* Kubernetes plans to stop releasing the hyperkube container image
* Upstream will continue to publish `kube-apiserver`, `kube-controller-manager`,
`kube-scheduler`, and `kube-proxy` container images to `k8s.gcr.io`
* Upstream will publish Kubelet only as a binary for distros to package,
either as a DEB/RPM on traditional distros or a container image on
container-optimized operating systems
* Typhoon will package the upstream Kubelet (checksummed) and its
dependencies as a container image for use on CoreOS Container Linux,
Flatcar Linux, and Fedora CoreOS
* Update the Typhoon container image security policy to list
`quay.io/poseidon/kubelet`as an official distributed artifact
Hyperkube: https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/88676
Kubelet Container Image: https://github.com/poseidon/kubelet
Kubelet Quay Repo: https://quay.io/repository/poseidon/kubelet
* Quay has historically generated ACI signatures for images to
facilitate rkt's notions of verification (it allowed authors to
actually sign images, though `--trust-keys-from-https` is in use
since etcd and most authors don't sign images). OCI standardization
didn't adopt verification ideas and checking signatures has fallen
out of favor.
* Fix an issue where Quay no longer seems to be generating ACI
signatures for new images (e.g. quay.io/coreos/etcd:v.3.4.4)
* Don't be alarmed by rkt `--insecure-options=image`. It refers
to disabling image signature checking (i.e. docker pull doesn't
check signatures either)
* System containers for Kubelet and bootstrap have transitioned
to the docker:// transport, so there is precedent and this brings
all the system containers on Container Linux controllers into
alignment
* Allow users to extend the route table using a data reference
and adding route resources (e.g. unusual peering setups)
* Note: Internally connecting AWS clusters can reduce cross-cloud
flexibility and inhibits blue-green cluster patterns. It is not
recommended
* Configure kube-proxy --metrics-bind-address=0.0.0.0 (default
127.0.0.1) to serve metrics on 0.0.0.0:10249
* Add firewall rules to allow Prometheus (resides on a worker) to
scrape kube-proxy service endpoints on controllers or workers
* Add a clusterIP: None service for kube-proxy endpoint discovery
* Change kubelet.service on Container Linux nodes to ExecStart Kubelet
inline to replace the use of the host OS kubelet-wrapper script
* Express rkt run flags and volume mounts in a clear, uniform way to
make the Kubelet service easier to audit, manage, and understand
* Eliminate reliance on a Container Linux kubelet-wrapper script
* Typhoon for Fedora CoreOS developed a kubelet.service that similarly
uses an inline ExecStart (except with podman instead of rkt) and a
more minimal set of volume mounts. Adopt the volume improvements:
* Change Kubelet /etc/kubernetes volume to read-only
* Change Kubelet /etc/resolv.conf volume to read-only
* Remove unneeded /var/lib/cni volume mount
Background:
* kubelet-wrapper was added in CoreOS around the time of Kubernetes v1.0
to simplify running a CoreOS-built hyperkube ACI image via rkt-fly. The
script defaults are no longer ideal (e.g. rkt's notion of trust dates
back to quay.io ACI image serving and signing, which informed the OCI
standard images we use today, though they still lack rkt's signing ideas).
* Shipping kubelet-wrapper was regretted at CoreOS, but remains in the
distro for compatibility. The script is not updated to track hyperkube
changes, but it is stable and kubelet.env overrides bridge most gaps
* Typhoon Container Linux nodes have used kubelet-wrapper to rkt/rkt-fly
run the Kubelet via the official k8s.gcr.io hyperkube image using overrides
(new image registry, new image format, restart handling, new mounts, new
entrypoint in v1.17).
