W&B recommends fully managed deployment options such as W&B Multi-tenant Cloud or W&B Dedicated Cloud deployment types. W&B fully managed services are simple and secure to use, with minimum to no configuration required.
Prerequisites
Before deploying W&B on your on-premises Kubernetes infrastructure, ensure your environment meets all requirements. For complete details, see the Requirements page, which covers:- Kubernetes cluster requirements (versions, ingress, persistent volumes)
- MySQL database configuration
- Redis requirements
- Object storage setup
- SSL/TLS certificates
- Networking and load balancer configuration
- Hardware sizing recommendations
Object storage provisioning
W&B requires S3-compatible object storage. For detailed provisioning instructions for various storage providers, see:Provision your storage bucket
Before configuring W&B, provision your object storage bucket with proper IAM policies, CORS configuration, and access credentials. See the Bring Your Own Bucket (BYOB) guide for detailed step-by-step provisioning instructions for:- Amazon S3 (including IAM policies and bucket policies)
- Google Cloud Storage (including PubSub notifications)
- Azure Blob Storage (including managed identities)
- CoreWeave AI Object Storage
- S3-compatible storage (MinIO Enterprise, NetApp StorageGRID, and other enterprise solutions)
Deploy W&B with the Kubernetes Operator
The recommended method for deploying W&B on Kubernetes is using the W&B Kubernetes Operator. The operator manages the W&B platform components and simplifies deployment, updates, and maintenance.Choose your deployment method
The W&B Operator can be deployed using two methods:- Helm CLI - Direct deployment using Helm commands
- Terraform - Infrastructure-as-code deployment using Terraform
- Installing the operator
- Configuring the W&B Custom Resource (CR)
- Object storage configuration
- MySQL and Redis connection settings
- SSL/TLS certificate configuration
- Ingress and networking setup
- Updates and maintenance
On-premises specific considerations
When deploying on on-premises infrastructure, pay special attention to the following:Load balancer configuration
On-premises Kubernetes clusters typically require manual load balancer configuration. Options include:- External load balancer: Configure an existing hardware or software load balancer (F5, HAProxy, etc.)
- Nginx Ingress Controller: Deploy nginx-ingress-controller with NodePort or host networking
- MetalLB: For bare-metal Kubernetes clusters, MetalLB provides load balancer services
Persistent storage
Ensure your Kubernetes cluster has a StorageClass configured for persistent volumes. W&B components may require persistent storage for caching and temporary data. Common on-premises storage options:- NFS-based storage classes
- Ceph/Rook storage
- Local persistent volumes
- Enterprise storage solutions (NetApp, Pure Storage, etc.)
DNS and certificate management
For on-premises deployments:- Configure internal DNS records to point to your W&B hostname
- Provision SSL/TLS certificates from your internal Certificate Authority (CA)
- If using self-signed certificates, configure the operator to trust your CA certificate
OpenShift deployments
W&B fully supports deployment on OpenShift Kubernetes clusters. OpenShift deployments require additional security context configurations due to OpenShift’s stricter security policies. For OpenShift-specific configuration details, see:- Operator guide OpenShift section
- Deploy on Air-Gapped Kubernetes for comprehensive OpenShift examples
Object storage configuration
After provisioning your object storage bucket (see Prerequisites above), configure it in your W&B Custom Resource.AWS S3 (on-premises)
For on-premises AWS S3 (via Outposts or compatible storage):S3-compatible storage (MinIO, Ceph, NetApp, etc.)
For S3-compatible storage systems:?tls=true to the bucket path:
Important considerations for on-premises object storage
When running your own object storage, consider:- Storage capacity and performance: Monitor disk capacity carefully. Average W&B usage results in tens to hundreds of gigabytes. Heavy usage could result in petabytes of storage consumption.
- Fault tolerance: At minimum, use RAID arrays for physical disks. For S3-compatible storage, use distributed or highly available configurations.
- Availability: Configure monitoring to ensure the storage remains available.
MinIO considerations
Enterprise alternatives for on-premises object storage include:- Amazon S3 on Outposts
- NetApp StorageGRID
- MinIO Enterprise (AIStor)
- Dell ECS
Verify your installation
After deploying W&B, verify the installation is working correctly: To verify the installation, W&B recommends using the W&B CLI. The verify command executes several tests that verify all components and configurations.This step assumes that the first admin user account is created with the browser.
- Install the W&B CLI:
- Log in to W&B:
- Verify the installation:
Next steps
After successful deployment:- Configure user authentication: Set up SSO or other authentication methods
- Set up monitoring: Configure monitoring for your W&B instance and infrastructure
- Plan for updates: Review the Server upgrade process and establish an update cadence
- Configure backups: Establish backup procedures for your MySQL database
Getting help
If you encounter issues during deployment:- Check the Reference Architecture for infrastructure guidance
- Review the Operator guide for configuration details
- Contact W&B Support or your assigned W&B support engineer