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OpenShift Container Platform 4.17

Scaling your OpenShift Container Platform cluster and tuning performance in production environments

Red Hat OpenShift Documentation Team

Abstract

This document provides instructions for scaling your cluster and optimizing the performance of your OpenShift Container Platform environment.

Chapter 2. Reference design specifications

2.1. Telco core and RAN DU reference design specifications

The telco core reference design specification (RDS) describes OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 clusters running on commodity hardware that can support large scale telco applications including control plane and some centralized data plane functions.

The telco RAN RDS describes the configuration for clusters running on commodity hardware to host 5G workloads in the Radio Access Network (RAN).

2.1.1. Reference design specifications for telco 5G deployments

Red Hat and certified partners offer deep technical expertise and support for networking and operational capabilities required to run telco applications on OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 clusters.

Red Hat’s telco partners require a well-integrated, well-tested, and stable environment that can be replicated at scale for enterprise 5G solutions. The telco core and RAN DU reference design specifications (RDS) outline the recommended solution architecture based on a specific version of OpenShift Container Platform. Each RDS describes a tested and validated platform configuration for telco core and RAN DU use models. The RDS ensures an optimal experience when running your applications by defining the set of critical KPIs for telco 5G core and RAN DU. Following the RDS minimizes high severity escalations and improves application stability.

5G use cases are evolving and your workloads are continually changing. Red Hat is committed to iterating over the telco core and RAN DU RDS to support evolving requirements based on customer and partner feedback.

2.1.2. Reference design scope

The telco core and telco RAN reference design specifications (RDS) capture the recommended, tested, and supported configurations to get reliable and repeatable performance for clusters running the telco core and telco RAN profiles.

Each RDS includes the released features and supported configurations that are engineered and validated for clusters to run the individual profiles. The configurations provide a baseline OpenShift Container Platform installation that meets feature and KPI targets. Each RDS also describes expected variations for each individual configuration. Validation of each RDS includes many long duration and at-scale tests.

Note

The validated reference configurations are updated for each major Y-stream release of OpenShift Container Platform. Z-stream patch releases are periodically re-tested against the reference configurations.

2.1.3. Deviations from the reference design

Deviating from the validated telco core and telco RAN DU reference design specifications (RDS) can have significant impact beyond the specific component or feature that you change. Deviations require analysis and engineering in the context of the complete solution.

Important

All deviations from the RDS should be analyzed and documented with clear action tracking information. Due diligence is expected from partners to understand how to bring deviations into line with the reference design. This might require partners to provide additional resources to engage with Red Hat to work towards enabling their use case to achieve a best in class outcome with the platform. This is critical for the supportability of the solution and ensuring alignment across Red Hat and with partners.

Deviation from the RDS can have some or all of the following consequences:

  • It can take longer to resolve issues.
  • There is a risk of missing project service-level agreements (SLAs), project deadlines, end provider performance requirements, and so on.
  • Unapproved deviations may require escalation at executive levels.

    Note

    Red Hat prioritizes the servicing of requests for deviations based on partner engagement priorities.

2.2. Telco RAN DU reference design specification

2.2.1. {rds-caps} 4.17 reference design overview

The Telco RAN distributed unit (DU) 4.17 reference design configures an OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 cluster running on commodity hardware to host telco RAN DU workloads. It captures the recommended, tested, and supported configurations to get reliable and repeatable performance for a cluster running the telco RAN DU profile.

2.2.1.1. Deployment architecture overview

You deploy the telco RAN DU 4.17 reference configuration to managed clusters from a centrally managed RHACM hub cluster. The reference design specification (RDS) includes configuration of the managed clusters and the hub cluster components.

Figure 2.1. Telco RAN DU deployment architecture overview

A diagram showing two distinctive network far edge deployment processes

2.2.2. Telco RAN DU use model overview

Use the following information to plan telco RAN DU workloads, cluster resources, and hardware specifications for the hub cluster and managed single-node OpenShift clusters.

2.2.2.1. Telco RAN DU application workloads

DU worker nodes must have 3rd Generation Xeon (Ice Lake) 2.20 GHz or better CPUs with firmware tuned for maximum performance.

5G RAN DU user applications and workloads should conform to the following best practices and application limits:

  • Develop cloud-native network functions (CNFs) that conform to the latest version of the CNF best practices guide.
  • Use SR-IOV for high performance networking.
  • Use exec probes sparingly and only when no other suitable options are available

    • Do not use exec probes if a CNF uses CPU pinning. Use other probe implementations, for example, httpGet or tcpSocket.
    • When you need to use exec probes, limit the exec probe frequency and quantity. The maximum number of exec probes must be kept below 10, and frequency must not be set to less than 10 seconds.
  • Avoid using exec probes unless there is absolutely no viable alternative.
Note

Startup probes require minimal resources during steady-state operation. The limitation on exec probes applies primarily to liveness and readiness probes.

2.2.2.2. Telco RAN DU representative reference application workload characteristics

The representative reference application workload has the following characteristics:

  • Has a maximum of 15 pods and 30 containers for the vRAN application including its management and control functions
  • Uses a maximum of 2 ConfigMap and 4 Secret CRs per pod
  • Uses a maximum of 10 exec probes with a frequency of not less than 10 seconds
  • Incremental application load on the kube-apiserver is less than 10% of the cluster platform usage

    Note

    You can extract CPU load can from the platform metrics. For example:

    query=avg_over_time(pod:container_cpu_usage:sum{namespace="openshift-kube-apiserver"}[30m])
  • Application logs are not collected by the platform log collector
  • Aggregate traffic on the primary CNI is less than 1 MBps
2.2.2.3. Telco RAN DU worker node cluster resource utilization

The maximum number of running pods in the system, inclusive of application workloads and OpenShift Container Platform pods, is 120.

Resource utilization

OpenShift Container Platform resource utilization varies depending on many factors including application workload characteristics such as:

  • Pod count
  • Type and frequency of probes
  • Messaging rates on primary CNI or secondary CNI with kernel networking
  • API access rate
  • Logging rates
  • Storage IOPS

Cluster resource requirements are applicable under the following conditions:

  • The cluster is running the described representative application workload.
  • The cluster is managed with the constraints described in "Telco RAN DU worker node cluster resource utilization".
  • Components noted as optional in the RAN DU use model configuration are not applied.
Important

You will need to do additional analysis to determine the impact on resource utilization and ability to meet KPI targets for configurations outside the scope of the Telco RAN DU reference design. You might have to allocate additional resources in the cluster depending on your requirements.

2.2.2.4. Hub cluster management characteristics

Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management (RHACM) is the recommended cluster management solution. Configure it to the following limits on the hub cluster:

  • Configure a maximum of 5 RHACM policies with a compliant evaluation interval of at least 10 minutes.
  • Use a maximum of 10 managed cluster templates in policies. Where possible, use hub-side templating.
  • Disable all RHACM add-ons except for the policy-controller and observability-controller add-ons. Set Observability to the default configuration.

    Important

    Configuring optional components or enabling additional features will result in additional resource usage and can reduce overall system performance.

    For more information, see Reference design deployment components.

Table 2.1. OpenShift platform resource utilization under reference application load
MetricLimitNotes

CPU usage

Less than 4000 mc – 2 cores (4 hyperthreads)

Platform CPU is pinned to reserved cores, including both hyperthreads in each reserved core. The system is engineered to use 3 CPUs (3000mc) at steady-state to allow for periodic system tasks and spikes.

Memory used

Less than 16G

 
2.2.2.5. Telco RAN DU RDS components

The following sections describe the various OpenShift Container Platform components and configurations that you use to configure and deploy clusters to run telco RAN DU workloads.

Figure 2.2. Telco RAN DU reference design components

A diagram describing the telco RAN DU component stack.
Note

Ensure that components that are not included in the telco RAN DU profile do not affect the CPU resources allocated to workload applications.

Important

Out of tree drivers are not supported.

Additional resources

2.2.3. Telco RAN DU 4.17 reference design components

The following sections describe the various OpenShift Container Platform components and configurations that you use to configure and deploy clusters to run RAN DU workloads.

2.2.3.1. Host firmware tuning
New in this release
  • No reference design updates in this release
Description

Configure system level performance. See Configuring host firmware for low latency and high performance for recommended settings.

If Ironic inspection is enabled, the firmware setting values are available from the per-cluster BareMetalHost CR on the hub cluster. You enable Ironic inspection with a label in the spec.clusters.nodes field in the SiteConfig CR that you use to install the cluster. For example:

nodes:
  - hostName: "example-node1.example.com"
    ironicInspect: "enabled"
Note

The telco RAN DU reference SiteConfig does not enable the ironicInspect field by default.

Limits and requirements
  • Hyperthreading must be enabled
Engineering considerations
  • Tune all settings for maximum performance

    Note

    You can tune firmware selections for power savings at the expense of performance as required.

2.2.3.2. Node Tuning Operator
New in this release
  • With this release, the Node Tuning Operator supports setting CPU frequencies in the PerformanceProfile for reserved and isolated core CPUs. This is an optional feature that you can use to define specific frequencies. Use this feature to set specific frequencies by enabling the intel_pstate CPUFreq driver in the Intel hardware. You must follow Intel’s recommendations on frequencies for FlexRAN-like applications, which requires the default CPU frequency to be set to a lower value than default running frequency.
  • Previously, for the RAN DU-profile, setting the realTime workload hint to true in the PerformanceProfile always disabled the intel_pstate. With this release, the Node Tuning Operator detects the underlying Intel hardware using TuneD and appropriately sets the intel_pstate kernel parameter based on the processor’s generation.
  • In this release, OpenShift Container Platform deployments with a performance profile now default to using cgroups v2 as the underlying resource management layer. If you run workloads that are not ready for this change, you can still revert to using the older cgroups v1 mechanism.
Description

You tune the cluster performance by creating a performance profile. Settings that you configure with a performance profile include:

  • Selecting the realtime or non-realtime kernel.
  • Allocating cores to a reserved or isolated cpuset. OpenShift Container Platform processes allocated to the management workload partition are pinned to reserved set.
  • Enabling kubelet features (CPU manager, topology manager, and memory manager).
  • Configuring huge pages.
  • Setting additional kernel arguments.
  • Setting per-core power tuning and max CPU frequency.
  • Reserved and isolated core frequency tuning.
Limits and requirements

The Node Tuning Operator uses the PerformanceProfile CR to configure the cluster. You need to configure the following settings in the RAN DU profile PerformanceProfile CR:

  • Select reserved and isolated cores and ensure that you allocate at least 4 hyperthreads (equivalent to 2 cores) on Intel 3rd Generation Xeon (Ice Lake) 2.20 GHz CPUs or better with firmware tuned for maximum performance.
  • Set the reserved cpuset to include both hyperthread siblings for each included core. Unreserved cores are available as allocatable CPU for scheduling workloads. Ensure that hyperthread siblings are not split across reserved and isolated cores.
  • Configure reserved and isolated CPUs to include all threads in all cores based on what you have set as reserved and isolated CPUs.
  • Set core 0 of each NUMA node to be included in the reserved CPU set.
  • Set the huge page size to 1G.
Note

You should not add additional workloads to the management partition. Only those pods which are part of the OpenShift management platform should be annotated into the management partition.

Engineering considerations
  • You should use the RT kernel to meet performance requirements.

    Note

    You can use the non-RT kernel if required.

  • The number of huge pages that you configure depends on the application workload requirements. Variation in this parameter is expected and allowed.
  • Variation is expected in the configuration of reserved and isolated CPU sets based on selected hardware and additional components in use on the system. Variation must still meet the specified limits.
  • Hardware without IRQ affinity support impacts isolated CPUs. To ensure that pods with guaranteed whole CPU QoS have full use of the allocated CPU, all hardware in the server must support IRQ affinity. For more information, see About support of IRQ affinity setting.
Important

cgroup v1 is a deprecated feature. Deprecated functionality is still included in OpenShift Container Platform and continues to be supported; however, it will be removed in a future release of this product and is not recommended for new deployments.

For the most recent list of major functionality that has been deprecated or removed within OpenShift Container Platform, refer to the Deprecated and removed features section of the OpenShift Container Platform release notes.

2.2.3.3. PTP Operator
New in this release
  • Configuring linuxptp services as grandmaster clock (T-GM) for dual Intel E810 Westport Channel NICs is now a generally available feature.
  • You can configure the linuxptp services ptp4l and phc2sys as a highly available (HA) system clock for dual PTP boundary clocks (T-BC).
Description

See PTP timing for details of support and configuration of PTP in cluster nodes. The DU node can run in the following modes:

  • As an ordinary clock (OC) synced to a grandmaster clock or boundary clock (T-BC)
  • As a grandmaster clock synced from GPS with support for single or dual card E810 Westport Channel NICs.
  • As dual boundary clocks (one per NIC) with support for E810 Westport Channel NICs
  • Allow for High Availability of the system clock when there are multiple time sources on different NICs.
  • Optional: as a boundary clock for radio units (RUs)

Events and metrics for grandmaster clocks are a Tech Preview feature added in the 4.14 telco RAN DU RDS. For more information see Using the PTP hardware fast event notifications framework.

You can subscribe applications to PTP events that happen on the node where the DU application is running.

Limits and requirements
  • Limited to two boundary clocks for dual NIC and HA
  • Limited to two WPC card configuration for T-GM
Engineering considerations
  • Configurations are provided for ordinary clock, boundary clock, grandmaster clock, or PTP-HA
  • PTP fast event notifications uses ConfigMap CRs to store PTP event subscriptions
  • Use Intel E810-XXV-4T Westport Channel NICs for PTP grandmaster clocks with GPS timing, minimum firmware version 4.40
2.2.3.4. SR-IOV Operator
New in this release
  • With this release, you can use the SR-IOV Network Operator to configure QinQ (802.1ad and 802.1q) tagging. QinQ tagging provides efficient traffic management by enabling the use of both inner and outer VLAN tags. Outer VLAN tagging is hardware accelerated, leading to faster network performance. The update extends beyond the SR-IOV Network Operator itself. You can now configure QinQ on externally managed VFs by setting the outer VLAN tag using nmstate. QinQ support varies across different NICs. For a comprehensive list of known limitations for specific NIC models, see Configuring QinQ support for SR-IOV enabled workloads in the Additional resources section.
  • With this release, you can configure the SR-IOV Network Operator to drain nodes in parallel during network policy updates, dramatically accelerating the setup process. This translates to significant time savings, especially for large cluster deployments that previously took hours or even days to complete.
Description
The SR-IOV Operator provisions and configures the SR-IOV CNI and device plugins. Both netdevice (kernel VFs) and vfio (DPDK) devices are supported.
Limits and requirements
  • Use OpenShift Container Platform supported devices
  • SR-IOV and IOMMU enablement in BIOS: The SR-IOV Network Operator will automatically enable IOMMU on the kernel command line.
  • SR-IOV VFs do not receive link state updates from the PF. If link down detection is needed you must configure this at the protocol level.
  • You can apply multi-network policies on netdevice drivers types only. Multi-network policies require the iptables tool, which cannot manage vfio driver types.
Engineering considerations
  • SR-IOV interfaces with the vfio driver type are typically used to enable additional secondary networks for applications that require high throughput or low latency.
  • Customer variation on the configuration and number of SriovNetwork and SriovNetworkNodePolicy custom resources (CRs) is expected.
  • IOMMU kernel command line settings are applied with a MachineConfig CR at install time. This ensures that the SriovOperator CR does not cause a reboot of the node when adding them.
  • SR-IOV support for draining nodes in parallel is not applicable in a single-node OpenShift cluster.
  • If you exclude the SriovOperatorConfig CR from your deployment, the CR will not be created automatically.
  • In scenarios where you pin or restrict workloads to specific nodes, the SR-IOV parallel node drain feature will not result in the rescheduling of pods. In these scenarios, the SR-IOV Operator disables the parallel node drain functionality.
2.2.3.5. Logging
New in this release
  • No reference design updates in this release
Description
Use logging to collect logs from the far edge node for remote analysis. The recommended log collector is Vector.
Engineering considerations
  • Handling logs beyond the infrastructure and audit logs, for example, from the application workload requires additional CPU and network bandwidth based on additional logging rate.
  • As of OpenShift Container Platform 4.14, Vector is the reference log collector.

    Note

    Use of fluentd in the RAN use model is deprecated.

2.2.3.6. SRIOV-FEC Operator
New in this release
  • No reference design updates in this release
Description
SRIOV-FEC Operator is an optional 3rd party Certified Operator supporting FEC accelerator hardware.
Limits and requirements
  • Starting with FEC Operator v2.7.0:

    • SecureBoot is supported
    • The vfio driver for the PF requires the usage of vfio-token that is injected into Pods. Applications in the pod can pass the VF token to DPDK by using the EAL parameter --vfio-vf-token.
Engineering considerations
  • The SRIOV-FEC Operator uses CPU cores from the isolated CPU set.
  • You can validate FEC readiness as part of the pre-checks for application deployment, for example, by extending the validation policy.
2.2.3.7. Local Storage Operator
New in this release
  • No reference design updates in this release
Description
You can create persistent volumes that can be used as PVC resources by applications with the Local Storage Operator. The number and type of PV resources that you create depends on your requirements.
Engineering considerations
  • Create backing storage for PV CRs before creating the PV. This can be a partition, a local volume, LVM volume, or full disk.
  • Refer to the device listing in LocalVolume CRs by the hardware path used to access each device to ensure correct allocation of disks and partitions. Logical names (for example, /dev/sda) are not guaranteed to be consistent across node reboots.

    For more information, see the RHEL 9 documentation on device identifiers.

2.2.3.8. LVMS Operator
New in this release
  • No reference design updates in this release
Note

LVMS Operator is an optional component.

When you use the LVMS Operator as the storage solution, it replaces the Local Storage Operator, and the CPU required will be assigned to the management partition as platform overhead. The reference configuration must include one of these storage solutions but not both.

Description

The LVMS Operator provides dynamic provisioning of block and file storage. The LVMS Operator creates logical volumes from local devices that can be used as PVC resources by applications. Volume expansion and snapshots are also possible.

The following example configuration creates a vg1 volume group that leverages all available disks on the node except the installation disk:

StorageLVMCluster.yaml

apiVersion: lvm.topolvm.io/v1alpha1
kind: LVMCluster
metadata:
  name: storage-lvmcluster
  namespace: openshift-storage
  annotations:
    ran.openshift.io/ztp-deploy-wave: "10"
spec:
  storage:
    deviceClasses:
    - name: vg1
      thinPoolConfig:
        name: thin-pool-1
        sizePercent: 90
        overprovisionRatio: 10

Limits and requirements
  • In single-node OpenShift clusters, persistent storage must be provided by either LVMS or local storage, not both.
Engineering considerations
  • Ensure that sufficient disks or partitions are available for storage requirements.
2.2.3.9. Workload partitioning
New in this release
  • No reference design updates in this release
Description

Workload partitioning pins OpenShift platform and Day 2 Operator pods that are part of the DU profile to the reserved cpuset and removes the reserved CPU from node accounting. This leaves all unreserved CPU cores available for user workloads.

The method of enabling and configuring workload partitioning changed in OpenShift Container Platform 4.14.

4.14 and later
  • Configure partitions by setting installation parameters:

    cpuPartitioningMode: AllNodes
  • Configure management partition cores with the reserved CPU set in the PerformanceProfile CR
4.13 and earlier
  • Configure partitions with extra MachineConfiguration CRs applied at install-time
Limits and requirements
  • Namespace and Pod CRs must be annotated to allow the pod to be applied to the management partition
  • Pods with CPU limits cannot be allocated to the partition. This is because mutation can change the pod QoS.
  • For more information about the minimum number of CPUs that can be allocated to the management partition, see Node Tuning Operator.
Engineering considerations
  • Workload Partitioning pins all management pods to reserved cores. A sufficient number of cores must be allocated to the reserved set to account for operating system, management pods, and expected spikes in CPU use that occur when the workload starts, the node reboots, or other system events happen.
2.2.3.10. Cluster tuning
New in this release
  • No reference design updates in this release
Description
See the section Cluster capabilities section for a full list of optional components that you enable or disable before installation.
Limits and requirements
  • Cluster capabilities are not available for installer-provisioned installation methods.
  • You must apply all platform tuning configurations. The following table lists the required platform tuning configurations:

    Table 2.2. Cluster capabilities configurations
    FeatureDescription

    Remove optional cluster capabilities

    Reduce the OpenShift Container Platform footprint by disabling optional cluster Operators on single-node OpenShift clusters only.

    • Remove all optional Operators except the Marketplace and Node Tuning Operators.

    Configure cluster monitoring

    Configure the monitoring stack for reduced footprint by doing the following:

    • Disable the local alertmanager and telemeter components.
    • If you use RHACM observability, the CR must be augmented with appropriate additionalAlertManagerConfigs CRs to forward alerts to the hub cluster.
    • Reduce the Prometheus retention period to 24h.

      Note

      The RHACM hub cluster aggregates managed cluster metrics.

    Disable networking diagnostics

    Disable networking diagnostics for single-node OpenShift because they are not required.

    Configure a single OperatorHub catalog source

    Configure the cluster to use a single catalog source that contains only the Operators required for a RAN DU deployment. Each catalog source increases the CPU use on the cluster. Using a single CatalogSource fits within the platform CPU budget.

Engineering considerations
  • In this release, OpenShift Container Platform deployments use Control Groups version 2 (cgroup v2) by default. As a consequence, performance profiles in a cluster use cgroups v2 for the underlying resource management layer. If workloads running on the cluster require cgroups v1, you can configure nodes to use cgroups v1. You can make this configuration as part of the initial cluster deployment.
2.2.3.11. Machine configuration
New in this release
  • No reference design updates in this release
Limits and requirements
  • The CRI-O wipe disable MachineConfig assumes that images on disk are static other than during scheduled maintenance in defined maintenance windows. To ensure the images are static, do not set the pod imagePullPolicy field to Always.

    Table 2.3. Machine configuration options
    FeatureDescription

    Container runtime

    Sets the container runtime to crun for all node roles.

    kubelet config and container mount hiding

    Reduces the frequency of kubelet housekeeping and eviction monitoring to reduce CPU usage. Create a container mount namespace, visible to kubelet and CRI-O, to reduce system mount scanning resource usage.

    SCTP

    Optional configuration (enabled by default) Enables SCTP. SCTP is required by RAN applications but disabled by default in RHCOS.

    kdump

    Optional configuration (enabled by default) Enables kdump to capture debug information when a kernel panic occurs.

    CRI-O wipe disable

    Disables automatic wiping of the CRI-O image cache after unclean shutdown.

    SR-IOV-related kernel arguments

    Includes additional SR-IOV related arguments in the kernel command line.

    RCU Normal systemd service

    Sets rcu_normal after the system is fully started.

    One-shot time sync

    Runs a one-time system time synchronization job for control plane or worker nodes.

2.2.3.12. Lifecycle Agent
New in this release
  • Use the Lifecycle Agent to enable image-based upgrades for single-node OpenShift clusters.
Description
The Lifecycle Agent provides local lifecycle management services for single-node OpenShift clusters.
Limits and requirements
  • The Lifecycle Agent is not applicable in multi-node clusters or single-node OpenShift clusters with an additional worker.
  • Requires a persistent volume.
2.2.3.13. Reference design deployment components

The following sections describe the various OpenShift Container Platform components and configurations that you use to configure the hub cluster with Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management (RHACM).

2.2.3.13.1. Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management (RHACM)
New in this release
  • You can now use PolicyGenerator resources and Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management (RHACM) to deploy polices for managed clusters with GitOps ZTP. This is a Technology Preview feature.
Description

RHACM provides Multi Cluster Engine (MCE) installation and ongoing lifecycle management functionality for deployed clusters. You declaratively specify configurations and upgrades with Policy CRs and apply the policies to clusters with the RHACM policy controller as managed by Topology Aware Lifecycle Manager.

  • GitOps Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP) uses the MCE feature of RHACM
  • Configuration, upgrades, and cluster status are managed with the RHACM policy controller

During installation RHACM can apply labels to individual nodes as configured in the SiteConfig custom resource (CR).

Limits and requirements
  • A single hub cluster supports up to 3500 deployed single-node OpenShift clusters with 5 Policy CRs bound to each cluster.
Engineering considerations
  • Use RHACM policy hub-side templating to better scale cluster configuration. You can significantly reduce the number of policies by using a single group policy or small number of general group policies where the group and per-cluster values are substituted into templates.
  • Cluster specific configuration: managed clusters typically have some number of configuration values that are specific to the individual cluster. These configurations should be managed using RHACM policy hub-side templating with values pulled from ConfigMap CRs based on the cluster name.
  • To save CPU resources on managed clusters, policies that apply static configurations should be unbound from managed clusters after GitOps ZTP installation of the cluster.
2.2.3.13.2. Topology Aware Lifecycle Manager (TALM)
New in this release
  • No reference design updates in this release
Description
Managed updates

TALM is an Operator that runs only on the hub cluster for managing how changes (including cluster and Operator upgrades, configuration, and so on) are rolled out to the network. TALM does the following:

  • Progressively applies updates to fleets of clusters in user-configurable batches by using Policy CRs.
  • Adds ztp-done labels or other user configurable labels on a per-cluster basis
Precaching for single-node OpenShift clusters

TALM supports optional precaching of OpenShift Container Platform, OLM Operator, and additional user images to single-node OpenShift clusters before initiating an upgrade.

  • A PreCachingConfig custom resource is available for specifying optional pre-caching configurations. For example:

    apiVersion: ran.openshift.io/v1alpha1
    kind: PreCachingConfig
    metadata:
      name: example-config
      namespace: example-ns
    spec:
      additionalImages:
        - quay.io/foobar/application1@sha256:3d5800990dee7cd4727d3fe238a97e2d2976d3808fc925ada29c559a47e2e
        - quay.io/foobar/application2@sha256:3d5800123dee7cd4727d3fe238a97e2d2976d3808fc925ada29c559a47adf
        - quay.io/foobar/applicationN@sha256:4fe1334adfafadsf987123adfffdaf1243340adfafdedga0991234afdadfs
      spaceRequired: 45 GiB 1
      overrides:
        preCacheImage: quay.io/test_images/pre-cache:latest
        platformImage: quay.io/openshift-release-dev/ocp-release@sha256:3d5800990dee7cd4727d3fe238a97e2d2976d3808fc925ada29c559a47e2e
      operatorsIndexes:
        - registry.example.com:5000/custom-redhat-operators:1.0.0
      operatorsPackagesAndChannels:
        - local-storage-operator: stable
        - ptp-operator: stable
        - sriov-network-operator: stable
      excludePrecachePatterns: 2
        - aws
        - vsphere
    1 1
    Configurable space-required parameter allows you to validate before and after pre-caching storage space
    2
    Configurable filtering allows exclusion of unused images
Limits and requirements
  • TALM supports concurrent cluster deployment in batches of 400
  • Precaching and backup features are for single-node OpenShift clusters only.
Engineering considerations
  • The PreCachingConfig CR is optional and does not need to be created if you just wants to precache platform related (OpenShift and OLM Operator) images. The PreCachingConfig CR must be applied before referencing it in the ClusterGroupUpgrade CR.
2.2.3.13.3. GitOps and GitOps ZTP plugins
New in this release
  • No reference design updates in this release
Description

GitOps and GitOps ZTP plugins provide a GitOps-based infrastructure for managing cluster deployment and configuration. Cluster definitions and configurations are maintained as a declarative state in Git. ZTP plugins provide support for generating installation CRs from the SiteConfig CR and automatic wrapping of configuration CRs in policies based on PolicyGenTemplate CRs.

You can deploy and manage multiple versions of OpenShift Container Platform on managed clusters using the baseline reference configuration CRs. You can also use custom CRs alongside the baseline CRs.

