Installing probectl

What you're installing, and the one rule that shapes it

probectl is a self-hosted control plane plus agents. This guide gets the control plane running two ways: an all-in-one Docker Compose stack (fastest path, good for a single host or evaluation) and a Kubernetes Helm chart (production / multi-tenant — Helm is Kubernetes's package manager, and a chart is the installable package of manifests it deploys).

The rule that shapes both: probectl is HTTPS-by-default. Every shipped deploy serves the API over TLS (the encryption layer under https://), sends HSTS (the response header telling browsers to never retry this host over plain HTTP), and exposes no plaintext listener at all. This is deliberate — a network-observability control plane handles tenant data, so there is no "just turn off TLS for a sec" mode to trip over (see hardening.md for the full transport posture). The practical consequence: every example below talks to https://, and a plaintext request simply will not connect.

For configuration keys, see configuration.md. For day-2 operation (audit, roles, SSO), see admin.md.

Prerequisites

A released image. Production Compose has no mutable image default. Set PROBECTL_IMAGE in deploy/compose/.env to a digest-pinned control-plane image such as ghcr.io/ctlplne/probectl-control:v0.6.5@sha256:<release-digest> for both certgen and control. If GHCR returns 401 Unauthorized, log in first with a token that has read:packages, or point PROBECTL_IMAGE at an internally mirrored digest. A tag-only local/mirror ref is allowed only with PROBECTL_ALLOW_TAG_IMAGE=i-understand-this-is-mutable. Be aware of what the mutable tags point at today: probectl is pre-1.0, so ghcr.io/ctlplne/probectl-*:latest resolves to a pre-release build, and will only track a stable release once one exists. That is why the digest pin above is the default rather than a recommendation. The compose preflight below checks this before the stack starts, so a mutable or private registry failure stops with exact repair commands instead of halfway through first boot:
```
echo "$GHCR_TOKEN" | docker login ghcr.io -u "$GITHUB_USER" --password-stdin
# or:
PROBECTL_IMAGE='registry.internal/probectl-control:v0.6.5@sha256:<release-digest>'
# or build from this checkout (it trusts the committed license public keys
# under internal/license/trusted_keys/, so a vendor license file works —
# docs/editions.md, "Trust anchor"):
docker build -f deploy/docker/Dockerfile --build-arg COMPONENT=probectl-control \
  --build-arg COMMIT=$(git rev-parse --short HEAD) -t probectl-control:local .
# The image stamps the checkout's VERSION file (as <version>-local) and the build
# time by itself; only the commit needs passing, because .git is not in the build
# context. `probectl-control version` (or an authenticated GET /version; anonymous
# callers get only the service name) then identifies the build.
PROBECTL_IMAGE=probectl-control:local
PROBECTL_ALLOW_TAG_IMAGE=i-understand-this-is-mutable
```
Compose path: Docker with Compose v2.
Helm path: a Kubernetes cluster with an ingress controller (the cluster's HTTP front door, which routes outside traffic to in-cluster services — nginx in the examples) and a way to supply a TLS certificate (cert-manager — the in-cluster operator that obtains and renews certificates — or a pre-created secret).

Option A — Docker Compose (all-in-one)

deploy/compose/probectl.yml runs the control plane behind TLS with a bundled Postgres. On first boot a one-shot certgen service generates a self-signed certificate (probectl-control gen-cert --if-missing) so you can start immediately; later boots preserve the complete bundle, and you swap in a real CA-issued cert for production. Self-signed means the server vouches for itself rather than a certificate authority (CA — a trusted issuer your clients already know): traffic is fully encrypted either way, but your client must be told to trust this server — which is exactly what step 3 (copy out ca.crt) and --cacert in step 4 do.

# 1. Configure.
cp deploy/compose/.env.example deploy/compose/.env
# Edit deploy/compose/.env:
#   - POSTGRES_PASSWORD      (required; openssl rand -hex 24 — URL-safe, because
#                             it is spliced into PROBECTL_DATABASE_URL)
#   - PROBECTL_ENVELOPE_KEY  (openssl rand -base64 32 — the at-rest encryption key)
#   - PROBECTL_SESSION_HMAC_KEY (openssl rand -hex 32 — the session-token pepper)
#   - PROBECTL_TLS_HOSTS     (the hostname(s)/IP(s) the self-signed cert is valid for)
# Auth defaults to "session" (real OIDC SSO, fail-closed) — set the PROBECTL_OIDC_*
# values. PROBECTL_AUTH_MODE=dev (no-auth, all-access) is NOT a runtime toggle on
# this shipped release image: the dev-auth code path only exists in a binary built
# with -tags devauth, so setting it here makes the control plane REFUSE TO START
# with a clear error (not a warning). For a no-IdP local evaluation, use the eval
# stack (deploy/compose/eval.yml) — see docs/getting-started.md — not this stack.

