Open Infrastructure

h1. The ungleich kubernetes infrastructure and ungleich kubernetes manual

{{toc}}

h2. Status

This document is **pre-production**.

This document is to become the ungleich kubernetes infrastructure overview as well as the ungleich kubernetes manual.

h2. k8s clusters

| Cluster         | Purpose/Setup     | Maintainer | Master(s)                  | argo                                                | v4 http proxy | last verified |

| c0.k8s.ooo      | Dev               | -          | UNUSED                     |                                                     |               |    2021-10-05 |

| c1.k8s.ooo      | retired           |            | -                          |                                                     |               |    2022-03-15 |

| c2.k8s.ooo      | Dev p7 HW         | Nico       | server47 server53 server54 | "argo":https://argocd-server.argocd.svc.c2.k8s.ooo  |               |    2021-10-05 |

| c3.k8s.ooo      | retired           | -          | -                          |                                                     |               |    2021-10-05 |

| c4.k8s.ooo      | Dev2 p7 HW        | Jin-Guk    | server52 server53 server54 |                                                     |               |             - |

| c5.k8s.ooo      | retired           |            | -                          |                                                     |               |    2022-03-15 |

| c6.k8s.ooo      | Dev p6 VM Jin-Guk | Jin-Guk    |                            |                                                     |               |               |

| [[p5.k8s.ooo]]  | production        |            | server34 server36 server38 | "argo":https://argocd-server.argocd.svc.p5.k8s.ooo  |             - |               |

| [[p6.k8s.ooo]]  | production        |            | server67 server69 server71 | "argo":https://argocd-server.argocd.svc.p6.k8s.ooo  | 147.78.194.13 |    2021-10-05 |

| [[p10.k8s.ooo]] | production        |            | server63 server65 server83 | "argo":https://argocd-server.argocd.svc.p10.k8s.ooo | 147.78.194.12 |    2021-10-05 |

| fnnf            | development       | Nico       | server75                   |                                                     |               |               |

h2. General architecture and components overview

* All k8s clusters are IPv6 only

* We use BGP peering to propagate podcidr and serviceCidr networks to our infrastructure

* The main public testing repository is "ungleich-k8s":https://code.ungleich.ch/ungleich-public/ungleich-k8s

** Private configurations are found in the **k8s-config** repository

h3. Cluster types

| **Type/Feature**            | **Development**                | **Production**         |

| Min No. nodes               | 3 (1 master, 3 worker)         | 5 (3 master, 3 worker) |

| Recommended minimum         | 4 (dedicated master, 3 worker) | 8 (3 master, 5 worker) |

| Separation of control plane | optional                       | recommended            |

| Persistent storage          | required                       | required               |

| Number of storage monitors  | 3                              | 5                      |

h2. General k8s operations

h3. Cheat sheet / external great references

* "kubectl cheatsheet":https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/kubectl/cheatsheet/

h3. Allowing to schedule work on the control plane

* Mostly for single node / test / development clusters

* Just remove the master taint as follows

<pre>

kubectl taint nodes --all node-role.kubernetes.io/master-

</pre>

h3. Get the cluster admin.conf

* On the masters of each cluster you can find the file @/etc/kubernetes/admin.conf@

* To be able to administrate the cluster you can copy the admin.conf to your local machine

* Multi cluster debugging can very easy if you name the config ~/cX-admin.conf (see example below)

<pre>

% scp root@server47.place7.ungleich.ch:/etc/kubernetes/admin.conf ~/c2-admin.conf

% export KUBECONFIG=~/c2-admin.conf    

% kubectl get nodes

NAME       STATUS                     ROLES                  AGE   VERSION

server47   Ready                      control-plane,master   82d   v1.22.0

server48   Ready                      control-plane,master   82d   v1.22.0

server49   Ready                      <none>                 82d   v1.22.0

server50   Ready                      <none>                 82d   v1.22.0

server59   Ready                      control-plane,master   82d   v1.22.0

server60   Ready,SchedulingDisabled   <none>                 82d   v1.22.0

server61   Ready                      <none>                 82d   v1.22.0

server62   Ready                      <none>                 82d   v1.22.0               

</pre>

h3. Installing a new k8s cluster

* Decide on the cluster name (usually *cX.k8s.ooo*), X counting upwards

** Using pXX.k8s.ooo for production clusters of placeXX

* Use cdist to configure the nodes with requirements like crio

* Decide between single or multi node control plane setups (see below)

** Single control plane suitable for development clusters

Typical init procedure:

* Single control plane: @kubeadm init --config bootstrap/XXX/kubeadm.yaml@

* Multi control plane (HA): @kubeadm init --config bootstrap/XXX/kubeadm.yaml --upload-certs@

h3. Deleting a pod that is hanging in terminating state

<pre>

kubectl delete pod <PODNAME> --grace-period=0 --force --namespace <NAMESPACE>

</pre>

(from https://stackoverflow.com/questions/35453792/pods-stuck-in-terminating-status)

h3. Listing nodes of a cluster

<pre>

[15:05] bridge:~% kubectl get nodes

NAME       STATUS   ROLES                  AGE   VERSION

server22   Ready    <none>                 52d   v1.22.0

server23   Ready    <none>                 52d   v1.22.2

server24   Ready    <none>                 52d   v1.22.0

server25   Ready    <none>                 52d   v1.22.0

server26   Ready    <none>                 52d   v1.22.0

server27   Ready    <none>                 52d   v1.22.0

server63   Ready    control-plane,master   52d   v1.22.0

server64   Ready    <none>                 52d   v1.22.0

server65   Ready    control-plane,master   52d   v1.22.0

server66   Ready    <none>                 52d   v1.22.0

server83   Ready    control-plane,master   52d   v1.22.0

server84   Ready    <none>                 52d   v1.22.0

server85   Ready    <none>                 52d   v1.22.0

server86   Ready    <none>                 52d   v1.22.0

</pre>

h3. Removing / draining a node

Usually @kubectl drain server@ should do the job, but sometimes we need to be more aggressive:

<pre>

kubectl drain --delete-emptydir-data --ignore-daemonsets server23

</pre>

h3. Readding a node after draining

<pre>

kubectl uncordon serverXX

</pre>

h3. (Re-)joining worker nodes after creating the cluster

* We need to have an up-to-date token

* We use different join commands for the workers and control plane nodes

Generating the join command on an existing control plane node:

<pre>

kubeadm token create --print-join-command

</pre>

h3. (Re-)joining control plane nodes after creating the cluster

* We generate the token again

* We upload the certificates

* We need to combine/create the join command for the control plane node

Example session:

<pre>

% kubeadm token create --print-join-command

kubeadm join p10-api.k8s.ooo:6443 --token xmff4i.ABC --discovery-token-ca-cert-hash sha256:longhash 

% kubeadm init phase upload-certs --upload-certs

[upload-certs] Storing the certificates in Secret "kubeadm-certs" in the "kube-system" Namespace

[upload-certs] Using certificate key:

CERTKEY

# Then we use these two outputs on the joining node:

kubeadm join p10-api.k8s.ooo:6443 --token xmff4i.ABC --discovery-token-ca-cert-hash sha256:longhash --control-plane --certificate-key CERTKEY

</pre>

Commands to be used on a control plane node:

<pre>

kubeadm token create --print-join-command

kubeadm init phase upload-certs --upload-certs

</pre>

Commands to be used on the joining node:

<pre>

JOINCOMMAND --control-plane --certificate-key CERTKEY

</pre>

SEE ALSO

* https://stackoverflow.com/questions/63936268/how-to-generate-kubeadm-token-for-secondary-control-plane-nodes

* https://blog.scottlowe.org/2019/08/15/reconstructing-the-join-command-for-kubeadm/

h3. How to fix etcd does not start when rejoining a kubernetes cluster as a control plane

If during the above step etcd does not come up, @kubeadm join@ can hang as follows:

<pre>

[control-plane] Creating static Pod manifest for "kube-apiserver"                                                              

[control-plane] Creating static Pod manifest for "kube-controller-manager"                                                     

[control-plane] Creating static Pod manifest for "kube-scheduler"                                                              

[check-etcd] Checking that the etcd cluster is healthy                                                                         

error execution phase check-etcd: etcd cluster is not healthy: failed to dial endpoint https://[2a0a:e5c0:10:1:225:b3ff:fe20:37

8a]:2379 with maintenance client: context deadline exceeded                                                                    

To see the stack trace of this error execute with --v=5 or higher         

</pre>

Then the problem is likely that the etcd server is still a member of the cluster. We first need to remove it from the etcd cluster and then the join works.