Limits
  • 300 SiteConfig CRs per ArgoCD application. You can use multiple applications to achieve the maximum number of clusters supported by a single hub cluster.
  • Content in the /source-crs folder in Git overrides content provided in the GitOps ZTP plugin container. Git takes precedence in the search path.
  • Add the /source-crs folder in the same directory as the kustomization.yaml file, which includes the PolicyGenTemplate as a generator.

    Note

    Alternative locations for the /source-crs directory are not supported in this context.

Engineering considerations
  • To avoid confusion or unintentional overwriting of files when updating content, use unique and distinguishable names for user-provided CRs in the /source-crs folder and extra manifests in Git.
  • The SiteConfig CR allows multiple extra-manifest paths. When files with the same name are found in multiple directory paths, the last file found takes precedence. This allows you to put the full set of version-specific Day 0 manifests (extra-manifests) in Git and reference them from the SiteConfig CR. With this feature, you can deploy multiple OpenShift Container Platform versions to managed clusters simultaneously.
  • The extraManifestPath field of the SiteConfig CR is deprecated from OpenShift Container Platform 4.15 and later. Use the new extraManifests.searchPaths field instead.
2.2.3.13.4. Agent-based installer
New in this release
  • No reference design updates in this release
Description

Agent-based installer (ABI) provides installation capabilities without centralized infrastructure. The installation program creates an ISO image that you mount to the server. When the server boots it installs OpenShift Container Platform and supplied extra manifests.

Note

You can also use ABI to install OpenShift Container Platform clusters without a hub cluster. An image registry is still required when you use ABI in this manner.

Agent-based installer (ABI) is an optional component.

Limits and requirements
  • You can supply a limited set of additional manifests at installation time.
  • You must include MachineConfiguration CRs that are required by the RAN DU use case.
Engineering considerations
  • ABI provides a baseline OpenShift Container Platform installation.
  • You install Day 2 Operators and the remainder of the RAN DU use case configurations after installation.

2.2.4. Telco RAN distributed unit (DU) reference configuration CRs

Use the following custom resources (CRs) to configure and deploy OpenShift Container Platform clusters with the telco RAN DU profile. Some of the CRs are optional depending on your requirements. CR fields you can change are annotated in the CR with YAML comments.

Note

You can extract the complete set of RAN DU CRs from the ztp-site-generate container image. See Preparing the GitOps ZTP site configuration repository for more information.

2.2.4.1. Day 2 Operators reference CRs
Table 2.4. Day 2 Operators CRs
ComponentReference CROptionalNew in this release

Cluster logging

ClusterLogForwarder.yaml

No

No

Cluster logging

ClusterLogging.yaml

No

No

Cluster logging

ClusterLogNS.yaml

No

No

Cluster logging

ClusterLogOperGroup.yaml

No

No

Cluster logging

ClusterLogSubscription.yaml

No

No

Lifecycle Agent

ImageBasedUpgrade.yaml

Yes

Yes

Lifecycle Agent

LcaSubscription.yaml

Yes

Yes

Lifecycle Agent

LcaSubscriptionNS.yaml

Yes

Yes

Lifecycle Agent

LcaSubscriptionOperGroup.yaml

Yes

Yes

Local Storage Operator

StorageClass.yaml

Yes

No

Local Storage Operator

StorageLV.yaml

Yes

No

Local Storage Operator

StorageNS.yaml

Yes

No

Local Storage Operator

StorageOperGroup.yaml

Yes

No

Local Storage Operator

StorageSubscription.yaml

Yes

No

LVM Storage

LVMOperatorStatus.yaml

No

Yes

LVM Storage

StorageLVMCluster.yaml

No

Yes

LVM Storage

StorageLVMSubscription.yaml

No

Yes

LVM Storage

StorageLVMSubscriptionNS.yaml

No

Yes

LVM Storage

StorageLVMSubscriptionOperGroup.yaml

No

Yes

Node Tuning Operator

PerformanceProfile.yaml

No

No

Node Tuning Operator

TunedPerformancePatch.yaml

No

No

PTP fast event notifications

PtpConfigBoundaryForEvent.yaml

Yes

Yes

PTP fast event notifications

PtpConfigForHAForEvent.yaml

Yes

Yes

PTP fast event notifications

PtpConfigMasterForEvent.yaml

Yes

Yes

PTP fast event notifications

PtpConfigSlaveForEvent.yaml

Yes

Yes

PTP fast event notifications

PtpOperatorConfigForEvent.yaml

Yes

No

PTP Operator

PtpConfigBoundary.yaml

No

No

PTP Operator

PtpConfigDualCardGmWpc.yaml

No

No

PTP Operator

PtpConfigForHA.yaml

No

Yes

PTP Operator

PtpConfigGmWpc.yaml

No

No

PTP Operator

PtpConfigSlave.yaml

No

No

PTP Operator

PtpSubscription.yaml

No

No

PTP Operator

PtpSubscriptionNS.yaml

No

No

PTP Operator

PtpSubscriptionOperGroup.yaml

No

No

SR-IOV FEC Operator

AcceleratorsNS.yaml

Yes

No

SR-IOV FEC Operator

AcceleratorsOperGroup.yaml

Yes

No

SR-IOV FEC Operator

AcceleratorsSubscription.yaml

Yes

No

SR-IOV FEC Operator

SriovFecClusterConfig.yaml

Yes

No

SR-IOV Operator

SriovNetwork.yaml

No

No

SR-IOV Operator

SriovNetworkNodePolicy.yaml

No

No

SR-IOV Operator

SriovOperatorConfig.yaml

No

No

SR-IOV Operator

SriovOperatorConfigForSNO.yaml

No

Yes

SR-IOV Operator

SriovSubscription.yaml

No

No

SR-IOV Operator

SriovSubscriptionNS.yaml

No

No

SR-IOV Operator

SriovSubscriptionOperGroup.yaml

No

No

2.2.4.2. Cluster tuning reference CRs
Table 2.5. Cluster tuning CRs
ComponentReference CROptionalNew in this release

Cluster capabilities

example-sno.yaml

No

No

Disabling network diagnostics

DisableSnoNetworkDiag.yaml

No

No

Monitoring configuration

ReduceMonitoringFootprint.yaml

No

No

OperatorHub

09-openshift-marketplace-ns.yaml

No

No

OperatorHub

DefaultCatsrc.yaml

No

No

OperatorHub

DisableOLMPprof.yaml

No

No

OperatorHub

DisconnectedICSP.yaml

No

No

OperatorHub

OperatorHub.yaml

Yes

No

2.2.4.3. Machine configuration reference CRs
Table 2.6. Machine configuration CRs
ComponentReference CROptionalNew in this release

Container runtime (crun)

enable-crun-master.yaml

No

No

Container runtime (crun)

enable-crun-worker.yaml

No

No

Disabling CRI-O wipe

99-crio-disable-wipe-master.yaml

No

No

Disabling CRI-O wipe

99-crio-disable-wipe-worker.yaml

No

No

Enabling kdump

06-kdump-master.yaml

No

No

Enabling kdump

06-kdump-worker.yaml

No

No

Kubelet configuration and container mount hiding

01-container-mount-ns-and-kubelet-conf-master.yaml

No

No

Kubelet configuration and container mount hiding

01-container-mount-ns-and-kubelet-conf-worker.yaml

No

No

One-shot time sync

99-sync-time-once-master.yaml

No

No

One-shot time sync

99-sync-time-once-worker.yaml

No

No

SCTP

03-sctp-machine-config-master.yaml

No

No

SCTP

03-sctp-machine-config-worker.yaml

No

No

Set RCU Normal

08-set-rcu-normal-master.yaml

No

No

Set RCU Normal

08-set-rcu-normal-worker.yaml

No

No

SR-IOV related kernel arguments

07-sriov-related-kernel-args-master.yaml

No

Yes

SR-IOV related kernel arguments

07-sriov-related-kernel-args-worker.yaml

No

No

2.2.4.4. YAML reference

The following is a complete reference for all the custom resources (CRs) that make up the telco RAN DU 4.17 reference configuration.

2.2.4.4.1. Day 2 Operators reference YAML

ClusterLogForwarder.yaml

apiVersion: "observability.openshift.io/v1"
kind: ClusterLogForwarder
metadata:
  name: instance
  namespace: openshift-logging
  annotations: {}
spec:
  # outputs: $outputs
  # pipelines: $pipelines
  serviceAccount:
    name: log6collector
#apiVersion: "observability.openshift.io/v1"
#kind: ClusterLogForwarder
#metadata:
#  name: instance
#  namespace: openshift-logging
# spec:
#   outputs:
#   - type: "kafka"
#     name: kafka-open
#     # below url is an example
#     kafka:
#       url: tcp://10.46.55.190:9092/test
#   filters:
#   - name: test-labels
#     type: openshiftLabels
#     openshiftLabels:
#       label1: test1
#       label2: test2
#       label3: test3
#       label4: test4
#   pipelines:
#   - name: all-to-default
#     inputRefs:
#     - audit
#     - infrastructure
#     filterRefs:
#     - test-labels
#     outputRefs:
#     - kafka-open
#   serviceAccount:
#     name: log6collector

ClusterLogging.yaml

apiVersion: logging.openshift.io/v1
kind: ClusterLogging
metadata:
  name: instance
  namespace: openshift-logging
  annotations: {}
spec:
  managementState: "Managed"
  collection:
    type: "vector"

ClusterLogNS.yaml

---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: openshift-logging
  annotations:
    workload.openshift.io/allowed: management

ClusterLogOperGroup.yaml

---
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1
kind: OperatorGroup
metadata:
  name: cluster-logging
  namespace: openshift-logging
  annotations: {}
spec:
  targetNamespaces:
    - openshift-logging

ClusterLogSubscription.yaml

apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: Subscription
metadata:
  name: cluster-logging
  namespace: openshift-logging
  annotations: {}
spec:
  channel: "stable-6.0"
  name: cluster-logging
  source: redhat-operators-disconnected
  sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace
  installPlanApproval: Manual
status:
  state: AtLatestKnown

ImageBasedUpgrade.yaml

apiVersion: lca.openshift.io/v1
kind: ImageBasedUpgrade
metadata:
  name: upgrade
spec:
  stage: Idle
  # When setting `stage: Prep`, remember to add the seed image reference object below.
  # seedImageRef:
  #   image: $image
  #   version: $version

LcaSubscription.yaml

apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: Subscription
metadata:
  name: lifecycle-agent
  namespace: openshift-lifecycle-agent
  annotations: {}
spec:
  channel: "stable"
  name: lifecycle-agent
  source: redhat-operators-disconnected
  sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace
  installPlanApproval: Manual
status:
  state: AtLatestKnown

LcaSubscriptionNS.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: openshift-lifecycle-agent
  annotations:
    workload.openshift.io/allowed: management
  labels:
    kubernetes.io/metadata.name: openshift-lifecycle-agent

LcaSubscriptionOperGroup.yaml

apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1
kind: OperatorGroup
metadata:
  name: lifecycle-agent
  namespace: openshift-lifecycle-agent
  annotations: {}
spec:
  targetNamespaces:
    - openshift-lifecycle-agent

StorageClass.yaml

apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
kind: StorageClass
metadata:
  annotations: {}
  name: example-storage-class
provisioner: kubernetes.io/no-provisioner
reclaimPolicy: Delete

StorageLV.yaml

apiVersion: "local.storage.openshift.io/v1"
kind: "LocalVolume"
metadata:
  name: "local-disks"
  namespace: "openshift-local-storage"
  annotations: {}
spec:
  logLevel: Normal
  managementState: Managed
  storageClassDevices:
    # The list of storage classes and associated devicePaths need to be specified like this example:
    - storageClassName: "example-storage-class"
      volumeMode: Filesystem
      fsType: xfs
      # The below must be adjusted to the hardware.
      # For stability and reliability, it's recommended to use persistent
      # naming conventions for devicePaths, such as /dev/disk/by-path.
      devicePaths:
        - /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:05:00.0-nvme-1
#---
## How to verify
## 1. Create a PVC
# apiVersion: v1
# kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
# metadata:
#   name: local-pvc-name
# spec:
#   accessModes:
#   - ReadWriteOnce
#   volumeMode: Filesystem
#   resources:
#     requests:
#       storage: 100Gi
#   storageClassName: example-storage-class
#---
## 2. Create a pod that mounts it
# apiVersion: v1
# kind: Pod
# metadata:
#   labels:
#     run: busybox
#   name: busybox
# spec:
#   containers:
#   - image: quay.io/quay/busybox:latest
#     name: busybox
#     resources: {}
#     command: ["/bin/sh", "-c", "sleep infinity"]
#     volumeMounts:
#     - name: local-pvc
#       mountPath: /data
#   volumes:
#   - name: local-pvc
#     persistentVolumeClaim:
#       claimName: local-pvc-name
#   dnsPolicy: ClusterFirst
#   restartPolicy: Always
## 3. Run the pod on the cluster and verify the size and access of the `/data` mount

StorageNS.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: openshift-local-storage
  annotations:
    workload.openshift.io/allowed: management

StorageOperGroup.yaml

apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1
kind: OperatorGroup
metadata:
  name: openshift-local-storage
  namespace: openshift-local-storage
  annotations: {}
spec:
  targetNamespaces:
    - openshift-local-storage

StorageSubscription.yaml

apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: Subscription
metadata:
  name: local-storage-operator
  namespace: openshift-local-storage
  annotations: {}
spec:
  channel: "stable"
  name: local-storage-operator
  source: redhat-operators-disconnected
  sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace
  installPlanApproval: Manual
status:
  state: AtLatestKnown

LVMOperatorStatus.yaml

# This CR verifies the installation/upgrade of the Sriov Network Operator
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1
kind: Operator
metadata:
  name: lvms-operator.openshift-storage
  annotations: {}
status:
  components:
    refs:
      - kind: Subscription
        namespace: openshift-storage
        conditions:
          - type: CatalogSourcesUnhealthy
            status: "False"
      - kind: InstallPlan
        namespace: openshift-storage
        conditions:
          - type: Installed
            status: "True"
      - kind: ClusterServiceVersion
        namespace: openshift-storage
        conditions:
          - type: Succeeded
            status: "True"
            reason: InstallSucceeded

StorageLVMCluster.yaml

apiVersion: lvm.topolvm.io/v1alpha1
kind: LVMCluster
metadata:
  name: lvmcluster
  namespace: openshift-storage
  annotations: {}
spec: {}
#example: creating a vg1 volume group leveraging all available disks on the node
#         except the installation disk.
#  storage:
#    deviceClasses:
#    - name: vg1
#      thinPoolConfig:
#        name: thin-pool-1
#        sizePercent: 90
#        overprovisionRatio: 10

StorageLVMSubscription.yaml

apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: Subscription
metadata:
  name: lvms-operator
  namespace: openshift-storage
  annotations: {}
spec:
  channel: "stable"
  name: lvms-operator
  source: redhat-operators-disconnected
  sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace
  installPlanApproval: Manual
status:
  state: AtLatestKnown

StorageLVMSubscriptionNS.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: openshift-storage
  labels:
    workload.openshift.io/allowed: "management"
    openshift.io/cluster-monitoring: "true"
  annotations: {}

StorageLVMSubscriptionOperGroup.yaml

apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1
kind: OperatorGroup
metadata:
  name: lvms-operator-operatorgroup
  namespace: openshift-storage
  annotations: {}
spec:
  targetNamespaces:
    - openshift-storage

PerformanceProfile.yaml

apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2
kind: PerformanceProfile
metadata:
  # if you change this name make sure the 'include' line in TunedPerformancePatch.yaml
  # matches this name: include=openshift-node-performance-${PerformanceProfile.metadata.name}
  # Also in file 'validatorCRs/informDuValidator.yaml':
  # name: 50-performance-${PerformanceProfile.metadata.name}
  name: openshift-node-performance-profile
  annotations:
    ran.openshift.io/reference-configuration: "ran-du.redhat.com"
spec:
  additionalKernelArgs:
    - "rcupdate.rcu_normal_after_boot=0"
    - "efi=runtime"
    - "vfio_pci.enable_sriov=1"
    - "vfio_pci.disable_idle_d3=1"
    - "module_blacklist=irdma"
  cpu:
    isolated: $isolated
    reserved: $reserved
  hugepages:
    defaultHugepagesSize: $defaultHugepagesSize
    pages:
      - size: $size
        count: $count
        node: $node
  machineConfigPoolSelector:
    pools.operator.machineconfiguration.openshift.io/$mcp: ""
  nodeSelector:
    node-role.kubernetes.io/$mcp: ''
  numa:
    topologyPolicy: "restricted"
  # To use the standard (non-realtime) kernel, set enabled to false
  realTimeKernel:
    enabled: true
  workloadHints:
    # WorkloadHints defines the set of upper level flags for different type of workloads.
    # See https://github.com/openshift/cluster-node-tuning-operator/blob/master/docs/performanceprofile/performance_profile.md#workloadhints
    # for detailed descriptions of each item.
    # The configuration below is set for a low latency, performance mode.
    realTime: true
    highPowerConsumption: false
    perPodPowerManagement: false

TunedPerformancePatch.yaml

apiVersion: tuned.openshift.io/v1
kind: Tuned
metadata:
  name: performance-patch
  namespace: openshift-cluster-node-tuning-operator
  annotations: {}
spec:
  profile:
    - name: performance-patch
      # Please note:
      # - The 'include' line must match the associated PerformanceProfile name, following below pattern
      #   include=openshift-node-performance-${PerformanceProfile.metadata.name}
      # - When using the standard (non-realtime) kernel, remove the kernel.timer_migration override from
      #   the [sysctl] section and remove the entire section if it is empty.
      data: |
        [main]
        summary=Configuration changes profile inherited from performance created tuned
        include=openshift-node-performance-openshift-node-performance-profile
        [scheduler]
        group.ice-ptp=0:f:10:*:ice-ptp.*
        group.ice-gnss=0:f:10:*:ice-gnss.*
        group.ice-dplls=0:f:10:*:ice-dplls.*
        [service]
        service.stalld=start,enable
        service.chronyd=stop,disable
  recommend:
    - machineConfigLabels:
        machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: "$mcp"
      priority: 19
      profile: performance-patch

PtpConfigBoundaryForEvent.yaml

apiVersion: ptp.openshift.io/v1
kind: PtpConfig
metadata:
  name: boundary
  namespace: openshift-ptp
  annotations: {}
spec:
  profile:
    - name: "boundary"
      ptp4lOpts: "-2 --summary_interval -4"
      phc2sysOpts: "-a -r -m -n 24 -N 8 -R 16"
      ptpSchedulingPolicy: SCHED_FIFO
      ptpSchedulingPriority: 10
      ptpSettings:
        logReduce: "true"
      ptp4lConf: |
        # The interface name is hardware-specific
        [$iface_slave]
        masterOnly 0
        [$iface_master_1]
        masterOnly 1
        [$iface_master_2]
        masterOnly 1
        [$iface_master_3]
        masterOnly 1
        [global]
        #
        # Default Data Set
        #
        twoStepFlag 1
        slaveOnly 0
        priority1 128
        priority2 128
        domainNumber 24
        #utc_offset 37
        clockClass 248
        clockAccuracy 0xFE
        offsetScaledLogVariance 0xFFFF
        free_running 0
        freq_est_interval 1
        dscp_event 0
        dscp_general 0
        dataset_comparison G.8275.x
        G.8275.defaultDS.localPriority 128
        #
        # Port Data Set
        #
        logAnnounceInterval -3
        logSyncInterval -4
        logMinDelayReqInterval -4
        logMinPdelayReqInterval -4
        announceReceiptTimeout 3
        syncReceiptTimeout 0
        delayAsymmetry 0
        fault_reset_interval -4
        neighborPropDelayThresh 20000000
        masterOnly 0
        G.8275.portDS.localPriority 128
        #
        # Run time options
        #
        assume_two_step 0
        logging_level 6
        path_trace_enabled 0
        follow_up_info 0
        hybrid_e2e 0
        inhibit_multicast_service 0
        net_sync_monitor 0
        tc_spanning_tree 0
        tx_timestamp_timeout 50
        unicast_listen 0
        unicast_master_table 0
        unicast_req_duration 3600
        use_syslog 1
        verbose 0
        summary_interval 0
        kernel_leap 1
        check_fup_sync 0
        clock_class_threshold 135
        #
        # Servo Options
        #
        pi_proportional_const 0.0
        pi_integral_const 0.0
        pi_proportional_scale 0.0
        pi_proportional_exponent -0.3
        pi_proportional_norm_max 0.7
        pi_integral_scale 0.0
        pi_integral_exponent 0.4
        pi_integral_norm_max 0.3
        step_threshold 2.0
        first_step_threshold 0.00002
        max_frequency 900000000
        clock_servo pi
        sanity_freq_limit 200000000
        ntpshm_segment 0
        #
        # Transport options
        #
        transportSpecific 0x0
        ptp_dst_mac 01:1B:19:00:00:00
        p2p_dst_mac 01:80:C2:00:00:0E
        udp_ttl 1
        udp6_scope 0x0E
        uds_address /var/run/ptp4l
        #
        # Default interface options
        #
        clock_type BC
        network_transport L2
        delay_mechanism E2E
        time_stamping hardware
        tsproc_mode filter
        delay_filter moving_median
        delay_filter_length 10
        egressLatency 0
        ingressLatency 0
        boundary_clock_jbod 0
        #
        # Clock description
        #
        productDescription ;;
        revisionData ;;
        manufacturerIdentity 00:00:00
        userDescription ;
        timeSource 0xA0
  recommend:
    - profile: "boundary"
      priority: 4
      match:
        - nodeLabel: "node-role.kubernetes.io/$mcp"

PtpConfigForHAForEvent.yaml

apiVersion: ptp.openshift.io/v1
kind: PtpConfig
metadata:
  name: boundary-ha
  namespace: openshift-ptp
  annotations: {}
spec:
  profile:
    - name: "boundary-ha"
      ptp4lOpts: " "
      phc2sysOpts: "-a -r -m -n 24 -N 8 -R 16"
      ptpSchedulingPolicy: SCHED_FIFO
      ptpSchedulingPriority: 10
      ptpSettings:
        logReduce: "true"
        haProfiles: "$profile1,$profile2"
  recommend:
    - profile: "boundary-ha"
      priority: 4
      match:
        - nodeLabel: "node-role.kubernetes.io/$mcp"

PtpConfigMasterForEvent.yaml

# The grandmaster profile is provided for testing only
# It is not installed on production clusters
apiVersion: ptp.openshift.io/v1
kind: PtpConfig
metadata:
  name: grandmaster
  namespace: openshift-ptp
  annotations: {}
spec:
  profile:
    - name: "grandmaster"
      # The interface name is hardware-specific
      interface: $interface
      ptp4lOpts: "-2 --summary_interval -4"
      phc2sysOpts: "-a -r -m -n 24 -N 8 -R 16"
      ptpSchedulingPolicy: SCHED_FIFO
      ptpSchedulingPriority: 10
      ptpSettings:
        logReduce: "true"
      ptp4lConf: |
        [global]
        #
        # Default Data Set
        #
        twoStepFlag 1
        slaveOnly 0
        priority1 128
        priority2 128
        domainNumber 24
        #utc_offset 37
        clockClass 255
        clockAccuracy 0xFE
        offsetScaledLogVariance 0xFFFF
        free_running 0
        freq_est_interval 1
        dscp_event 0
        dscp_general 0
        dataset_comparison G.8275.x
        G.8275.defaultDS.localPriority 128
        #
        # Port Data Set
        #
        logAnnounceInterval -3
        logSyncInterval -4
        logMinDelayReqInterval -4
        logMinPdelayReqInterval -4
        announceReceiptTimeout 3
        syncReceiptTimeout 0
        delayAsymmetry 0
        fault_reset_interval -4
        neighborPropDelayThresh 20000000
        masterOnly 0
        G.8275.portDS.localPriority 128
        #
        # Run time options
        #
        assume_two_step 0
        logging_level 6
        path_trace_enabled 0
        follow_up_info 0
        hybrid_e2e 0
        inhibit_multicast_service 0
        net_sync_monitor 0
        tc_spanning_tree 0
        tx_timestamp_timeout 50
        unicast_listen 0
        unicast_master_table 0
        unicast_req_duration 3600
        use_syslog 1
        verbose 0
        summary_interval 0
        kernel_leap 1
        check_fup_sync 0
        clock_class_threshold 7
        #
        # Servo Options
        #
        pi_proportional_const 0.0
        pi_integral_const 0.0
        pi_proportional_scale 0.0
        pi_proportional_exponent -0.3
        pi_proportional_norm_max 0.7
        pi_integral_scale 0.0
        pi_integral_exponent 0.4
        pi_integral_norm_max 0.3
        step_threshold 2.0
        first_step_threshold 0.00002
        max_frequency 900000000
        clock_servo pi
        sanity_freq_limit 200000000
        ntpshm_segment 0
        #
        # Transport options
        #
        transportSpecific 0x0
        ptp_dst_mac 01:1B:19:00:00:00
        p2p_dst_mac 01:80:C2:00:00:0E
        udp_ttl 1
        udp6_scope 0x0E
        uds_address /var/run/ptp4l
        #
        # Default interface options
        #
        clock_type OC
        network_transport L2
        delay_mechanism E2E
        time_stamping hardware
        tsproc_mode filter
        delay_filter moving_median
        delay_filter_length 10
        egressLatency 0
        ingressLatency 0
        boundary_clock_jbod 0
        #
        # Clock description
        #
        productDescription ;;
        revisionData ;;
        manufacturerIdentity 00:00:00
        userDescription ;
        timeSource 0xA0
  recommend:
    - profile: "grandmaster"
      priority: 4
      match:
        - nodeLabel: "node-role.kubernetes.io/$mcp"

PtpConfigSlaveForEvent.yaml

apiVersion: ptp.openshift.io/v1
kind: PtpConfig
metadata:
  name: du-ptp-slave
  namespace: openshift-ptp
  annotations: {}
spec:
  profile:
    - name: "slave"
      # The interface name is hardware-specific
      interface: $interface
      ptp4lOpts: "-2 -s --summary_interval -4"
      phc2sysOpts: "-a -r -m -n 24 -N 8 -R 16"
      ptpSchedulingPolicy: SCHED_FIFO
      ptpSchedulingPriority: 10
      ptpSettings:
        logReduce: "true"
      ptp4lConf: |
        [global]
        #
        # Default Data Set
        #
        twoStepFlag 1
        slaveOnly 1
        priority1 128
        priority2 128
        domainNumber 24
        #utc_offset 37
        clockClass 255
        clockAccuracy 0xFE
        offsetScaledLogVariance 0xFFFF
        free_running 0
        freq_est_interval 1
        dscp_event 0
        dscp_general 0
        dataset_comparison G.8275.x
        G.8275.defaultDS.localPriority 128
        #
        # Port Data Set
        #
        logAnnounceInterval -3
        logSyncInterval -4
        logMinDelayReqInterval -4
        logMinPdelayReqInterval -4
        announceReceiptTimeout 3
        syncReceiptTimeout 0
        delayAsymmetry 0
        fault_reset_interval -4
        neighborPropDelayThresh 20000000
        masterOnly 0
        G.8275.portDS.localPriority 128
        #
        # Run time options
        #
        assume_two_step 0
        logging_level 6
        path_trace_enabled 0
        follow_up_info 0
        hybrid_e2e 0
        inhibit_multicast_service 0
        net_sync_monitor 0
        tc_spanning_tree 0
        tx_timestamp_timeout 50
        unicast_listen 0
        unicast_master_table 0
        unicast_req_duration 3600
        use_syslog 1
        verbose 0
        summary_interval 0
        kernel_leap 1
        check_fup_sync 0
        clock_class_threshold 7
        #
        # Servo Options
        #
        pi_proportional_const 0.0
        pi_integral_const 0.0
        pi_proportional_scale 0.0
        pi_proportional_exponent -0.3
        pi_proportional_norm_max 0.7
        pi_integral_scale 0.0
        pi_integral_exponent 0.4
        pi_integral_norm_max 0.3
        step_threshold 2.0
        first_step_threshold 0.00002
        max_frequency 900000000
        clock_servo pi
        sanity_freq_limit 200000000
        ntpshm_segment 0
        #
        # Transport options
        #
        transportSpecific 0x0
        ptp_dst_mac 01:1B:19:00:00:00
        p2p_dst_mac 01:80:C2:00:00:0E
        udp_ttl 1
        udp6_scope 0x0E
        uds_address /var/run/ptp4l
        #
        # Default interface options
        #
        clock_type OC
        network_transport L2
        delay_mechanism E2E
        time_stamping hardware
        tsproc_mode filter
        delay_filter moving_median
        delay_filter_length 10
        egressLatency 0
        ingressLatency 0
        boundary_clock_jbod 0
        #
        # Clock description
        #
        productDescription ;;
        revisionData ;;
        manufacturerIdentity 00:00:00
        userDescription ;
        timeSource 0xA0
  recommend:
    - profile: "slave"
      priority: 4
      match:
        - nodeLabel: "node-role.kubernetes.io/$mcp"

