# Control Plane Lite

RudderStack's [control plane]({{< ref "get-started/rudderstack-open-source/rudderstack-architecture.md#control-plane" >}}) provides a UI to manage your source and destination configurations.

You can use the [Control Plane Lite](https://github.com/rudderlabs/config-generator) utility to self-host your control plane. Control Plane Lite lets you manage your data pipelines locally by exporting or importing your configurations from a JSON file.

{{< danger >}}
[Control Plane Lite](https://github.com/rudderlabs/config-generator) is now deprecated. It will not work with the latest [`rudder-server`](https://github.com/rudderlabs/rudder-server) versions (after v1.2). 

**Using [RudderStack Open Source](#control-plane-setup) to set up your control plane is strongly recommended.**

Though we encourage contributions from the open-source community, note that RudderStack will not support any new functionality for Control Plane Lite.
{{< /danger >}}

## Prerequisites

Before using Control Plane Lite to set up your self-hosted control plane, ensure you have installed [Node.js](https://nodejs.org/en/blog/release/v14.17.3/).

{{< warning >}}
Use Node.js v14 for the best experience, as the higher versions are not supported.
{{< /warning >}}

## Control plane setup

1. Clone the [RudderStack Control Plane Lite](https://github.com/rudderlabs/config-generator) repository. 
2. Open your terminal and navigate to the **Config Generator** folder. Then, run the following commands:

```bash
npm install
npm start
```

3. After the setup is complete, you can access the dashboard at `http://localhost:3000`.

{{< image src="images/rudderstack-open-source/control-plane-lite-dashboard.webp" alt="Control Plane Lite dashboard" >}}

## Export workspace configuration

1. Set up your connections by adding the sources and destinations in the dashboard.
2. Click the **EXPORT** button on the top right to export your workspace configuration as a JSON file. 

{{< info >}}
RudderStack requires this JSON file (`workspaceConfig.json`) to start the RudderStack server.
{{< /info >}}

## Data plane setup and usage

Depending on your setup environment, follow the steps in the below sections to start the RudderStack server (data plane) using the exported workspace configuration file.

### Docker

1. Download and open [`rudder-docker.yml`](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rudderlabs/rudder-server/master/rudder-docker.yml).
2. In the `environment` section under `backend` service, uncomment the following lines:

```yaml
  - RSERVER_BACKEND_CONFIG_CONFIG_FROM_FILE=true
  - RSERVER_BACKEND_CONFIG_CONFIG_JSONPATH=<workspace_config_filepath_in_container>
```

3. Replace `<workspace_config_filepath_in_container>`  in the above line with your container file path. By default, you can set it to `/etc/rudderstack/workspaceConfig.json`.
4. In the `volumes` section under the `backend` service, uncomment the following line:

```yaml
  - <absolute_path_to_workspace_config>:<workspace_config_filepath_in_container>
```

5. Replace `<absolute_path_to_workspace_config>` with the local path of your `workspaceConfig.json`(where your workspace configuration file is saved locally). Also, replace  `<workspace_config_filepath_in_container>`  with the container file path set in Step 3.

{{< image src="images/rudderstack-open-source/rudder-docker-yml-file.webp" alt="Rudder Docker YML file" >}}

{{< warning >}}
The value for `<workspace_config_filepath_in_container>` should be exactly as the value you set for the  `RSERVER_BACKEND_CONFIG_CONFIG_JSONPATH` variable. Otherwise, your workspace configuration will not be loaded, and you will get an error.
{{< /warning >}}

6. Navigate to the directory where the RudderStack data plane (`rudder-server`) is installed and run the following command:

```bash
docker-compose -f rudder-docker.yml up
```

7. [Send test events]({{< ref "get-started/rudderstack-open-source/sending-test-events.md" >}}) to verify your installation.

### Kubernetes

1. Clone the [RudderStack Helm repository](https://github.com/rudderlabs/rudderstack-helm) containing the Helm chart:

```bash
git clone git@github.com:rudderlabs/rudderstack-helm.git
```

2. Navigate to the folder.

```bash
cd rudderstack-helm/
```

3. Open the `values.yaml` file.
4. Set the `controlPlaneJSON` parameter to `true`.
5. Export the workspace configuration by following the steps in [Export workspace configuration](#export-workspace-configuration). Place the exported file in the `rudderstack-helm` folder.
6. Run the following command:

```bash
helm install my-release ./ --set backend.controlPlaneJSON=true
```

{{< info >}}
See [Configuration]({{< ref "get-started/rudderstack-open-source/data-plane-setup/kubernetes.md#configuration" >}}) for information on the configurable parameters during deployment.
{{< /info >}}

7. [Send test events]({{< ref "get-started/rudderstack-open-source/sending-test-events.md" >}}) to verify your installation.

