Site Bundles

Site bundles are self-contained deployment packages that allow installing a Skupper site on a remote host without requiring the Skupper CLI on that host.

Generating a Bundle

# On your workstation (has CLI + container engine)
export SKUPPER_PLATFORM=linux   # or podman, docker
skupper site create my-remote-site
skupper system generate-bundle my-remote-site
# Output: ~/.local/share/skupper/bundles/my-remote-site.tar.gz

Bundle Types

--type	Output
tarball (default)	.tar.gz archive with install.sh
shell-script	Single self-extracting shell script

Deploying a Bundle

# Transfer to remote host, then:
tar -xzf my-remote-site.tar.gz
./install.sh -p linux    # or -p podman, -p docker

Supported Platforms

Usage: install.sh [-p <podman|docker|linux>]

The bundle can target any of the three non-K8s platforms, regardless of which platform was used when generating it.

What’s Included vs What’s Not

Included in Bundle	NOT Included
✅ Site YAML resources	❌ skrouterd binary
✅ Router config (skrouterd.json)	❌ Container engine
✅ TLS certificates	❌ Skupper CLI
✅ Systemd service files (both templates)
✅ Start/stop scripts (container platforms)
✅ install.sh script
✅ Static link tokens

Key Difference: No Bootstrap Container

Method	Bootstrap Container?	Config Generation
skupper system start (direct CLI)	✅ Yes	Container generates config
Site bundle install.sh	❌ No	Config is pre-generated in the bundle

This means a Linux/systemd target using a bundle needs only:

• skrouterd binary
• systemd
• Python (for port selection)
• Standard shell utilities

No container engine and no Skupper CLI required on the target.

How install.sh Works

1. Copies pre-rendered config files to ~/.local/share/skupper/namespaces/<ns>/
2. Runs sed to fill in host-specific values (site ID, paths, namespace)
3. Selects the correct systemd service template (native for Linux, container for Docker/Podman)
4. Creates containers (Docker/Podman only) or skips (Linux)
5. Installs and enables the systemd service
6. Site is running

Bundle Management

# Install
./install.sh -p linux -n my-namespace

# Remove
./install.sh -x

# Dump static link tokens
./install.sh -d /path/to/output/

Use Case: Edge Deployment at Scale

Workstation                    Remote Edge Hosts (×100)
┌──────────────┐              ┌──────────────────────┐
│ skupper CLI   │   transfer   │ Only needs:           │
│ generate-     │──────────→  │  - skrouterd          │
│ bundle        │  .tar.gz    │  - systemd            │
│               │              │  - python, sed, etc.  │
│               │              │                       │
│               │              │ ./install.sh -p linux │
│               │              │ → site running        │
└──────────────┘              └──────────────────────┘