PtpOperatorConfigForEvent.yaml

apiVersion: ptp.openshift.io/v1
kind: PtpOperatorConfig
metadata:
  name: default
  namespace: openshift-ptp
  annotations: {}
spec:
  daemonNodeSelector:
    node-role.kubernetes.io/$mcp: ""
  ptpEventConfig:
    enableEventPublisher: true
    transportHost: "http://ptp-event-publisher-service-NODE_NAME.openshift-ptp.svc.cluster.local:9043"

PtpConfigBoundary.yaml

apiVersion: ptp.openshift.io/v1
kind: PtpConfig
metadata:
  name: boundary
  namespace: openshift-ptp
  annotations: {}
spec:
  profile:
    - name: "boundary"
      ptp4lOpts: "-2"
      phc2sysOpts: "-a -r -n 24"
      ptpSchedulingPolicy: SCHED_FIFO
      ptpSchedulingPriority: 10
      ptpSettings:
        logReduce: "true"
      ptp4lConf: |
        # The interface name is hardware-specific
        [$iface_slave]
        masterOnly 0
        [$iface_master_1]
        masterOnly 1
        [$iface_master_2]
        masterOnly 1
        [$iface_master_3]
        masterOnly 1
        [global]
        #
        # Default Data Set
        #
        twoStepFlag 1
        slaveOnly 0
        priority1 128
        priority2 128
        domainNumber 24
        #utc_offset 37
        clockClass 248
        clockAccuracy 0xFE
        offsetScaledLogVariance 0xFFFF
        free_running 0
        freq_est_interval 1
        dscp_event 0
        dscp_general 0
        dataset_comparison G.8275.x
        G.8275.defaultDS.localPriority 128
        #
        # Port Data Set
        #
        logAnnounceInterval -3
        logSyncInterval -4
        logMinDelayReqInterval -4
        logMinPdelayReqInterval -4
        announceReceiptTimeout 3
        syncReceiptTimeout 0
        delayAsymmetry 0
        fault_reset_interval -4
        neighborPropDelayThresh 20000000
        masterOnly 0
        G.8275.portDS.localPriority 128
        #
        # Run time options
        #
        assume_two_step 0
        logging_level 6
        path_trace_enabled 0
        follow_up_info 0
        hybrid_e2e 0
        inhibit_multicast_service 0
        net_sync_monitor 0
        tc_spanning_tree 0
        tx_timestamp_timeout 50
        unicast_listen 0
        unicast_master_table 0
        unicast_req_duration 3600
        use_syslog 1
        verbose 0
        summary_interval 0
        kernel_leap 1
        check_fup_sync 0
        clock_class_threshold 135
        #
        # Servo Options
        #
        pi_proportional_const 0.0
        pi_integral_const 0.0
        pi_proportional_scale 0.0
        pi_proportional_exponent -0.3
        pi_proportional_norm_max 0.7
        pi_integral_scale 0.0
        pi_integral_exponent 0.4
        pi_integral_norm_max 0.3
        step_threshold 2.0
        first_step_threshold 0.00002
        max_frequency 900000000
        clock_servo pi
        sanity_freq_limit 200000000
        ntpshm_segment 0
        #
        # Transport options
        #
        transportSpecific 0x0
        ptp_dst_mac 01:1B:19:00:00:00
        p2p_dst_mac 01:80:C2:00:00:0E
        udp_ttl 1
        udp6_scope 0x0E
        uds_address /var/run/ptp4l
        #
        # Default interface options
        #
        clock_type BC
        network_transport L2
        delay_mechanism E2E
        time_stamping hardware
        tsproc_mode filter
        delay_filter moving_median
        delay_filter_length 10
        egressLatency 0
        ingressLatency 0
        boundary_clock_jbod 0
        #
        # Clock description
        #
        productDescription ;;
        revisionData ;;
        manufacturerIdentity 00:00:00
        userDescription ;
        timeSource 0xA0
  recommend:
    - profile: "boundary"
      priority: 4
      match:
        - nodeLabel: "node-role.kubernetes.io/$mcp"

PtpConfigDualCardGmWpc.yaml

# The grandmaster profile is provided for testing only
# It is not installed on production clusters
# In this example two cards $iface_nic1 and $iface_nic2 are connected via
# SMA1 ports by a cable and $iface_nic2 receives 1PPS signals from $iface_nic1
apiVersion: ptp.openshift.io/v1
kind: PtpConfig
metadata:
  name: grandmaster
  namespace: openshift-ptp
  annotations: {}
spec:
  profile:
    - name: "grandmaster"
      ptp4lOpts: "-2 --summary_interval -4"
      phc2sysOpts: -r -u 0 -m -w -N 8 -R 16 -s $iface_nic1 -n 24
      ptpSchedulingPolicy: SCHED_FIFO
      ptpSchedulingPriority: 10
      ptpSettings:
        logReduce: "true"
      plugins:
        e810:
          enableDefaultConfig: false
          settings:
            LocalMaxHoldoverOffSet: 1500
            LocalHoldoverTimeout: 14400
            MaxInSpecOffset: 100
          pins: $e810_pins
          #  "$iface_nic1":
          #    "U.FL2": "0 2"
          #    "U.FL1": "0 1"
          #    "SMA2": "0 2"
          #    "SMA1": "2 1"
          #  "$iface_nic2":
          #    "U.FL2": "0 2"
          #    "U.FL1": "0 1"
          #    "SMA2": "0 2"
          #    "SMA1": "1 1"
          ublxCmds:
            - args: #ubxtool -P 29.20 -z CFG-HW-ANT_CFG_VOLTCTRL,1
                - "-P"
                - "29.20"
                - "-z"
                - "CFG-HW-ANT_CFG_VOLTCTRL,1"
              reportOutput: false
            - args: #ubxtool -P 29.20 -e GPS
                - "-P"
                - "29.20"
                - "-e"
                - "GPS"
              reportOutput: false
            - args: #ubxtool -P 29.20 -d Galileo
                - "-P"
                - "29.20"
                - "-d"
                - "Galileo"
              reportOutput: false
            - args: #ubxtool -P 29.20 -d GLONASS
                - "-P"
                - "29.20"
                - "-d"
                - "GLONASS"
              reportOutput: false
            - args: #ubxtool -P 29.20 -d BeiDou
                - "-P"
                - "29.20"
                - "-d"
                - "BeiDou"
              reportOutput: false
            - args: #ubxtool -P 29.20 -d SBAS
                - "-P"
                - "29.20"
                - "-d"
                - "SBAS"
              reportOutput: false
            - args: #ubxtool -P 29.20 -t -w 5 -v 1 -e SURVEYIN,600,50000
                - "-P"
                - "29.20"
                - "-t"
                - "-w"
                - "5"
                - "-v"
                - "1"
                - "-e"
                - "SURVEYIN,600,50000"
              reportOutput: true
            - args: #ubxtool -P 29.20 -p MON-HW
                - "-P"
                - "29.20"
                - "-p"
                - "MON-HW"
              reportOutput: true
            - args: #ubxtool -P 29.20 -p CFG-MSG,1,38,300
                - "-P"
                - "29.20"
                - "-p"
                - "CFG-MSG,1,38,300"
              reportOutput: true
      ts2phcOpts: " "
      ts2phcConf: |
        [nmea]
        ts2phc.master 1
        [global]
        use_syslog  0
        verbose 1
        logging_level 7
        ts2phc.pulsewidth 100000000
        #cat /dev/GNSS to find available serial port
        #example value of gnss_serialport is /dev/ttyGNSS_1700_0
        ts2phc.nmea_serialport $gnss_serialport
        leapfile  /usr/share/zoneinfo/leap-seconds.list
        [$iface_nic1]
        ts2phc.extts_polarity rising
        ts2phc.extts_correction 0
        [$iface_nic2]
        ts2phc.master 0
        ts2phc.extts_polarity rising
        #this is a measured value in nanoseconds to compensate for SMA cable delay
        ts2phc.extts_correction -10
      ptp4lConf: |
        [$iface_nic1]
        masterOnly 1
        [$iface_nic1_1]
        masterOnly 1
        [$iface_nic1_2]
        masterOnly 1
        [$iface_nic1_3]
        masterOnly 1
        [$iface_nic2]
        masterOnly 1
        [$iface_nic2_1]
        masterOnly 1
        [$iface_nic2_2]
        masterOnly 1
        [$iface_nic2_3]
        masterOnly 1
        [global]
        #
        # Default Data Set
        #
        twoStepFlag 1
        priority1 128
        priority2 128
        domainNumber 24
        #utc_offset 37
        clockClass 6
        clockAccuracy 0x27
        offsetScaledLogVariance 0xFFFF
        free_running 0
        freq_est_interval 1
        dscp_event 0
        dscp_general 0
        dataset_comparison G.8275.x
        G.8275.defaultDS.localPriority 128
        #
        # Port Data Set
        #
        logAnnounceInterval -3
        logSyncInterval -4
        logMinDelayReqInterval -4
        logMinPdelayReqInterval 0
        announceReceiptTimeout 3
        syncReceiptTimeout 0
        delayAsymmetry 0
        fault_reset_interval -4
        neighborPropDelayThresh 20000000
        masterOnly 0
        G.8275.portDS.localPriority 128
        #
        # Run time options
        #
        assume_two_step 0
        logging_level 6
        path_trace_enabled 0
        follow_up_info 0
        hybrid_e2e 0
        inhibit_multicast_service 0
        net_sync_monitor 0
        tc_spanning_tree 0
        tx_timestamp_timeout 50
        unicast_listen 0
        unicast_master_table 0
        unicast_req_duration 3600
        use_syslog 1
        verbose 0
        summary_interval -4
        kernel_leap 1
        check_fup_sync 0
        clock_class_threshold 7
        #
        # Servo Options
        #
        pi_proportional_const 0.0
        pi_integral_const 0.0
        pi_proportional_scale 0.0
        pi_proportional_exponent -0.3
        pi_proportional_norm_max 0.7
        pi_integral_scale 0.0
        pi_integral_exponent 0.4
        pi_integral_norm_max 0.3
        step_threshold 2.0
        first_step_threshold 0.00002
        clock_servo pi
        sanity_freq_limit  200000000
        ntpshm_segment 0
        #
        # Transport options
        #
        transportSpecific 0x0
        ptp_dst_mac 01:1B:19:00:00:00
        p2p_dst_mac 01:80:C2:00:00:0E
        udp_ttl 1
        udp6_scope 0x0E
        uds_address /var/run/ptp4l
        #
        # Default interface options
        #
        clock_type BC
        network_transport L2
        delay_mechanism E2E
        time_stamping hardware
        tsproc_mode filter
        delay_filter moving_median
        delay_filter_length 10
        egressLatency 0
        ingressLatency 0
        boundary_clock_jbod 1
        #
        # Clock description
        #
        productDescription ;;
        revisionData ;;
        manufacturerIdentity 00:00:00
        userDescription ;
        timeSource 0x20
  recommend:
    - profile: "grandmaster"
      priority: 4
      match:
        - nodeLabel: "node-role.kubernetes.io/$mcp"

PtpConfigForHA.yaml

apiVersion: ptp.openshift.io/v1
kind: PtpConfig
metadata:
  name: boundary-ha
  namespace: openshift-ptp
  annotations: {}
spec:
  profile:
    - name: "boundary-ha"
      ptp4lOpts: ""
      phc2sysOpts: "-a -r -n 24"
      ptpSchedulingPolicy: SCHED_FIFO
      ptpSchedulingPriority: 10
      ptpSettings:
        logReduce: "true"
        haProfiles: "$profile1,$profile2"
  recommend:
    - profile: "boundary-ha"
      priority: 4
      match:
        - nodeLabel: "node-role.kubernetes.io/$mcp"

PtpConfigGmWpc.yaml

# The grandmaster profile is provided for testing only
# It is not installed on production clusters
apiVersion: ptp.openshift.io/v1
kind: PtpConfig
metadata:
  name: grandmaster
  namespace: openshift-ptp
  annotations: {}
spec:
  profile:
    - name: "grandmaster"
      ptp4lOpts: "-2 --summary_interval -4"
      phc2sysOpts: -r -u 0 -m -w -N 8 -R 16 -s $iface_master -n 24
      ptpSchedulingPolicy: SCHED_FIFO
      ptpSchedulingPriority: 10
      ptpSettings:
        logReduce: "true"
      plugins:
        e810:
          enableDefaultConfig: false
          settings:
            LocalMaxHoldoverOffSet: 1500
            LocalHoldoverTimeout: 14400
            MaxInSpecOffset: 100
          pins: $e810_pins
          #  "$iface_master":
          #    "U.FL2": "0 2"
          #    "U.FL1": "0 1"
          #    "SMA2": "0 2"
          #    "SMA1": "0 1"
          ublxCmds:
            - args: #ubxtool -P 29.20 -z CFG-HW-ANT_CFG_VOLTCTRL,1
                - "-P"
                - "29.20"
                - "-z"
                - "CFG-HW-ANT_CFG_VOLTCTRL,1"
              reportOutput: false
            - args: #ubxtool -P 29.20 -e GPS
                - "-P"
                - "29.20"
                - "-e"
                - "GPS"
              reportOutput: false
            - args: #ubxtool -P 29.20 -d Galileo
                - "-P"
                - "29.20"
                - "-d"
                - "Galileo"
              reportOutput: false
            - args: #ubxtool -P 29.20 -d GLONASS
                - "-P"
                - "29.20"
                - "-d"
                - "GLONASS"
              reportOutput: false
            - args: #ubxtool -P 29.20 -d BeiDou
                - "-P"
                - "29.20"
                - "-d"
                - "BeiDou"
              reportOutput: false
            - args: #ubxtool -P 29.20 -d SBAS
                - "-P"
                - "29.20"
                - "-d"
                - "SBAS"
              reportOutput: false
            - args: #ubxtool -P 29.20 -t -w 5 -v 1 -e SURVEYIN,600,50000
                - "-P"
                - "29.20"
                - "-t"
                - "-w"
                - "5"
                - "-v"
                - "1"
                - "-e"
                - "SURVEYIN,600,50000"
              reportOutput: true
            - args: #ubxtool -P 29.20 -p MON-HW
                - "-P"
                - "29.20"
                - "-p"
                - "MON-HW"
              reportOutput: true
            - args: #ubxtool -P 29.20 -p CFG-MSG,1,38,300
                - "-P"
                - "29.20"
                - "-p"
                - "CFG-MSG,1,38,300"
              reportOutput: true
      ts2phcOpts: " "
      ts2phcConf: |
        [nmea]
        ts2phc.master 1
        [global]
        use_syslog  0
        verbose 1
        logging_level 7
        ts2phc.pulsewidth 100000000
        #cat /dev/GNSS to find available serial port
        #example value of gnss_serialport is /dev/ttyGNSS_1700_0
        ts2phc.nmea_serialport $gnss_serialport
        leapfile  /usr/share/zoneinfo/leap-seconds.list
        [$iface_master]
        ts2phc.extts_polarity rising
        ts2phc.extts_correction 0
      ptp4lConf: |
        [$iface_master]
        masterOnly 1
        [$iface_master_1]
        masterOnly 1
        [$iface_master_2]
        masterOnly 1
        [$iface_master_3]
        masterOnly 1
        [global]
        #
        # Default Data Set
        #
        twoStepFlag 1
        priority1 128
        priority2 128
        domainNumber 24
        #utc_offset 37
        clockClass 6
        clockAccuracy 0x27
        offsetScaledLogVariance 0xFFFF
        free_running 0
        freq_est_interval 1
        dscp_event 0
        dscp_general 0
        dataset_comparison G.8275.x
        G.8275.defaultDS.localPriority 128
        #
        # Port Data Set
        #
        logAnnounceInterval -3
        logSyncInterval -4
        logMinDelayReqInterval -4
        logMinPdelayReqInterval 0
        announceReceiptTimeout 3
        syncReceiptTimeout 0
        delayAsymmetry 0
        fault_reset_interval -4
        neighborPropDelayThresh 20000000
        masterOnly 0
        G.8275.portDS.localPriority 128
        #
        # Run time options
        #
        assume_two_step 0
        logging_level 6
        path_trace_enabled 0
        follow_up_info 0
        hybrid_e2e 0
        inhibit_multicast_service 0
        net_sync_monitor 0
        tc_spanning_tree 0
        tx_timestamp_timeout 50
        unicast_listen 0
        unicast_master_table 0
        unicast_req_duration 3600
        use_syslog 1
        verbose 0
        summary_interval -4
        kernel_leap 1
        check_fup_sync 0
        clock_class_threshold 7
        #
        # Servo Options
        #
        pi_proportional_const 0.0
        pi_integral_const 0.0
        pi_proportional_scale 0.0
        pi_proportional_exponent -0.3
        pi_proportional_norm_max 0.7
        pi_integral_scale 0.0
        pi_integral_exponent 0.4
        pi_integral_norm_max 0.3
        step_threshold 2.0
        first_step_threshold 0.00002
        clock_servo pi
        sanity_freq_limit  200000000
        ntpshm_segment 0
        #
        # Transport options
        #
        transportSpecific 0x0
        ptp_dst_mac 01:1B:19:00:00:00
        p2p_dst_mac 01:80:C2:00:00:0E
        udp_ttl 1
        udp6_scope 0x0E
        uds_address /var/run/ptp4l
        #
        # Default interface options
        #
        clock_type BC
        network_transport L2
        delay_mechanism E2E
        time_stamping hardware
        tsproc_mode filter
        delay_filter moving_median
        delay_filter_length 10
        egressLatency 0
        ingressLatency 0
        boundary_clock_jbod 0
        #
        # Clock description
        #
        productDescription ;;
        revisionData ;;
        manufacturerIdentity 00:00:00
        userDescription ;
        timeSource 0x20
  recommend:
    - profile: "grandmaster"
      priority: 4
      match:
        - nodeLabel: "node-role.kubernetes.io/$mcp"

PtpConfigSlave.yaml

apiVersion: ptp.openshift.io/v1
kind: PtpConfig
metadata:
  name: du-ptp-slave
  namespace: openshift-ptp
  annotations: {}
spec:
  profile:
    - name: "slave"
      # The interface name is hardware-specific
      interface: $interface
      ptp4lOpts: "-2 -s"
      phc2sysOpts: "-a -r -n 24"
      ptpSchedulingPolicy: SCHED_FIFO
      ptpSchedulingPriority: 10
      ptpSettings:
        logReduce: "true"
      ptp4lConf: |
        [global]
        #
        # Default Data Set
        #
        twoStepFlag 1
        slaveOnly 1
        priority1 128
        priority2 128
        domainNumber 24
        #utc_offset 37
        clockClass 255
        clockAccuracy 0xFE
        offsetScaledLogVariance 0xFFFF
        free_running 0
        freq_est_interval 1
        dscp_event 0
        dscp_general 0
        dataset_comparison G.8275.x
        G.8275.defaultDS.localPriority 128
        #
        # Port Data Set
        #
        logAnnounceInterval -3
        logSyncInterval -4
        logMinDelayReqInterval -4
        logMinPdelayReqInterval -4
        announceReceiptTimeout 3
        syncReceiptTimeout 0
        delayAsymmetry 0
        fault_reset_interval -4
        neighborPropDelayThresh 20000000
        masterOnly 0
        G.8275.portDS.localPriority 128
        #
        # Run time options
        #
        assume_two_step 0
        logging_level 6
        path_trace_enabled 0
        follow_up_info 0
        hybrid_e2e 0
        inhibit_multicast_service 0
        net_sync_monitor 0
        tc_spanning_tree 0
        tx_timestamp_timeout 50
        unicast_listen 0
        unicast_master_table 0
        unicast_req_duration 3600
        use_syslog 1
        verbose 0
        summary_interval 0
        kernel_leap 1
        check_fup_sync 0
        clock_class_threshold 7
        #
        # Servo Options
        #
        pi_proportional_const 0.0
        pi_integral_const 0.0
        pi_proportional_scale 0.0
        pi_proportional_exponent -0.3
        pi_proportional_norm_max 0.7
        pi_integral_scale 0.0
        pi_integral_exponent 0.4
        pi_integral_norm_max 0.3
        step_threshold 2.0
        first_step_threshold 0.00002
        max_frequency 900000000
        clock_servo pi
        sanity_freq_limit 200000000
        ntpshm_segment 0
        #
        # Transport options
        #
        transportSpecific 0x0
        ptp_dst_mac 01:1B:19:00:00:00
        p2p_dst_mac 01:80:C2:00:00:0E
        udp_ttl 1
        udp6_scope 0x0E
        uds_address /var/run/ptp4l
        #
        # Default interface options
        #
        clock_type OC
        network_transport L2
        delay_mechanism E2E
        time_stamping hardware
        tsproc_mode filter
        delay_filter moving_median
        delay_filter_length 10
        egressLatency 0
        ingressLatency 0
        boundary_clock_jbod 0
        #
        # Clock description
        #
        productDescription ;;
        revisionData ;;
        manufacturerIdentity 00:00:00
        userDescription ;
        timeSource 0xA0
  recommend:
    - profile: "slave"
      priority: 4
      match:
        - nodeLabel: "node-role.kubernetes.io/$mcp"

PtpSubscription.yaml

---
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: Subscription
metadata:
  name: ptp-operator-subscription
  namespace: openshift-ptp
  annotations: {}
spec:
  channel: "stable"
  name: ptp-operator
  source: redhat-operators-disconnected
  sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace
  installPlanApproval: Manual
status:
  state: AtLatestKnown

PtpSubscriptionNS.yaml

---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: openshift-ptp
  annotations:
    workload.openshift.io/allowed: management
  labels:
    openshift.io/cluster-monitoring: "true"

PtpSubscriptionOperGroup.yaml

apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1
kind: OperatorGroup
metadata:
  name: ptp-operators
  namespace: openshift-ptp
  annotations: {}
spec:
  targetNamespaces:
    - openshift-ptp

AcceleratorsNS.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: vran-acceleration-operators
  annotations: {}

AcceleratorsOperGroup.yaml

apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1
kind: OperatorGroup
metadata:
  name: vran-operators
  namespace: vran-acceleration-operators
  annotations: {}
spec:
  targetNamespaces:
    - vran-acceleration-operators

AcceleratorsSubscription.yaml

apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: Subscription
metadata:
  name: sriov-fec-subscription
  namespace: vran-acceleration-operators
  annotations: {}
spec:
  channel: stable
  name: sriov-fec
  source: certified-operators
  sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace
  installPlanApproval: Manual
status:
  state: AtLatestKnown

SriovFecClusterConfig.yaml

apiVersion: sriovfec.intel.com/v2
kind: SriovFecClusterConfig
metadata:
  name: config
  namespace: vran-acceleration-operators
  annotations: {}
spec:
  drainSkip: $drainSkip # true if SNO, false by default
  priority: 1
  nodeSelector:
    node-role.kubernetes.io/master: ""
  acceleratorSelector:
    pciAddress: $pciAddress
  physicalFunction:
    pfDriver: "vfio-pci"
    vfDriver: "vfio-pci"
    vfAmount: 16
    bbDevConfig: $bbDevConfig
#Recommended configuration for Intel ACC100 (Mount Bryce) FPGA here: https://github.com/smart-edge-open/openshift-operator/blob/main/spec/openshift-sriov-fec-operator.md#sample-cr-for-wireless-fec-acc100
#Recommended configuration for Intel N3000 FPGA here: https://github.com/smart-edge-open/openshift-operator/blob/main/spec/openshift-sriov-fec-operator.md#sample-cr-for-wireless-fec-n3000

SriovNetwork.yaml

apiVersion: sriovnetwork.openshift.io/v1
kind: SriovNetwork
metadata:
  name: ""
  namespace: openshift-sriov-network-operator
  annotations: {}
spec:
  #  resourceName: ""
  networkNamespace: openshift-sriov-network-operator
#  vlan: ""
#  spoofChk: ""
#  ipam: ""
#  linkState: ""
#  maxTxRate: ""
#  minTxRate: ""
#  vlanQoS: ""
#  trust: ""
#  capabilities: ""

SriovNetworkNodePolicy.yaml

apiVersion: sriovnetwork.openshift.io/v1
kind: SriovNetworkNodePolicy
metadata:
  name: $name
  namespace: openshift-sriov-network-operator
  annotations: {}
spec:
  # The attributes for Mellanox/Intel based NICs as below.
  #     deviceType: netdevice/vfio-pci
  #     isRdma: true/false
  deviceType: $deviceType
  isRdma: $isRdma
  nicSelector:
    # The exact physical function name must match the hardware used
    pfNames: [$pfNames]
  nodeSelector:
    node-role.kubernetes.io/$mcp: ""
  numVfs: $numVfs
  priority: $priority
  resourceName: $resourceName

SriovOperatorConfig.yaml

apiVersion: sriovnetwork.openshift.io/v1
kind: SriovOperatorConfig
metadata:
  name: default
  namespace: openshift-sriov-network-operator
  annotations: {}
spec:
  configDaemonNodeSelector:
    "node-role.kubernetes.io/$mcp": ""
  # Injector and OperatorWebhook pods can be disabled (set to "false") below
  # to reduce the number of management pods. It is recommended to start with the
  # webhook and injector pods enabled, and only disable them after verifying the
  # correctness of user manifests.
  #   If the injector is disabled, containers using sr-iov resources must explicitly assign
  #   them in the  "requests"/"limits" section of the container spec, for example:
  #    containers:
  #    - name: my-sriov-workload-container
  #      resources:
  #        limits:
  #          openshift.io/<resource_name>:  "1"
  #        requests:
  #          openshift.io/<resource_name>:  "1"
  enableInjector: false
  enableOperatorWebhook: false
  logLevel: 0

SriovOperatorConfigForSNO.yaml

apiVersion: sriovnetwork.openshift.io/v1
kind: SriovOperatorConfig
metadata:
  name: default
  namespace: openshift-sriov-network-operator
  annotations: {}
spec:
  configDaemonNodeSelector:
    "node-role.kubernetes.io/$mcp": ""
  # Injector and OperatorWebhook pods can be disabled (set to "false") below
  # to reduce the number of management pods. It is recommended to start with the
  # webhook and injector pods enabled, and only disable them after verifying the
  # correctness of user manifests.
  #   If the injector is disabled, containers using sr-iov resources must explicitly assign
  #   them in the  "requests"/"limits" section of the container spec, for example:
  #    containers:
  #    - name: my-sriov-workload-container
  #      resources:
  #        limits:
  #          openshift.io/<resource_name>:  "1"
  #        requests:
  #          openshift.io/<resource_name>:  "1"
  enableInjector: false
  enableOperatorWebhook: false
  # Disable drain is needed for Single Node Openshift
  disableDrain: true
  logLevel: 0