# 2. Preflight the .env and the image, then start.
#    The env preflight refuses a password that is not URL-safe or a malformed
#    key BEFORE the control plane can crash-loop on it; the image preflight fails
#    if the pinned image is private/unreachable and prints the exact docker
#    login, mirror override, or local-build command. make compose-prod-up runs both.
bash scripts/compose_env_preflight.sh
bash scripts/compose_image_preflight.sh
make compose-prod-up

# Equivalent after the preflight passes:
# docker compose --env-file deploy/compose/.env -f deploy/compose/probectl.yml up -d

# 3. Grab the generated CA so your client can trust the self-signed cert.
#    (The certs live in a named Docker volume, so copy ca.crt out of the container.)
docker compose -f deploy/compose/probectl.yml cp control:/certs/ca.crt ./ca.crt

# 4. Verify — over HTTPS, on port 8443.
curl --cacert ./ca.crt https://localhost:8443/readyz
curl --cacert ./ca.crt https://localhost:8443/.well-known/security.txt

A note on the envelope key: this is probectl's KEK (key-encryption key) for envelope encryption — each stored secret is sealed with its own data key, and those data keys are sealed with this one. Think of a hotel key cabinet: the KEK is not the key to every room, it is the one key that opens the cabinet holding them — which is why losing it makes every sealed value unreadable, and why it must be backed up like key material rather than like configuration. If you leave PROBECTL_ENVELOPE_KEY empty, the control plane generates one on first boot and persists it on the controldata volume (mode 0600) — back that volume up like key material. Supplying your own key (from a KMS or secret manager) is recommended for production and always wins. Either way, at-rest encryption stays on; if no key resolves, the control plane fails closed rather than writing plaintext.

There is no plaintext port: http://localhost:8443 will not connect.

Bring your own (CA-issued) certificate. Put three files in a directory on the host — tls.crt (the server certificate with intermediates appended), tls.key (its private key, readable by the container user: chown 65532 tls.key && chmod 600 tls.key), and ca.crt (the issuing chain, which the curl --cacert examples and the Dex overlay use) — and set PROBECTL_TLS_DIR=/absolute/path in .env. Every service that needs the certificate (control, Postgres, the one-shot certgen) then mounts that directory instead of the named certs volume; certgen --if-missing keeps a complete bundle untouched and refuses to touch a partial one, so it never overwrites your files. Leave PROBECTL_TLS_DIR empty to keep the self-signed quickstart certificate.

Install your license (Enterprise / MSP). The free core needs no license. To unlock commercial features, set PROBECTL_LICENSE_PATH=/absolute/path/to/license.json in .env (the offline-signed file your vendor issued) and layer the license overlay:

make compose-prod-up PROBECTL_COMPOSE_OVERLAYS='-f deploy/compose/license.yml'
# equivalent:
docker compose --env-file deploy/compose/.env \
  -f deploy/compose/probectl.yml -f deploy/compose/license.yml up -d

For an MSP license, also layer deploy/compose/provider.yml: the provider plane refuses admission until it has signed WORM audit export and an IR public keyring, and that overlay wires both onto the persistent volume (see provider-plane.md); the first operator's bootstrap token goes in deploy/compose/control.env. Verification is local math against the trust anchors compiled into the binary — nothing phones home. A forged or corrupt file stops the control plane at startup; an expired one loads and degrades per the grace ladder. Admin → Editions (GET /v1/editions) shows the loaded tier, customer, and expiry — see editions.md.

Any other control-plane key. probectl.yml sets the security-critical keys explicitly and forwards nothing else from .env. For every other PROBECTL_* key in configuration.md — the provider bootstrap token, the deployment profile, log level, bus and store settings — copy deploy/compose/control.env.example to deploy/compose/control.env and put the keys there; the control service loads that file when it exists (env_file, required: false) and never commits it. The explicit keys in probectl.yml always win over it, so the file cannot downgrade TLS, auth, or encryption.

Tear down with docker compose -f deploy/compose/probectl.yml down (add -v to also drop the database and certs).

