Wednesday, September 15, 2021

Kubernetes Cheat Sheet

Kubernetes is an open source container orchestration system for automating application deployment, scaling and management. Maintained by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, Kubernetes works with a range of container tools and runs applications deployed in containers in a cluster often with images built using Docker.

Let's check K8s out!

Tools
Here are some commonly used tools that can be installed to work with + help manage Kubernetes clusters:
 kubectl  Command-line tool to run commands against Kubernetes clusters
 minikube  Runs a single-node Kubernetes cluster on your personal computer
 kind  Runs Kubernetes on your local computer inside Docker containers
 kubeadm  Used to create and manage and secure larger Kubernetes clusters

Installation
Install Kubernetes with Docker Desktop on Windows and Mac OS/X. Install Kubernetes on Linux accordingly.

Minikube
Here are instructions how to get Kubernetes running locally as single node cluster on Ubuntu with Minikube:
# Prerequisites
sudo apt install cpu-checker && sudo kvm-ok
sudo apt install libvirt-clients libvirt-daemon-system qemu-kvm \
    && sudo usermod -a -G libvirt $(whoami) \
    && newgrp libvirt
    
sudo virt-host-validate
curl -LO https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/$(curl -s https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl \
    && sudo install kubectl /usr/local/bin && rm kubectl

curl -LO https://storage.googleapis.com/minikube/releases/latest/docker-machine-driver-kvm2 \
    && sudo install docker-machine-driver-kvm2 /usr/local/bin/ && rm docker-machine-driver-kvm
    
curl -LO https://storage.googleapis.com/minikube/releases/latest/minikube-linux-amd64 \
    && sudo install minikube-linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/minikube && rm minikube-linux-amd64

minikube version
minikube start


KinD
Kubernetes in Docker [KinD] allows an approach to run a full Kubernetes cluster using Docker containers to simulate multiple Kubernetes nodes operating all at once instead of running everything in virtual machines.

Assume Go installed. Launch Terminal. Enter commands to install KinD. Export path in ~/.bashrc and reboot:
 go get sigs.k8s.io/kind

 # Add KinD to $PATH in ~/.bashrc
 export PATH="$PATH:~/go/bin/"
 sudo reboot
 # Create test and delete cluster
 kind create cluster --wait 5m \
 export KUBECONFIG="$(kind get kubeconfig-path)"
 kubectl cluster-info
 kind delete cluster


kubeadm
kubeadm is another tool built to provide a fast path for creating Kuberentes clusters. kubeadm performs all actions to get a minimum viable cluster up and running. Once installed you can then create the K8s cluster.
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl

sudo curl -fsSLo /usr/share/keyrings/kubernetes-archive-keyring.gpg https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/kubernetes-archive-keyring.gpg] https://apt.kubernetes.io/ kubernetes-xenial main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kubernetes.list

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y kubelet kubeadm kubectl
sudo apt-mark hold kubelet kubeadm kubectl
kubeadm version

Dashboard
Once Kubernetes cluster is setup there are various options to view all resources. Minikube: simply the launch terminal | minikube dashboard. Alternatively, install VS Code Kubernetes extension and view all resources.


KinD dashboard is more involved. Enter these commands to configure KinD dashboard to run in the browser.
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes/dashboard/v2.1.0/aio/deploy/recommended.yaml
kubectl get pod -n kubernetes-dashboard
kubectl create clusterrolebinding default-admin --clusterrole cluster-admin --serviceaccount=default:default

token=$(kubectl get secrets -o jsonpath="{.items[?(@.metadata.annotations['kubernetes\.io/service-account\.name']==\
'default')].data.token}"|base64 --decode)
echo $token
kubectl proxy

Launch the browser and enter the following URL. Once prompted enter the service token above and click OK.
http://localhost:8001/api/v1/namespaces/kubernetes-dashboard/services/https:kubernetes-dashboard:/proxy

IMPORTANT
If you receive following error: listen tcp 127.0.0.1:8001: bind: address already in use then enter command:
 netstat -tulnap | grep 5000
 sudo apt install net-tools
 sudo fuser -k 5000/tcp
 netstat -tulnap | grep 5000


k9s is the Kubernetes CLI to manage clusters. Download the latest binary and extract into /usr/local/bin. You may need to manually create the ~/.k9s folder otherwise you may receive the error Permission denied.


kubectl
Enable auto completion as per the kubectl Cheat Sheet and update ~/.bashrc to alias the kubectl command:
 # Auto complete
 source <(kubectl completion bash)
 echo "source <(kubectl completion bash)" >> ~/.bashrc
 
 # Alias kubectl
 alias k='kubectl'
 complete -F __start_kubectl k
 alias kdr='kubectl --dry-run=client -o yaml'

The Kubernetes cluster configuration file lives at ~/.kube/config. Obtain Kubernetes config + context info:
 kubectl config view  Show Kubernetes cluster configuration
 kubectl config get-contexts  Show all Kubernetes cluster contexts
 kubectl config current-context  Show current Kubernetes cluster context
 kubectl config use-context my-cluster-name  Set default context to my-cluster-name
 kubectl config set-context --current --namespace=my-ns  Set default context namespace to my-ns