SriovSubscription.yaml

apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: Subscription
metadata:
  name: sriov-network-operator-subscription
  namespace: openshift-sriov-network-operator
  annotations: {}
spec:
  channel: "stable"
  name: sriov-network-operator
  source: redhat-operators-disconnected
  sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace
  installPlanApproval: Manual
status:
  state: AtLatestKnown

SriovSubscriptionNS.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: openshift-sriov-network-operator
  annotations:
    workload.openshift.io/allowed: management

SriovSubscriptionOperGroup.yaml

apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1
kind: OperatorGroup
metadata:
  name: sriov-network-operators
  namespace: openshift-sriov-network-operator
  annotations: {}
spec:
  targetNamespaces:
    - openshift-sriov-network-operator

2.2.4.4.2. Cluster tuning reference YAML

example-sno.yaml

# example-node1-bmh-secret & assisted-deployment-pull-secret need to be created under same namespace example-sno
---
apiVersion: ran.openshift.io/v1
kind: SiteConfig
metadata:
  name: "example-sno"
  namespace: "example-sno"
spec:
  baseDomain: "example.com"
  pullSecretRef:
    name: "assisted-deployment-pull-secret"
  clusterImageSetNameRef: "openshift-4.16"
  sshPublicKey: "ssh-rsa AAAA..."
  clusters:
    - clusterName: "example-sno"
      networkType: "OVNKubernetes"
      # installConfigOverrides is a generic way of passing install-config
      # parameters through the siteConfig.  The 'capabilities' field configures
      # the composable openshift feature.  In this 'capabilities' setting, we
      # remove all the optional set of components.
      # Notes:
      # - OperatorLifecycleManager is needed for 4.15 and later
      # - NodeTuning is needed for 4.13 and later, not for 4.12 and earlier
      # - Ingress is needed for 4.16 and later
      installConfigOverrides: |
        {
          "capabilities": {
            "baselineCapabilitySet": "None",
            "additionalEnabledCapabilities": [
              "NodeTuning",
              "OperatorLifecycleManager",
              "Ingress"
            ]
          }
        }
      # It is strongly recommended to include crun manifests as part of the additional install-time manifests for 4.13+.
      # The crun manifests can be obtained from source-crs/optional-extra-manifest/ and added to the git repo ie.sno-extra-manifest.
      # extraManifestPath: sno-extra-manifest
      clusterLabels:
        # These example cluster labels correspond to the bindingRules in the PolicyGenTemplate examples
        du-profile: "latest"
        # These example cluster labels correspond to the bindingRules in the PolicyGenTemplate examples in ../policygentemplates:
        # ../policygentemplates/common-ranGen.yaml will apply to all clusters with 'common: true'
        common: true
        # ../policygentemplates/group-du-sno-ranGen.yaml will apply to all clusters with 'group-du-sno: ""'
        group-du-sno: ""
        # ../policygentemplates/example-sno-site.yaml will apply to all clusters with 'sites: "example-sno"'
        # Normally this should match or contain the cluster name so it only applies to a single cluster
        sites: "example-sno"
      clusterNetwork:
        - cidr: 1001:1::/48
          hostPrefix: 64
      machineNetwork:
        - cidr: 1111:2222:3333:4444::/64
      serviceNetwork:
        - 1001:2::/112
      additionalNTPSources:
        - 1111:2222:3333:4444::2
      # Initiates the cluster for workload partitioning. Setting specific reserved/isolated CPUSets is done via PolicyTemplate
      # please see Workload Partitioning Feature for a complete guide.
      cpuPartitioningMode: AllNodes
      # Optionally; This can be used to override the KlusterletAddonConfig that is created for this cluster:
      #crTemplates:
      #  KlusterletAddonConfig: "KlusterletAddonConfigOverride.yaml"
      nodes:
        - hostName: "example-node1.example.com"
          role: "master"
          # Optionally; This can be used to configure desired BIOS setting on a host:
          #biosConfigRef:
          #  filePath: "example-hw.profile"
          bmcAddress: "idrac-virtualmedia+https://[1111:2222:3333:4444::bbbb:1]/redfish/v1/Systems/System.Embedded.1"
          bmcCredentialsName:
            name: "example-node1-bmh-secret"
          bootMACAddress: "AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:11"
          # Use UEFISecureBoot to enable secure boot
          bootMode: "UEFI"
          rootDeviceHints:
            deviceName: "/dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:01:00.0-scsi-0:2:0:0"
          # disk partition at `/var/lib/containers` with ignitionConfigOverride. Some values must be updated. See DiskPartitionContainer.md for more details
          ignitionConfigOverride: |
            {
              "ignition": {
                "version": "3.2.0"
              },
              "storage": {
                "disks": [
                  {
                    "device": "/dev/disk/by-id/wwn-0x6b07b250ebb9d0002a33509f24af1f62",
                    "partitions": [
                      {
                        "label": "var-lib-containers",
                        "sizeMiB": 0,
                        "startMiB": 250000
                      }
                    ],
                    "wipeTable": false
                  }
                ],
                "filesystems": [
                  {
                    "device": "/dev/disk/by-partlabel/var-lib-containers",
                    "format": "xfs",
                    "mountOptions": [
                      "defaults",
                      "prjquota"
                    ],
                    "path": "/var/lib/containers",
                    "wipeFilesystem": true
                  }
                ]
              },
              "systemd": {
                "units": [
                  {
                    "contents": "# Generated by Butane\n[Unit]\nRequires=systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\\x2dpartlabel-var\\x2dlib\\x2dcontainers.service\nAfter=systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\\x2dpartlabel-var\\x2dlib\\x2dcontainers.service\n\n[Mount]\nWhere=/var/lib/containers\nWhat=/dev/disk/by-partlabel/var-lib-containers\nType=xfs\nOptions=defaults,prjquota\n\n[Install]\nRequiredBy=local-fs.target",
                    "enabled": true,
                    "name": "var-lib-containers.mount"
                  }
                ]
              }
            }
          nodeNetwork:
            interfaces:
              - name: eno1
                macAddress: "AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:11"
            config:
              interfaces:
                - name: eno1
                  type: ethernet
                  state: up
                  ipv4:
                    enabled: false
                  ipv6:
                    enabled: true
                    address:
                      # For SNO sites with static IP addresses, the node-specific,
                      # API and Ingress IPs should all be the same and configured on
                      # the interface
                      - ip: 1111:2222:3333:4444::aaaa:1
                        prefix-length: 64
              dns-resolver:
                config:
                  search:
                    - example.com
                  server:
                    - 1111:2222:3333:4444::2
              routes:
                config:
                  - destination: ::/0
                    next-hop-interface: eno1
                    next-hop-address: 1111:2222:3333:4444::1
                    table-id: 254

DisableSnoNetworkDiag.yaml

apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1
kind: Network
metadata:
  name: cluster
  annotations: {}
spec:
  disableNetworkDiagnostics: true

ReduceMonitoringFootprint.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: cluster-monitoring-config
  namespace: openshift-monitoring
  annotations: {}
data:
  config.yaml: |
    alertmanagerMain:
      enabled: false
    telemeterClient:
      enabled: false
    prometheusK8s:
       retention: 24h

09-openshift-marketplace-ns.yaml

# Taken from https://github.com/operator-framework/operator-marketplace/blob/53c124a3f0edfd151652e1f23c87dd39ed7646bb/manifests/01_namespace.yaml
# Update it as the source evolves.
apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  annotations:
    openshift.io/node-selector: ""
    workload.openshift.io/allowed: "management"
  labels:
    openshift.io/cluster-monitoring: "true"
    pod-security.kubernetes.io/enforce: baseline
    pod-security.kubernetes.io/enforce-version: v1.25
    pod-security.kubernetes.io/audit: baseline
    pod-security.kubernetes.io/audit-version: v1.25
    pod-security.kubernetes.io/warn: baseline
    pod-security.kubernetes.io/warn-version: v1.25
  name: "openshift-marketplace"

DefaultCatsrc.yaml

apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: CatalogSource
metadata:
  name: default-cat-source
  namespace: openshift-marketplace
  annotations:
    target.workload.openshift.io/management: '{"effect": "PreferredDuringScheduling"}'
spec:
  displayName: default-cat-source
  image: $imageUrl
  publisher: Red Hat
  sourceType: grpc
  updateStrategy:
    registryPoll:
      interval: 1h
status:
  connectionState:
    lastObservedState: READY

DisableOLMPprof.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: collect-profiles-config
  namespace: openshift-operator-lifecycle-manager
  annotations: {}
data:
  pprof-config.yaml: |
    disabled: True

DisconnectedICSP.yaml

apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1alpha1
kind: ImageContentSourcePolicy
metadata:
  name: disconnected-internal-icsp
  annotations: {}
spec:
#    repositoryDigestMirrors:
#    - $mirrors

OperatorHub.yaml

apiVersion: config.openshift.io/v1
kind: OperatorHub
metadata:
  name: cluster
  annotations: {}
spec:
  disableAllDefaultSources: true

2.2.4.4.3. Machine configuration reference YAML

enable-crun-master.yaml

apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: ContainerRuntimeConfig
metadata:
  name: enable-crun-master
spec:
  machineConfigPoolSelector:
    matchLabels:
      pools.operator.machineconfiguration.openshift.io/master: ""
  containerRuntimeConfig:
    defaultRuntime: crun

enable-crun-worker.yaml

apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: ContainerRuntimeConfig
metadata:
  name: enable-crun-worker
spec:
  machineConfigPoolSelector:
    matchLabels:
      pools.operator.machineconfiguration.openshift.io/worker: ""
  containerRuntimeConfig:
    defaultRuntime: crun

99-crio-disable-wipe-master.yaml

# Automatically generated by extra-manifests-builder
# Do not make changes directly.
apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
  labels:
    machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: master
  name: 99-crio-disable-wipe-master
spec:
  config:
    ignition:
      version: 3.2.0
    storage:
      files:
        - contents:
            source: data:text/plain;charset=utf-8;base64,W2NyaW9dCmNsZWFuX3NodXRkb3duX2ZpbGUgPSAiIgo=
          mode: 420
          path: /etc/crio/crio.conf.d/99-crio-disable-wipe.toml

99-crio-disable-wipe-worker.yaml

# Automatically generated by extra-manifests-builder
# Do not make changes directly.
apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
  labels:
    machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker
  name: 99-crio-disable-wipe-worker
spec:
  config:
    ignition:
      version: 3.2.0
    storage:
      files:
        - contents:
            source: data:text/plain;charset=utf-8;base64,W2NyaW9dCmNsZWFuX3NodXRkb3duX2ZpbGUgPSAiIgo=
          mode: 420
          path: /etc/crio/crio.conf.d/99-crio-disable-wipe.toml

06-kdump-master.yaml

# Automatically generated by extra-manifests-builder
# Do not make changes directly.
apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
  labels:
    machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: master
  name: 06-kdump-enable-master
spec:
  config:
    ignition:
      version: 3.2.0
    systemd:
      units:
        - enabled: true
          name: kdump.service
  kernelArguments:
    - crashkernel=512M

06-kdump-worker.yaml

# Automatically generated by extra-manifests-builder
# Do not make changes directly.
apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
  labels:
    machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker
  name: 06-kdump-enable-worker
spec:
  config:
    ignition:
      version: 3.2.0
    systemd:
      units:
        - enabled: true
          name: kdump.service
  kernelArguments:
    - crashkernel=512M

01-container-mount-ns-and-kubelet-conf-master.yaml

# Automatically generated by extra-manifests-builder
# Do not make changes directly.
apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
  labels:
    machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: master
  name: container-mount-namespace-and-kubelet-conf-master
spec:
  config:
    ignition:
      version: 3.2.0
    storage:
      files:
        - contents:
            source: data:text/plain;charset=utf-8;base64,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
          mode: 493
          path: /usr/local/bin/extractExecStart
        - contents:
            source: data:text/plain;charset=utf-8;base64,IyEvYmluL2Jhc2gKbnNlbnRlciAtLW1vdW50PS9ydW4vY29udGFpbmVyLW1vdW50LW5hbWVzcGFjZS9tbnQgIiRAIgo=
          mode: 493
          path: /usr/local/bin/nsenterCmns
    systemd:
      units:
        - contents: |
            [Unit]
            Description=Manages a mount namespace that both kubelet and crio can use to share their container-specific mounts

            [Service]
            Type=oneshot
            RemainAfterExit=yes
            RuntimeDirectory=container-mount-namespace
            Environment=RUNTIME_DIRECTORY=%t/container-mount-namespace
            Environment=BIND_POINT=%t/container-mount-namespace/mnt
            ExecStartPre=bash -c "findmnt ${RUNTIME_DIRECTORY} || mount --make-unbindable --bind ${RUNTIME_DIRECTORY} ${RUNTIME_DIRECTORY}"
            ExecStartPre=touch ${BIND_POINT}
            ExecStart=unshare --mount=${BIND_POINT} --propagation slave mount --make-rshared /
            ExecStop=umount -R ${RUNTIME_DIRECTORY}
          name: container-mount-namespace.service
        - dropins:
            - contents: |
                [Unit]
                Wants=container-mount-namespace.service
                After=container-mount-namespace.service

                [Service]
                ExecStartPre=/usr/local/bin/extractExecStart %n /%t/%N-execstart.env ORIG_EXECSTART
                EnvironmentFile=-/%t/%N-execstart.env
                ExecStart=
                ExecStart=bash -c "nsenter --mount=%t/container-mount-namespace/mnt \
                    ${ORIG_EXECSTART}"
              name: 90-container-mount-namespace.conf
          name: crio.service
        - dropins:
            - contents: |
                [Unit]
                Wants=container-mount-namespace.service
                After=container-mount-namespace.service

                [Service]
                ExecStartPre=/usr/local/bin/extractExecStart %n /%t/%N-execstart.env ORIG_EXECSTART
                EnvironmentFile=-/%t/%N-execstart.env
                ExecStart=
                ExecStart=bash -c "nsenter --mount=%t/container-mount-namespace/mnt \
                    ${ORIG_EXECSTART} --housekeeping-interval=30s"
              name: 90-container-mount-namespace.conf
            - contents: |
                [Service]
                Environment="OPENSHIFT_MAX_HOUSEKEEPING_INTERVAL_DURATION=60s"
                Environment="OPENSHIFT_EVICTION_MONITORING_PERIOD_DURATION=30s"
              name: 30-kubelet-interval-tuning.conf
          name: kubelet.service

01-container-mount-ns-and-kubelet-conf-worker.yaml

# Automatically generated by extra-manifests-builder
# Do not make changes directly.
apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
  labels:
    machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker
  name: container-mount-namespace-and-kubelet-conf-worker
spec:
  config:
    ignition:
      version: 3.2.0
    storage:
      files:
        - contents:
            source: data:text/plain;charset=utf-8;base64,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
          mode: 493
          path: /usr/local/bin/extractExecStart
        - contents:
            source: data:text/plain;charset=utf-8;base64,IyEvYmluL2Jhc2gKbnNlbnRlciAtLW1vdW50PS9ydW4vY29udGFpbmVyLW1vdW50LW5hbWVzcGFjZS9tbnQgIiRAIgo=
          mode: 493
          path: /usr/local/bin/nsenterCmns
    systemd:
      units:
        - contents: |
            [Unit]
            Description=Manages a mount namespace that both kubelet and crio can use to share their container-specific mounts

            [Service]
            Type=oneshot
            RemainAfterExit=yes
            RuntimeDirectory=container-mount-namespace
            Environment=RUNTIME_DIRECTORY=%t/container-mount-namespace
            Environment=BIND_POINT=%t/container-mount-namespace/mnt
            ExecStartPre=bash -c "findmnt ${RUNTIME_DIRECTORY} || mount --make-unbindable --bind ${RUNTIME_DIRECTORY} ${RUNTIME_DIRECTORY}"
            ExecStartPre=touch ${BIND_POINT}
            ExecStart=unshare --mount=${BIND_POINT} --propagation slave mount --make-rshared /
            ExecStop=umount -R ${RUNTIME_DIRECTORY}
          name: container-mount-namespace.service
        - dropins:
            - contents: |
                [Unit]
                Wants=container-mount-namespace.service
                After=container-mount-namespace.service

                [Service]
                ExecStartPre=/usr/local/bin/extractExecStart %n /%t/%N-execstart.env ORIG_EXECSTART
                EnvironmentFile=-/%t/%N-execstart.env
                ExecStart=
                ExecStart=bash -c "nsenter --mount=%t/container-mount-namespace/mnt \
                    ${ORIG_EXECSTART}"
              name: 90-container-mount-namespace.conf
          name: crio.service
        - dropins:
            - contents: |
                [Unit]
                Wants=container-mount-namespace.service
                After=container-mount-namespace.service

                [Service]
                ExecStartPre=/usr/local/bin/extractExecStart %n /%t/%N-execstart.env ORIG_EXECSTART
                EnvironmentFile=-/%t/%N-execstart.env
                ExecStart=
                ExecStart=bash -c "nsenter --mount=%t/container-mount-namespace/mnt \
                    ${ORIG_EXECSTART} --housekeeping-interval=30s"
              name: 90-container-mount-namespace.conf
            - contents: |
                [Service]
                Environment="OPENSHIFT_MAX_HOUSEKEEPING_INTERVAL_DURATION=60s"
                Environment="OPENSHIFT_EVICTION_MONITORING_PERIOD_DURATION=30s"
              name: 30-kubelet-interval-tuning.conf
          name: kubelet.service

99-sync-time-once-master.yaml

# Automatically generated by extra-manifests-builder
# Do not make changes directly.
apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
  labels:
    machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: master
  name: 99-sync-time-once-master
spec:
  config:
    ignition:
      version: 3.2.0
    systemd:
      units:
        - contents: |
            [Unit]
            Description=Sync time once
            After=network-online.target
            Wants=network-online.target
            [Service]
            Type=oneshot
            TimeoutStartSec=300
            ExecCondition=/bin/bash -c 'systemctl is-enabled chronyd.service --quiet && exit 1 || exit 0'
            ExecStart=/usr/sbin/chronyd -n -f /etc/chrony.conf -q
            RemainAfterExit=yes
            [Install]
            WantedBy=multi-user.target
          enabled: true
          name: sync-time-once.service

99-sync-time-once-worker.yaml

# Automatically generated by extra-manifests-builder
# Do not make changes directly.
apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
  labels:
    machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker
  name: 99-sync-time-once-worker
spec:
  config:
    ignition:
      version: 3.2.0
    systemd:
      units:
        - contents: |
            [Unit]
            Description=Sync time once
            After=network-online.target
            Wants=network-online.target
            [Service]
            Type=oneshot
            TimeoutStartSec=300
            ExecCondition=/bin/bash -c 'systemctl is-enabled chronyd.service --quiet && exit 1 || exit 0'
            ExecStart=/usr/sbin/chronyd -n -f /etc/chrony.conf -q
            RemainAfterExit=yes
            [Install]
            WantedBy=multi-user.target
          enabled: true
          name: sync-time-once.service

03-sctp-machine-config-master.yaml

# Automatically generated by extra-manifests-builder
# Do not make changes directly.
apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
  labels:
    machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: master
  name: load-sctp-module-master
spec:
  config:
    ignition:
      version: 2.2.0
    storage:
      files:
        - contents:
            source: data:,
            verification: {}
          filesystem: root
          mode: 420
          path: /etc/modprobe.d/sctp-blacklist.conf
        - contents:
            source: data:text/plain;charset=utf-8,sctp
          filesystem: root
          mode: 420
          path: /etc/modules-load.d/sctp-load.conf

03-sctp-machine-config-worker.yaml

# Automatically generated by extra-manifests-builder
# Do not make changes directly.
apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
  labels:
    machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker
  name: load-sctp-module-worker
spec:
  config:
    ignition:
      version: 2.2.0
    storage:
      files:
        - contents:
            source: data:,
            verification: {}
          filesystem: root
          mode: 420
          path: /etc/modprobe.d/sctp-blacklist.conf
        - contents:
            source: data:text/plain;charset=utf-8,sctp
          filesystem: root
          mode: 420
          path: /etc/modules-load.d/sctp-load.conf

08-set-rcu-normal-master.yaml

# Automatically generated by extra-manifests-builder
# Do not make changes directly.
apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
  labels:
    machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: master
  name: 08-set-rcu-normal-master
spec:
  config:
    ignition:
      version: 3.2.0
    storage:
      files:
        - contents:
            source: data:text/plain;charset=utf-8;base64,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
          mode: 493
          path: /usr/local/bin/set-rcu-normal.sh
    systemd:
      units:
        - contents: |
            [Unit]
            Description=Disable rcu_expedited after node has finished booting by setting rcu_normal to 1

            [Service]
            Type=simple
            ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/set-rcu-normal.sh

            # Maximum wait time is 600s = 10m:
            Environment=MAXIMUM_WAIT_TIME=600

            # Steady-state threshold = 2%
            # Allowed values:
            #  4  - absolute pod count (+/-)
            #  4% - percent change (+/-)
            #  -1 - disable the steady-state check
            # Note: '%' must be escaped as '%%' in systemd unit files
            Environment=STEADY_STATE_THRESHOLD=2%%

            # Steady-state window = 120s
            # If the running pod count stays within the given threshold for this time
            # period, return CPU utilization to normal before the maximum wait time has
            # expires
            Environment=STEADY_STATE_WINDOW=120

            # Steady-state minimum = 40
            # Increasing this will skip any steady-state checks until the count rises above
            # this number to avoid false positives if there are some periods where the
            # count doesn't increase but we know we can't be at steady-state yet.
            Environment=STEADY_STATE_MINIMUM=40

            [Install]
            WantedBy=multi-user.target
          enabled: true
          name: set-rcu-normal.service

08-set-rcu-normal-worker.yaml

# Automatically generated by extra-manifests-builder
# Do not make changes directly.
apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
  labels:
    machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker
  name: 08-set-rcu-normal-worker
spec:
  config:
    ignition:
      version: 3.2.0
    storage:
      files:
        - contents:
            source: data:text/plain;charset=utf-8;base64,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
          mode: 493
          path: /usr/local/bin/set-rcu-normal.sh
    systemd:
      units:
        - contents: |
            [Unit]
            Description=Disable rcu_expedited after node has finished booting by setting rcu_normal to 1

            [Service]
            Type=simple
            ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/set-rcu-normal.sh

            # Maximum wait time is 600s = 10m:
            Environment=MAXIMUM_WAIT_TIME=600

            # Steady-state threshold = 2%
            # Allowed values:
            #  4  - absolute pod count (+/-)
            #  4% - percent change (+/-)
            #  -1 - disable the steady-state check
            # Note: '%' must be escaped as '%%' in systemd unit files
            Environment=STEADY_STATE_THRESHOLD=2%%

            # Steady-state window = 120s
            # If the running pod count stays within the given threshold for this time
            # period, return CPU utilization to normal before the maximum wait time has
            # expires
            Environment=STEADY_STATE_WINDOW=120

            # Steady-state minimum = 40
            # Increasing this will skip any steady-state checks until the count rises above
            # this number to avoid false positives if there are some periods where the
            # count doesn't increase but we know we can't be at steady-state yet.
            Environment=STEADY_STATE_MINIMUM=40

            [Install]
            WantedBy=multi-user.target
          enabled: true
          name: set-rcu-normal.service

2.2.5. Telco RAN DU reference configuration software specifications

The following information describes the telco RAN DU reference design specification (RDS) validated software versions.

2.2.5.1. Telco RAN DU 4.17 validated software components

The Red Hat telco RAN DU 4.17 solution has been validated using the following Red Hat software products for OpenShift Container Platform managed clusters and hub clusters.

Table 2.7. Telco RAN DU managed cluster validated software components
ComponentSoftware version

Managed cluster version

4.16

Cluster Logging Operator

5.9

Local Storage Operator

4.16

PTP Operator

4.16

SRIOV Operator

4.16

Node Tuning Operator

4.16

Logging Operator

4.16

SRIOV-FEC Operator

2.9

Table 2.8. Hub cluster validated software components
ComponentSoftware version

Hub cluster version

4.16

GitOps ZTP plugin

4.16

Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management (RHACM)

2.10, 2.11

Red Hat OpenShift GitOps

1.12

Topology Aware Lifecycle Manager (TALM)

4.16

2.3. Telco core reference design specification

2.3.1. Telco RAN DU 4.17 reference design overview

The telco core reference design specification (RDS) configures a OpenShift Container Platform cluster running on commodity hardware to host telco core workloads.

2.3.2. Telco core 4.17 use model overview

The Telco core reference design specification (RDS) describes a platform that supports large-scale telco applications including control plane functions such as signaling and aggregation. It also includes some centralized data plane functions, for example, user plane functions (UPF). These functions generally require scalability, complex networking support, resilient software-defined storage, and support performance requirements that are less stringent and constrained than far-edge deployments like RAN.

Telco core use model architecture

Use model architecture

The networking prerequisites for telco core functions are diverse and encompass an array of networking attributes and performance benchmarks. IPv6 is mandatory, with dual-stack configurations being prevalent. Certain functions demand maximum throughput and transaction rates, necessitating user plane networking support such as DPDK. Other functions adhere to conventional cloud-native patterns and can use solutions such as OVN-K, kernel networking, and load balancing.

Telco core clusters are configured as standard three control plane clusters with worker nodes configured with the stock non real-time (RT) kernel. To support workloads with varying networking and performance requirements, worker nodes are segmented using MachineConfigPool CRs. For example, this is done to separate non-user data plane nodes from high-throughput nodes. To support the required telco operational features, the clusters have a standard set of Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) Day 2 Operators installed.

2.3.2.1. Common baseline model

The following configurations and use model description are applicable to all telco core use cases.

Cluster

The cluster conforms to these requirements:

  • High-availability (3+ supervisor nodes) control plane
  • Non-schedulable supervisor nodes
  • Multiple MachineConfigPool resources
Storage
Core use cases require persistent storage as provided by external OpenShift Data Foundation. For more information, see the "Storage" subsection in "Reference core design components".
Networking

Telco core clusters networking conforms to these requirements:

  • Dual stack IPv4/IPv6
  • Fully disconnected: Clusters do not have access to public networking at any point in their lifecycle.
  • Multiple networks: Segmented networking provides isolation between OAM, signaling, and storage traffic.
  • Cluster network type: OVN-Kubernetes is required for IPv6 support.

Core clusters have multiple layers of networking supported by underlying RHCOS, SR-IOV Operator, Load Balancer, and other components detailed in the following "Networking" section. At a high level these layers include:

  • Cluster networking: The cluster network configuration is defined and applied through the installation configuration. Updates to the configuration can be done at day-2 through the NMState Operator. Initial configuration can be used to establish:

    • Host interface configuration
    • Active/Active Bonding (Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP))
  • Secondary or additional networks: OpenShift CNI is configured through the Network additionalNetworks or NetworkAttachmentDefinition CRs.

    • MACVLAN
  • Application Workload: User plane networking is running in cloud-native network functions (CNFs).
Service Mesh
Use of Service Mesh by telco CNFs is very common. It is expected that all core clusters will include a Service Mesh implementation. Service Mesh implementation and configuration is outside the scope of this specification.
2.3.2.1.1. Engineering Considerations common use model

The following engineering considerations are relevant for the common use model.

