Configuring MCO-related custom resources | Machine configuration

Creating a KubeletConfig CRD to edit kubelet parameters
Creating a ContainerRuntimeConfig CR to edit CRI-O parameters
Setting the default maximum container root partition size for Overlay with CRI-O

Besides managing MachineConfig objects, the MCO manages two custom resources (CRs): KubeletConfig and ContainerRuntimeConfig. Those CRs let you change node-level settings impacting how the kubelet and CRI-O container runtime services behave.

Creating a KubeletConfig CRD to edit kubelet parameters

The kubelet configuration is currently serialized as an Ignition configuration, so it can be directly edited. However, there is also a new kubelet-config-controller added to the Machine Config Controller (MCC). This lets you use a KubeletConfig custom resource (CR) to edit the kubelet parameters.

As the fields in the kubeletConfig object are passed directly to the kubelet from upstream Kubernetes, the kubelet validates those values directly. Invalid values in the kubeletConfig object might cause cluster nodes to become unavailable. For valid values, see the Kubernetes documentation.

Consider the following guidance:

Edit an existing KubeletConfig CR to modify existing settings or add new settings, instead of creating a CR for each change. It is recommended that you create a CR only to modify a different machine config pool, or for changes that are intended to be temporary, so that you can revert the changes.
Create one KubeletConfig CR for each machine config pool with all the config changes you want for that pool.
As needed, create multiple KubeletConfig CRs with a limit of 10 per cluster. For the first KubeletConfig CR, the Machine Config Operator (MCO) creates a machine config appended with kubelet. With each subsequent CR, the controller creates another kubelet machine config with a numeric suffix. For example, if you have a kubelet machine config with a -2 suffix, the next kubelet machine config is appended with -3.

If you are applying a kubelet or container runtime config to a custom machine config pool, the custom role in the machineConfigSelector must match the name of the custom machine config pool.

For example, because the following custom machine config pool is named infra, the custom role must also be infra:

apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfigPool
metadata:
  name: infra
spec:
  machineConfigSelector:
    matchExpressions:
      - {key: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role, operator: In, values: [worker,infra]}
# ...

If you want to delete the machine configs, delete them in reverse order to avoid exceeding the limit. For example, you delete the kubelet-3 machine config before deleting the kubelet-2 machine config.

If you have a machine config with a kubelet-9 suffix, and you create another KubeletConfig CR, a new machine config is not created, even if there are fewer than 10 kubelet machine configs.

Example KubeletConfig CR

$ oc get kubeletconfig

NAME                AGE
set-max-pods        15m

Example showing a KubeletConfig machine config

$ oc get mc | grep kubelet

...
99-worker-generated-kubelet-1                  b5c5119de007945b6fe6fb215db3b8e2ceb12511   3.2.0             26m
...

The following procedure is an example to show how to configure the maximum number of pods per node on the worker nodes.

Prerequisites

Obtain the label associated with the static MachineConfigPool CR for the type of node you want to configure. Perform one of the following steps:

View the machine config pool:

$ oc describe machineconfigpool <name>

For example:

$ oc describe machineconfigpool worker

Example output

apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfigPool
metadata:
  creationTimestamp: 2019-02-08T14:52:39Z
  generation: 1
  labels:
    custom-kubelet: set-max-pods (1)

1	If a label has been added it appears under `labels`.

If the label is not present, add a key/value pair:

$ oc label machineconfigpool worker custom-kubelet=set-max-pods

Procedure

View the available machine configuration objects that you can select:
```
$ oc get machineconfig
```
By default, the two kubelet-related configs are 01-master-kubelet and 01-worker-kubelet.