To fix this we do:

* Find a working etcd pod

* Find the etcd members / member list

* Remove the etcd member that we want to re-join the cluster

<pre>

# Find the etcd pods

kubectl -n kube-system get pods -l component=etcd,tier=control-plane

# Get the list of etcd servers with the member id 

kubectl exec -n kube-system -ti ETCDPODNAME -- etcdctl --endpoints '[::1]:2379' --cacert /etc/kubernetes/pki/etcd/ca.crt --cert  /etc/kubernetes/pki/etcd/server.crt --key /etc/kubernetes/pki/etcd/server.key member list

# Remove the member

kubectl exec -n kube-system -ti ETCDPODNAME -- etcdctl --endpoints '[::1]:2379' --cacert /etc/kubernetes/pki/etcd/ca.crt --cert  /etc/kubernetes/pki/etcd/server.crt --key /etc/kubernetes/pki/etcd/server.key member remove MEMBERID

</pre>

Sample session:

<pre>

[10:48] line:~% kubectl -n kube-system get pods -l component=etcd,tier=control-plane

NAME            READY   STATUS    RESTARTS     AGE

etcd-server63   1/1     Running   0            3m11s

etcd-server65   1/1     Running   3            7d2h

etcd-server83   1/1     Running   8 (6d ago)   7d2h

[10:48] line:~% kubectl exec -n kube-system -ti etcd-server65 -- etcdctl --endpoints '[::1]:2379' --cacert /etc/kubernetes/pki/etcd/ca.crt --cert  /etc/kubernetes/pki/etcd/server.crt --key /etc/kubernetes/pki/etcd/server.key member list

356891cd676df6e4, started, server65, https://[2a0a:e5c0:10:1:225:b3ff:fe20:375c]:2380, https://[2a0a:e5c0:10:1:225:b3ff:fe20:375c]:2379, false

371b8a07185dee7e, started, server63, https://[2a0a:e5c0:10:1:225:b3ff:fe20:378a]:2380, https://[2a0a:e5c0:10:1:225:b3ff:fe20:378a]:2379, false

5942bc58307f8af9, started, server83, https://[2a0a:e5c0:10:1:3e4a:92ff:fe79:bb98]:2380, https://[2a0a:e5c0:10:1:3e4a:92ff:fe79:bb98]:2379, false

[10:48] line:~% kubectl exec -n kube-system -ti etcd-server65 -- etcdctl --endpoints '[::1]:2379' --cacert /etc/kubernetes/pki/etcd/ca.crt --cert  /etc/kubernetes/pki/etcd/server.crt --key /etc/kubernetes/pki/etcd/server.key member remove 371b8a07185dee7e

Member 371b8a07185dee7e removed from cluster e3c0805f592a8f77

</pre>

SEE ALSO

* We found the solution using https://stackoverflow.com/questions/67921552/re-installed-node-cannot-join-kubernetes-cluster

h2. Calico CNI

h3. Calico Installation

* We install "calico using helm":https://docs.projectcalico.org/getting-started/kubernetes/helm

* This has the following advantages:

** Easy to upgrade

** Does not require os to configure IPv6/dual stack settings as the tigera operator figures out things on its own

Usually plain calico can be installed directly using:

<pre>

helm repo add projectcalico https://docs.projectcalico.org/charts

helm install calico projectcalico/tigera-operator --version v3.20.4

</pre>

* Check the tags on https://github.com/projectcalico/calico/tags for the latest release

h3. Installing calicoctl

To be able to manage and configure calico, we need to 

"install calicoctl (we choose the version as a pod)":https://docs.projectcalico.org/getting-started/clis/calicoctl/install#install-calicoctl-as-a-kubernetes-pod

<pre>

kubectl apply -f https://docs.projectcalico.org/manifests/calicoctl.yaml

</pre>

Or version specific:

<pre>

kubectl apply -f https://github.com/projectcalico/calico/blob/v3.20.4/manifests/calicoctl.yaml

</pre>

And making it easier accessible by alias:

<pre>

alias calicoctl="kubectl exec -i -n kube-system calicoctl -- /calicoctl"

</pre>

h3. Calico configuration

By default our k8s clusters "BGP peer":https://docs.projectcalico.org/networking/bgp

with an upstream router to propagate podcidr and servicecidr.