⚠ Telemetry is volatile by default — it is lost on every restart. The shipped Compose stack runs the bus, TSDB and every telemetry store in process memory (PROBECTL_BUS_MODE/PROBECTL_TSDB_MODE/*_STORE_MODE default to memory), so a docker compose restart, upgrade, OOM or host reboot erases all synthetic results, metrics, paths, flows, OTLP traces/logs, eBPF edges and endpoint events. Postgres-backed state (tenants, tokens, config) survives; telemetry history does not. This is a zero-dependency quickstart posture, not a durable one — the control plane logs a boot WARN, /readyz reports volatile_stores, /v1/diagnostics is degraded, and probectl-control preflight --strict exits non-zero until you either configure durable stores (a nats/kafka bus, prometheus TSDB and ClickHouse stores — see configuration.md) or set PROBECTL_ALLOW_VOLATILE=i-understand-data-is-not-durable to acknowledge the tradeoff. Production-like PROBECTL_DEPLOYMENT_PROFILEs refuse memory modes outright.

Option B — Kubernetes (Helm)

The chart in deploy/helm/probectl serves TLS on the control pod and at the ingress, force-redirects HTTP → HTTPS, and emits HSTS. The Service, probes, ingress backend, and optional ServiceMonitor all target the same HTTPS listener, so the ingress-to-pod hop is not plaintext. Migrations run as an init container (a one-shot container Kubernetes runs to completion before the main one starts — so the schema is always in place before the server boots), and the pod runs non-root with a read-only root filesystem.

helm install probectl deploy/helm/probectl \
  --namespace probectl --create-namespace \
  --set ingress.host=probectl.example.com \
  --set ingress.tlsSecretName=probectl-tls \
  --set ingress.backendTLS.trustSecret=probectl-backend-ca \
  --set ingress.backendTLS.serverName=probectl.example.com \
  --set 'control.trustedProxies={10.244.0.0/16}' \
  --set control.tls.existingSecret=probectl-tls \
  --set-string image.digest='sha256:<release-digest>' \
  --set database.url='postgres://probectl:...@db:5432/probectl?sslmode=require' \
  --set secrets.envelopeKey="$(openssl rand -base64 32)" \
  --set secrets.sessionHMACKey="$(openssl rand -hex 32)" \
  --set control.authMode=session \
  --set oidc.issuer=https://idp.example.com \
  --set oidc.clientId=probectl \
  --set oidc.clientSecret=REPLACE \
  --set oidc.redirectUrl=https://probectl.example.com/auth/callback

Provide the TLS Secret via cert-manager (add the issuer to ingress.annotations) or create it first. It must contain tls.crt and tls.key; the example reuses the same host certificate for ingress.tlsSecretName and control.tls.existingSecret. Helm fails closed when the control-listener Secret is omitted. The ingress controller separately verifies the control listener's certificate, so ingress.backendTLS.trustSecret names a same-namespace ingress-nginx proxy-ssl Secret (tls.crt, tls.key, ca.crt) and ingress.backendTLS.serverName names a DNS SAN on that certificate; Helm also fails closed if either is missing — create that Secret as shown in deploy/helm/README.md. image.digest is also required: use the probectl-control digest whose keyless signature verifies for the release workflow, or the corresponding digest in your approved internal mirror. A mutable tag is rejected before any workload renders. For the MSP / provider reference sizing, add -f deploy/helm/probectl/values-multitenant.yaml, pre-create the referenced probectl-provider-objects-rwx shared PVC and probectl-provider-runtime Secret, and set the SIEM watermark values shown in deploy/helm/README.md. The PVC must be ReadWriteMany and backed by object-lock/compliance-mode storage. The Secret must carry one shared PROBECTL_WORM_SIGNING_KEY plus the normal runtime credentials. Provider profiles reject pod-local emptyDir WORM storage and per-replica key files, so raw audit rows cannot silently prune against missing or split-brain evidence. Then verify:

curl https://probectl.example.com/readyz

See ../deploy/helm/README.md for every value and sizing profile (small / medium / large / multitenant / multi-region / strict).

Deploy your first agent / see data

Your control plane is up — but it is a consumer, and a consumer with nothing feeding it stores nothing. /readyz is green and every dashboard is empty, because the things that actually watch the network — synthetic probes, the eBPF host agent, flow collectors — are separate producers you deploy next. No producers, no data; that is expected, not a bug.

