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Working with Environments

January 12, 2022 - By: Thomas Jungbauer ( Lastmod: 2022-09-21 ) - 8 min read

Imagine you have one OpenShift cluster and you would like to create 2 or more environments inside this cluster, but also separate them and force the environments to specific nodes, or use specific inbound routers. All this can be achieved using labels, IngressControllers and so on. The following article will guide you to set up dedicated compute nodes for infrastructure, development and test environments as well as the creation of IngressController which are bound to the appropriate nodes.

Prerequisites

Before we start we need an OpenShift cluster of course. In this example we have a cluster with typical 3 control plane nodes (labelled as master) and 7 compute nodes (labelled as worker)

oc get nodes

NAME                                         STATUS   ROLES    AGE   VERSION
ip-10-0-138-104.us-east-2.compute.internal   Ready    master   13h   v1.21.1+6438632
ip-10-0-149-168.us-east-2.compute.internal   Ready    worker   13h   v1.21.1+6438632 # <-- will become infra
ip-10-0-154-244.us-east-2.compute.internal   Ready    worker   16m   v1.21.1+6438632 # <-- will become infra
ip-10-0-158-44.us-east-2.compute.internal    Ready    worker   15m   v1.21.1+6438632 # <-- will become infra
ip-10-0-160-91.us-east-2.compute.internal    Ready    master   13h   v1.21.1+6438632
ip-10-0-188-198.us-east-2.compute.internal   Ready    worker   13h   v1.21.1+6438632 # <-- will become worker-test
ip-10-0-191-9.us-east-2.compute.internal     Ready    worker   16m   v1.21.1+6438632 # <-- will become worker-test
ip-10-0-192-174.us-east-2.compute.internal   Ready    master   13h   v1.21.1+6438632
ip-10-0-195-201.us-east-2.compute.internal   Ready    worker   16m   v1.21.1+6438632 # <-- will become worker-dev
ip-10-0-199-235.us-east-2.compute.internal   Ready    worker   16m   v1.21.1+6438632 # <-- will become worker-dev

We will use the 7 nodes to create the environments for:

Infrastructure Services (3 nodes) - will be labelled as infra
Development Environment (2 nodes) - will be labelled as worker-dev
Test Environment (2 nodes) - will be labelled as worker-test

To do this, we will label the nodes and create dedicated roles for them.

Create Nodes Labels and MachineConfigPools

Let’s create a maschine config pool for the different environments.

The pool inherits the configuration from worker nodes by default, which means that any new update on the worker configuration will also update custom labeled nodes. Or in other words: it is possible to remove the worker label from the custom pools.

Create the following objects:

# Infrastructure
apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfigPool
metadata:
  name: infra
spec:
  machineConfigSelector:
    matchExpressions:
      - {key: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role, operator: In, values: [worker,infra]} (1)
  maxUnavailable: 1 (2)
  nodeSelector:
    matchLabels:
      node-role.kubernetes.io/infra: "" (3)
  paused: false
---
# Worker-DEV
apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfigPool
metadata:
  name: worker-dev
spec:
  machineConfigSelector:
    matchExpressions:
      - {key: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role, operator: In, values: [worker,worker-dev]}
  nodeSelector:
    matchLabels:
      node-role.kubernetes.io/worker-dev: ""
---
# Worker-TEST
apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfigPool
metadata:
  name: worker-test
spec:
  machineConfigSelector:
    matchExpressions:
      - {key: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role, operator: In, values: [worker,worker-test]}
  nodeSelector:
    matchLabels:
      node-role.kubernetes.io/worker-test: ""

1	User worker and infra so that the default worker configuration gets applied during upgrades
2	Whenever an update happens, do only 1 at a time
3	This pool is valid for nodes which are labelled as `infra`

Now let’s label our nodes. First add the new, additional label:

# Add the label "infra"
oc label node ip-10-0-149-168.us-east-2.compute.internal ip-10-0-154-244.us-east-2.compute.internal ip-10-0-158-44.us-east-2.compute.internal node-role.kubernetes.io/infra=

# Add the label "worker-dev"
oc label node ip-10-0-195-201.us-east-2.compute.internal ip-10-0-199-235.us-east-2.compute.internal node-role.kubernetes.io/worker-dev=

# Add the label "worker-test"
oc label node ip-10-0-188-198.us-east-2.compute.internal ip-10-0-191-9.us-east-2.compute.internal node-role.kubernetes.io/worker-test=

This will result in:

NAME                                         STATUS   ROLES                AGE   VERSION
ip-10-0-138-104.us-east-2.compute.internal   Ready    master               13h   v1.21.1+6438632
ip-10-0-149-168.us-east-2.compute.internal   Ready    infra,worker         13h   v1.21.1+6438632
ip-10-0-154-244.us-east-2.compute.internal   Ready    infra,worker         20m   v1.21.1+6438632
ip-10-0-158-44.us-east-2.compute.internal    Ready    infra,worker         19m   v1.21.1+6438632
ip-10-0-160-91.us-east-2.compute.internal    Ready    master               13h   v1.21.1+6438632
ip-10-0-188-198.us-east-2.compute.internal   Ready    worker,worker-test   13h   v1.21.1+6438632
ip-10-0-191-9.us-east-2.compute.internal     Ready    worker,worker-test   20m   v1.21.1+6438632
ip-10-0-192-174.us-east-2.compute.internal   Ready    master               13h   v1.21.1+6438632
ip-10-0-195-201.us-east-2.compute.internal   Ready    worker,worker-dev    20m   v1.21.1+6438632
ip-10-0-199-235.us-east-2.compute.internal   Ready    worker,worker-dev    20m   v1.21.1+6438632

We can remove the worker label from the worker-dev and worker-test nodes now.

Keep the label "worker" for the infra nodes as this is the default worker label which is used when no nodeselector is in use. You can use any other node, just keep in mind that per default new applications will be started on nodes with the labels "worker". As an alternative, you can also define a cluster-wide default node selector.

oc label node ip-10-0-195-201.us-east-2.compute.internal ip-10-0-199-235.us-east-2.compute.internal node-role.kubernetes.io/worker-
oc label node ip-10-0-188-198.us-east-2.compute.internal ip-10-0-191-9.us-east-2.compute.internal node-role.kubernetes.io/worker-

The final node labels will look like the following:

NAME                                         STATUS   ROLES         AGE   VERSION
ip-10-0-138-104.us-east-2.compute.internal   Ready    master        13h   v1.21.1+6438632
ip-10-0-149-168.us-east-2.compute.internal   Ready    infra,worker  13h   v1.21.1+6438632
ip-10-0-154-244.us-east-2.compute.internal   Ready    infra,worker  22m   v1.21.1+6438632
ip-10-0-158-44.us-east-2.compute.internal    Ready    infra,worker  21m   v1.21.1+6438632
ip-10-0-160-91.us-east-2.compute.internal    Ready    master        13h   v1.21.1+6438632
ip-10-0-188-198.us-east-2.compute.internal   Ready    worker-test   13h   v1.21.1+6438632
ip-10-0-191-9.us-east-2.compute.internal     Ready    worker-test   21m   v1.21.1+6438632
ip-10-0-192-174.us-east-2.compute.internal   Ready    master        13h   v1.21.1+6438632
ip-10-0-195-201.us-east-2.compute.internal   Ready    worker-dev    21m   v1.21.1+6438632
ip-10-0-199-235.us-east-2.compute.internal   Ready    worker-dev    22m   v1.21.1+6438632

Since the custom pools (infra, worker-test and worker-dev) inherit their configuration from the default worker pool, no changes on the files on the nodes themselves are triggered at this point.