Definitions
Here is some basic terminology when working with containerized applications running in Kubernetes cluster:
 Namespace  Scope cluster resources and a way to isolate Kubernetes objects
 Workload  Containerized application running within the Kubernetes cluster
 Container  Decouples applications from the underlying host infrastructure
 Pod  Smallest deployable unit as created and managed in Kubernetes
 Node  Workloads are placed in Containers on Pods to be run on Nodes
 Deployment  Provides a declarative way to update all Pods and ReplicaSets
 Service  Absract way to expose an application running on a set of Pods


Planes
Networking back in the day would have rules + policies about how to route network packets. These policies would make up the network control plane. The control plane is concerned with establishing network policy. Meanwhile, the data plane is everything else in the network architecture that enforces all network policies.

Control Plane
In Kubernetes, the control plane is the set of components that "make global decisions about the cluster" e.g. scheduling as well as detecting and responding to cluster events e.g. auto scaling pods due to traffic spikes.

Listed are control plane components that run on the master node to keep the cluster in the "desired state":
 Store (etcd)  Key-value backing store for all Kubernetes objects and data info
 API Server  Exposes the Kubernetes API as the front end for the control plane
 Controller-Manager  Runs controller processes e.g. Nodes, Jobs, Endpoints + Services
 Scheduler  Watches for newly created pods and assigns nodes to run them on

Data Plane
In Kubernetes, the data plane is the set of worker nodes with their pods and containers that enforce all the global decisions made about the cluster from the master node e.g. auto scaling pods due to traffic spikes.

Listed are data plane components that run on each worker node maintaining pods and runtime environment:
 Kubelet  Worker agent that makes sure containers are running inside Pods
 Container Runtime  Software that is responsible for running containers on worker nodes
 Kube Proxy  Network proxy that maintains all network rules on the worker nodes

IMPORTANT
Here are 2x simple commands to get full information about control and data planes for Kubernetes cluster:
 kubectl cluster-info  Kubernetes control plane is running at the designated IP address
 kubectl cluster-info dump  Full description of all Kubernetes components running in the cluster


Commands
Here is list of useful commands. Foreach command you can add the --help flag to see more options to pass:
 kubectl get all -A  Get all resources across all namespaces
 kubectl describe pod my-pod  Get the full YAML declaration for my-pod
 kubectl get pod my-pod -o yaml  Get the expanded declaration for my-pod
 kubectl logs -f my-pod  Get logs for my-pod + tail all its updates
 kubectl get nodes -o wide  List all full details of nodes in namepsace
 kubectl get deployments -A  List all deployments from all namespaces
 kubectl get services -A  List all services across all the namespaces
List all container(s) for my-pod kubectl get pod my-pod -o jsonpath="{.spec.containers[*].image}".

Tutorial
Hello MiniKube tutorial shows you how to create a sample app on Kubernetes applying the above resources.
 minikube start  Start Minikube cluster
 minikube dashboard  Launch Minikube dashboard
 minikube ip  Display Minikube IP address
 minikube ssh  Secure shell into Minikube node
 minikube stop  Stop Minikube cluster
 minikube delete  Delete Minikube cluster

Create Deployment
 minikube start
 minikube dashboard
 kubectl create deployment hello-node --image=k8s.gcr.io/echoserver:1.4
 kubectl get deployments

Create Service
 kubectl expose deployment hello-node --type=LoadBalancer --port=8080
 kubectl get services
 minikube service hello-node

Exec into Pod
 kubectl attach hello-node-7567d9fdc9-mblh7 -i
 kubectl exec hello-node-7567d9fdc9-mblh7 -- ls /
 kubectl exec -it hello-node-7567d9fdc9-mblh7 -- /bin/sh
 kubectl exec --stdin --tty hello-node-7567d9fdc9-mblh7 -- /bin/sh

Tail Logs
 kubectl logs -f hello-node-7567d9fdc9-mblh7
 minikube stop
 minikube delete


Management
The tutorial demonstrates imperative commands using kubectl to operate directly on live Kubernetes objects in the cluster. This is the useful to get started or run one-off tasks however these actions provide no history.

Whereas using declarative object configuration requires configuration files to be stored locally first. All CRUD operations will be detected automatically per Kuberentes object thus configuration can be version controlled.


Example
Code an example from scratch as full end-to-end Web API demo on local host, in Docker and on Kubernetes. Launch Terminal | go mod init testwebapi. Launch VS Code. Enter following code. Press F5 to debug main.go.
 main.go
 package main
 import (
 	"fmt"
 	"html"
 	"log"
 	"net/http"
 )
 func main() {
 	bind := ":8081"
 	log.Println("Start web server on port", bind)
 	http.HandleFunc("/", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
 	  fmt.Fprintf(w, "Hello, %q", html.EscapeString(r.URL.Path))
 	})
 	log.Fatal(http.ListenAndServe(bind, nil))
 }