Check the current value for the maximum pods per node:

$ oc describe node <node_name>

For example:

$ oc describe node ci-ln-5grqprb-f76d1-ncnqq-worker-a-mdv94

Look for value: pods: <value> in the Allocatable stanza:

Example output

Allocatable:
 attachable-volumes-aws-ebs:  25
 cpu:                         3500m
 hugepages-1Gi:               0
 hugepages-2Mi:               0
 memory:                      15341844Ki
 pods:                        250

Set the maximum pods per node on the worker nodes by creating a custom resource file that contains the kubelet configuration:

Kubelet configurations that target a specific machine config pool also affect any dependent pools. For example, creating a kubelet configuration for the pool containing worker nodes will also apply to any subset pools, including the pool containing infrastructure nodes. To avoid this, you must create a new machine config pool with a selection expression that only includes worker nodes, and have your kubelet configuration target this new pool.

apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: KubeletConfig
metadata:
  name: set-max-pods
spec:
  machineConfigPoolSelector:
    matchLabels:
      custom-kubelet: set-max-pods (1)
  kubeletConfig:
    maxPods: 500 (2)

1	Enter the label from the machine config pool.
2	Add the kubelet configuration. In this example, use `maxPods` to set the maximum pods per node.

The rate at which the kubelet talks to the API server depends on queries per second (QPS) and burst values. The default values, 50 for kubeAPIQPS and 100 for kubeAPIBurst, are sufficient if there are limited pods running on each node. It is recommended to update the kubelet QPS and burst rates if there are enough CPU and memory resources on the node.

apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: KubeletConfig
metadata:
  name: set-max-pods
spec:
  machineConfigPoolSelector:
    matchLabels:
      custom-kubelet: set-max-pods
  kubeletConfig:
    maxPods: <pod_count>
    kubeAPIBurst: <burst_rate>
    kubeAPIQPS: <QPS>

Update the machine config pool for workers with the label:

$ oc label machineconfigpool worker custom-kubelet=set-max-pods

Create the KubeletConfig object:
```
$ oc create -f change-maxPods-cr.yaml
```
Verify that the KubeletConfig object is created:
```
$ oc get kubeletconfig
```
Example output
```
NAME                AGE
set-max-pods        15m
```
Depending on the number of worker nodes in the cluster, wait for the worker nodes to be rebooted one by one. For a cluster with 3 worker nodes, this could take about 10 to 15 minutes.

Verify that the changes are applied to the node:

Check on a worker node that the maxPods value changed:
```
$ oc describe node <node_name>
```

Locate the Allocatable stanza:

 ...
Allocatable:
  attachable-volumes-gce-pd:  127
  cpu:                        3500m
  ephemeral-storage:          123201474766
  hugepages-1Gi:              0
  hugepages-2Mi:              0
  memory:                     14225400Ki
  pods:                       500 (1)
 ...

1	In this example, the `pods` parameter should report the value you set in the `KubeletConfig` object.

Verify the change in the KubeletConfig object:

$ oc get kubeletconfigs set-max-pods -o yaml

This should show a status of True and type:Success, as shown in the following example:

spec:
  kubeletConfig:
    maxPods: 500
  machineConfigPoolSelector:
    matchLabels:
      custom-kubelet: set-max-pods
status:
  conditions:
  - lastTransitionTime: "2021-06-30T17:04:07Z"
    message: Success
    status: "True"
    type: Success

Creating a ContainerRuntimeConfig CR to edit CRI-O parameters

You can change some of the settings associated with the OKD CRI-O runtime for the nodes associated with a specific machine config pool (MCP). Using a ContainerRuntimeConfig custom resource (CR), you set the configuration values and add a label to match the MCP. The MCO then rebuilds the crio.conf and storage.conf configuration files on the associated nodes with the updated values.

To revert the changes implemented by using a ContainerRuntimeConfig CR, you must delete the CR. Removing the label from the machine config pool does not revert the changes.

You can modify the following settings by using a ContainerRuntimeConfig CR:

PIDs limit: Setting the PIDs limit in the ContainerRuntimeConfig is expected to be deprecated. If PIDs limits are required, it is recommended to use the podPidsLimit field in the KubeletConfig CR instead. The default podPidsLimit value is 4096 and the default pids_limit value is 0. If podPidsLimit is lower than pids_limit then the effective container PIDs limit is defined by the value set in podPidsLimit.