Create Custom Configuration

Let’s test our setup by deploying a configuration on specific nodes. The following MaschineConfig objects will create a file at /etc/myfile on the nodes labelled either infra, worker-dev or worker_test. Dependent on the node role the content of the file will vary.

apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
  labels:
    machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: infra (1)
  name: 55-infra
spec:
  config:
    ignition:
      version: 2.2.0
    storage:
      files:
      - contents:
          source: data:,infra (2)
        filesystem: root
        mode: 0644
        path: /etc/myfile (3)
---
apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
  labels:
    machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker-dev
  name: 55-worker-dev
spec:
  config:
    ignition:
      version: 2.2.0
    storage:
      files:
      - contents:
          source: data:,worker-dev
        filesystem: root
        mode: 0644
        path: /etc/myfile
---
apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
  labels:
    machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker-test
  name: 55-worker-test
spec:
  config:
    ignition:
      version: 2.2.0
    storage:
      files:
      - contents:
          source: data:,worker-test
        filesystem: root
        mode: 0644
        path: /etc/myfile

1	Valid for node with the role xyz
2	Content of the file
3	File to be created

Since this is a new configuration, all nodes will get reconfigured.

NAME                                         STATUS                        ROLES         AGE   VERSION
ip-10-0-138-104.us-east-2.compute.internal   Ready                         master        13h   v1.21.1+6438632
ip-10-0-149-168.us-east-2.compute.internal   Ready,SchedulingDisabled      infra,worker  13h   v1.21.1+6438632
ip-10-0-154-244.us-east-2.compute.internal   Ready                         infra,worker  28m   v1.21.1+6438632
ip-10-0-158-44.us-east-2.compute.internal    Ready                         infra,worker  27m   v1.21.1+6438632
ip-10-0-160-91.us-east-2.compute.internal    Ready                         master        13h   v1.21.1+6438632
ip-10-0-188-198.us-east-2.compute.internal   Ready                         worker-test   13h   v1.21.1+6438632
ip-10-0-191-9.us-east-2.compute.internal     NotReady,SchedulingDisabled   worker-test   27m   v1.21.1+6438632
ip-10-0-192-174.us-east-2.compute.internal   Ready                         master        13h   v1.21.1+6438632
ip-10-0-195-201.us-east-2.compute.internal   Ready                         worker-dev    27m   v1.21.1+6438632
ip-10-0-199-235.us-east-2.compute.internal   NotReady,SchedulingDisabled   worker-dev    28m   v1.21.1+6438632

Wait until all nodes are ready and test the configuration by verifying the content of /etc/myfile:

###
# infra nodes:
###
oc get pods -n openshift-machine-config-operator -l k8s-app=machine-config-daemon --field-selector "spec.nodeName=ip-10-0-149-168.us-east-2.compute.internal"
NAME                          READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
machine-config-daemon-f85kd   2/2     Running   6          16h

# Get file content
oc rsh -n openshift-machine-config-operator machine-config-daemon-f85kd chroot /rootfs cat /etc/myfile
Defaulted container "machine-config-daemon" out of: machine-config-daemon, oauth-proxy
infra

###
#worker-dev:
###
oc get pods -n openshift-machine-config-operator -l k8s-app=machine-config-daemon --field-selector "spec.nodeName=ip-10-0-195-201.us-east-2.compute.internal"
NAME                          READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
machine-config-daemon-s6rr5   2/2     Running   4          3h5m

# Get file content
oc rsh -n openshift-machine-config-operator machine-config-daemon-s6rr5 chroot /rootfs cat /etc/myfile
Defaulted container "machine-config-daemon" out of: machine-config-daemon, oauth-proxy
worker-dev

###
# worker-test:
###
oc get pods -n openshift-machine-config-operator -l k8s-app=machine-config-daemon --field-selector "spec.nodeName=ip-10-0-188-198.us-east-2.compute.internal"
NAME                          READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
machine-config-daemon-m22rf   2/2     Running   6          16h

# Get file content
oc rsh -n openshift-machine-config-operator machine-config-daemon-m22rf chroot /rootfs cat /etc/myfile
Defaulted container "machine-config-daemon" out of: machine-config-daemon, oauth-proxy
worker-test

The file /etc/myfile exists on all nodes and depending on their role the files have a different content.

