coder/docs/admin/provisioners.md

# External provisioners

By default, the Coder server runs
[built-in provisioner daemons](../cli/server.md#provisioner-daemons), which
execute `terraform` during workspace and template builds. However, there are
sometimes benefits to running external provisioner daemons:

- **Secure build environments:** Run build jobs in isolated containers,
  preventing malicious templates from gaining shell access to the Coder host.

- **Isolate APIs:** Deploy provisioners in isolated environments (on-prem, AWS,
  Azure) instead of exposing APIs (Docker, Kubernetes, VMware) to the Coder
  server. See [Provider Authentication](../templates/authentication.md) for more
  details.

- **Isolate secrets**: Keep Coder unaware of cloud secrets, manage/rotate
  secrets on provisoner servers.

- **Reduce server load**: External provisioners reduce load and build queue
  times from the Coder server. See
  [Scaling Coder](./scale.md#concurrent-workspace-builds) for more details.

Each provisioner can run a single
[concurrent workspace build](./scale.md#concurrent-workspace-builds). For
example, running 30 provisioner containers will allow 30 users to start
workspaces at the same time.

Provisioners are started with the
[coder provisionerd start](../cli/provisionerd_start.md) command.

## Authentication

The provisioner daemon must authenticate with your Coder deployment.

Set a
[provisioner daemon pre-shared key (PSK)](../cli/server.md#--provisioner-daemon-psk)
on the Coder server and start the provisioner with
`coder provisionerd start --psk <your-psk>`. If you are
[installing with Helm](../install/kubernetes.md#install-coder-with-helm), see
the [Helm example](#example-running-an-external-provisioner-with-helm) below.

> Coder still supports authenticating the provisioner daemon with a
> [token](../cli.md#--token) from a user with the Template Admin or Owner role.
> This method is deprecated in favor of the PSK, which only has permission to
> access provisioner daemon APIs. We recommend migrating to the PSK as soon as
> practical.

## Types of provisioners

- **Generic provisioners** can pick up any build job from templates without
  provisioner tags.

  ```shell
  coder provisionerd start
  ```

- **Tagged provisioners** can be used to pick up build jobs from templates (and
  corresponding workspaces) with matching tags.

  ```shell
  coder provisionerd start \
    --tag environment=on_prem \
    --tag data_center=chicago

  # In another terminal, create/push
  # a template that requires this provisioner
  coder templates push on-prem \
    --provisioner-tag environment=on_prem

  # Or, match the provisioner exactly
  coder templates push on-prem-chicago \
    --provisioner-tag environment=on_prem \
    --provisioner-tag data_center=chicago
  ```

  > At this time, tagged provisioners can also pick jobs from untagged
  > templates. This behavior is
  > [subject to change](https://github.com/coder/coder/issues/6442).

- **User provisioners** can only pick up jobs from user-tagged templates. Unlike
  the other provisioner types, any Coder user can run user provisioners, but
  they have no impact unless there is at least one template with the
  `scope=user` provisioner tag.

  ```shell
  coder provisionerd start \
    --tag scope=user

  # In another terminal, create/push
  # a template that requires user provisioners
  coder templates push on-prem \
    --provisioner-tag scope=user
  ```

## Example: Running an external provisioner with Helm

Coder provides a Helm chart for running external provisioner daemons, which you
will use in concert with the Helm chart for deploying the Coder server.

1. Create a long, random pre-shared key (PSK) and store it in a Kubernetes
   secret

   ```shell
   kubectl create secret generic coder-provisioner-psk --from-literal=psk=`head /dev/urandom | base64 | tr -dc A-Za-z0-9 | head -c 26`
   ```

1. Modify your Coder `values.yaml` to include

   ```yaml
   provisionerDaemon:
     pskSecretName: "coder-provisioner-psk"
   ```

1. Redeploy Coder with the new `values.yaml` to roll out the PSK. You can omit
   `--version <your version>` to also upgrade Coder to the latest version.

   ```shell
   helm upgrade coder coder-v2/coder \
       --namespace coder \
       --version <your version> \
       --values values.yaml
   ```

1. Create a `provisioner-values.yaml` file for the provisioner daemons Helm
   chart. For example

   ```yaml
   coder:
     env:
       - name: CODER_URL
         value: "https://coder.example.com"
     replicaCount: 10
   provisionerDaemon:
     pskSecretName: "coder-provisioner-psk"
     tags:
       location: auh
       kind: k8s
   ```

   This example creates a deployment of 10 provisioner daemons (for 10
   concurrent builds) with the listed tags. For generic provisioners, remove the
   tags.

   > Refer to the
   > [values.yaml](https://github.com/coder/coder/blob/main/helm/provisioner/values.yaml)
   > file for the coder-provisioner chart for information on what values can be
   > specified.

1. Install the provisioner daemon chart

   ```shell
   helm install coder-provisioner coder-v2/coder-provisioner \
       --namespace coder \
       --version <your version> \
       --values provisioner-values.yaml
   ```

   You can verify that your provisioner daemons have successfully connected to
   Coderd by looking for a debug log message that says
   `provisionerd: successfully connected to coderd` from each Pod.

## Example: Running an external provisioner on a VM

```shell
curl -L https://coder.com/install.sh | sh
export CODER_URL=https://coder.example.com
export CODER_SESSION_TOKEN=your_token
coder provisionerd start
```

## Example: Running an external provisioner via Docker

```shell
docker run --rm -it \
  -e CODER_URL=https://coder.example.com/ \
  -e CODER_SESSION_TOKEN=your_token \
  --entrypoint /opt/coder \
  ghcr.io/coder/coder:latest \
  provisionerd start
```

## Disable built-in provisioners

As mentioned above, the Coder server will run built-in provisioners by default.
This can be disabled with a server-wide
[flag or environment variable](../cli/server.md#provisioner-daemons).

```shell
coder server --provisioner-daemons=0
```