typhoon/docs/addons/overview.md
Dalton Hubble b3c384fbc0 Introduce the component system for managing pre-installed addons
* Previously: Typhoon provisions clusters with kube-system components
like CoreDNS, kube-proxy, and a chosen CNI provider (among flannel,
Calico, or Cilium) pre-installed. This is convenient since clusters
come with "batteries included". But it also means upgrading these
components is generally done in lock-step, by upgrading to a new
Typhoon / Kubernetes release
* It can be valuable to manage these components with a separate
plan/apply process or through automations and deploy systems. For
example, this allows managing CoreDNS separately from the cluster's
lifecycle.
* These "components" will continue to be pre-installed by default,
but a new `components` variable allows them to be disabled and
managed as "addons", components you apply after cluster creation
and manage on a rolling basis. For some of these, we may provide
Terraform modules to aide in managing these components.

```
module "cluster" {
  # defaults
  components = {
    enable = true
    coredns = {
      enable = true
    }
    kube_proxy = {
      enable = true
    }
    # Only the CNI set in var.networking will be installed
    flannel = {
      enable = true
    }
    calico = {
      enable = true
    }
    cilium = {
      enable = true
    }
  }
}
```

An earlier variable `install_container_networking = true/false` has
been removed, since it can now be achieved with this more extensible
and general components mechanism by setting the chosen networking
provider enable field to false.
2024-05-19 16:33:57 -07:00

4.0 KiB

Components

Typhoon's component model allows for managing cluster components independent from the cluster's lifecycle, upgrading in a rolling or automated fashion, or customizing components in advanced ways.

Typhoon clusters install core components like CoreDNS, kube-proxy, and a chosen CNI provider (flannel, calico, or cilium) by default. Since v1.30.1, pre-installed components are optional. Other "addon" components like Nginx Ingress, Prometheus, or Grafana may be optionally applied though the component model (after cluster creation).

Components

Pre-installed by default:

  • CoreDNS
  • kube-proxy
  • CNI provider (set via var.networking)
    • flannel
    • Calico
    • Cilium

Addons:

Pre-installed Components

By default, Typhoon clusters install CoreDNS, kube-proxy, and a chosen CNI provider (flannel, calico, or cilium). Disable any or all of these components using the components system.

module "yavin" {
  source = "git::https://github.com/poseidon/typhoon//google-cloud/fedora-coreos/kubernetes?ref=v1.30.1"

  # Google Cloud
  cluster_name  = "yavin"
  region        = "us-central1"
  dns_zone      = "example.com"
  dns_zone_name = "example-zone"

  # configuration
  ssh_authorized_key = "ssh-ed25519 AAAAB3Nz..."

  # pre-installed components (defaults shown)
  components = {
    enable = true
    coredns = {
      enable = true
    }
    kube_proxy = {
      enable = true
    }
    # Only the CNI set in var.networking will be installed
    flannel = {
      enable = true
    }
    calico = {
      enable = true
    }
    cilium = {
      enable = true
    }
  }
}

!!! warn Disabling pre-installed components is for advanced users who intend to manage these components separately. Without a CNI provider, cluster nodes will be NotReady and wait for the CNI provider to be applied.

Managing Components

If you choose to manage components youself, a recommended pattern is to use a separate Terraform workspace per component, like you would any application.

mkdir -p infra/components/{coredns, cilium}

tree components/coredns
components/coredns/
├── backend.tf
├── manifests.tf
└── providers.tf

Let's consider managing CoreDNS resources. Configure the kubernetes provider to use the kubeconfig credentials of your Typhoon cluster(s) in a providers.tf file. Here we show provider blocks for interacting with Typhoon clusters on AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud, assuming each cluster's kubeconfig-admin output was written to local file.

provider "kubernetes" {
  alias       = "aws"
  config_path = "~/.kube/configs/aws-config"
}

provider "kubernetes" {
  alias       = "google"
  config_path = "~/.kube/configs/google-config"
}

...

Typhoon maintains Terraform modules for most addon components. You can reference main, a tagged release, a SHA revision, or custom module of your own. Define the CoreDNS manifests using the addons/coredns module in a manifests.tf file.

# CoreDNS manifests for the aws cluster
module "aws" {
  source = "git::https://github.com/poseidon/typhoon//addons/coredns?ref=v1.30.1"
  providers = {
    kubernetes = kubernetes.aws
  }
}

# CoreDNS manifests for the google cloud cluster
module "aws" {
  source = "git::https://github.com/poseidon/typhoon//addons/coredns?ref=v1.30.1"
  providers = {
    kubernetes = kubernetes.google
  }
}
...

Plan and apply the CoreDNS Kubernetes resources to cluster(s).

terraform plan
terraform apply
...
module.aws.kubernetes_service_account.coredns: Refreshing state... [id=kube-system/coredns]
module.aws.kubernetes_config_map.coredns: Refreshing state... [id=kube-system/coredns]
module.aws.kubernetes_cluster_role.coredns: Refreshing state... [id=system:coredns]
module.aws.kubernetes_cluster_role_binding.coredns: Refreshing state... [id=system:coredns]
module.aws.kubernetes_service.coredns: Refreshing state... [id=kube-system/coredns]
...