Turn on the agent listener of this stack first. The production stack ships with the agent gRPC/mTLS listener off, because it needs the deployment's agent certificate authority. Create that CA once (the root key is printed exactly once — put it in offline custody), export its public trust bundle onto the persistent volume, then restart with the agents.yml overlay, which enables the listener on port 9443 with the same server certificate the API serves:

docker compose --env-file deploy/compose/.env -f deploy/compose/probectl.yml \
  exec control /usr/local/bin/app agent-ca init
docker compose --env-file deploy/compose/.env -f deploy/compose/probectl.yml \
  exec control /usr/local/bin/app agent-ca export /var/lib/probectl/agent-ca.crt
make compose-prod-up PROBECTL_COMPOSE_OVERLAYS='-f deploy/compose/agents.yml'

Restarting or upgrading later: re-run make compose-prod-up with the same overlays. Bring the stack up as a whole rather than one service at a time — the demo Dex shares the control container's network namespace, so docker compose ... up -d control alone strands Dex and every login answers "tenant SSO provider is unavailable" until Dex is recreated too.

Then mint a join token (Admin & Settings → Agents → Enroll agent, or exec control /usr/local/bin/app enroll-token -tenant <uuid>) and enroll the agent from its host against https://<host>:8443 with gRPC at <host>:9443 (deploying-agents.md).

On Kubernetes the chart ships the same listener off; run agent-ca init once through kubectl exec (interactively, so the root key reaches your terminal and not a pod log — a Job or hook is refused unless you pass -key-out, DPR-121), then helm upgrade --set control.agentListener.enabled=true (plus a NodePort/LoadBalancer service type for probe hosts outside the cluster) — the chart exports the public trust bundle itself on every start. See the Helm README.

Don't follow a one-off recipe here — the canonical journey is already written:

See data in one command (no Go toolchain, any OS): the evaluation stack deploy/compose/eval.yml brings up a control plane plus a sample producer so you can watch real data flow end to end:
```
docker compose -f deploy/compose/eval.yml up --build -d
# The viewer waits for control-plane readiness and sample topology data:
docker compose -f deploy/compose/eval.yml --profile tools run --rm --no-deps viewer
```
The viewer prints the /v1/topology service map built from the sample flows — proof the agent → bus → consumer → API loop works. It is local-evaluation only (no-auth, loopback-bound, plaintext bus); the full walkthrough — including attaching a real canary and combining planes into one correlated incident — is in getting-started.md.
Attach producers to this stack: deploying-agents.md is the catalog of every producer (synthetic canary, eBPF, flow, device telemetry) and which channel each uses — gRPC/mTLS straight to the control plane, or the message bus.

First-run checklist

Authentication. Outside evaluation, run with authMode=session and a real OIDC IdP (OIDC — OpenID Connect, the standard web-login protocol; the IdP is your identity provider — Okta, Entra ID, Keycloak, …). A brand-new SSO user is provisioned with no roles — an admin must grant access (see admin.md). This is intentional: access is default-deny, not default-allow. On a fresh deployment there is no admin yet, so grant the first one from the control host (the same trust as migrate); the person does not need to have logged in first:
```
# Compose (the control image is distroless; its entrypoint is the binary):
docker compose --env-file deploy/compose/.env -f deploy/compose/probectl.yml \
  exec control /usr/local/bin/app bootstrap-admin -email you@example.com
# Helm:
# select a control-plane pod by component: the chart's browser-agent and
# analyzer pods share the release's name/instance labels (DPR-085)
kubectl -n probectl exec -c control \
  "$(kubectl -n probectl get pod -l app.kubernetes.io/component=control -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}')" \
  -- /usr/local/bin/app bootstrap-admin -email you@example.com
```
The grant is tenant-scoped (-tenant, default the built-in tenant), idempotent, and recorded in the audit trail as rbac.bind; -role accepts admin, editor, viewer, or a custom role slug. From then on, roles come from SCIM group sync or from an admin.
Envelope key. Set PROBECTL_ENVELOPE_KEY to a real 32-byte base64 key (KEK) and keep it safe; secrets at rest are sealed with it. probectl encrypts the values it manages — encrypting the bulk telemetry volumes (Postgres, ClickHouse, object store) at rest is the operator's job (dm-crypt/LUKS, ZFS, or encrypted cloud volumes).
Session HMAC key. Set PROBECTL_SESSION_HMAC_KEY to a real 32-byte hex key (openssl rand -hex 32) and keep it safe. probectl stores only HMACed session-token digests, so a database snapshot cannot verify token guesses without this app secret.
Disclosure contact. Set PROBECTL_SECURITY_CONTACT so /.well-known/security.txt advertises your security mailbox (RFC 9116).
Database TLS. Point PROBECTL_DATABASE_URL at a Postgres reachable over TLS (sslmode=require or stricter) in production.
Audit. Confirm the audit trail is recording and intact: GET /v1/audit and GET /v1/audit/verify (admin / audit.read). The audit log is tamper-evident, so verify proves the chain hasn't been altered.