* Observation: Most of what it takes to run a Kubelet container is defined
in Typhoon, not in kubelet-wrapper. The wrapper's value is now undermined
by having to workaround its dated defaults. Typhoon may be better served
defining Kubelet.service explicitly
* Typhoon for Fedora CoreOS developed a kubelet.service without the use
of a host OS kubelet-wrapper which is both clearer and eliminated some
volume mounts
* Rename Container Linux Config (CLC) files to *.yaml to align
with Fedora CoreOS Config (FCC) files and for syntax highlighting
* Replace common uses of Terraform `element` (which wraps around)
with `list[index]` syntax to surface index errors
* Original tutorials favored including the platform (e.g.
google-cloud) in modules (e.g. google-cloud-yavin). Prefer
naming conventions where each module / cluster has a simple
name (e.g. yavin) since the platform is usually redundant
* Retain the example cluster naming themes per platform
* Allow generated assets (TLS materials, manifests) to be
securely distributed to controller node(s) via file provisioner
(i.e. ssh-agent) as an assets bundle file, rather than relying
on assets being locally rendered to disk in an asset_dir and
then securely distributed
* Change `asset_dir` from required to optional. Left unset,
asset_dir defaults to "" and no assets will be written to
files on the machine that runs terraform apply
* Enhancement: Managed cluster assets are kept only in Terraform
state, which supports different backends (GCS, S3, etcd, etc) and
optional encryption. terraform apply accesses state, runs in-memory,
and distributes sensitive materials to controllers without making
use of local disk (simplifies use in CI systems)
* Enhancement: Improve asset unpack and layout process to position
etcd certificates and control plane certificates more cleanly,
without unneeded secret materials
Details:
* Terraform file provisioner support for distributing directories of
contents (with unknown structure) has been limited to reading from a
local directory, meaning local writes to asset_dir were required.
https://github.com/poseidon/typhoon/issues/585 discusses the problem
and newer or upcoming Terraform features that might help.
* Observation: Terraform provisioner support for single files works
well, but iteration isn't viable. We're also constrained to Terraform
language features on the apply side (no extra plugins, no shelling out)
and CoreOS / Fedora tools on the receive side.
* Take a map representation of the contents that would have been splayed
out in asset_dir and pack/encode them into a single file format devised
for easy unpacking. Use an awk one-liner on the receive side to unpack.
In pratice, this has worked well and its rather nice that a single
assets file is transferred by file provisioner (all or none)
Rel: https://github.com/poseidon/terraform-render-bootstrap/pull/162
* Set small CPU requests on static pods kube-apiserver,
kube-controller-manager, and kube-scheduler to align with
upstream tooling and for edge cases
* Effectively, a practical case for these requests hasn't been
observed. However, a small static pod CPU request may offer
a slight benefit if a controller became overloaded and the
below mechanisms were insufficient
Existing safeguards:
* Control plane nodes are tainted to isolate them from
ordinary workloads. Even dense workloads can only compress
CPU resources on worker nodes.
* Control plane static pods use the highest priority class, so
contention favors control plane pods (over say node-exporter)
and CPU is compressible too.
See: https://github.com/poseidon/terraform-render-bootstrap/pull/161
* Update terraform-render-bootstrap module to adopt the
Terrform v0.12 templatefile function feature to replace
the use of terraform-provider-template's `template_dir`
* Require Terraform v0.12.6+ which adds `for_each`
Background:
* `template_dir` was added to `terraform-provider-template`
to add support for template directory rendering in CoreOS
Tectonic Kubernetes distribution (~2017)
* Terraform v0.12 introduced a native `templatefile` function
and v0.12.6 introduced native `for_each` support (July 2019)
that makes it possible to replace `template_dir` usage
* Review variables available in AWS kubernetes and workers
modules and documentation
* Switching between spot and on-demand has worked since
Terraform v0.12
* Generally, there are too many knobs. Less useful ones
should be de-emphasized or removed
* Remove `cluster_domain_suffix` documentation
* Document worker pools `node_labels` variable to set the
initial node labels for a homogeneous set of workers
* Document `worker_node_labels` convenience variable to
set the initial node labels for default worker nodes
* Fix issue (present since bootkube->bootstrap switch) where
controller asset copy could fail if /etc/kubernetes/manifests
wasn't created in time on platforms using path activation for
the Kubelet (observed on DigitalOcean, also possible on
bare-metal)
Dalton Hubble
Suraj Deshmukh
Valer Cara