Default settings in our infrastructure:

* We use a full-mesh using the @nodeToNodeMeshEnabled: true@ option

* We keep the original next hop so that *only* the server with the pod is announcing it (instead of ecmp)

* We use private ASNs for k8s clusters

* We do *not* use any overlay

After installing calico and calicoctl the last step of the installation is usually:

<pre>

calicoctl create -f - < calico-bgp.yaml

</pre>

A sample BGP configuration:

<pre>

---

apiVersion: projectcalico.org/v3

kind: BGPConfiguration

metadata:

  name: default

spec:

  logSeverityScreen: Info

  nodeToNodeMeshEnabled: true

  asNumber: 65534

  serviceClusterIPs:

  - cidr: 2a0a:e5c0:10:3::/108

  serviceExternalIPs:

  - cidr: 2a0a:e5c0:10:3::/108

---

apiVersion: projectcalico.org/v3

kind: BGPPeer

metadata:

  name: router1-place10

spec:

  peerIP: 2a0a:e5c0:10:1::50

  asNumber: 213081

  keepOriginalNextHop: true

</pre>

h2. ArgoCD / ArgoWorkFlow

h3. Argocd Installation

As there is no configuration management present yet, argocd is installed using

<pre>

kubectl create namespace argocd

# Version 2.2.3

kubectl apply -n argocd -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/argoproj/argo-cd/v2.2.3/manifests/install.yaml

# OR: latest stable

kubectl apply -n argocd -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/argoproj/argo-cd/stable/manifests/install.yaml

</pre>

* See https://argo-cd.readthedocs.io/en/stable/

h3. Get the argocd credentials

<pre>

kubectl -n argocd get secret argocd-initial-admin-secret -o jsonpath="{.data.password}" | base64 -d; echo ""

</pre>

h3. Accessing argocd

In regular IPv6 clusters:

* Navigate to https://argocd-server.argocd.CLUSTERDOMAIN

In legacy IPv4 clusters

<pre>

kubectl --namespace argocd port-forward svc/argocd-server 8080:80

</pre>

* Navigate to https://localhost:8080

h3. Using the argocd webhook to trigger changes

* To trigger changes post json https://argocd.example.com/api/webhook

h3. Deploying an application

* Applications are deployed via git towards gitea (code.ungleich.ch) and then pulled by argo

* Always include the *redmine-url* pointing to the (customer) ticket

** Also add the support-url if it exists

Application sample

<pre>

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1

kind: Application

metadata:

  name: gitea-CUSTOMER

  namespace: argocd

spec:

  destination:

    namespace: default

    server: 'https://kubernetes.default.svc'

  source:

    path: apps/prod/gitea

    repoURL: 'https://code.ungleich.ch/ungleich-intern/k8s-config.git'

    targetRevision: HEAD

    helm:

      parameters:

        - name: storage.data.storageClass

          value: rook-ceph-block-hdd

        - name: storage.data.size

          value: 200Gi

        - name: storage.db.storageClass

          value: rook-ceph-block-ssd

        - name: storage.db.size

          value: 10Gi

        - name: storage.letsencrypt.storageClass

          value: rook-ceph-block-hdd

        - name: storage.letsencrypt.size

          value: 50Mi

        - name: letsencryptStaging

          value: 'no'

        - name: fqdn

          value: 'code.verua.online'

  project: default

  syncPolicy:

    automated:

      prune: true

      selfHeal: true

  info:

    - name: 'redmine-url'

      value: 'https://redmine.ungleich.ch/issues/ISSUEID'

    - name: 'support-url'

      value: 'https://support.ungleich.ch/Ticket/Display.html?id=TICKETID'

</pre>

h2. Helm related operations and conventions

We use helm charts extensively.

* In production, they are managed via argocd

* In development, helm chart can de developed and deployed manually using the helm utility.

h3. Installing a helm chart

One can use the usual pattern of

<pre>

helm install <releasename> <chartdirectory>

</pre>

However often you want to reinstall/update when testing helm charts. The following pattern is "better", because it allows you to reinstall, if it is already installed:

<pre>

helm upgrade --install <releasename> <chartdirectory>

</pre>

h3. Naming services and deployments in helm charts [Application labels]

* We always have {{ .Release.Name }} to identify the current "instance"

* Deployments:

** use @app: <what it is>@, f.i. @app: nginx@, @app: postgres@, ...

* See more about standard labels on

** https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/overview/working-with-objects/common-labels/

** https://helm.sh/docs/chart_best_practices/labels/

h2. Rook / Ceph Related Operations

h3. Executing ceph commands

Using the ceph-tools pod as follows:

<pre>

kubectl exec -n rook-ceph -ti $(kubectl -n rook-ceph get pods -l app=rook-ceph-tools -o jsonpath='{.items[*].metadata.name}') -- ceph -s

</pre>

h3. Inspecting the logs of a specific server

<pre>

# Get the related pods

kubectl -n rook-ceph get pods -l app=rook-ceph-osd-prepare 

...