Bind an Application to a Specific Environment

The following will label the nodes with a specific environment and will deploy an example application, which should only be executed on the appropriate nodes.

Let’s label the nodes with environment=worker-dev and environment=worker-test:

oc label node ip-10-0-195-201.us-east-2.compute.internal ip-10-0-199-235.us-east-2.compute.internal environment=worker-dev
oc label node ip-10-0-188-198.us-east-2.compute.internal ip-10-0-191-9.us-east-2.compute.internal environment=worker-test

Create a namespace for the example application
```
oc new-project bookinfo
```
Create an annotation and a label for the namespace. The annotation will make sure that the application will only be started on nodes with the same label. The label will be later used for the IngressController setup.
```
oc annotate namespace bookinfo environment=worker-dev
oc annotate namespace bookinfo openshift.io/node-selector: environment=worker-test

oc label namespace bookinfo environment=worker-dev
```

Deploy the example application. In this article the sample application of Istio was used:

oc apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/istio/istio/release-1.11/samples/bookinfo/platform/kube/bookinfo.yaml

This will start the application on worker-dev` nodes only, because the annotation in the namespace was created accordingly.

oc get pods -n bookinfo -o wide

NAME                             READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE     IP            NODE                                         NOMINATED NODE   READINESS GATES
details-v1-86dfdc4b95-v8zfv      1/1     Running   0          9m19s   10.130.2.17   ip-10-0-199-235.us-east-2.compute.internal   <none>           <none>
productpage-v1-658849bb5-8gcl7   1/1     Running   0          7m17s   10.128.4.21   ip-10-0-195-201.us-east-2.compute.internal   <none>           <none>
ratings-v1-76b8c9cbf9-cc4js      1/1     Running   0          9m19s   10.130.2.19   ip-10-0-199-235.us-east-2.compute.internal   <none>           <none>
reviews-v1-58b8568645-mbgth      1/1     Running   0          7m44s   10.128.4.20   ip-10-0-195-201.us-east-2.compute.internal   <none>           <none>
reviews-v2-5d8f8b6775-qkdmz      1/1     Running   0          9m19s   10.130.2.21   ip-10-0-199-235.us-east-2.compute.internal   <none>           <none>
reviews-v3-666b89cfdf-8zv8w      1/1     Running   0          9m18s   10.130.2.22   ip-10-0-199-235.us-east-2.compute.internal   <none>           <none>

Create Dedicated IngressController

IngressController are responsible to bring the traffic into the cluster. OpenShift comes with one default controller, but it is possible to create more in order to use different domains and separate the incoming traffic to different nodes.

Bind the default ingress controller to the infra labeled nodes, so we can be sure that the default router pods are executed only on these nodes:

oc patch ingresscontroller default -n openshift-ingress-operator --type=merge --patch='{"spec":{"nodePlacement":{"nodeSelector": {"matchLabels":{"node-role.kubernetes.io/infra":""}}}}}'

The pods will get restarted, to be sure they are running on infra:

oc get pods -n openshift-ingress -o wide
NAME                              READY   STATUS              RESTARTS   AGE   IP           NODE                                         NOMINATED NODE   READINESS GATES
router-default-78f8dd6f69-dbtbv   0/1     ContainerCreating   0          2s    <none>       ip-10-0-149-168.us-east-2.compute.internal   <none>           <none>
router-default-78f8dd6f69-wwpgb   0/1     ContainerCreating   0          2s    <none>       ip-10-0-158-44.us-east-2.compute.internal    <none>           <none>
router-default-7bbbc8f9bd-vfh84   1/1     Running             0          22m   10.129.4.6   ip-10-0-158-44.us-east-2.compute.internal    <none>           <none>
router-default-7bbbc8f9bd-wggrx   1/1     Terminating         0          19m   10.128.2.8   ip-10-0-149-168.us-east-2.compute.internal   <none>           <none>