Worker nodes
  • Worker nodes run on Intel 3rd Generation Xeon (IceLake) processors or newer. Alternatively, if using Skylake or earlier processors, the mitigations for silicon security vulnerabilities such as Spectre must be disabled; failure to do so may result in a significant 40 percent decrease in transaction performance.
  • IRQ Balancing is enabled on worker nodes. The PerformanceProfile sets globallyDisableIrqLoadBalancing: false. Guaranteed QoS Pods are annotated to ensure isolation as described in "CPU partitioning and performance tuning" subsection in "Reference core design components" section.
All nodes
  • Hyper-Threading is enabled on all nodes
  • CPU architecture is x86_64 only
  • Nodes are running the stock (non-RT) kernel
  • Nodes are not configured for workload partitioning

The balance of node configuration between power management and maximum performance varies between MachineConfigPools in the cluster. This configuration is consistent for all nodes within a MachineConfigPool.

CPU partitioning
CPU partitioning is configured using the PerformanceProfile and applied on a per MachineConfigPool basis. See the "CPU partitioning and performance tuning" subsection in "Reference core design components".
2.3.2.1.2. Application workloads

Application workloads running on core clusters might include a mix of high-performance networking CNFs and traditional best-effort or burstable pod workloads.

Guaranteed QoS scheduling is available to pods that require exclusive or dedicated use of CPUs due to performance or security requirements. Typically pods hosting high-performance and low-latency-sensitive Cloud Native Functions (CNFs) utilizing user plane networking with DPDK necessitate the exclusive utilization of entire CPUs. This is accomplished through node tuning and guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS) scheduling. For pods that require exclusive use of CPUs, be aware of the potential implications of hyperthreaded systems and configure them to request multiples of 2 CPUs when the entire core (2 hyperthreads) must be allocated to the pod.

Pods running network functions that do not require the high throughput and low latency networking are typically scheduled with best-effort or burstable QoS and do not require dedicated or isolated CPU cores.

Description of limits
  • CNF applications should conform to the latest version of the Red Hat Best Practices for Kubernetes guide.
  • For a mix of best-effort and burstable QoS pods.

    • Guaranteed QoS pods might be used but require correct configuration of reserved and isolated CPUs in the PerformanceProfile.
    • Guaranteed QoS Pods must include annotations for fully isolating CPUs.
    • Best effort and burstable pods are not guaranteed exclusive use of a CPU. Workloads might be preempted by other workloads, operating system daemons, or kernel tasks.
  • Exec probes should be avoided unless there is no viable alternative.

    • Do not use exec probes if a CNF is using CPU pinning.
    • Other probe implementations, for example httpGet/tcpSocket, should be used.
Note

Startup probes require minimal resources during steady-state operation. The limitation on exec probes applies primarily to liveness and readiness probes.

Signaling workload
  • Signaling workloads typically use SCTP, REST, gRPC, or similar TCP or UDP protocols.
  • The transactions per second (TPS) is in the order of hundreds of thousands using secondary CNI (multus) configured as MACVLAN or SR-IOV.
  • Signaling workloads run in pods with either guaranteed or burstable QoS.

2.3.3. Telco core reference design components

The following sections describe the various OpenShift Container Platform components and configurations that you use to configure and deploy clusters to run telco core workloads.

2.3.3.1. CPU partitioning and performance tuning
New in this release
  • In this release, OpenShift Container Platform deployments use Control Groups version 2 (cgroup v2) by default. As a consequence, performance profiles in a cluster use cgroups v2 for the underlying resource management layer.
Description
CPU partitioning allows for the separation of sensitive workloads from generic purposes, auxiliary processes, interrupts, and driver work queues to achieve improved performance and latency. The CPUs allocated to those auxiliary processes are referred to as reserved in the following sections. In hyperthreaded systems, a CPU is one hyperthread.
Limits and requirements
  • The operating system needs a certain amount of CPU to perform all the support tasks including kernel networking.

    • A system with just user plane networking applications (DPDK) needs at least one Core (2 hyperthreads when enabled) reserved for the operating system and the infrastructure components.
  • A system with Hyper-Threading enabled must always put all core sibling threads to the same pool of CPUs.
  • The set of reserved and isolated cores must include all CPU cores.
  • Core 0 of each NUMA node must be included in the reserved CPU set.
  • Isolated cores might be impacted by interrupts. The following annotations must be attached to the pod if guaranteed QoS pods require full use of the CPU:

    cpu-load-balancing.crio.io: "disable"
    cpu-quota.crio.io: "disable"
    irq-load-balancing.crio.io: "disable"
  • When per-pod power management is enabled with PerformanceProfile.workloadHints.perPodPowerManagement the following annotations must also be attached to the pod if guaranteed QoS pods require full use of the CPU:

    cpu-c-states.crio.io: "disable"
    cpu-freq-governor.crio.io: "performance"
Engineering considerations
  • The minimum reserved capacity (systemReserved) required can be found by following the guidance in "Which amount of CPU and memory are recommended to reserve for the system in OpenShift 4 nodes?"
  • The actual required reserved CPU capacity depends on the cluster configuration and workload attributes.
  • This reserved CPU value must be rounded up to a full core (2 hyper-thread) alignment.
  • Changes to the CPU partitioning will drain and reboot the nodes in the MCP.
  • The reserved CPUs reduce the pod density, as the reserved CPUs are removed from the allocatable capacity of the OpenShift node.
  • The real-time workload hint should be enabled if the workload is real-time capable.
  • Hardware without Interrupt Request (IRQ) affinity support will impact isolated CPUs. To ensure that pods with guaranteed CPU QoS have full use of allocated CPU, all hardware in the server must support IRQ affinity.
  • OVS dynamically manages its cpuset configuration to adapt to network traffic needs. You do not need to reserve additional CPUs for handling high network throughput on the primary CNI.
  • If workloads running on the cluster require cgroups v1, you can configure nodes to use cgroups v1. You can make this configuration as part of initial cluster deployment. For more information, see Enabling Linux cgroup v1 during installation in the Additional resources section.
2.3.3.2. Service Mesh
Description
Telco core CNFs typically require a service mesh implementation. The specific features and performance required are dependent on the application. The selection of service mesh implementation and configuration is outside the scope of this documentation. The impact of service mesh on cluster resource utilization and performance, including additional latency introduced into pod networking, must be accounted for in the overall solution engineering.

Additional resources

2.3.3.3. Networking

OpenShift Container Platform networking is an ecosystem of features, plugins, and advanced networking capabilities that extend Kubernetes networking with the advanced networking-related features that your cluster needs to manage its network traffic for one or multiple hybrid clusters.

Additional resources

2.3.3.3.1. Cluster Network Operator (CNO)
New in this release
  • No reference design updates in this release
Description

The CNO deploys and manages the cluster network components including the default OVN-Kubernetes network plugin during OpenShift Container Platform cluster installation. It allows configuring primary interface MTU settings, OVN gateway modes to use node routing tables for pod egress, and additional secondary networks such as MACVLAN.

In support of network traffic separation, multiple network interfaces are configured through the CNO. Traffic steering to these interfaces is configured through static routes applied by using the NMState Operator. To ensure that pod traffic is properly routed, OVN-K is configured with the routingViaHost option enabled. This setting uses the kernel routing table and the applied static routes rather than OVN for pod egress traffic.

The Whereabouts CNI plugin is used to provide dynamic IPv4 and IPv6 addressing for additional pod network interfaces without the use of a DHCP server.

Limits and requirements
  • OVN-Kubernetes is required for IPv6 support.
  • Large MTU cluster support requires connected network equipment to be set to the same or larger value.
Engineering considerations
  • Pod egress traffic is handled by kernel routing table with the routingViaHost option. Appropriate static routes must be configured in the host.

Additional resources

2.3.3.3.2. Load Balancer
New in this release
  • No reference design updates in this release
Description

MetalLB is a load-balancer implementation for bare metal Kubernetes clusters using standard routing protocols. It enables a Kubernetes service to get an external IP address which is also added to the host network for the cluster.

Some use cases might require features not available in MetalLB, for example stateful load balancing. Where necessary, you can use an external third party load balancer. Selection and configuration of an external load balancer is outside the scope of this specification. When an external third party load balancer is used, the integration effort must include enough analysis to ensure all performance and resource utilization requirements are met.

Limits and requirements
  • Stateful load balancing is not supported by MetalLB. An alternate load balancer implementation must be used if this is a requirement for workload CNFs.
  • The networking infrastructure must ensure that the external IP address is routable from clients to the host network for the cluster.
Engineering considerations
  • MetalLB is used in BGP mode only for core use case models.
  • For core use models, MetalLB is supported with only the OVN-Kubernetes network provider used in local gateway mode. See routingViaHost in the "Cluster Network Operator" section.
  • BGP configuration in MetalLB varies depending on the requirements of the network and peers.
  • Address pools can be configured as needed, allowing variation in addresses, aggregation length, auto assignment, and other relevant parameters.
  • The values of parameters in the Bi-Directional Forwarding Detection (BFD) profile should remain close to the defaults. Shorter values might lead to false negatives and impact performance.
2.3.3.3.3. SR-IOV
New in this release
  • With this release, you can use the SR-IOV Network Operator to configure QinQ (802.1ad and 802.1q) tagging. QinQ tagging provides efficient traffic management by enabling the use of both inner and outer VLAN tags. Outer VLAN tagging is hardware accelerated, leading to faster network performance. The update extends beyond the SR-IOV Network Operator itself. You can now configure QinQ on externally managed VFs by setting the outer VLAN tag using nmstate. QinQ support varies across different NICs. For a comprehensive list of known limitations for specific NIC models, see the official documentation.
  • With this release, you can configure the SR-IOV Network Operator to drain nodes in parallel during network policy updates, dramatically accelerating the setup process. This translates to significant time savings, especially for large cluster deployments that previously took hours or even days to complete.
Description
SR-IOV enables physical network interfaces (PFs) to be divided into multiple virtual functions (VFs). VFs can then be assigned to multiple pods to achieve higher throughput performance while keeping the pods isolated. The SR-IOV Network Operator provisions and manages SR-IOV CNI, network device plugin, and other components of the SR-IOV stack.
Limits and requirements
  • The network interface controllers supported are listed in Supported devices
  • SR-IOV and IOMMU enablement in BIOS: The SR-IOV Network Operator automatically enables IOMMU on the kernel command line.
  • SR-IOV VFs do not receive link state updates from PF. If link down detection is needed, it must be done at the protocol level.
  • MultiNetworkPolicy CRs can be applied to netdevice networks only. This is because the implementation uses the iptables tool, which cannot manage vfio interfaces.
Engineering considerations
  • SR-IOV interfaces in vfio mode are typically used to enable additional secondary networks for applications that require high throughput or low latency.
  • If you exclude the SriovOperatorConfig CR from your deployment, the CR will not be created automatically.
2.3.3.3.4. NMState Operator
New in this release
  • No reference design updates in this release
Description
The NMState Operator provides a Kubernetes API for performing network configurations across the cluster’s nodes. It enables network interface configurations, static IPs and DNS, VLANs, trunks, bonding, static routes, MTU, and enabling promiscuous mode on the secondary interfaces. The cluster nodes periodically report on the state of each node’s network interfaces to the API server.
Limits and requirements
Not applicable
Engineering considerations
  • The initial networking configuration is applied using NMStateConfig content in the installation CRs. The NMState Operator is used only when needed for network updates.
  • When SR-IOV virtual functions are used for host networking, the NMState Operator using NodeNetworkConfigurationPolicy is used to configure those VF interfaces, for example, VLANs and the MTU.
2.3.3.4. Logging
New in this release
  • No reference design updates in this release
Description
The Cluster Logging Operator enables collection and shipping of logs off the node for remote archival and analysis. The reference configuration ships audit and infrastructure logs to a remote archive by using Kafka.
Limits and requirements
Not applicable
Engineering considerations
  • The impact of cluster CPU use is based on the number or size of logs generated and the amount of log filtering configured.
  • The reference configuration does not include shipping of application logs. Inclusion of application logs in the configuration requires evaluation of the application logging rate and sufficient additional CPU resources allocated to the reserved set.
2.3.3.5. Power Management

Additional resources

New in this release
  • No reference design updates in this release
Description

The Performance Profile can be used to configure a cluster in a high power, low power, or mixed mode. The choice of power mode depends on the characteristics of the workloads running on the cluster, particularly how sensitive they are to latency. Configure the maximum latency for a low-latency pod by using the per-pod power management C-states feature.

For more information, see Configuring power saving for nodes.

Limits and requirements
  • Power configuration relies on appropriate BIOS configuration, for example, enabling C-states and P-states. Configuration varies between hardware vendors.
Engineering considerations
  • Latency: To ensure that latency-sensitive workloads meet their requirements, you will need either a high-power configuration or a per-pod power management configuration. Per-pod power management is only available for Guaranteed QoS Pods with dedicated pinned CPUs.
2.3.3.6. Storage
Overview

Cloud native storage services can be provided by multiple solutions including OpenShift Data Foundation from Red Hat or third parties.

OpenShift Data Foundation is a Ceph based software-defined storage solution for containers. It provides block storage, file system storage, and on-premises object storage, which can be dynamically provisioned for both persistent and non-persistent data requirements. Telco core applications require persistent storage.

Note

All storage data may not be encrypted in flight. To reduce risk, isolate the storage network from other cluster networks. The storage network must not be reachable, or routable, from other cluster networks. Only nodes directly attached to the storage network should be allowed to gain access to it.

2.3.3.6.1. OpenShift Data Foundation
New in this release
  • No reference design updates in this release
Description
Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation is a software-defined storage service for containers. For Telco core clusters, storage support is provided by OpenShift Data Foundation storage services running externally to the application workload cluster. OpenShift Data Foundation supports separation of storage traffic using secondary CNI networks.
Limits and requirements
Engineering considerations
  • OpenShift Data Foundation network traffic should be isolated from other traffic on a dedicated network, for example, by using VLAN isolation.
2.3.3.6.2. Other Storage

Other storage solutions can be used to provide persistent storage for core clusters. The configuration and integration of these solutions is outside the scope of the telco core RDS. Integration of the storage solution into the core cluster must include correct sizing and performance analysis to ensure the storage meets overall performance and resource utilization requirements.

Additional resources

2.3.3.7. Monitoring
New in this release
  • No reference design updates in this release
Description

The Cluster Monitoring Operator (CMO) is included by default on all OpenShift clusters and provides monitoring (metrics, dashboards, and alerting) for the platform components and optionally user projects as well.

Configuration of the monitoring operator allows for customization, including:

  • Default retention period
  • Custom alert rules

The default handling of pod CPU and memory metrics is based on upstream Kubernetes cAdvisor and makes a tradeoff that prefers handling of stale data over metric accuracy. This leads to spiky data that will create false triggers of alerts over user-specified thresholds. OpenShift supports an opt-in dedicated service monitor feature creating an additional set of pod CPU and memory metrics that do not suffer from the spiky behavior. For additional information, see this solution guide.

In addition to default configuration, the following metrics are expected to be configured for telco core clusters:

  • Pod CPU and memory metrics and alerts for user workloads
Limits and requirements
  • Monitoring configuration must enable the dedicated service monitor feature for accurate representation of pod metrics
Engineering considerations
  • The Prometheus retention period is specified by the user. The value used is a tradeoff between operational requirements for maintaining historical data on the cluster against CPU and storage resources. Longer retention periods increase the need for storage and require additional CPU to manage the indexing of data.

Additional resources

2.3.3.8. Scheduling
New in this release
  • No reference design updates in this release
Description
  • The scheduler is a cluster-wide component responsible for selecting the right node for a given workload. It is a core part of the platform and does not require any specific configuration in the common deployment scenarios. However, there are few specific use cases described in the following section. NUMA-aware scheduling can be enabled through the NUMA Resources Operator. For more information, see Scheduling NUMA-aware workloads.
Limits and requirements
  • The default scheduler does not understand the NUMA locality of workloads. It only knows about the sum of all free resources on a worker node. This might cause workloads to be rejected when scheduled to a node with Topology manager policy set to single-numa-node or restricted.

    • For example, consider a pod requesting 6 CPUs and being scheduled to an empty node that has 4 CPUs per NUMA node. The total allocatable capacity of the node is 8 CPUs and the scheduler will place the pod there. The node local admission will fail, however, as there are only 4 CPUs available in each of the NUMA nodes.
    • All clusters with multi-NUMA nodes are required to use the NUMA Resources Operator. The machineConfigPoolSelector of the NUMA Resources Operator must select all nodes where NUMA aligned scheduling is needed.
  • All machine config pools must have consistent hardware configuration for example all nodes are expected to have the same NUMA zone count.
Engineering considerations
  • Pods might require annotations for correct scheduling and isolation. For more information on annotations, see CPU partitioning and performance tuning.
  • You can configure SR-IOV virtual function NUMA affinity to be ignored during scheduling by using the excludeTopology field in SriovNetworkNodePolicy CR.
2.3.3.9. Installation
New in this release
  • No reference design updates in this release
Description

Telco core clusters can be installed using the Agent Based Installer (ABI). This method allows users to install OpenShift Container Platform on bare metal servers without requiring additional servers or VMs for managing the installation. The ABI installer can be run on any system for example a laptop to generate an ISO installation image. This ISO is used as the installation media for the cluster supervisor nodes. Progress can be monitored using the ABI tool from any system with network connectivity to the supervisor node’s API interfaces.

  • Installation from declarative CRs
  • Does not require additional servers to support installation
  • Supports install in disconnected environment
Limits and requirements
  • Disconnected installation requires a reachable registry with all required content mirrored.
Engineering considerations
  • Networking configuration should be applied as NMState configuration during installation in preference to day-2 configuration by using the NMState Operator.
2.3.3.10. Security
New in this release
  • No reference design updates in this release
Description

Telco operators are security conscious and require clusters to be hardened against multiple attack vectors. Within OpenShift Container Platform, there is no single component or feature responsible for securing a cluster. This section provides details of security-oriented features and configuration for the use models covered in this specification.

  • SecurityContextConstraints: All workload pods should be run with restricted-v2 or restricted SCC.
  • Seccomp: All pods should be run with the RuntimeDefault (or stronger) seccomp profile.
  • Rootless DPDK pods: Many user-plane networking (DPDK) CNFs require pods to run with root privileges. With this feature, a conformant DPDK pod can be run without requiring root privileges. Rootless DPDK pods create a tap device in a rootless pod that injects traffic from a DPDK application to the kernel.
  • Storage: The storage network should be isolated and non-routable to other cluster networks. See the "Storage" section for additional details.
Limits and requirements
  • Rootless DPDK pods requires the following additional configuration steps:

    • Configure the TAP plugin with the container_t SELinux context.
    • Enable the container_use_devices SELinux boolean on the hosts.
Engineering considerations
  • For rootless DPDK pod support, the SELinux boolean container_use_devices must be enabled on the host for the TAP device to be created. This introduces a security risk that is acceptable for short to mid-term use. Other solutions will be explored.
2.3.3.11. Scalability
New in this release
  • No reference design updates in this release
Description

Clusters will scale to the sizing listed in the limits and requirements section.

Scaling of workloads is described in the use model section.

Limits and requirements
  • Cluster scales to at least 120 nodes
Engineering considerations
Not applicable
2.3.3.12. Additional configuration
2.3.3.12.1. Disconnected environment
Description

Telco core clusters are expected to be installed in networks without direct access to the internet. All container images needed to install, configure, and operator the cluster must be available in a disconnected registry. This includes OpenShift Container Platform images, day-2 Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) Operator images, and application workload images. The use of a disconnected environment provides multiple benefits, for example:

  • Limiting access to the cluster for security
  • Curated content: The registry is populated based on curated and approved updates for the clusters
Limits and requirements
  • A unique name is required for all custom CatalogSources. Do not reuse the default catalog names.
  • A valid time source must be configured as part of cluster installation.
Engineering considerations
Not applicable
2.3.3.12.2. Kernel
New in this release
  • No reference design updates in this release
Description

The user can install the following kernel modules by using MachineConfig to provide extended kernel functionality to CNFs:

  • sctp
  • ip_gre
  • ip6_tables
  • ip6t_REJECT
  • ip6table_filter
  • ip6table_mangle
  • iptable_filter
  • iptable_mangle
  • iptable_nat
  • xt_multiport
  • xt_owner
  • xt_REDIRECT
  • xt_statistic
  • xt_TCPMSS
Limits and requirements
  • Use of functionality available through these kernel modules must be analyzed by the user to determine the impact on CPU load, system performance, and ability to sustain KPI.
Note

Out of tree drivers are not supported.

Engineering considerations
Not applicable

2.3.4. Telco core 4.17 reference configuration CRs

Use the following custom resources (CRs) to configure and deploy OpenShift Container Platform clusters with the telco core profile. Use the CRs to form the common baseline used in all the specific use models unless otherwise indicated.

2.3.4.1. Extracting the telco core reference design configuration CRs

You can extract the complete set of custom resources (CRs) for the telco core profile from the telco-core-rds-rhel9 container image. The container image has both the required CRs, and the optional CRs, for the telco core profile.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed podman.

Procedure

  • Extract the content from the telco-core-rds-rhel9 container image by running the following commands:

    $ mkdir -p ./out
    $ podman run -it registry.redhat.io/openshift4/telco-core-rds-rhel9:v4.17 | base64 -d | tar xv -C out

Verification

  • The out directory has the following folder structure. You can view the telco core CRs in the out/telco-core-rds/ directory.

    Example output

    out/
    └── telco-core-rds
        ├── configuration
        │   └── reference-crs
        │       ├── optional
        │       │   ├── logging
        │       │   ├── networking
        │       │   │   └── multus
        │       │   │       └── tap_cni
        │       │   ├── other
        │       │   └── tuning
        │       └── required
        │           ├── networking
        │           │   ├── metallb
        │           │   ├── multinetworkpolicy
        │           │   └── sriov
        │           ├── other
        │           ├── performance
        │           ├── scheduling
        │           └── storage
        │               └── odf-external
        └── install

2.3.4.2. Resource Tuning reference CRs
Table 2.9. Resource Tuning CRs
ComponentReference CROptionalNew in this release

System reserved capacity

control-plane-system-reserved.yaml

Yes

No

2.3.4.3. Storage reference CRs
Table 2.10. Storage CRs
ComponentReference CROptionalNew in this release

External ODF configuration

01-rook-ceph-external-cluster-details.secret.yaml

No

No

External ODF configuration

02-ocs-external-storagecluster.yaml

No

No

External ODF configuration

odfNS.yaml

No

No

External ODF configuration

odfOperGroup.yaml

No

No

External ODF configuration

odfSubscription.yaml

No

No

2.3.4.4. Networking reference CRs
Table 2.11. Networking CRs
ComponentReference CROptionalNew in this release

Baseline

Network.yaml

No

No

Baseline

networkAttachmentDefinition.yaml

Yes

Yes

Load balancer

addr-pool.yaml

No

No

Load balancer

bfd-profile.yaml

No

No

Load balancer

bgp-advr.yaml

No

No

Load balancer

bgp-peer.yaml

No

No

Load balancer

community.yaml

No

Yes

Load balancer

metallb.yaml

No

No

Load balancer

metallbNS.yaml

Yes

No

Load balancer

metallbOperGroup.yaml

Yes

No

Load balancer

metallbSubscription.yaml

No

No

Multus - Tap CNI for rootless DPDK pod

mc_rootless_pods_selinux.yaml

No

No

NMState Operator

NMState.yaml

No

Yes

NMState Operator

NMStateNS.yaml

No

Yes

NMState Operator

NMStateOperGroup.yaml

No

Yes

NMState Operator

NMStateSubscription.yaml

No

Yes

SR-IOV Network Operator

sriovNetwork.yaml

Yes

No

SR-IOV Network Operator

sriovNetworkNodePolicy.yaml

No

No

SR-IOV Network Operator

SriovOperatorConfig.yaml

No

No

SR-IOV Network Operator

SriovSubscription.yaml

No

No

SR-IOV Network Operator

SriovSubscriptionNS.yaml

No

No

SR-IOV Network Operator

SriovSubscriptionOperGroup.yaml

No

No

2.3.4.5. Scheduling reference CRs
Table 2.12. Scheduling CRs
ComponentReference CROptionalNew in this release

NUMA-aware scheduler

nrop.yaml

No

No

NUMA-aware scheduler

NROPSubscription.yaml

No

No

NUMA-aware scheduler

NROPSubscriptionNS.yaml

No

No

NUMA-aware scheduler

NROPSubscriptionOperGroup.yaml

No

No

NUMA-aware scheduler

sched.yaml

No

No

NUMA-aware scheduler

Scheduler.yaml

No

Yes

2.3.4.6. Other reference CRs
Table 2.13. Other CRs
ComponentReference CROptionalNew in this release

Additional kernel modules

control-plane-load-kernel-modules.yaml

Yes

No

Additional kernel modules

sctp_module_mc.yaml

Yes

No

Additional kernel modules

worker-load-kernel-modules.yaml

Yes

No

Cluster logging

ClusterLogForwarder.yaml

No

No

Cluster logging

ClusterLogging.yaml

No

No

Cluster logging

ClusterLogNS.yaml

No

No

Cluster logging

ClusterLogOperGroup.yaml

No

No

Cluster logging

ClusterLogSubscription.yaml

No

No

Disconnected configuration

catalog-source.yaml

No

No

Disconnected configuration

icsp.yaml

No

No

Disconnected configuration

operator-hub.yaml

No

No

Monitoring and observability

monitoring-config-cm.yaml

Yes

No

Power management

PerformanceProfile.yaml

No

No

2.3.4.7. YAML reference
2.3.4.7.1. Resource Tuning reference YAML

control-plane-system-reserved.yaml

# optional
# count: 1
apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: KubeletConfig
metadata:
  name: autosizing-master
spec:
  autoSizingReserved: true
  machineConfigPoolSelector:
    matchLabels:
      pools.operator.machineconfiguration.openshift.io/master: ""

2.3.4.7.2. Storage reference YAML

01-rook-ceph-external-cluster-details.secret.yaml

# required
# count: 1
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: rook-ceph-external-cluster-details
  namespace: openshift-storage
type: Opaque
data:
  # encoded content has been made generic
  external_cluster_details: 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

02-ocs-external-storagecluster.yaml

# required
# count: 1
---
apiVersion: ocs.openshift.io/v1
kind: StorageCluster
metadata:
  name: ocs-external-storagecluster
  namespace: openshift-storage
spec:
  externalStorage:
    enable: true
  labelSelector: {}
status:
  phase: Ready

odfNS.yaml

# required: yes
# count: 1
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: openshift-storage
  annotations:
    workload.openshift.io/allowed: management
  labels:
    openshift.io/cluster-monitoring: "true"

odfOperGroup.yaml

# required: yes
# count: 1
---
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1
kind: OperatorGroup
metadata:
  name: openshift-storage-operatorgroup
  namespace: openshift-storage
spec:
  targetNamespaces:
    - openshift-storage

odfSubscription.yaml

# required: yes
# count: 1
---
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: Subscription
metadata:
  name: odf-operator
  namespace: openshift-storage
spec:
  channel: "stable-4.14"
  name: odf-operator
  source: redhat-operators-disconnected
  sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace
  installPlanApproval: Automatic
status:
  state: AtLatestKnown