# Inspect the logs of a specific pod

kubectl -n rook-ceph logs -f rook-ceph-osd-prepare-server23--1-444qx

</pre>

h3. Inspecting the logs of the rook-ceph-operator

<pre>

kubectl -n rook-ceph logs -f -l app=rook-ceph-operator

</pre>

h3. Triggering server prepare / adding new osds

The rook-ceph-operator triggers/watches/creates pods to maintain hosts. To trigger a full "re scan", simply delete that pod:

<pre>

kubectl -n rook-ceph delete pods -l app=rook-ceph-operator

</pre>

This will cause all the @rook-ceph-osd-prepare-..@ jobs to be recreated and thus OSDs to be created, if new disks have been added.

h3. Removing an OSD

* See "Ceph OSD Management":https://rook.io/docs/rook/v1.7/ceph-osd-mgmt.html

* More specifically: https://github.com/rook/rook/blob/release-1.7/cluster/examples/kubernetes/ceph/osd-purge.yaml

h2. Harbor

* We user "Harbor":https://goharbor.io/ for caching and as an image registry. Internal app reference: apps/prod/harbor.

* The admin password is in the password store, auto generated per cluster

* At the moment harbor only authenticates against the internal ldap tree

h3. LDAP configuration

* The url needs to be ldaps://...

* uid = uid

* rest standard

h2. Monitoring / Prometheus

* Via "kube-prometheus":https://github.com/prometheus-operator/kube-prometheus/

Access via ...

* http://prometheus-k8s.monitoring.svc:9090

* http://grafana.monitoring.svc:3000

* http://alertmanager.monitoring.svc:9093

h2. Nextcloud

h3. How to get the nextcloud credentials 

* The initial username is set to "nextcloud"

* The password is autogenerated and saved in a kubernetes secret

<pre>

kubectl get secret RELEASENAME-nextcloud -o jsonpath="{.data.PASSWORD}" | base64 -d; echo "" 

</pre>

h3. How to fix "Access through untrusted domain"

* Nextcloud stores the initial domain configuration

* If the FQDN is changed, it will show the error message "Access through untrusted domain"

* To fix, edit /var/www/html/config/config.php and correct the domain

* Then delete the pods

h2. Infrastructure versions

h3. ungleich kubernetes infrastructure v5 (2021-10)

Clusters are configured / setup in this order:

* Bootstrap via kubeadm

* "Networking via calico + BGP (non ECMP) using helm":https://docs.projectcalico.org/getting-started/kubernetes/helm

* "ArgoCD for CD":https://argo-cd.readthedocs.io/en/stable/

** "rook for storage via argocd":https://rook.io/

** haproxy for in IPv6-cluster-IPv4-to-IPv6 proxy via argocd

** "kubernetes-secret-generator for in cluster secrets":https://github.com/mittwald/kubernetes-secret-generator

** "ungleich-certbot managing certs and nginx":https://hub.docker.com/repository/docker/ungleich/ungleich-certbot

h3. ungleich kubernetes infrastructure v4 (2021-09)

* rook is configured via manifests instead of using the rook-ceph-cluster helm chart

* The rook operator is still being installed via helm

h3. ungleich kubernetes infrastructure v3 (2021-07)

* rook is now installed via helm via argocd instead of directly via manifests

h3. ungleich kubernetes infrastructure v2 (2021-05)

* Replaced fluxv2 from ungleich k8s v1 with argocd

** argocd can apply helm templates directly without needing to go through Chart releases

* We are also using argoflow for build flows

* Planned to add "kaniko":https://github.com/GoogleContainerTools/kaniko for image building

h3. ungleich kubernetes infrastructure v1 (2021-01)

We are using the following components:

* "Calico as a CNI":https://www.projectcalico.org/ with BGP, IPv6 only, no encapsulation

** Needed for basic networking

* "kubernetes-secret-generator":https://github.com/mittwald/kubernetes-secret-generator for creating secrets

** Needed so that secrets are not stored in the git repository, but only in the cluster

* "ungleich-certbot":https://hub.docker.com/repository/docker/ungleich/ungleich-certbot

** Needed to get letsencrypt certificates for services

* "rook with ceph rbd + cephfs":https://rook.io/ for storage

** rbd for almost everything, *ReadWriteOnce*

** cephfs for smaller things, multi access *ReadWriteMany*

** Needed for providing persistent storage

* "flux v2":https://fluxcd.io/

** Needed to manage resources automatically