Create the following IngressController objects for worker-dev and worker-test. Replace with the domain of your choice

apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1
kind: IngressController
metadata:
  name: ingress-worker-dev
  namespace: openshift-ingress-operator
spec:
  domain: worker-dev.<yourdomain> (1)
  endpointPublishingStrategy:
    type: HostNetwork
  httpErrorCodePages:
    name: ''
  namespaceSelector:
    matchLabels:
      environment: worker-dev (2)
  nodePlacement:
    nodeSelector:
      matchLabels:
        node-role.kubernetes.io/worker-dev: '' (3)
  replicas: 3
  tuningOptions: {}
  unsupportedConfigOverrides: null
---
apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1
kind: IngressController
metadata:
  name: ingress-worker-test
  namespace: openshift-ingress-operator
spec:
  domain: worker-test.<yourdomain>
  endpointPublishingStrategy:
    type: HostNetwork
  httpErrorCodePages:
    name: ''
  namespaceSelector:
    matchLabels:
      environment: worker-test
  nodePlacement:
    nodeSelector:
      matchLabels:
        node-role.kubernetes.io/worker-test: ''
  replicas: 3
  tuningOptions: {}
  unsupportedConfigOverrides: null

1	Domainname which is used by this Controller
2	Namespace selector … namespaces with such label will be handled by this IngressController
3	Node Placement … This Controller should run on nodes with this label/role

This will spin up additional router pods on the collect labelled nodes:

oc get pods -n openshift-ingress -o wide

NAME                                         READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE    IP            NODE                                         NOMINATED NODE   READINESS GATES
router-default-78f8dd6f69-dbtbv              1/1     Running   0          8m7s   10.128.2.11   ip-10-0-149-168.us-east-2.compute.internal   <none>           <none>
router-default-78f8dd6f69-wwpgb              1/1     Running   0          8m7s   10.129.4.10   ip-10-0-158-44.us-east-2.compute.internal    <none>           <none>
router-ingress-worker-dev-76b65cf558-mspvb   1/1     Running   0          113s   10.130.2.13   ip-10-0-199-235.us-east-2.compute.internal   <none>           <none>
router-ingress-worker-dev-76b65cf558-p2jpg   1/1     Running   0          113s   10.128.4.12   ip-10-0-195-201.us-east-2.compute.internal   <none>           <none>
router-ingress-worker-test-6bbf9967f-4whfs   1/1     Running   0          113s   10.131.2.13   ip-10-0-191-9.us-east-2.compute.internal     <none>           <none>
router-ingress-worker-test-6bbf9967f-jht4w   1/1     Running   0          113s   10.131.0.8    ip-10-0-188-198.us-east-2.compute.internal   <none>           <none>

Verify Ingress Configuration

To test our new ingress router lets create a route object for our example application:

kind: Route
apiVersion: route.openshift.io/v1
metadata:
  name: productpage
  namespace: bookinfo
spec:
  host: productpage-bookinfo.worker-dev.<yourdomain>
  to:
    kind: Service
    name: productpage
    weight: 100
  port:
    targetPort: http
  wildcardPolicy: None
---
kind: Route
apiVersion: route.openshift.io/v1
metadata:
  name: productpage-worker-test
  namespace: bookinfo
spec:
  host: productpage-bookinfo.worker-test.<yourdomain>
  to:
    kind: Service
    name: productpage
    weight: 100
  port:
    targetPort: http
  wildcardPolicy: None

Be sure that the name is resolvable and a load balancer is configured accordingly

