| Phase 3: Integration | 3.1 | Configure IdP integration (OIDC/SAML); test user login and group sync | Users can authenticate; group memberships sync correctly | 2 hours |
| 3.2 | Deploy PEP plugins/sidecars to target services; configure PDP endpoint | PEP intercepts requests; authorization decisions enforced | 2–4 hours | |
| 3.3 | Configure SIEM integration; verify audit log delivery | Audit events appear in SIEM within 60 seconds | 1 hour | |
| Phase 4: Validation | 4.1 | Execute acceptance test suite (AC-01 through AC-10) | All 10 acceptance criteria pass | 1–2 days |
| 4.2 | Conduct load test at 2× peak; verify SLA compliance | p99 latency < 100ms; zero errors at 2× peak | 4 hours |
11.4 Common Issues & Debugging Guide
| Symptom | Likely Cause | Diagnostic Steps | Resolution |
|---|---|---|---|
| PDP returns 503 Service Unavailable | PDP pods not ready; Redis connection failure | kubectl get pods -n authz; check pod logs for Redis connection errors |
Verify Redis credentials in Secret; check Redis cluster health; restart PDP pods after fix |
| All requests denied (false deny) | Policy not loaded; PDP cache stale; IdP group sync failure | Check PDP decision log for deny reason; verify policy version in PDP; check IdP sync status | Force policy reload via Admin API; trigger manual IdP sync; clear PDP cache |
| High PDP latency (>200ms p99) | Redis cache miss rate high; PDP under-provisioned; network latency | Check Redis hit rate metric; check PDP CPU/memory; run kubectl top pods |
Increase Redis cache TTL; add PDP replicas; optimize policy complexity |
| Audit events missing in SIEM | Kafka consumer lag; SIEM connector down; topic misconfiguration | Check Kafka consumer group lag; verify SIEM connector health; check topic retention | Restart SIEM connector; increase consumer parallelism; verify topic configuration |
| IdP group sync not working | SCIM token expired; network policy blocking IdP → authz; SCIM endpoint misconfigured | Check SCIM sync logs; verify network policy allows IdP egress; test SCIM endpoint manually | Rotate SCIM token; update network policy; correct SCIM endpoint URL in IdP configuration |