On-Premise Installer Overview¶

What Is an On-Premise Installer?¶

An on-premise installer is a self-contained deployment package that allows your customers to install and run your software on their own Kubernetes clusters — including air-gapped environments with no internet connectivity. Instead of managing hosted infrastructure on your customers' behalf, you deliver a ready-to-run installer that packages your Helm chart, container images, configuration, and lifecycle scripts into a single artifact.

This approach is essential for reaching enterprise customers in regulated industries such as finance, healthcare, government, and defense, where strict security policies, data sovereignty requirements, or compliance mandates (HIPAA, GDPR, PCI-DSS, FedRAMP) prevent the use of externally hosted services.

For the complete specification reference covering all configuration options, see the On-Premise Installer guide.

Key Concepts¶

Installer Artifact is the packaged output that Omnistrate produces from your Plan specification. It contains everything needed to deploy your application — Helm chart, container images (optionally embedded), configuration templates, and lifecycle scripts. Your customer downloads this artifact and runs it against their cluster.

Plan Specification is the YAML file that defines your on-premise installer. It declares deployment requirements, API parameters (user-facing configuration inputs), action hooks (lifecycle scripts), Helm chart configuration, and container image registry copy settings.

Action Hooks are shell scripts that run at specific points in the deployment lifecycle — validation, pre-install, post-install, and backup. They allow you to enforce prerequisites, prepare the environment, run post-deployment configuration, and create snapshots before upgrades.

Container Image Registry Copy is the mechanism that transfers your container images from your source registry to the customer's private registry. This is critical for air-gapped deployments where the target cluster has no internet access.

Why Build an On-Premise Installer?¶

Reach Regulated and Security-Conscious Customers¶

Many enterprise customers simply cannot use externally hosted services. Data sovereignty laws, internal security policies, and compliance frameworks require software to run within the customer's own infrastructure. An on-premise installer lets you serve these customers without building a separate version of your product.

Support Air-Gapped Environments¶

Some of the most demanding deployment scenarios involve networks completely disconnected from the internet. With Omnistrate's INSTALLER_EMBED pull mode, container images are bundled directly into the installer artifact, enabling fully offline installations with no external network access required.

Simplify Customer Deployments¶

Instead of handing customers a collection of Helm charts, scripts, and documentation, you deliver a single installer with a guided deployment experience. API parameters provide a clean configuration interface, and action hooks handle environment preparation and validation automatically.

Maintain Control and Consistency¶

Even though the software runs on customer infrastructure, you maintain control over the deployment process. The installer enforces version requirements, validates cluster prerequisites, and follows a consistent lifecycle — ensuring every customer deployment meets your quality standards.

Streamline Upgrades and Maintenance¶

The installer supports versioned releases with built-in backup hooks, so customers can safely upgrade to new versions. Each new release is a new installer artifact, and the upgrade process includes automatic backup creation before applying changes.

Common Use Cases for On-Premise Installers¶

Regulated Industries¶

Deploy into healthcare, financial services, and government environments where compliance frameworks mandate on-premise or isolated cloud deployments.

Air-Gapped and Restricted Networks¶

Deliver software to environments with no internet connectivity — military installations, secure government facilities, or isolated industrial networks.

Customer-Managed Kubernetes Clusters¶

Allow customers to run your software on their existing Kubernetes infrastructure (EKS, AKS, GKE, or bare-metal clusters) without requiring access to your cloud resources.

Benefits¶

By building on-premise installers with Omnistrate, you get:

• Enterprise Market Access: Serve regulated industries and security-conscious customers who require on-premise deployments

• Air-Gapped Support: Deliver fully offline installations with embedded container images

• Consistent Deployments: Enforce version requirements, validate prerequisites, and follow repeatable lifecycle processes

• Multi-Platform Compatibility: Automatically adapt to EKS, AKS, GKE, and generic Kubernetes clusters

• Simplified Operations: Package complex multi-component applications into a single, guided installer experience

• Version Management: Release new installer versions with built-in backup and upgrade workflows

• Single Specification: Define your installer once in YAML and produce artifacts for all target environments

The combination of Helm's packaging capabilities and Omnistrate's installer framework provides a streamlined path from Kubernetes application to enterprise-grade on-premise distribution.