Verify that the router pod has the correct configuration in the file haproxy.config :

oc get pods -n openshift-ingress
NAME                                         READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
router-default-78f8dd6f69-dbtbv              1/1     Running   0          95m
router-default-78f8dd6f69-wwpgb              1/1     Running   0          95m
router-ingress-worker-dev-76b65cf558-mspvb   1/1     Running   0          88m
router-ingress-worker-dev-76b65cf558-p2jpg   1/1     Running   0          88m
router-ingress-worker-test-6bbf9967f-4whfs   1/1     Running   0          88m
router-ingress-worker-test-6bbf9967f-jht4w   1/1     Running   0          88m

Verify the content of the haproxy configuration for one of the worker-dev router

oc rsh -n openshift-ingress router-ingress-worker-dev-76b65cf558-mspvb cat haproxy.config | grep productpage

backend be_http:bookinfo:productpage
  server pod:productpage-v1-658849bb5-8gcl7:productpage:http:10.128.4.21:9080 10.128.4.21:9080 cookie 3758caf21badd7e4f729209173eece08 weight 256

Compare with worker-test router

oc rsh -n openshift-ingress router-ingress-worker-test-6bbf9967f-jht4w cat haproxy.config | grep productpage

--> Empty result, this router is not configured with that route.

Compare with default router:

backend be_http:bookinfo:productpage
  server pod:productpage-v1-658849bb5-8gcl7:productpage:http:10.128.4.21:9080 10.128.4.21:9080 cookie 3758caf21badd7e4f729209173eece08 weight 256

Why does this happen? Why are the default router and the router for worker-dev configured? This happens because it is the default router and we must explicitly tell it to ignore certain labels.

Modify the default IngressController

oc edit ingresscontroller.operator default -n openshift-ingress-operator

Add the following

  namespaceSelector:
    matchExpressions:
      - key: environment
        operator: NotIn
        values:
          - worker-dev
          - worker-test

This will tell the default IngressController to ignore selectors on worker-dev and worker-test

Wait a few seconds until the route pods have been restarted:

oc get pods -n openshift-ingress
NAME                                         READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
router-default-744998df46-8lh4t              1/1     Running   0          2m32s
router-default-744998df46-hztgf              1/1     Running   0          2m31s
router-ingress-worker-dev-76b65cf558-mspvb   1/1     Running   0          96m
router-ingress-worker-dev-76b65cf558-p2jpg   1/1     Running   0          96m
router-ingress-worker-test-6bbf9967f-4whfs   1/1     Running   0          96m
router-ingress-worker-test-6bbf9967f-jht4w   1/1     Running   0          96m

And test again

oc rsh -n openshift-ingress router-default-744998df46-8lh4t cat haproxy.config | grep productpage
--> empty result

At this point the new router feels responsible. Be sure to have a load balancer configured correctly.

Appendix

Bind other infra-workload to infrastructure nodes:

Internal Registry

oc patch configs.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io/cluster -n openshift-image-registry --type=merge --patch '{"spec":{"nodeSelector":{"node-role.kubernetes.io/infra":""}}}'

OpenShift Monitoring Workload

Create the following file and apply it.

cat <<'EOF' > cluster-monitoring-config-cm.yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: cluster-monitoring-config
  namespace: openshift-monitoring
data:
  config.yaml: |+
    alertmanagerMain:
      nodeSelector:
        node-role.kubernetes.io/infra: ""
    prometheusK8s:
      nodeSelector:
        node-role.kubernetes.io/infra: ""
    prometheusOperator:
      nodeSelector:
        node-role.kubernetes.io/infra: ""
    grafana:
      nodeSelector:
        node-role.kubernetes.io/infra: ""
    k8sPrometheusAdapter:
      nodeSelector:
        node-role.kubernetes.io/infra: ""
    kubeStateMetrics:
      nodeSelector:
        node-role.kubernetes.io/infra: ""
    telemeterClient:
      nodeSelector:
        node-role.kubernetes.io/infra: ""
EOF

oc create -f cluster-monitoring-config-cm.yaml

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