2.3.4.7.3. Networking reference YAML

Network.yaml

# required
# count: 1
apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1
kind: Network
metadata:
  name: cluster
spec:
  defaultNetwork:
    ovnKubernetesConfig:
      gatewayConfig:
        routingViaHost: true
  # additional networks are optional and may alternatively be specified using NetworkAttachmentDefinition CRs
  additionalNetworks: [$additionalNetworks]
  # eg
  #- name: add-net-1
  #  namespace: app-ns-1
  #  rawCNIConfig: '{ "cniVersion": "0.3.1", "name": "add-net-1", "plugins": [{"type": "macvlan", "master": "bond1", "ipam": {}}] }'
  #  type: Raw
  #- name: add-net-2
  #  namespace: app-ns-1
  #  rawCNIConfig: '{ "cniVersion": "0.4.0", "name": "add-net-2", "plugins": [ {"type": "macvlan", "master": "bond1", "mode": "private" },{ "type": "tuning", "name": "tuning-arp" }] }'
  #  type: Raw

  # Enable to use MultiNetworkPolicy CRs
  useMultiNetworkPolicy: true

networkAttachmentDefinition.yaml

# optional
# copies: 0-N
apiVersion: "k8s.cni.cncf.io/v1"
kind: NetworkAttachmentDefinition
metadata:
  name: $name
  namespace: $ns
spec:
  nodeSelector:
    kubernetes.io/hostname: $nodeName
  config: $config
  #eg
  #config: '{
  #  "cniVersion": "0.3.1",
  #  "name": "external-169",
  #  "type": "vlan",
  #  "master": "ens8f0",
  #  "mode": "bridge",
  #  "vlanid": 169,
  #  "ipam": {
  #    "type": "static",
  #  }
  #}'

addr-pool.yaml

# required
# count: 1-N
apiVersion: metallb.io/v1beta1
kind: IPAddressPool
metadata:
  name: $name # eg addresspool3
  namespace: metallb-system
  annotations:
    metallb.universe.tf/address-pool: $name # eg addresspool3
spec:
  ##############
  # Expected variation in this configuration
  addresses: [$pools]
  #- 3.3.3.0/24
  autoAssign: true
  ##############

bfd-profile.yaml

# required
# count: 1-N
apiVersion: metallb.io/v1beta1
kind: BFDProfile
metadata:
  name: bfdprofile
  namespace: metallb-system
spec:
  ################
  # These values may vary. Recommended values are included as default
  receiveInterval: 150 # default 300ms
  transmitInterval: 150 # default 300ms
  #echoInterval: 300 # default 50ms
  detectMultiplier: 10 # default 3
  echoMode: true
  passiveMode: true
  minimumTtl: 5 # default 254
  #
  ################

bgp-advr.yaml

# required
# count: 1-N
apiVersion: metallb.io/v1beta1
kind: BGPAdvertisement
metadata:
  name: $name # eg bgpadvertisement-1
  namespace: metallb-system
spec:
  ipAddressPools: [$pool]
  # eg:

  #  - addresspool3
  peers: [$peers]
  # eg:

  #    - peer-one
  #
  communities: [$communities]
  # Note correlation with address pool, or Community
  # eg:

  #    - bgpcommunity
  #    - 65535:65282
  aggregationLength: 32
  aggregationLengthV6: 128
  localPref: 100

bgp-peer.yaml

# required
# count: 1-N
apiVersion: metallb.io/v1beta2
kind: BGPPeer
metadata:
  name: $name
  namespace: metallb-system
spec:
  peerAddress: $ip # eg 192.168.1.2
  peerASN: $peerasn # eg 64501
  myASN: $myasn # eg 64500
  routerID: $id # eg 10.10.10.10
  bfdProfile: bfdprofile
  passwordSecret: {}

community.yaml

---
apiVersion: metallb.io/v1beta1
kind: Community
metadata:
  name: bgpcommunity
  namespace: metallb-system
spec:
  communities: [$comm]

metallb.yaml

# required
# count: 1
apiVersion: metallb.io/v1beta1
kind: MetalLB
metadata:
  name: metallb
  namespace: metallb-system
spec:
  nodeSelector:
    node-role.kubernetes.io/worker: ""

metallbNS.yaml

# required: yes
# count: 1
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: metallb-system
  annotations:
    workload.openshift.io/allowed: management
  labels:
    openshift.io/cluster-monitoring: "true"

metallbOperGroup.yaml

# required: yes
# count: 1
---
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1
kind: OperatorGroup
metadata:
  name: metallb-operator
  namespace: metallb-system

metallbSubscription.yaml

# required: yes
# count: 1
---
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: Subscription
metadata:
  name: metallb-operator-sub
  namespace: metallb-system
spec:
  channel: stable
  name: metallb-operator
  source: redhat-operators-disconnected
  sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace
  installPlanApproval: Automatic
status:
  state: AtLatestKnown

mc_rootless_pods_selinux.yaml

apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
  labels:
    machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker
  name: 99-worker-setsebool
spec:
  config:
    ignition:
      version: 3.2.0
    systemd:
      units:
        - contents: |
            [Unit]
            Description=Set SELinux boolean for tap cni plugin
            Before=kubelet.service

            [Service]
            Type=oneshot
            ExecStart=/sbin/setsebool container_use_devices=on
            RemainAfterExit=true

            [Install]
            WantedBy=multi-user.target graphical.target
          enabled: true
          name: setsebool.service

NMState.yaml

apiVersion: nmstate.io/v1
kind: NMState
metadata:
  name: nmstate
spec: {}

NMStateNS.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: openshift-nmstate
  annotations:
    workload.openshift.io/allowed: management

NMStateOperGroup.yaml

apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1
kind: OperatorGroup
metadata:
  name: openshift-nmstate
  namespace: openshift-nmstate
spec:
  targetNamespaces:
    - openshift-nmstate

NMStateSubscription.yaml

apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: Subscription
metadata:
  name: kubernetes-nmstate-operator
  namespace: openshift-nmstate
spec:
  channel: "stable"
  name: kubernetes-nmstate-operator
  source: redhat-operators-disconnected
  sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace
  installPlanApproval: Automatic
status:
  state: AtLatestKnown

sriovNetwork.yaml

# optional (though expected for all)
# count: 0-N
apiVersion: sriovnetwork.openshift.io/v1
kind: SriovNetwork
metadata:
  name: $name # eg sriov-network-abcd
  namespace: openshift-sriov-network-operator
spec:
  capabilities: "$capabilities" # eg '{"mac": true, "ips": true}'
  ipam: "$ipam" # eg '{ "type": "host-local", "subnet": "10.3.38.0/24" }'
  networkNamespace: $nns # eg cni-test
  resourceName: $resource # eg resourceTest

sriovNetworkNodePolicy.yaml

# optional (though expected in all deployments)
# count: 0-N
apiVersion: sriovnetwork.openshift.io/v1
kind: SriovNetworkNodePolicy
metadata:
  name: $name
  namespace: openshift-sriov-network-operator
spec: {} # $spec
# eg
#deviceType: netdevice
#nicSelector:
#  deviceID: "1593"
#  pfNames:
#  - ens8f0np0#0-9
#  rootDevices:
#  - 0000:d8:00.0
#  vendor: "8086"
#nodeSelector:
#  kubernetes.io/hostname: host.sample.lab
#numVfs: 20
#priority: 99
#excludeTopology: true
#resourceName: resourceNameABCD

SriovOperatorConfig.yaml

# required
# count: 1
---
apiVersion: sriovnetwork.openshift.io/v1
kind: SriovOperatorConfig
metadata:
  name: default
  namespace: openshift-sriov-network-operator
spec:
  configDaemonNodeSelector:
    node-role.kubernetes.io/worker: ""
  enableInjector: true
  enableOperatorWebhook: true
  disableDrain: false
  logLevel: 2

SriovSubscription.yaml

# required: yes
# count: 1
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: Subscription
metadata:
  name: sriov-network-operator-subscription
  namespace: openshift-sriov-network-operator
spec:
  channel: "stable"
  name: sriov-network-operator
  source: redhat-operators-disconnected
  sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace
  installPlanApproval: Automatic
status:
  state: AtLatestKnown

SriovSubscriptionNS.yaml

# required: yes
# count: 1
apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: openshift-sriov-network-operator
  annotations:
    workload.openshift.io/allowed: management

SriovSubscriptionOperGroup.yaml

# required: yes
# count: 1
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1
kind: OperatorGroup
metadata:
  name: sriov-network-operators
  namespace: openshift-sriov-network-operator
spec:
  targetNamespaces:
    - openshift-sriov-network-operator

2.3.4.7.4. Scheduling reference YAML

nrop.yaml

# Optional
# count: 1
apiVersion: nodetopology.openshift.io/v1
kind: NUMAResourcesOperator
metadata:
  name: numaresourcesoperator
spec:
  nodeGroups:
    - config:
        # Periodic is the default setting
        infoRefreshMode: Periodic
      machineConfigPoolSelector:
        matchLabels:
          # This label must match the pool(s) you want to run NUMA-aligned workloads
          pools.operator.machineconfiguration.openshift.io/worker: ""

NROPSubscription.yaml

# required
# count: 1
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: Subscription
metadata:
  name: numaresources-operator
  namespace: openshift-numaresources
spec:
  channel: "4.14"
  name: numaresources-operator
  source: redhat-operators-disconnected
  sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace

NROPSubscriptionNS.yaml

# required: yes
# count: 1
apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: openshift-numaresources
  annotations:
    workload.openshift.io/allowed: management

NROPSubscriptionOperGroup.yaml

# required: yes
# count: 1
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1
kind: OperatorGroup
metadata:
  name: numaresources-operator
  namespace: openshift-numaresources
spec:
  targetNamespaces:
    - openshift-numaresources

sched.yaml

# Optional
# count: 1
apiVersion: nodetopology.openshift.io/v1
kind: NUMAResourcesScheduler
metadata:
  name: numaresourcesscheduler
spec:
  #cacheResyncPeriod: "0"
  # Image spec should be the latest for the release
  imageSpec: "registry.redhat.io/openshift4/noderesourcetopology-scheduler-rhel9:v4.14.0"
  #logLevel: "Trace"
  schedulerName: topo-aware-scheduler

Scheduler.yaml

apiVersion: config.openshift.io/v1
kind: Scheduler
metadata:
  name: cluster
spec:
  # non-schedulable control plane is the default. This ensures
  # compliance.
  mastersSchedulable: false
  policy:
    name: ""

2.3.4.7.5. Other reference YAML

control-plane-load-kernel-modules.yaml

# optional
# count: 1
apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
  labels:
    machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: master
  name: 40-load-kernel-modules-control-plane
spec:
  config:
    # Release info found in https://github.com/coreos/butane/releases
    ignition:
      version: 3.2.0
    storage:
      files:
        - contents:
            source: data:,
          mode: 420
          overwrite: true
          path: /etc/modprobe.d/kernel-blacklist.conf
        - contents:
            source: data:text/plain;charset=utf-8;base64,aXBfZ3JlCmlwNl90YWJsZXMKaXA2dF9SRUpFQ1QKaXA2dGFibGVfZmlsdGVyCmlwNnRhYmxlX21hbmdsZQppcHRhYmxlX2ZpbHRlcgppcHRhYmxlX21hbmdsZQppcHRhYmxlX25hdAp4dF9tdWx0aXBvcnQKeHRfb3duZXIKeHRfUkVESVJFQ1QKeHRfc3RhdGlzdGljCnh0X1RDUE1TUwo=
          mode: 420
          overwrite: true
          path: /etc/modules-load.d/kernel-load.conf

sctp_module_mc.yaml

# optional
# count: 1
apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
  labels:
    machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker
  name: load-sctp-module
spec:
  config:
    ignition:
      version: 2.2.0
    storage:
      files:
        - contents:
            source: data:,
            verification: {}
          filesystem: root
          mode: 420
          path: /etc/modprobe.d/sctp-blacklist.conf
        - contents:
            source: data:text/plain;charset=utf-8;base64,c2N0cA==
          filesystem: root
          mode: 420
          path: /etc/modules-load.d/sctp-load.conf

worker-load-kernel-modules.yaml

# optional
# count: 1
apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
  labels:
    machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker
  name: 40-load-kernel-modules-worker
spec:
  config:
    # Release info found in https://github.com/coreos/butane/releases
    ignition:
      version: 3.2.0
    storage:
      files:
        - contents:
            source: data:,
          mode: 420
          overwrite: true
          path: /etc/modprobe.d/kernel-blacklist.conf
        - contents:
            source: data:text/plain;charset=utf-8;base64,aXBfZ3JlCmlwNl90YWJsZXMKaXA2dF9SRUpFQ1QKaXA2dGFibGVfZmlsdGVyCmlwNnRhYmxlX21hbmdsZQppcHRhYmxlX2ZpbHRlcgppcHRhYmxlX21hbmdsZQppcHRhYmxlX25hdAp4dF9tdWx0aXBvcnQKeHRfb3duZXIKeHRfUkVESVJFQ1QKeHRfc3RhdGlzdGljCnh0X1RDUE1TUwo=
          mode: 420
          overwrite: true
          path: /etc/modules-load.d/kernel-load.conf

ClusterLogForwarder.yaml

# required
# count: 1
apiVersion: logging.openshift.io/v1
kind: ClusterLogForwarder
metadata:
  name: instance
  namespace: openshift-logging
spec:
  outputs:
    - type: "kafka"
      name: kafka-open
      url: tcp://10.11.12.13:9092/test
  pipelines:
    - inputRefs:
        - infrastructure
        #- application
        - audit
      labels:
        label1: test1
        label2: test2
        label3: test3
        label4: test4
        label5: test5
      name: all-to-default
      outputRefs:
        - kafka-open

ClusterLogging.yaml

# required
# count: 1
apiVersion: logging.openshift.io/v1
kind: ClusterLogging
metadata:
  name: instance
  namespace: openshift-logging
spec:
  collection:
    type: vector
  managementState: Managed

ClusterLogNS.yaml

---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: openshift-logging
  annotations:
    workload.openshift.io/allowed: management

ClusterLogOperGroup.yaml

---
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1
kind: OperatorGroup
metadata:
  name: cluster-logging
  namespace: openshift-logging
spec:
  targetNamespaces:
    - openshift-logging

ClusterLogSubscription.yaml

apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: Subscription
metadata:
  name: cluster-logging
  namespace: openshift-logging
spec:
  channel: "stable"
  name: cluster-logging
  source: redhat-operators-disconnected
  sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace
  installPlanApproval: Automatic
status:
  state: AtLatestKnown

catalog-source.yaml

# required
# count: 1..N
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: CatalogSource
metadata:
  name: redhat-operators-disconnected
  namespace: openshift-marketplace
spec:
  displayName: Red Hat Disconnected Operators Catalog
  image: $imageUrl
  publisher: Red Hat
  sourceType: grpc
#  updateStrategy:
#    registryPoll:
#      interval: 1h
status:
  connectionState:
    lastObservedState: READY

icsp.yaml

# required
# count: 1
apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1alpha1
kind: ImageContentSourcePolicy
metadata:
  name: disconnected-internal-icsp
spec:
  repositoryDigestMirrors: []
#    - $mirrors

operator-hub.yaml

# required
# count: 1
apiVersion: config.openshift.io/v1
kind: OperatorHub
metadata:
  name: cluster
spec:
  disableAllDefaultSources: true

monitoring-config-cm.yaml

# optional
# count: 1
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: cluster-monitoring-config
  namespace: openshift-monitoring
data:
  config.yaml: |
    prometheusK8s:
      retention: 15d
      volumeClaimTemplate:
        spec:
          storageClassName: ocs-external-storagecluster-ceph-rbd
          resources:
            requests:
              storage: 100Gi
    alertmanagerMain:
      volumeClaimTemplate:
        spec:
          storageClassName: ocs-external-storagecluster-ceph-rbd
          resources:
            requests:
              storage: 20Gi

PerformanceProfile.yaml

# required
# count: 1
apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2
kind: PerformanceProfile
metadata:
  name: $name
  annotations:
    # Some pods want the kernel stack to ignore IPv6 router Advertisement.
    kubeletconfig.experimental: |
      {"allowedUnsafeSysctls":["net.ipv6.conf.all.accept_ra"]}
spec:
  cpu:
    # node0 CPUs: 0-17,36-53
    # node1 CPUs: 18-34,54-71
    # siblings: (0,36), (1,37)...
    # we want to reserve the first Core of each NUMA socket
    #
    # no CPU left behind! all-cpus == isolated + reserved
    isolated: $isolated # eg 1-17,19-35,37-53,55-71
    reserved: $reserved # eg 0,18,36,54
  # Guaranteed QoS pods will disable IRQ balancing for cores allocated to the pod.
  # default value of globallyDisableIrqLoadBalancing is false
  globallyDisableIrqLoadBalancing: false
  hugepages:
    defaultHugepagesSize: 1G
    pages:
      # 32GB per numa node
      - count: $count # eg 64
        size: 1G
  machineConfigPoolSelector:
    # For SNO: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: 'master'
    pools.operator.machineconfiguration.openshift.io/worker: ''
  nodeSelector:
    # For SNO: node-role.kubernetes.io/master: ""
    node-role.kubernetes.io/worker: ""
  workloadHints:
    realTime: false
    highPowerConsumption: false
    perPodPowerManagement: true
  realTimeKernel:
    enabled: false
  numa:
    # All guaranteed QoS containers get resources from a single NUMA node
    topologyPolicy: "single-numa-node"
  net:
    userLevelNetworking: false

2.3.5. Telco core reference configuration software specifications

The following information describes the telco core reference design specification (RDS) validated software versions.

2.3.5.1. Software stack

The following software versions were used for validating the telco core reference design specification:

Table 2.14. Software versions for validation
ComponentSoftware version

Cluster Logging Operator

5.9.1

OpenShift Data Foundation

4.16

SR-IOV Operator

4.16

MetalLB

4.16

NMState Operator

4.16

NUMA-aware scheduler

4.16

Chapter 3. Planning your environment according to object maximums

Consider the following tested object maximums when you plan your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

These guidelines are based on the largest possible cluster. For smaller clusters, the maximums are lower. There are many factors that influence the stated thresholds, including the etcd version or storage data format.

In most cases, exceeding these numbers results in lower overall performance. It does not necessarily mean that the cluster will fail.

Warning

Clusters that experience rapid change, such as those with many starting and stopping pods, can have a lower practical maximum size than documented.

3.1. OpenShift Container Platform tested cluster maximums for major releases

Note

Red Hat does not provide direct guidance on sizing your OpenShift Container Platform cluster. This is because determining whether your cluster is within the supported bounds of OpenShift Container Platform requires careful consideration of all the multidimensional factors that limit the cluster scale.

OpenShift Container Platform supports tested cluster maximums rather than absolute cluster maximums. Not every combination of OpenShift Container Platform version, control plane workload, and network plugin are tested, so the following table does not represent an absolute expectation of scale for all deployments. It might not be possible to scale to a maximum on all dimensions simultaneously. The table contains tested maximums for specific workload and deployment configurations, and serves as a scale guide as to what can be expected with similar deployments.

Maximum type4.x tested maximum

Number of nodes

2,000 [1]

Number of pods [2]

150,000

Number of pods per node

2,500 [3]

Number of pods per core

There is no default value.

Number of namespaces [4]

10,000

Number of builds

10,000 (Default pod RAM 512 Mi) - Source-to-Image (S2I) build strategy

Number of pods per namespace [5]

25,000

Number of routes and back ends per Ingress Controller

2,000 per router

Number of secrets

80,000

Number of config maps

90,000

Number of services [6]

10,000

Number of services per namespace

5,000

Number of back-ends per service

5,000

Number of deployments per namespace [5]

2,000

Number of build configs

12,000

Number of custom resource definitions (CRD)

1,024 [7]

  1. Pause pods were deployed to stress the control plane components of OpenShift Container Platform at 2000 node scale. The ability to scale to similar numbers will vary depending upon specific deployment and workload parameters.
  2. The pod count displayed here is the number of test pods. The actual number of pods depends on the application’s memory, CPU, and storage requirements.
  3. This was tested on a cluster with 31 servers: 3 control planes, 2 infrastructure nodes, and 26 worker nodes. If you need 2,500 user pods, you need both a hostPrefix of 20, which allocates a network large enough for each node to contain more than 2000 pods, and a custom kubelet config with maxPods set to 2500. For more information, see Running 2500 pods per node on OCP 4.13.
  4. When there are a large number of active projects, etcd might suffer from poor performance if the keyspace grows excessively large and exceeds the space quota. Periodic maintenance of etcd, including defragmentation, is highly recommended to free etcd storage.
  5. There are several control loops in the system that must iterate over all objects in a given namespace as a reaction to some changes in state. Having a large number of objects of a given type in a single namespace can make those loops expensive and slow down processing given state changes. The limit assumes that the system has enough CPU, memory, and disk to satisfy the application requirements.
  6. Each service port and each service back-end has a corresponding entry in iptables. The number of back-ends of a given service impact the size of the Endpoints objects, which impacts the size of data that is being sent all over the system.
  7. Tested on a cluster with 29 servers: 3 control planes, 2 infrastructure nodes, and 24 worker nodes. The cluster had 500 namespaces. OpenShift Container Platform has a limit of 1,024 total custom resource definitions (CRD), including those installed by OpenShift Container Platform, products integrating with OpenShift Container Platform and user-created CRDs. If there are more than 1,024 CRDs created, then there is a possibility that oc command requests might be throttled.

3.1.1. Example scenario

As an example, 500 worker nodes (m5.2xl) were tested, and are supported, using OpenShift Container Platform 4.17, the OVN-Kubernetes network plugin, and the following workload objects:

  • 200 namespaces, in addition to the defaults
  • 60 pods per node; 30 server and 30 client pods (30k total)
  • 57 image streams/ns (11.4k total)
  • 15 services/ns backed by the server pods (3k total)
  • 15 routes/ns backed by the previous services (3k total)
  • 20 secrets/ns (4k total)
  • 10 config maps/ns (2k total)
  • 6 network policies/ns, including deny-all, allow-from ingress and intra-namespace rules
  • 57 builds/ns

The following factors are known to affect cluster workload scaling, positively or negatively, and should be factored into the scale numbers when planning a deployment. For additional information and guidance, contact your sales representative or Red Hat support.

  • Number of pods per node
  • Number of containers per pod
  • Type of probes used (for example, liveness/readiness, exec/http)
  • Number of network policies
  • Number of projects, or namespaces
  • Number of image streams per project
  • Number of builds per project
  • Number of services/endpoints and type
  • Number of routes
  • Number of shards
  • Number of secrets
  • Number of config maps
  • Rate of API calls, or the cluster “churn”, which is an estimation of how quickly things change in the cluster configuration.

    • Prometheus query for pod creation requests per second over 5 minute windows: sum(irate(apiserver_request_count{resource="pods",verb="POST"}[5m]))
    • Prometheus query for all API requests per second over 5 minute windows: sum(irate(apiserver_request_count{}[5m]))
  • Cluster node resource consumption of CPU
  • Cluster node resource consumption of memory

3.2. OpenShift Container Platform environment and configuration on which the cluster maximums are tested

3.2.1. AWS cloud platform

NodeFlavorvCPURAM(GiB)Disk typeDisk size(GiB)/IOSCountRegion

Control plane/etcd [1]

r5.4xlarge

16

128

gp3

220

3

us-west-2

Infra [2]

m5.12xlarge

48

192

gp3

100

3

us-west-2

Workload [3]

m5.4xlarge

16

64

gp3

500 [4]

1

us-west-2

Compute

m5.2xlarge

8

32

gp3

100

3/25/250/500 [5]

us-west-2

  1. gp3 disks with a baseline performance of 3000 IOPS and 125 MiB per second are used for control plane/etcd nodes because etcd is latency sensitive. gp3 volumes do not use burst performance.
  2. Infra nodes are used to host Monitoring, Ingress, and Registry components to ensure they have enough resources to run at large scale.
  3. Workload node is dedicated to run performance and scalability workload generators.
  4. Larger disk size is used so that there is enough space to store the large amounts of data that is collected during the performance and scalability test run.
  5. Cluster is scaled in iterations and performance and scalability tests are executed at the specified node counts.

3.2.2. IBM Power platform

NodevCPURAM(GiB)Disk typeDisk size(GiB)/IOSCount

Control plane/etcd [1]

16

32

io1

120 / 10 IOPS per GiB

3

Infra [2]

16

64

gp2

120

2

Workload [3]

16

256

gp2

120 [4]

1

Compute

16

64

gp2

120

2 to 100 [5]

  1. io1 disks with 120 / 10 IOPS per GiB are used for control plane/etcd nodes as etcd is I/O intensive and latency sensitive.
  2. Infra nodes are used to host Monitoring, Ingress, and Registry components to ensure they have enough resources to run at large scale.
  3. Workload node is dedicated to run performance and scalability workload generators.
  4. Larger disk size is used so that there is enough space to store the large amounts of data that is collected during the performance and scalability test run.
  5. Cluster is scaled in iterations.

3.2.3. IBM Z platform

NodevCPU [4]RAM(GiB)[5]Disk typeDisk size(GiB)/IOSCount

Control plane/etcd [1,2]

8

32

ds8k

300 / LCU 1

3

Compute [1,3]

8

32

ds8k

150 / LCU 2

4 nodes (scaled to 100/250/500 pods per node)

  1. Nodes are distributed between two logical control units (LCUs) to optimize disk I/O load of the control plane/etcd nodes as etcd is I/O intensive and latency sensitive. Etcd I/O demand should not interfere with other workloads.
  2. Four compute nodes are used for the tests running several iterations with 100/250/500 pods at the same time. First, idling pods were used to evaluate if pods can be instanced. Next, a network and CPU demanding client/server workload were used to evaluate the stability of the system under stress. Client and server pods were pairwise deployed and each pair was spread over two compute nodes.
  3. No separate workload node was used. The workload simulates a microservice workload between two compute nodes.
  4. Physical number of processors used is six Integrated Facilities for Linux (IFLs).
  5. Total physical memory used is 512 GiB.

3.3. How to plan your environment according to tested cluster maximums

Important

Oversubscribing the physical resources on a node affects resource guarantees the Kubernetes scheduler makes during pod placement. Learn what measures you can take to avoid memory swapping.

Some of the tested maximums are stretched only in a single dimension. They will vary when many objects are running on the cluster.

The numbers noted in this documentation are based on Red Hat’s test methodology, setup, configuration, and tunings. These numbers can vary based on your own individual setup and environments.

While planning your environment, determine how many pods are expected to fit per node:

required pods per cluster / pods per node = total number of nodes needed

The default maximum number of pods per node is 250. However, the number of pods that fit on a node is dependent on the application itself. Consider the application’s memory, CPU, and storage requirements, as described in "How to plan your environment according to application requirements".

Example scenario

If you want to scope your cluster for 2200 pods per cluster, you would need at least five nodes, assuming that there are 500 maximum pods per node:

2200 / 500 = 4.4

If you increase the number of nodes to 20, then the pod distribution changes to 110 pods per node:

2200 / 20 = 110

Where:

required pods per cluster / total number of nodes = expected pods per node

OpenShift Container Platform comes with several system pods, such as OVN-Kubernetes, DNS, Operators, and others, which run across every worker node by default. Therefore, the result of the above formula can vary.

3.4. How to plan your environment according to application requirements

Consider an example application environment:

Pod typePod quantityMax memoryCPU coresPersistent storage

apache

100

500 MB

0.5

1 GB

node.js

200

1 GB

1

1 GB

postgresql

100

1 GB

2

10 GB

JBoss EAP

100

1 GB

1

1 GB

Extrapolated requirements: 550 CPU cores, 450GB RAM, and 1.4TB storage.

Instance size for nodes can be modulated up or down, depending on your preference. Nodes are often resource overcommitted. In this deployment scenario, you can choose to run additional smaller nodes or fewer larger nodes to provide the same amount of resources. Factors such as operational agility and cost-per-instance should be considered.