Test main.go: Launch Terminal | curl http://localhost:8081/test. Next, create Dockerfile to build image:
  1. Ctrl+Shift+P. Choose Docker: Add Docker Files to Workspace...
  2. Select Application Platform. Choose GoLang
  3. What port does app listen on? Choose 8081
  4. Include optional Docker Compose files? Select No
 Dockerfile
 #build stage
 FROM golang:alpine AS builder
 RUN apk add --no-cache git
 WORKDIR /go/src/app
 COPY . .
 RUN go get -d -v ./...
 RUN go build -o /go/bin/app -v ./...
 #final stage
 FROM alpine:latest
 RUN apk --no-cache add ca-certificates
 COPY --from=builder /go/bin/app /app
 ENTRYPOINT /app
 LABEL Name=golang20 Version=0.0.1
 EXPOSE 8081

In VS Code | Right click Dockerfile | Build Image... Choose name to tag image. Once complete Image will be listed in Docker extension Images list. Expand image built | Run. Refresh Docker extension Containers list.

Test Dockerfile: Launch Terminal | curl http://localhost:8081/test. Lastly, deploy Web API to the cluster. Enter the following YAML as image deployment to local installed cluster and expose the endpoint as service:
 Kubernetes.yaml
 --- Deployment
 apiVersion: apps/v1
 kind: Deployment
 metadata:
   name: testwebapi
 spec:
   replicas: 1
   selector:
     matchLabels:
       app: testwebapi
   template:
     metadata:
       labels:
         app: testwebapi
     spec:
       containers:
         - name: testwebapi
           image: stevepro/testwebapi:1.0
           imagePullPolicy: Never
           resources:
             limits:
               memory: "128Mi"
               cpu: "500m"
           ports:
             - containerPort: 8081 
 --- Service
 apiVersion: v1
 kind: Service
 metadata:
   name: testwebapi-service
 spec:
   type: NodePort
   ports:
     - name: http
       port: 8082
       targetPort: 8081
   selector:
     app: testwebapi
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
IMPORTANT: Kubernetes Templates is a handy VS Code extension that helps create Kubernetes YAML files!

Minikube
Ensure that Minikube is installed. Launch Terminal | minikube start. Ensure images will be deployed locally:
 minikube start
 minikube docker-env
 eval $(minikube -p minikube docker-env)

Build the image as above but this time in the local Minikube cluster docker build -t stevepro/testwebapi:1.0 .
Apply the deployment and service YAML using the kubectl. Verify objects created from minikube dashboard.
 docker build -t stevepro/testwebapi:1.0 .
 kubectl apply -f Kubernetes.yaml

Test Kubernetes: Launch Terminal. Execute minikube service testwebapi-service --url to obtain the cluster IP address + port. Build Minikube cluster socket and test the API | curl http://192.168.49.2:30799/test.
 minikube service testwebapi-service --url
 curl http://192.168.49.2:30799/test

Finally, clean up and delete deployment + service YAML after testing complete and destroy Minikube cluster.
 kubectl delete -f Kubernetes.yaml
 minikube stop


KinD
Code an example from above as full end-to-end Web API demo on local host, in Docker and on Kubernetes. Ensure that KinD is installed. Launch Terminal | kind create cluster. Ensure images will be deployed locally:
 kind create cluster

Build the image as above but this time in the local KinD cluster as docker build -t stevepro/testwebapi:2.0. Load the newly built local image into KinD cluster. Apply the deployment and service YAML using the kubectl.
 docker build -t stevepro/testwebapi:2.0 .
 kind load docker-image stevepro/testwebapi:2.0
 kubectl apply -f Kubernetes.yaml

Test Kubernetes: Launch Terminal. Execute kubectl get nodes -o wide to obtain cluster INTERNAL-IP. Execute kubectl get services to obtain cluster port. Build socket and test | curl http://172.18.0.2:31196/test.
 kubectl get nodes -o wide
 kubectl get services
 curl http://172.18.0.2:31196/test

Finally, clean up and delete deployment + service YAML after testing complete and destroy the KinD cluster.
 kubectl delete -f Kubernetes.yaml
 kind delete cluster


Source Code
Finally, navigate the Kubernetes source code to familiarize yourself with the code base and debug step thru the source code especially if you would like to participate in any one of the Special Interest Groups [SIGs].

git clone the Kubernetes source code. Launch folder in VS Code. Search for main.go e.g. from ./cmd/cloud-controller-manager. Right click main.go | Open in | Terminal. go build . go run main.go. Press F5 to debug:
 git clone https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes.git
 cd kubernetes
 make
 find -L -type f -name 'main.go'
 cd ./cmd/cloud-controller-manager
 go build .
 go run main.go
 Press F5


Summary
To summarize, Kubernetes has greatly simplified cloud native infrastructure for developers and provides a scalable framework for application deployment. However, just like any new tool or technology, Kubernetes brings with it new security challenges especially due to the ephemeral nature of containerized applications.

Consequently, the Container Network Interface [CNI] initiative was created to define a standardized common interface between container execution and Kubernetes networking layer to address these security concerns.

Thus Kubernetes plugins like Calico has become the most popular CNI for cluster networking thru definition and enforcement of network policies. Calico prescribes to which pods can send and receive traffic securely throughout the cluster which becomes critical esp. if Kubernetes adoption continues to grow in the future!