The CRI-O flag is applied on the cgroup of the container, while the Kubelet flag is set on the cgroup of the pod. Please adjust the PIDs limit accordingly.
Log level: The logLevel parameter sets the CRI-O log_level parameter, which is the level of verbosity for log messages. The default is info (log_level = info). Other options include fatal, panic, error, warn, debug, and trace.
Overlay size: The overlaySize parameter sets the CRI-O Overlay storage driver size parameter, which is the maximum size of a container image.
Maximum log size: Setting the maximum log size in the ContainerRuntimeConfig is expected to be deprecated. If a maximum log size is required, it is recommended to use the containerLogMaxSize field in the KubeletConfig CR instead.
Container runtime: The defaultRuntime parameter sets the container runtime to either runc or crun. The default is runc.

You should have one ContainerRuntimeConfig CR for each machine config pool with all the config changes you want for that pool. If you are applying the same content to all the pools, you only need one ContainerRuntimeConfig CR for all the pools.

You should edit an existing ContainerRuntimeConfig CR to modify existing settings or add new settings instead of creating a new CR for each change. It is recommended to create a new ContainerRuntimeConfig CR only to modify a different machine config pool, or for changes that are intended to be temporary so that you can revert the changes.

You can create multiple ContainerRuntimeConfig CRs, as needed, with a limit of 10 per cluster. For the first ContainerRuntimeConfig CR, the MCO creates a machine config appended with containerruntime. With each subsequent CR, the controller creates a new containerruntime machine config with a numeric suffix. For example, if you have a containerruntime machine config with a -2 suffix, the next containerruntime machine config is appended with -3.

If you want to delete the machine configs, you should delete them in reverse order to avoid exceeding the limit. For example, you should delete the containerruntime-3 machine config before deleting the containerruntime-2 machine config.

If you have a machine config with a containerruntime-9 suffix, and you create another ContainerRuntimeConfig CR, a new machine config is not created, even if there are fewer than 10 containerruntime machine configs.

Example showing multiple ContainerRuntimeConfig CRs

$ oc get ctrcfg

Example output

NAME         AGE
ctr-overlay  15m
ctr-level    5m45s

Example showing multiple containerruntime machine configs

$ oc get mc | grep container

Example output

...
01-master-container-runtime                        b5c5119de007945b6fe6fb215db3b8e2ceb12511   3.2.0             57m
...
01-worker-container-runtime                        b5c5119de007945b6fe6fb215db3b8e2ceb12511   3.2.0             57m
...
99-worker-generated-containerruntime               b5c5119de007945b6fe6fb215db3b8e2ceb12511   3.2.0             26m
99-worker-generated-containerruntime-1             b5c5119de007945b6fe6fb215db3b8e2ceb12511   3.2.0             17m
99-worker-generated-containerruntime-2             b5c5119de007945b6fe6fb215db3b8e2ceb12511   3.2.0             7m26s
...

The following example sets the log_level field to debug and sets the overlay size to 8 GB:

Example ContainerRuntimeConfig CR

apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: ContainerRuntimeConfig
metadata:
 name: overlay-size
spec:
 machineConfigPoolSelector:
   matchLabels:
     pools.operator.machineconfiguration.openshift.io/worker: '' (1)
 containerRuntimeConfig:
   logLevel: debug (2)
   overlaySize: 8G (3)
   defaultRuntime: "crun" (4)

1	Specifies the machine config pool label. For a container runtime config, the role must match the name of the associated machine config pool.
2	Optional: Specifies the level of verbosity for log messages.
3	Optional: Specifies the maximum size of a container image.
4	Optional: Specifies the container runtime to deploy to new containers. The default value is `runc`.

Procedure

To change CRI-O settings using the ContainerRuntimeConfig CR:

Create a YAML file for the ContainerRuntimeConfig CR:

apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: ContainerRuntimeConfig
metadata:
 name: overlay-size
spec:
 machineConfigPoolSelector:
   matchLabels:
     pools.operator.machineconfiguration.openshift.io/worker: '' (1)
 containerRuntimeConfig: (2)
   logLevel: debug
   overlaySize: 8G

1	Specify a label for the machine config pool that you want you want to modify.
2	Set the parameters as needed.

Create the ContainerRuntimeConfig CR:
```
$ oc create -f <file_name>.yaml
```

Verify that the CR is created:

$ oc get ContainerRuntimeConfig

Example output

NAME           AGE
overlay-size   3m19s

Check that a new containerruntime machine config is created:

$ oc get machineconfigs | grep containerrun

Example output

99-worker-generated-containerruntime   2c9371fbb673b97a6fe8b1c52691999ed3a1bfc2  3.2.0  31s

Monitor the machine config pool until all are shown as ready:

$ oc get mcp worker

Example output

NAME    CONFIG               UPDATED  UPDATING  DEGRADED  MACHINECOUNT  READYMACHINECOUNT  UPDATEDMACHINECOUNT  DEGRADEDMACHINECOUNT  AGE
worker  rendered-worker-169  False    True      False     3             1                  1                    0                     9h

Verify that the settings were applied in CRI-O:

Open an oc debug session to a node in the machine config pool and run chroot /host.
```
$ oc debug node/<node_name>
```
```
sh-4.4# chroot /host
```

Verify the changes in the crio.conf file:

sh-4.4# crio config | grep 'log_level'

Example output

log_level = "debug"

Verify the changes in the `storage.conf`file:

sh-4.4# head -n 7 /etc/containers/storage.conf

Example output

[storage]
  driver = "overlay"
  runroot = "/var/run/containers/storage"
  graphroot = "/var/lib/containers/storage"
  [storage.options]
    additionalimagestores = []
    size = "8G"

Setting the default maximum container root partition size for Overlay with CRI-O

The root partition of each container shows all of the available disk space of the underlying host. Follow this guidance to set a maximum partition size for the root disk of all containers.

To configure the maximum Overlay size, as well as other CRI-O options like the log level, you can create the following ContainerRuntimeConfig custom resource definition (CRD):

apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: ContainerRuntimeConfig
metadata:
 name: overlay-size
spec:
 machineConfigPoolSelector:
   matchLabels:
     custom-crio: overlay-size
 containerRuntimeConfig:
   logLevel: debug
   overlaySize: 8G

Procedure

Create the configuration object:
```
$ oc apply -f overlaysize.yml
```
To apply the new CRI-O configuration to your worker nodes, edit the worker machine config pool:
```
$ oc edit machineconfigpool worker
```

Add the custom-crio label based on the matchLabels name you set in the ContainerRuntimeConfig CRD:

apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfigPool
metadata:
  creationTimestamp: "2020-07-09T15:46:34Z"
  generation: 3
  labels:
    custom-crio: overlay-size
    machineconfiguration.openshift.io/mco-built-in: ""

Save the changes, then view the machine configs:

$ oc get machineconfigs

New 99-worker-generated-containerruntime and rendered-worker-xyz objects are created:

Example output

99-worker-generated-containerruntime  4173030d89fbf4a7a0976d1665491a4d9a6e54f1   3.2.0             7m42s
rendered-worker-xyz                   4173030d89fbf4a7a0976d1665491a4d9a6e54f1   3.2.0             7m36s

After those objects are created, monitor the machine config pool for the changes to be applied:

$ oc get mcp worker

The worker nodes show UPDATING as True, as well as the number of machines, the number updated, and other details:

Example output

NAME   CONFIG              UPDATED   UPDATING   DEGRADED  MACHINECOUNT  READYMACHINECOUNT  UPDATEDMACHINECOUNT   DEGRADEDMACHINECOUNT   AGE
worker rendered-worker-xyz False True False     3             2                   2                    0                      20h

When complete, the worker nodes transition back to UPDATING as False, and the UPDATEDMACHINECOUNT number matches the MACHINECOUNT:

Example output

NAME   CONFIG              UPDATED   UPDATING   DEGRADED  MACHINECOUNT  READYMACHINECOUNT  UPDATEDMACHINECOUNT   DEGRADEDMACHINECOUNT   AGE
worker   rendered-worker-xyz   True      False      False      3         3            3             0           20h

Looking at a worker machine, you see that the new 8 GB max size configuration is applied to all of the workers:

Example output

head -n 7 /etc/containers/storage.conf
[storage]
  driver = "overlay"
  runroot = "/var/run/containers/storage"
  graphroot = "/var/lib/containers/storage"
  [storage.options]
    additionalimagestores = []
    size = "8G"

Looking inside a container, you see that the root partition is now 8 GB:

Example output

~ $ df -h
Filesystem                Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
overlay                   8.0G      8.0K      8.0G   0% /