Node typeQuantityCPUsRAM (GB)

Nodes (option 1)

100

4

16

Nodes (option 2)

50

8

32

Nodes (option 3)

25

16

64

Some applications lend themselves well to overcommitted environments, and some do not. Most Java applications and applications that use huge pages are examples of applications that would not allow for overcommitment. That memory can not be used for other applications. In the example above, the environment would be roughly 30 percent overcommitted, a common ratio.

The application pods can access a service either by using environment variables or DNS. If using environment variables, for each active service the variables are injected by the kubelet when a pod is run on a node. A cluster-aware DNS server watches the Kubernetes API for new services and creates a set of DNS records for each one. If DNS is enabled throughout your cluster, then all pods should automatically be able to resolve services by their DNS name. Service discovery using DNS can be used in case you must go beyond 5000 services. When using environment variables for service discovery, the argument list exceeds the allowed length after 5000 services in a namespace, then the pods and deployments will start failing. Disable the service links in the deployment’s service specification file to overcome this:

---
apiVersion: template.openshift.io/v1
kind: Template
metadata:
  name: deployment-config-template
  creationTimestamp:
  annotations:
    description: This template will create a deploymentConfig with 1 replica, 4 env vars and a service.
    tags: ''
objects:
- apiVersion: apps.openshift.io/v1
  kind: DeploymentConfig
  metadata:
    name: deploymentconfig${IDENTIFIER}
  spec:
    template:
      metadata:
        labels:
          name: replicationcontroller${IDENTIFIER}
      spec:
        enableServiceLinks: false
        containers:
        - name: pause${IDENTIFIER}
          image: "${IMAGE}"
          ports:
          - containerPort: 8080
            protocol: TCP
          env:
          - name: ENVVAR1_${IDENTIFIER}
            value: "${ENV_VALUE}"
          - name: ENVVAR2_${IDENTIFIER}
            value: "${ENV_VALUE}"
          - name: ENVVAR3_${IDENTIFIER}
            value: "${ENV_VALUE}"
          - name: ENVVAR4_${IDENTIFIER}
            value: "${ENV_VALUE}"
          resources: {}
          imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
          capabilities: {}
          securityContext:
            capabilities: {}
            privileged: false
        restartPolicy: Always
        serviceAccount: ''
    replicas: 1
    selector:
      name: replicationcontroller${IDENTIFIER}
    triggers:
    - type: ConfigChange
    strategy:
      type: Rolling
- apiVersion: v1
  kind: Service
  metadata:
    name: service${IDENTIFIER}
  spec:
    selector:
      name: replicationcontroller${IDENTIFIER}
    ports:
    - name: serviceport${IDENTIFIER}
      protocol: TCP
      port: 80
      targetPort: 8080
    clusterIP: ''
    type: ClusterIP
    sessionAffinity: None
  status:
    loadBalancer: {}
parameters:
- name: IDENTIFIER
  description: Number to append to the name of resources
  value: '1'
  required: true
- name: IMAGE
  description: Image to use for deploymentConfig
  value: gcr.io/google-containers/pause-amd64:3.0
  required: false
- name: ENV_VALUE
  description: Value to use for environment variables
  generate: expression
  from: "[A-Za-z0-9]{255}"
  required: false
labels:
  template: deployment-config-template

The number of application pods that can run in a namespace is dependent on the number of services and the length of the service name when the environment variables are used for service discovery. ARG_MAX on the system defines the maximum argument length for a new process and it is set to 2097152 bytes (2 MiB) by default. The Kubelet injects environment variables in to each pod scheduled to run in the namespace including:

  • <SERVICE_NAME>_SERVICE_HOST=<IP>
  • <SERVICE_NAME>_SERVICE_PORT=<PORT>
  • <SERVICE_NAME>_PORT=tcp://<IP>:<PORT>
  • <SERVICE_NAME>_PORT_<PORT>_TCP=tcp://<IP>:<PORT>
  • <SERVICE_NAME>_PORT_<PORT>_TCP_PROTO=tcp
  • <SERVICE_NAME>_PORT_<PORT>_TCP_PORT=<PORT>
  • <SERVICE_NAME>_PORT_<PORT>_TCP_ADDR=<ADDR>

The pods in the namespace will start to fail if the argument length exceeds the allowed value and the number of characters in a service name impacts it. For example, in a namespace with 5000 services, the limit on the service name is 33 characters, which enables you to run 5000 pods in the namespace.

Chapter 5. Using the Node Tuning Operator

Learn about the Node Tuning Operator and how you can use it to manage node-level tuning by orchestrating the tuned daemon.

5.1. About the Node Tuning Operator

The Node Tuning Operator helps you manage node-level tuning by orchestrating the TuneD daemon and achieves low latency performance by using the Performance Profile controller. The majority of high-performance applications require some level of kernel tuning. The Node Tuning Operator provides a unified management interface to users of node-level sysctls and more flexibility to add custom tuning specified by user needs.

The Operator manages the containerized TuneD daemon for OpenShift Container Platform as a Kubernetes daemon set. It ensures the custom tuning specification is passed to all containerized TuneD daemons running in the cluster in the format that the daemons understand. The daemons run on all nodes in the cluster, one per node.

Node-level settings applied by the containerized TuneD daemon are rolled back on an event that triggers a profile change or when the containerized TuneD daemon is terminated gracefully by receiving and handling a termination signal.

The Node Tuning Operator uses the Performance Profile controller to implement automatic tuning to achieve low latency performance for OpenShift Container Platform applications.

The cluster administrator configures a performance profile to define node-level settings such as the following:

  • Updating the kernel to kernel-rt.
  • Choosing CPUs for housekeeping.
  • Choosing CPUs for running workloads.

The Node Tuning Operator is part of a standard OpenShift Container Platform installation in version 4.1 and later.

Note

In earlier versions of OpenShift Container Platform, the Performance Addon Operator was used to implement automatic tuning to achieve low latency performance for OpenShift applications. In OpenShift Container Platform 4.11 and later, this functionality is part of the Node Tuning Operator.

5.2. Accessing an example Node Tuning Operator specification

Use this process to access an example Node Tuning Operator specification.

Procedure

  • Run the following command to access an example Node Tuning Operator specification:

    oc get tuned.tuned.openshift.io/default -o yaml -n openshift-cluster-node-tuning-operator

The default CR is meant for delivering standard node-level tuning for the OpenShift Container Platform platform and it can only be modified to set the Operator Management state. Any other custom changes to the default CR will be overwritten by the Operator. For custom tuning, create your own Tuned CRs. Newly created CRs will be combined with the default CR and custom tuning applied to OpenShift Container Platform nodes based on node or pod labels and profile priorities.

Warning

While in certain situations the support for pod labels can be a convenient way of automatically delivering required tuning, this practice is discouraged and strongly advised against, especially in large-scale clusters. The default Tuned CR ships without pod label matching. If a custom profile is created with pod label matching, then the functionality will be enabled at that time. The pod label functionality will be deprecated in future versions of the Node Tuning Operator.

5.3. Default profiles set on a cluster

The following are the default profiles set on a cluster.

apiVersion: tuned.openshift.io/v1
kind: Tuned
metadata:
  name: default
  namespace: openshift-cluster-node-tuning-operator
spec:
  profile:
  - data: |
      [main]
      summary=Optimize systems running OpenShift (provider specific parent profile)
      include=-provider-${f:exec:cat:/var/lib/ocp-tuned/provider},openshift
    name: openshift
  recommend:
  - profile: openshift-control-plane
    priority: 30
    match:
    - label: node-role.kubernetes.io/master
    - label: node-role.kubernetes.io/infra
  - profile: openshift-node
    priority: 40

Starting with OpenShift Container Platform 4.9, all OpenShift TuneD profiles are shipped with the TuneD package. You can use the oc exec command to view the contents of these profiles:

$ oc exec $tuned_pod -n openshift-cluster-node-tuning-operator -- find /usr/lib/tuned/openshift{,-control-plane,-node} -name tuned.conf -exec grep -H ^ {} \;

5.4. Verifying that the TuneD profiles are applied

Verify the TuneD profiles that are applied to your cluster node.

$ oc get profile.tuned.openshift.io -n openshift-cluster-node-tuning-operator

Example output

NAME             TUNED                     APPLIED   DEGRADED   AGE
master-0         openshift-control-plane   True      False      6h33m
master-1         openshift-control-plane   True      False      6h33m
master-2         openshift-control-plane   True      False      6h33m
worker-a         openshift-node            True      False      6h28m
worker-b         openshift-node            True      False      6h28m

  • NAME: Name of the Profile object. There is one Profile object per node and their names match.
  • TUNED: Name of the desired TuneD profile to apply.
  • APPLIED: True if the TuneD daemon applied the desired profile. (True/False/Unknown).
  • DEGRADED: True if any errors were reported during application of the TuneD profile (True/False/Unknown).
  • AGE: Time elapsed since the creation of Profile object.

The ClusterOperator/node-tuning object also contains useful information about the Operator and its node agents' health. For example, Operator misconfiguration is reported by ClusterOperator/node-tuning status messages.

To get status information about the ClusterOperator/node-tuning object, run the following command:

$ oc get co/node-tuning -n openshift-cluster-node-tuning-operator

Example output

NAME          VERSION   AVAILABLE   PROGRESSING   DEGRADED   SINCE   MESSAGE
node-tuning   4.17.1    True        False         True       60m     1/5 Profiles with bootcmdline conflict

If either the ClusterOperator/node-tuning or a profile object’s status is DEGRADED, additional information is provided in the Operator or operand logs.

5.5. Custom tuning specification

The custom resource (CR) for the Operator has two major sections. The first section, profile:, is a list of TuneD profiles and their names. The second, recommend:, defines the profile selection logic.

Multiple custom tuning specifications can co-exist as multiple CRs in the Operator’s namespace. The existence of new CRs or the deletion of old CRs is detected by the Operator. All existing custom tuning specifications are merged and appropriate objects for the containerized TuneD daemons are updated.

Management state

The Operator Management state is set by adjusting the default Tuned CR. By default, the Operator is in the Managed state and the spec.managementState field is not present in the default Tuned CR. Valid values for the Operator Management state are as follows:

  • Managed: the Operator will update its operands as configuration resources are updated
  • Unmanaged: the Operator will ignore changes to the configuration resources
  • Removed: the Operator will remove its operands and resources the Operator provisioned

Profile data

The profile: section lists TuneD profiles and their names.

profile:
- name: tuned_profile_1
  data: |
    # TuneD profile specification
    [main]
    summary=Description of tuned_profile_1 profile

    [sysctl]
    net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
    # ... other sysctl's or other TuneD daemon plugins supported by the containerized TuneD

# ...

- name: tuned_profile_n
  data: |
    # TuneD profile specification
    [main]
    summary=Description of tuned_profile_n profile

    # tuned_profile_n profile settings

Recommended profiles

The profile: selection logic is defined by the recommend: section of the CR. The recommend: section is a list of items to recommend the profiles based on a selection criteria.

recommend:
<recommend-item-1>
# ...
<recommend-item-n>

The individual items of the list:

- machineConfigLabels: 1
    <mcLabels> 2
  match: 3
    <match> 4
  priority: <priority> 5
  profile: <tuned_profile_name> 6
  operand: 7
    debug: <bool> 8
    tunedConfig:
      reapply_sysctl: <bool> 9
1
Optional.
2
A dictionary of key/value MachineConfig labels. The keys must be unique.
3
If omitted, profile match is assumed unless a profile with a higher priority matches first or machineConfigLabels is set.
4
An optional list.
5
Profile ordering priority. Lower numbers mean higher priority (0 is the highest priority).
6
A TuneD profile to apply on a match. For example tuned_profile_1.
7
Optional operand configuration.
8
Turn debugging on or off for the TuneD daemon. Options are true for on or false for off. The default is false.
9
Turn reapply_sysctl functionality on or off for the TuneD daemon. Options are true for on and false for off.

<match> is an optional list recursively defined as follows:

- label: <label_name> 1
  value: <label_value> 2
  type: <label_type> 3
    <match> 4
1
Node or pod label name.
2
Optional node or pod label value. If omitted, the presence of <label_name> is enough to match.
3
Optional object type (node or pod). If omitted, node is assumed.
4
An optional <match> list.

If <match> is not omitted, all nested <match> sections must also evaluate to true. Otherwise, false is assumed and the profile with the respective <match> section will not be applied or recommended. Therefore, the nesting (child <match> sections) works as logical AND operator. Conversely, if any item of the <match> list matches, the entire <match> list evaluates to true. Therefore, the list acts as logical OR operator.

If machineConfigLabels is defined, machine config pool based matching is turned on for the given recommend: list item. <mcLabels> specifies the labels for a machine config. The machine config is created automatically to apply host settings, such as kernel boot parameters, for the profile <tuned_profile_name>. This involves finding all machine config pools with machine config selector matching <mcLabels> and setting the profile <tuned_profile_name> on all nodes that are assigned the found machine config pools. To target nodes that have both master and worker roles, you must use the master role.

The list items match and machineConfigLabels are connected by the logical OR operator. The match item is evaluated first in a short-circuit manner. Therefore, if it evaluates to true, the machineConfigLabels item is not considered.

Important

When using machine config pool based matching, it is advised to group nodes with the same hardware configuration into the same machine config pool. Not following this practice might result in TuneD operands calculating conflicting kernel parameters for two or more nodes sharing the same machine config pool.

Example: Node or pod label based matching

- match:
  - label: tuned.openshift.io/elasticsearch
    match:
    - label: node-role.kubernetes.io/master
    - label: node-role.kubernetes.io/infra
    type: pod
  priority: 10
  profile: openshift-control-plane-es
- match:
  - label: node-role.kubernetes.io/master
  - label: node-role.kubernetes.io/infra
  priority: 20
  profile: openshift-control-plane
- priority: 30
  profile: openshift-node

The CR above is translated for the containerized TuneD daemon into its recommend.conf file based on the profile priorities. The profile with the highest priority (10) is openshift-control-plane-es and, therefore, it is considered first. The containerized TuneD daemon running on a given node looks to see if there is a pod running on the same node with the tuned.openshift.io/elasticsearch label set. If not, the entire <match> section evaluates as false. If there is such a pod with the label, in order for the <match> section to evaluate to true, the node label also needs to be node-role.kubernetes.io/master or node-role.kubernetes.io/infra.

If the labels for the profile with priority 10 matched, openshift-control-plane-es profile is applied and no other profile is considered. If the node/pod label combination did not match, the second highest priority profile (openshift-control-plane) is considered. This profile is applied if the containerized TuneD pod runs on a node with labels node-role.kubernetes.io/master or node-role.kubernetes.io/infra.

Finally, the profile openshift-node has the lowest priority of 30. It lacks the <match> section and, therefore, will always match. It acts as a profile catch-all to set openshift-node profile, if no other profile with higher priority matches on a given node.

Decision workflow

Example: Machine config pool based matching

apiVersion: tuned.openshift.io/v1
kind: Tuned
metadata:
  name: openshift-node-custom
  namespace: openshift-cluster-node-tuning-operator
spec:
  profile:
  - data: |
      [main]
      summary=Custom OpenShift node profile with an additional kernel parameter
      include=openshift-node
      [bootloader]
      cmdline_openshift_node_custom=+skew_tick=1
    name: openshift-node-custom

  recommend:
  - machineConfigLabels:
      machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: "worker-custom"
    priority: 20
    profile: openshift-node-custom

To minimize node reboots, label the target nodes with a label the machine config pool’s node selector will match, then create the Tuned CR above and finally create the custom machine config pool itself.

Cloud provider-specific TuneD profiles

With this functionality, all Cloud provider-specific nodes can conveniently be assigned a TuneD profile specifically tailored to a given Cloud provider on a OpenShift Container Platform cluster. This can be accomplished without adding additional node labels or grouping nodes into machine config pools.

This functionality takes advantage of spec.providerID node object values in the form of <cloud-provider>://<cloud-provider-specific-id> and writes the file /var/lib/ocp-tuned/provider with the value <cloud-provider> in NTO operand containers. The content of this file is then used by TuneD to load provider-<cloud-provider> profile if such profile exists.

The openshift profile that both openshift-control-plane and openshift-node profiles inherit settings from is now updated to use this functionality through the use of conditional profile loading. Neither NTO nor TuneD currently include any Cloud provider-specific profiles. However, it is possible to create a custom profile provider-<cloud-provider> that will be applied to all Cloud provider-specific cluster nodes.

Example GCE Cloud provider profile

apiVersion: tuned.openshift.io/v1
kind: Tuned
metadata:
  name: provider-gce
  namespace: openshift-cluster-node-tuning-operator
spec:
  profile:
  - data: |
      [main]
      summary=GCE Cloud provider-specific profile
      # Your tuning for GCE Cloud provider goes here.
    name: provider-gce

Note

Due to profile inheritance, any setting specified in the provider-<cloud-provider> profile will be overwritten by the openshift profile and its child profiles.

5.6. Custom tuning examples

Using TuneD profiles from the default CR

The following CR applies custom node-level tuning for OpenShift Container Platform nodes with label tuned.openshift.io/ingress-node-label set to any value.

Example: custom tuning using the openshift-control-plane TuneD profile

apiVersion: tuned.openshift.io/v1
kind: Tuned
metadata:
  name: ingress
  namespace: openshift-cluster-node-tuning-operator
spec:
  profile:
  - data: |
      [main]
      summary=A custom OpenShift ingress profile
      include=openshift-control-plane
      [sysctl]
      net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range="1024 65535"
      net.ipv4.tcp_tw_reuse=1
    name: openshift-ingress
  recommend:
  - match:
    - label: tuned.openshift.io/ingress-node-label
    priority: 10
    profile: openshift-ingress

Important

Custom profile writers are strongly encouraged to include the default TuneD daemon profiles shipped within the default Tuned CR. The example above uses the default openshift-control-plane profile to accomplish this.

Using built-in TuneD profiles

Given the successful rollout of the NTO-managed daemon set, the TuneD operands all manage the same version of the TuneD daemon. To list the built-in TuneD profiles supported by the daemon, query any TuneD pod in the following way:

$ oc exec $tuned_pod -n openshift-cluster-node-tuning-operator -- find /usr/lib/tuned/ -name tuned.conf -printf '%h\n' | sed 's|^.*/||'

You can use the profile names retrieved by this in your custom tuning specification.

Example: using built-in hpc-compute TuneD profile

apiVersion: tuned.openshift.io/v1
kind: Tuned
metadata:
  name: openshift-node-hpc-compute
  namespace: openshift-cluster-node-tuning-operator
spec:
  profile:
  - data: |
      [main]
      summary=Custom OpenShift node profile for HPC compute workloads
      include=openshift-node,hpc-compute
    name: openshift-node-hpc-compute

  recommend:
  - match:
    - label: tuned.openshift.io/openshift-node-hpc-compute
    priority: 20
    profile: openshift-node-hpc-compute

In addition to the built-in hpc-compute profile, the example above includes the openshift-node TuneD daemon profile shipped within the default Tuned CR to use OpenShift-specific tuning for compute nodes.

Overriding host-level sysctls

Various kernel parameters can be changed at runtime by using /run/sysctl.d/, /etc/sysctl.d/, and /etc/sysctl.conf host configuration files. OpenShift Container Platform adds several host configuration files which set kernel parameters at runtime; for example, net.ipv[4-6]., fs.inotify., and vm.max_map_count. These runtime parameters provide basic functional tuning for the system prior to the kubelet and the Operator start.

The Operator does not override these settings unless the reapply_sysctl option is set to false. Setting this option to false results in TuneD not applying the settings from the host configuration files after it applies its custom profile.

Example: overriding host-level sysctls

apiVersion: tuned.openshift.io/v1
kind: Tuned
metadata:
  name: openshift-no-reapply-sysctl
  namespace: openshift-cluster-node-tuning-operator
spec:
  profile:
  - data: |
      [main]
      summary=Custom OpenShift profile
      include=openshift-node
      [sysctl]
      vm.max_map_count=>524288
    name: openshift-no-reapply-sysctl
  recommend:
  - match:
    - label: tuned.openshift.io/openshift-no-reapply-sysctl
    priority: 15
    profile: openshift-no-reapply-sysctl
    operand:
      tunedConfig:
        reapply_sysctl: false

5.7. Supported TuneD daemon plugins

Excluding the [main] section, the following TuneD plugins are supported when using custom profiles defined in the profile: section of the Tuned CR:

  • audio
  • cpu
  • disk
  • eeepc_she
  • modules
  • mounts
  • net
  • scheduler
  • scsi_host
  • selinux
  • sysctl
  • sysfs
  • usb
  • video
  • vm
  • bootloader

There is some dynamic tuning functionality provided by some of these plugins that is not supported. The following TuneD plugins are currently not supported:

  • script
  • systemd
Note

The TuneD bootloader plugin only supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) worker nodes.

5.8. Configuring node tuning in a hosted cluster

To set node-level tuning on the nodes in your hosted cluster, you can use the Node Tuning Operator. In hosted control planes, you can configure node tuning by creating config maps that contain Tuned objects and referencing those config maps in your node pools.

Procedure

  1. Create a config map that contains a valid tuned manifest, and reference the manifest in a node pool. In the following example, a Tuned manifest defines a profile that sets vm.dirty_ratio to 55 on nodes that contain the tuned-1-node-label node label with any value. Save the following ConfigMap manifest in a file named tuned-1.yaml:

        apiVersion: v1
        kind: ConfigMap
        metadata:
          name: tuned-1
          namespace: clusters
        data:
          tuning: |
            apiVersion: tuned.openshift.io/v1
            kind: Tuned
            metadata:
              name: tuned-1
              namespace: openshift-cluster-node-tuning-operator
            spec:
              profile:
              - data: |
                  [main]
                  summary=Custom OpenShift profile
                  include=openshift-node
                  [sysctl]
                  vm.dirty_ratio="55"
                name: tuned-1-profile
              recommend:
              - priority: 20
                profile: tuned-1-profile
    Note

    If you do not add any labels to an entry in the spec.recommend section of the Tuned spec, node-pool-based matching is assumed, so the highest priority profile in the spec.recommend section is applied to nodes in the pool. Although you can achieve more fine-grained node-label-based matching by setting a label value in the Tuned .spec.recommend.match section, node labels will not persist during an upgrade unless you set the .spec.management.upgradeType value of the node pool to InPlace.

  2. Create the ConfigMap object in the management cluster:

    $ oc --kubeconfig="$MGMT_KUBECONFIG" create -f tuned-1.yaml
  3. Reference the ConfigMap object in the spec.tuningConfig field of the node pool, either by editing a node pool or creating one. In this example, assume that you have only one NodePool, named nodepool-1, which contains 2 nodes.

        apiVersion: hypershift.openshift.io/v1alpha1
        kind: NodePool
        metadata:
          ...
          name: nodepool-1
          namespace: clusters
        ...
        spec:
          ...
          tuningConfig:
          - name: tuned-1
        status:
        ...
    Note

    You can reference the same config map in multiple node pools. In hosted control planes, the Node Tuning Operator appends a hash of the node pool name and namespace to the name of the Tuned CRs to distinguish them. Outside of this case, do not create multiple TuneD profiles of the same name in different Tuned CRs for the same hosted cluster.

Verification

Now that you have created the ConfigMap object that contains a Tuned manifest and referenced it in a NodePool, the Node Tuning Operator syncs the Tuned objects into the hosted cluster. You can verify which Tuned objects are defined and which TuneD profiles are applied to each node.

  1. List the Tuned objects in the hosted cluster:

    $ oc --kubeconfig="$HC_KUBECONFIG" get tuned.tuned.openshift.io -n openshift-cluster-node-tuning-operator

    Example output

    NAME       AGE
    default    7m36s
    rendered   7m36s
    tuned-1    65s

  2. List the Profile objects in the hosted cluster:

    $ oc --kubeconfig="$HC_KUBECONFIG" get profile.tuned.openshift.io -n openshift-cluster-node-tuning-operator

    Example output

    NAME                           TUNED            APPLIED   DEGRADED   AGE
    nodepool-1-worker-1            tuned-1-profile  True      False      7m43s
    nodepool-1-worker-2            tuned-1-profile  True      False      7m14s

    Note

    If no custom profiles are created, the openshift-node profile is applied by default.

  3. To confirm that the tuning was applied correctly, start a debug shell on a node and check the sysctl values:

    $ oc --kubeconfig="$HC_KUBECONFIG" debug node/nodepool-1-worker-1 -- chroot /host sysctl vm.dirty_ratio

    Example output

    vm.dirty_ratio = 55

5.9. Advanced node tuning for hosted clusters by setting kernel boot parameters

For more advanced tuning in hosted control planes, which requires setting kernel boot parameters, you can also use the Node Tuning Operator. The following example shows how you can create a node pool with huge pages reserved.

Procedure

  1. Create a ConfigMap object that contains a Tuned object manifest for creating 10 huge pages that are 2 MB in size. Save this ConfigMap manifest in a file named tuned-hugepages.yaml:

        apiVersion: v1
        kind: ConfigMap
        metadata:
          name: tuned-hugepages
          namespace: clusters
        data:
          tuning: |
            apiVersion: tuned.openshift.io/v1
            kind: Tuned
            metadata:
              name: hugepages
              namespace: openshift-cluster-node-tuning-operator
            spec:
              profile:
              - data: |
                  [main]
                  summary=Boot time configuration for hugepages
                  include=openshift-node
                  [bootloader]
                  cmdline_openshift_node_hugepages=hugepagesz=2M hugepages=50
                name: openshift-node-hugepages
              recommend:
              - priority: 20
                profile: openshift-node-hugepages
    Note

    The .spec.recommend.match field is intentionally left blank. In this case, this Tuned object is applied to all nodes in the node pool where this ConfigMap object is referenced. Group nodes with the same hardware configuration into the same node pool. Otherwise, TuneD operands can calculate conflicting kernel parameters for two or more nodes that share the same node pool.

  2. Create the ConfigMap object in the management cluster:

    $ oc --kubeconfig="<management_cluster_kubeconfig>" create -f tuned-hugepages.yaml 1
    1
    Replace <management_cluster_kubeconfig> with the name of your management cluster kubeconfig file.
  3. Create a NodePool manifest YAML file, customize the upgrade type of the NodePool, and reference the ConfigMap object that you created in the spec.tuningConfig section. Create the NodePool manifest and save it in a file named hugepages-nodepool.yaml by using the hcp CLI:

    $ hcp create nodepool aws \
      --cluster-name <hosted_cluster_name> \1
      --name <nodepool_name> \2
      --node-count <nodepool_replicas> \3
      --instance-type <instance_type> \4
      --render > hugepages-nodepool.yaml
    1
    Replace <hosted_cluster_name> with the name of your hosted cluster.
    2
    Replace <nodepool_name> with the name of your node pool.
    3
    Replace <nodepool_replicas> with the number of your node pool replicas, for example, 2.
    4
    Replace <instance_type> with the instance type, for example, m5.2xlarge.
    Note

    The --render flag in the hcp create command does not render the secrets. To render the secrets, you must use both the --render and the --render-sensitive flags in the hcp create command.

  4. In the hugepages-nodepool.yaml file, set .spec.management.upgradeType to InPlace, and set .spec.tuningConfig to reference the tuned-hugepages ConfigMap object that you created.

        apiVersion: hypershift.openshift.io/v1alpha1
        kind: NodePool
        metadata:
          name: hugepages-nodepool
          namespace: clusters
          ...
        spec:
          management:
            ...
            upgradeType: InPlace
          ...
          tuningConfig:
          - name: tuned-hugepages
    Note

    To avoid the unnecessary re-creation of nodes when you apply the new MachineConfig objects, set .spec.management.upgradeType to InPlace. If you use the Replace upgrade type, nodes are fully deleted and new nodes can replace them when you apply the new kernel boot parameters that the TuneD operand calculated.