### Developer machine setup

1. Set up the database in your preferred directory:

```bash
createdb jobsdb
createuser --superuser rudder
psql "jobsdb" -c "alter user rudder with encrypted password 'rudder'";
psql "jobsdb" -c "grant all privileges on database jobsdb to rudder";
```

2. Clone the [`rudder-server`](https://github.com/rudderlabs/rudder-server) repository.  
3. Run `git submodule init` and `git submodule update` to fetch the `rudder-transformer` repository.  
4. Navigate to the `rudder-transformer` directory using the `cd rudder-transformer` command.
5. Install the dependencies using the `npm i` command.
6. Start the destination transformer:

```bash
node destTransformer.js
```

6. Navigate back to the main directory using the `cd rudder-server` command.
7. Copy `sample.env` to the main directory:

```bash
cp config/sample.env .env
```

8. Go to the `config` folder and open `config.yaml`.
9. Under `[BackendConfig]`, look for `configFromFile`, and set it to `true`. 
10. Change the value of `configJSONPath` to the local path of your `workspaceConfig.json`(where your workspace configuration file is saved locally):

{{< image src="images/rudderstack-open-source/rudder-config-1.webp" alt="RudderStack config JSON path" >}}

11. Run the RudderStack server using the following command:

```bash
go run main.go
```

12. [Send test events]({{< ref "get-started/rudderstack-open-source/sending-test-events.md" >}}) to verify your installation.

## Use SDK sources in self-hosted control plane {#using-sdk-sources-set-up-in-self-hosted-control-plane}

To use the RudderStack SDKs set up in the self-hosted control plane, follow these steps:

1. [Set up the control plane](#control-plane-setup) using Control Plane Lite. 
2. Go to the dashboard, set up your source, and export the source configuration by clicking the **EXPORT SOURCE CONFIG** button:

{{< image src="images/rudderstack-open-source/export-source-config.webp" alt="Export source config option" >}}

3. Host the exported file on your server such that it can be accessed via the path `<CONTROL_PLANE_URL>/sourceConfig`. 
4. Provide the base URL of your server (`<CONTROL_PLANE_URL>`) serving this file in your SDK initialization code snippet. For more information on SDK initialization, see the following sections in the respective SDK guides:

* [JavaScript SDK instructions]({{< ref "sources/event-streams/sdks/rudderstack-javascript-sdk/load-js-sdk.md#loading-sdk-for-self-hosted-control-plane" >}})
* [Android (Java) SDK instructions]({{< ref "sources/event-streams/sdks/rudderstack-android-sdk/_index.md#configuring-your-rudderstack-client" >}})
* [iOS (Obj-C) SDK instructions]({{< ref "sources/event-streams/sdks/rudderstack-ios-sdk/_index.md#configuring-the-rudderstack-client" >}})
* [React Native SDK instructions]({{< ref "sources/event-streams/sdks/rudderstack-react-native-sdk.md" >}})
* [Flutter SDK instructions]({{< ref "sources/event-streams/sdks/rudderstack-flutter-sdk/installation-and-setup.md#sdk-initialization-options" >}})

{{< success >}}
The RudderStack SDKs automatically append `/sourceConfig` to the base server URL to fetch the configuration. For example, `{CONTROL_PLANE_URL}/sourceConfig`.
{{< /success >}}

A sample source configuration exported from the dashboard:

```json
{
  "source": {
    "config": {},
    "id": "<SOURCE_ID>",
    "name": "test-JS",
    "writeKey": "<SOURCE_WRITE_KEY>",
    "enabled": true,
    "sourceDefinitionId": "<SOURCE_DEFINITION_ID>",
    "deleted": false,
    "createdAt": "Mon Oct 12 2020 16:51:54 GMT+0530 (India Standard Time)",
    "updatedAt": "Mon Oct 12 2020 16:51:54 GMT+0530 (India Standard Time)",
    "sourceDefinition": {
      "id": "<ID>",
      "name": "JavaScript",
      "displayName": "JavaScript",
      "category": null,
      "createdAt": "2019-11-12T12:39:19.885Z",
      "updatedAt": "2020-06-18T11:54:06.114Z"
    },
  },
  "metadata": {
    "version": "1.0.2"
  }
}
```