  5. Create the NodePool in the management cluster:

    $ oc --kubeconfig="<management_cluster_kubeconfig>" create -f hugepages-nodepool.yaml

Verification

After the nodes are available, the containerized TuneD daemon calculates the required kernel boot parameters based on the applied TuneD profile. After the nodes are ready and reboot once to apply the generated MachineConfig object, you can verify that the TuneD profile is applied and that the kernel boot parameters are set.

  1. List the Tuned objects in the hosted cluster:

    $ oc --kubeconfig="<hosted_cluster_kubeconfig>" get tuned.tuned.openshift.io -n openshift-cluster-node-tuning-operator

    Example output

    NAME                 AGE
    default              123m
    hugepages-8dfb1fed   1m23s
    rendered             123m

  2. List the Profile objects in the hosted cluster:

    $ oc --kubeconfig="<hosted_cluster_kubeconfig>" get profile.tuned.openshift.io -n openshift-cluster-node-tuning-operator

    Example output

    NAME                           TUNED                      APPLIED   DEGRADED   AGE
    nodepool-1-worker-1            openshift-node             True      False      132m
    nodepool-1-worker-2            openshift-node             True      False      131m
    hugepages-nodepool-worker-1    openshift-node-hugepages   True      False      4m8s
    hugepages-nodepool-worker-2    openshift-node-hugepages   True      False      3m57s

    Both of the worker nodes in the new NodePool have the openshift-node-hugepages profile applied.

  3. To confirm that the tuning was applied correctly, start a debug shell on a node and check /proc/cmdline.

    $ oc --kubeconfig="<hosted_cluster_kubeconfig>" debug node/nodepool-1-worker-1 -- chroot /host cat /proc/cmdline

    Example output

    BOOT_IMAGE=(hd0,gpt3)/ostree/rhcos-... hugepagesz=2M hugepages=50

Additional resources

Chapter 6. Using CPU Manager and Topology Manager

CPU Manager manages groups of CPUs and constrains workloads to specific CPUs.

CPU Manager is useful for workloads that have some of these attributes:

  • Require as much CPU time as possible.
  • Are sensitive to processor cache misses.
  • Are low-latency network applications.
  • Coordinate with other processes and benefit from sharing a single processor cache.

Topology Manager collects hints from the CPU Manager, Device Manager, and other Hint Providers to align pod resources, such as CPU, SR-IOV VFs, and other device resources, for all Quality of Service (QoS) classes on the same non-uniform memory access (NUMA) node.

Topology Manager uses topology information from the collected hints to decide if a pod can be accepted or rejected on a node, based on the configured Topology Manager policy and pod resources requested.

Topology Manager is useful for workloads that use hardware accelerators to support latency-critical execution and high throughput parallel computation.

To use Topology Manager you must configure CPU Manager with the static policy.

6.1. Setting up CPU Manager

To configure CPU manager, create a KubeletConfig custom resource (CR) and apply it to the desired set of nodes.

Procedure

  1. Label a node by running the following command:

    # oc label node perf-node.example.com cpumanager=true
  2. To enable CPU Manager for all compute nodes, edit the CR by running the following command:

    # oc edit machineconfigpool worker
  3. Add the custom-kubelet: cpumanager-enabled label to metadata.labels section.

    metadata:
      creationTimestamp: 2020-xx-xxx
      generation: 3
      labels:
        custom-kubelet: cpumanager-enabled
  4. Create a KubeletConfig, cpumanager-kubeletconfig.yaml, custom resource (CR). Refer to the label created in the previous step to have the correct nodes updated with the new kubelet config. See the machineConfigPoolSelector section:

    apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
    kind: KubeletConfig
    metadata:
      name: cpumanager-enabled
    spec:
      machineConfigPoolSelector:
        matchLabels:
          custom-kubelet: cpumanager-enabled
      kubeletConfig:
         cpuManagerPolicy: static 1
         cpuManagerReconcilePeriod: 5s 2
    1
    Specify a policy:
    • none. This policy explicitly enables the existing default CPU affinity scheme, providing no affinity beyond what the scheduler does automatically. This is the default policy.
    • static. This policy allows containers in guaranteed pods with integer CPU requests. It also limits access to exclusive CPUs on the node. If static, you must use a lowercase s.
    2
    Optional. Specify the CPU Manager reconcile frequency. The default is 5s.
  5. Create the dynamic kubelet config by running the following command:

    # oc create -f cpumanager-kubeletconfig.yaml

    This adds the CPU Manager feature to the kubelet config and, if needed, the Machine Config Operator (MCO) reboots the node. To enable CPU Manager, a reboot is not needed.

  6. Check for the merged kubelet config by running the following command:

    # oc get machineconfig 99-worker-XXXXXX-XXXXX-XXXX-XXXXX-kubelet -o json | grep ownerReference -A7

    Example output

           "ownerReferences": [
                {
                    "apiVersion": "machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1",
                    "kind": "KubeletConfig",
                    "name": "cpumanager-enabled",
                    "uid": "7ed5616d-6b72-11e9-aae1-021e1ce18878"
                }
            ]

  7. Check the compute node for the updated kubelet.conf file by running the following command:

    # oc debug node/perf-node.example.com
    sh-4.2# cat /host/etc/kubernetes/kubelet.conf | grep cpuManager

    Example output

    cpuManagerPolicy: static        1
    cpuManagerReconcilePeriod: 5s   2

    1
    cpuManagerPolicy is defined when you create the KubeletConfig CR.
    2
    cpuManagerReconcilePeriod is defined when you create the KubeletConfig CR.
  8. Create a project by running the following command:

    $ oc new-project <project_name>
  9. Create a pod that requests a core or multiple cores. Both limits and requests must have their CPU value set to a whole integer. That is the number of cores that will be dedicated to this pod:

    # cat cpumanager-pod.yaml

    Example output

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: Pod
    metadata:
      generateName: cpumanager-
    spec:
      securityContext:
        runAsNonRoot: true
        seccompProfile:
          type: RuntimeDefault
      containers:
      - name: cpumanager
        image: gcr.io/google_containers/pause:3.2
        resources:
          requests:
            cpu: 1
            memory: "1G"
          limits:
            cpu: 1
            memory: "1G"
        securityContext:
          allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
          capabilities:
            drop: [ALL]
      nodeSelector:
        cpumanager: "true"

  10. Create the pod:

    # oc create -f cpumanager-pod.yaml

Verification

  1. Verify that the pod is scheduled to the node that you labeled by running the following command:

    # oc describe pod cpumanager

    Example output

    Name:               cpumanager-6cqz7
    Namespace:          default
    Priority:           0
    PriorityClassName:  <none>
    Node:  perf-node.example.com/xxx.xx.xx.xxx
    ...
     Limits:
          cpu:     1
          memory:  1G
        Requests:
          cpu:        1
          memory:     1G
    ...
    QoS Class:       Guaranteed
    Node-Selectors:  cpumanager=true

  2. Verify that a CPU has been exclusively assigned to the pod by running the following command:

    # oc describe node --selector='cpumanager=true' | grep -i cpumanager- -B2

    Example output

    NAMESPACE    NAME                CPU Requests  CPU Limits  Memory Requests  Memory Limits  Age
    cpuman       cpumanager-mlrrz    1 (28%)       1 (28%)     1G (13%)         1G (13%)       27m

  3. Verify that the cgroups are set up correctly. Get the process ID (PID) of the pause process by running the following commands:

    # oc debug node/perf-node.example.com
    sh-4.2# systemctl status | grep -B5 pause
    Note

    If the output returns multiple pause process entries, you must identify the correct pause process.

    Example output

    # ├─init.scope
    │ └─1 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd --switched-root --system --deserialize 17
    └─kubepods.slice
      ├─kubepods-pod69c01f8e_6b74_11e9_ac0f_0a2b62178a22.slice
      │ ├─crio-b5437308f1a574c542bdf08563b865c0345c8f8c0b0a655612c.scope
      │ └─32706 /pause

  4. Verify that pods of quality of service (QoS) tier Guaranteed are placed within the kubepods.slice subdirectory by running the following commands:

    # cd /sys/fs/cgroup/kubepods.slice/kubepods-pod69c01f8e_6b74_11e9_ac0f_0a2b62178a22.slice/crio-b5437308f1ad1a7db0574c542bdf08563b865c0345c86e9585f8c0b0a655612c.scope
    # for i in `ls cpuset.cpus cgroup.procs` ; do echo -n "$i "; cat $i ; done
    Note

    Pods of other QoS tiers end up in child cgroups of the parent kubepods.

    Example output

    cpuset.cpus 1
    tasks 32706

  5. Check the allowed CPU list for the task by running the following command:

    # grep ^Cpus_allowed_list /proc/32706/status

    Example output

     Cpus_allowed_list:    1

  6. Verify that another pod on the system cannot run on the core allocated for the Guaranteed pod. For example, to verify the pod in the besteffort QoS tier, run the following commands:

    # cat /sys/fs/cgroup/kubepods.slice/kubepods-besteffort.slice/kubepods-besteffort-podc494a073_6b77_11e9_98c0_06bba5c387ea.slice/crio-c56982f57b75a2420947f0afc6cafe7534c5734efc34157525fa9abbf99e3849.scope/cpuset.cpus
    # oc describe node perf-node.example.com

    Example output

    ...
    Capacity:
     attachable-volumes-aws-ebs:  39
     cpu:                         2
     ephemeral-storage:           124768236Ki
     hugepages-1Gi:               0
     hugepages-2Mi:               0
     memory:                      8162900Ki
     pods:                        250
    Allocatable:
     attachable-volumes-aws-ebs:  39
     cpu:                         1500m
     ephemeral-storage:           124768236Ki
     hugepages-1Gi:               0
     hugepages-2Mi:               0
     memory:                      7548500Ki
     pods:                        250
    -------                               ----                           ------------  ----------  ---------------  -------------  ---
      default                                 cpumanager-6cqz7               1 (66%)       1 (66%)     1G (12%)         1G (12%)       29m
    
    Allocated resources:
      (Total limits may be over 100 percent, i.e., overcommitted.)
      Resource                    Requests          Limits
      --------                    --------          ------
      cpu                         1440m (96%)       1 (66%)

    This VM has two CPU cores. The system-reserved setting reserves 500 millicores, meaning that half of one core is subtracted from the total capacity of the node to arrive at the Node Allocatable amount. You can see that Allocatable CPU is 1500 millicores. This means you can run one of the CPU Manager pods since each will take one whole core. A whole core is equivalent to 1000 millicores. If you try to schedule a second pod, the system will accept the pod, but it will never be scheduled:

    NAME                    READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
    cpumanager-6cqz7        1/1     Running   0          33m
    cpumanager-7qc2t        0/1     Pending   0          11s

6.2. Topology Manager policies

Topology Manager aligns Pod resources of all Quality of Service (QoS) classes by collecting topology hints from Hint Providers, such as CPU Manager and Device Manager, and using the collected hints to align the Pod resources.

Topology Manager supports four allocation policies, which you assign in the KubeletConfig custom resource (CR) named cpumanager-enabled:

none policy
This is the default policy and does not perform any topology alignment.
best-effort policy
For each container in a pod with the best-effort topology management policy, kubelet calls each Hint Provider to discover their resource availability. Using this information, the Topology Manager stores the preferred NUMA Node affinity for that container. If the affinity is not preferred, Topology Manager stores this and admits the pod to the node.
restricted policy
For each container in a pod with the restricted topology management policy, kubelet calls each Hint Provider to discover their resource availability. Using this information, the Topology Manager stores the preferred NUMA Node affinity for that container. If the affinity is not preferred, Topology Manager rejects this pod from the node, resulting in a pod in a Terminated state with a pod admission failure.
single-numa-node policy
For each container in a pod with the single-numa-node topology management policy, kubelet calls each Hint Provider to discover their resource availability. Using this information, the Topology Manager determines if a single NUMA Node affinity is possible. If it is, the pod is admitted to the node. If a single NUMA Node affinity is not possible, the Topology Manager rejects the pod from the node. This results in a pod in a Terminated state with a pod admission failure.

6.3. Setting up Topology Manager

To use Topology Manager, you must configure an allocation policy in the KubeletConfig custom resource (CR) named cpumanager-enabled. This file might exist if you have set up CPU Manager. If the file does not exist, you can create the file.

Prerequisites

  • Configure the CPU Manager policy to be static.

Procedure

To activate Topology Manager:

  1. Configure the Topology Manager allocation policy in the custom resource.

    $ oc edit KubeletConfig cpumanager-enabled
    apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
    kind: KubeletConfig
    metadata:
      name: cpumanager-enabled
    spec:
      machineConfigPoolSelector:
        matchLabels:
          custom-kubelet: cpumanager-enabled
      kubeletConfig:
         cpuManagerPolicy: static 1
         cpuManagerReconcilePeriod: 5s
         topologyManagerPolicy: single-numa-node 2
    1
    This parameter must be static with a lowercase s.
    2
    Specify your selected Topology Manager allocation policy. Here, the policy is single-numa-node. Acceptable values are: default, best-effort, restricted, single-numa-node.

6.4. Pod interactions with Topology Manager policies

The example Pod specs below help illustrate pod interactions with Topology Manager.

The following pod runs in the BestEffort QoS class because no resource requests or limits are specified.

spec:
  containers:
  - name: nginx
    image: nginx

The next pod runs in the Burstable QoS class because requests are less than limits.

spec:
  containers:
  - name: nginx
    image: nginx
    resources:
      limits:
        memory: "200Mi"
      requests:
        memory: "100Mi"

If the selected policy is anything other than none, Topology Manager would not consider either of these Pod specifications.

The last example pod below runs in the Guaranteed QoS class because requests are equal to limits.

spec:
  containers:
  - name: nginx
    image: nginx
    resources:
      limits:
        memory: "200Mi"
        cpu: "2"
        example.com/device: "1"
      requests:
        memory: "200Mi"
        cpu: "2"
        example.com/device: "1"

Topology Manager would consider this pod. The Topology Manager would consult the hint providers, which are CPU Manager and Device Manager, to get topology hints for the pod.

Topology Manager will use this information to store the best topology for this container. In the case of this pod, CPU Manager and Device Manager will use this stored information at the resource allocation stage.

Chapter 7. Scheduling NUMA-aware workloads

Learn about NUMA-aware scheduling and how you can use it to deploy high performance workloads in an OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

The NUMA Resources Operator allows you to schedule high-performance workloads in the same NUMA zone. It deploys a node resources exporting agent that reports on available cluster node NUMA resources, and a secondary scheduler that manages the workloads.

7.1. About NUMA-aware scheduling

Introduction to NUMA

Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) is a compute platform architecture that allows different CPUs to access different regions of memory at different speeds. NUMA resource topology refers to the locations of CPUs, memory, and PCI devices relative to each other in the compute node. Colocated resources are said to be in the same NUMA zone. For high-performance applications, the cluster needs to process pod workloads in a single NUMA zone.

Performance considerations

NUMA architecture allows a CPU with multiple memory controllers to use any available memory across CPU complexes, regardless of where the memory is located. This allows for increased flexibility at the expense of performance. A CPU processing a workload using memory that is outside its NUMA zone is slower than a workload processed in a single NUMA zone. Also, for I/O-constrained workloads, the network interface on a distant NUMA zone slows down how quickly information can reach the application. High-performance workloads, such as telecommunications workloads, cannot operate to specification under these conditions.

NUMA-aware scheduling

NUMA-aware scheduling aligns the requested cluster compute resources (CPUs, memory, devices) in the same NUMA zone to process latency-sensitive or high-performance workloads efficiently. NUMA-aware scheduling also improves pod density per compute node for greater resource efficiency.

Integration with Node Tuning Operator

By integrating the Node Tuning Operator’s performance profile with NUMA-aware scheduling, you can further configure CPU affinity to optimize performance for latency-sensitive workloads.

Default scheduling logic

The default OpenShift Container Platform pod scheduler scheduling logic considers the available resources of the entire compute node, not individual NUMA zones. If the most restrictive resource alignment is requested in the kubelet topology manager, error conditions can occur when admitting the pod to a node. Conversely, if the most restrictive resource alignment is not requested, the pod can be admitted to the node without proper resource alignment, leading to worse or unpredictable performance. For example, runaway pod creation with Topology Affinity Error statuses can occur when the pod scheduler makes suboptimal scheduling decisions for guaranteed pod workloads without knowing if the pod’s requested resources are available. Scheduling mismatch decisions can cause indefinite pod startup delays. Also, depending on the cluster state and resource allocation, poor pod scheduling decisions can cause extra load on the cluster because of failed startup attempts.

NUMA-aware pod scheduling diagram

The NUMA Resources Operator deploys a custom NUMA resources secondary scheduler and other resources to mitigate against the shortcomings of the default OpenShift Container Platform pod scheduler. The following diagram provides a high-level overview of NUMA-aware pod scheduling.

Figure 7.1. NUMA-aware scheduling overview

Diagram of NUMA-aware scheduling that shows how the various components interact with each other in the cluster
NodeResourceTopology API
The NodeResourceTopology API describes the available NUMA zone resources in each compute node.
NUMA-aware scheduler
The NUMA-aware secondary scheduler receives information about the available NUMA zones from the NodeResourceTopology API and schedules high-performance workloads on a node where it can be optimally processed.
Node topology exporter
The node topology exporter exposes the available NUMA zone resources for each compute node to the NodeResourceTopology API. The node topology exporter daemon tracks the resource allocation from the kubelet by using the PodResources API.
PodResources API

The PodResources API is local to each node and exposes the resource topology and available resources to the kubelet.

Note

The List endpoint of the PodResources API exposes exclusive CPUs allocated to a particular container. The API does not expose CPUs that belong to a shared pool.

The GetAllocatableResources endpoint exposes allocatable resources available on a node.

Additional resources

7.2. Installing the NUMA Resources Operator

NUMA Resources Operator deploys resources that allow you to schedule NUMA-aware workloads and deployments. You can install the NUMA Resources Operator using the OpenShift Container Platform CLI or the web console.

7.2.1. Installing the NUMA Resources Operator using the CLI

As a cluster administrator, you can install the Operator using the CLI.

Prerequisites

  • Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • Log in as a user with cluster-admin privileges.

Procedure

  1. Create a namespace for the NUMA Resources Operator:

    1. Save the following YAML in the nro-namespace.yaml file:

      apiVersion: v1
      kind: Namespace
      metadata:
        name: openshift-numaresources
    2. Create the Namespace CR by running the following command:

      $ oc create -f nro-namespace.yaml
  2. Create the Operator group for the NUMA Resources Operator:

    1. Save the following YAML in the nro-operatorgroup.yaml file:

      apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1
      kind: OperatorGroup
      metadata:
        name: numaresources-operator
        namespace: openshift-numaresources
      spec:
        targetNamespaces:
        - openshift-numaresources
    2. Create the OperatorGroup CR by running the following command:

      $ oc create -f nro-operatorgroup.yaml
  3. Create the subscription for the NUMA Resources Operator:

    1. Save the following YAML in the nro-sub.yaml file:

      apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
      kind: Subscription
      metadata:
        name: numaresources-operator
        namespace: openshift-numaresources
      spec:
        channel: "4.17"
        name: numaresources-operator
        source: redhat-operators
        sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace
    2. Create the Subscription CR by running the following command:

      $ oc create -f nro-sub.yaml

Verification

  1. Verify that the installation succeeded by inspecting the CSV resource in the openshift-numaresources namespace. Run the following command:

    $ oc get csv -n openshift-numaresources

    Example output

    NAME                             DISPLAY                  VERSION   REPLACES   PHASE
    numaresources-operator.v4.17.2   numaresources-operator   4.17.2               Succeeded

7.2.2. Installing the NUMA Resources Operator using the web console

As a cluster administrator, you can install the NUMA Resources Operator using the web console.

Procedure

  1. Create a namespace for the NUMA Resources Operator:

    1. In the OpenShift Container Platform web console, click AdministrationNamespaces.
    2. Click Create Namespace, enter openshift-numaresources in the Name field, and then click Create.
  2. Install the NUMA Resources Operator:

    1. In the OpenShift Container Platform web console, click OperatorsOperatorHub.
    2. Choose numaresources-operator from the list of available Operators, and then click Install.
    3. In the Installed Namespaces field, select the openshift-numaresources namespace, and then click Install.
  3. Optional: Verify that the NUMA Resources Operator installed successfully:

    1. Switch to the OperatorsInstalled Operators page.
    2. Ensure that NUMA Resources Operator is listed in the openshift-numaresources namespace with a Status of InstallSucceeded.

      Note

      During installation an Operator might display a Failed status. If the installation later succeeds with an InstallSucceeded message, you can ignore the Failed message.

      If the Operator does not appear as installed, to troubleshoot further:

      • Go to the OperatorsInstalled Operators page and inspect the Operator Subscriptions and Install Plans tabs for any failure or errors under Status.
      • Go to the WorkloadsPods page and check the logs for pods in the default project.

7.3. Scheduling NUMA-aware workloads

Clusters running latency-sensitive workloads typically feature performance profiles that help to minimize workload latency and optimize performance. The NUMA-aware scheduler deploys workloads based on available node NUMA resources and with respect to any performance profile settings applied to the node. The combination of NUMA-aware deployments, and the performance profile of the workload, ensures that workloads are scheduled in a way that maximizes performance.

For the NUMA Resources Operator to be fully operational, you must deploy the NUMAResourcesOperator custom resource and the NUMA-aware secondary pod scheduler.

7.3.1. Creating the NUMAResourcesOperator custom resource

When you have installed the NUMA Resources Operator, then create the NUMAResourcesOperator custom resource (CR) that instructs the NUMA Resources Operator to install all the cluster infrastructure needed to support the NUMA-aware scheduler, including daemon sets and APIs.

Prerequisites

  • Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • Log in as a user with cluster-admin privileges.
  • Install the NUMA Resources Operator.

Procedure

  1. Create the NUMAResourcesOperator custom resource:

    1. Save the following minimal required YAML file example as nrop.yaml:

      apiVersion: nodetopology.openshift.io/v1
      kind: NUMAResourcesOperator
      metadata:
        name: numaresourcesoperator
      spec:
        nodeGroups:
        - machineConfigPoolSelector:
            matchLabels:
              pools.operator.machineconfiguration.openshift.io/worker: "" 1
      1
      This should match the MachineConfigPool that you want to configure the NUMA Resources Operator on. For example, you might have created a MachineConfigPool named worker-cnf that designates a set of nodes expected to run telecommunications workloads.
    2. Create the NUMAResourcesOperator CR by running the following command:

      $ oc create -f nrop.yaml
      Note

      Creating the NUMAResourcesOperator triggers a reboot on the corresponding machine config pool and therefore the affected node.

Verification

  1. Verify that the NUMA Resources Operator deployed successfully by running the following command:

    $ oc get numaresourcesoperators.nodetopology.openshift.io

    Example output

    NAME                    AGE
    numaresourcesoperator   27s

  2. After a few minutes, run the following command to verify that the required resources deployed successfully:

    $ oc get all -n openshift-numaresources

    Example output

    NAME                                                    READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
    pod/numaresources-controller-manager-7d9d84c58d-qk2mr   1/1     Running   0          12m
    pod/numaresourcesoperator-worker-7d96r                  2/2     Running   0          97s
    pod/numaresourcesoperator-worker-crsht                  2/2     Running   0          97s
    pod/numaresourcesoperator-worker-jp9mw                  2/2     Running   0          97s

7.3.2. Deploying the NUMA-aware secondary pod scheduler

After you install the NUMA Resources Operator, do the following to deploy the NUMA-aware secondary pod scheduler:

Procedure

  1. Create the NUMAResourcesScheduler custom resource that deploys the NUMA-aware custom pod scheduler:

    1. Save the following minimal required YAML in the nro-scheduler.yaml file:

      apiVersion: nodetopology.openshift.io/v1
      kind: NUMAResourcesScheduler
      metadata:
        name: numaresourcesscheduler
      spec:
        imageSpec: "registry.redhat.io/openshift4/noderesourcetopology-scheduler-rhel9:v4.17"
    2. Create the NUMAResourcesScheduler CR by running the following command:

      $ oc create -f nro-scheduler.yaml
  2. After a few seconds, run the following command to confirm the successful deployment of the required resources:

    $ oc get all -n openshift-numaresources

    Example output

    NAME                                                    READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
    pod/numaresources-controller-manager-7d9d84c58d-qk2mr   1/1     Running   0          12m
    pod/numaresourcesoperator-worker-7d96r                  2/2     Running   0          97s
    pod/numaresourcesoperator-worker-crsht                  2/2     Running   0          97s
    pod/numaresourcesoperator-worker-jp9mw                  2/2     Running   0          97s
    pod/secondary-scheduler-847cb74f84-9whlm                1/1     Running   0          10m
    
    NAME                                          DESIRED   CURRENT   READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   NODE SELECTOR                     AGE
    daemonset.apps/numaresourcesoperator-worker   3         3         3       3            3           node-role.kubernetes.io/worker=   98s
    
    NAME                                               READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
    deployment.apps/numaresources-controller-manager   1/1     1            1           12m
    deployment.apps/secondary-scheduler                1/1     1            1           10m
    
    NAME                                                          DESIRED   CURRENT   READY   AGE
    replicaset.apps/numaresources-controller-manager-7d9d84c58d   1         1         1       12m
    replicaset.apps/secondary-scheduler-847cb74f84                1         1         1       10m

7.3.3. Configuring a single NUMA node policy

The NUMA Resources Operator requires a single NUMA node policy to be configured on the cluster. This can be achieved in two ways: by creating and applying a performance profile, or by configuring a KubeletConfig.

Note

The preferred way to configure a single NUMA node policy is to apply a performance profile. You can use the Performance Profile Creator (PPC) tool to create the performance profile. If a performance profile is created on the cluster, it automatically creates other tuning components like KubeletConfig and the tuned profile.

For more information about creating a performance profile, see "About the Performance Profile Creator" in the "Additional resources" section.

7.3.4. Sample performance profile

This example YAML shows a performance profile created by using the performance profile creator (PPC) tool:

apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2
kind: PerformanceProfile
metadata:
  name: performance
spec:
  cpu:
    isolated: "3"
    reserved: 0-2
  machineConfigPoolSelector:
    pools.operator.machineconfiguration.openshift.io/worker: "" 1
  nodeSelector:
    node-role.kubernetes.io/worker: ""
  numa:
    topologyPolicy: single-numa-node 2
  realTimeKernel:
    enabled: true
  workloadHints:
    highPowerConsumption: true
    perPodPowerManagement: false
    realTime: true
1
This should match the MachineConfigPool that you want to configure the NUMA Resources Operator on. For example, you might have created a MachineConfigPool named worker-cnf that designates a set of nodes that run telecommunications workloads.
2
The topologyPolicy must be set to single-numa-node. Ensure that this is the case by setting the topology-manager-policy argument to single-numa-node when running the PPC tool.

7.3.5. Creating a KubeletConfig CRD

The recommended way to configure a single NUMA node policy is to apply a performance profile. Another way is by creating and applying a KubeletConfig custom resource (CR), as shown in the following procedure.

Procedure

  1. Create the KubeletConfig custom resource (CR) that configures the pod admittance policy for the machine profile:

    1. Save the following YAML in the nro-kubeletconfig.yaml file:

      apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
      kind: KubeletConfig
      metadata:
        name: worker-tuning
      spec:
        machineConfigPoolSelector:
          matchLabels:
            pools.operator.machineconfiguration.openshift.io/worker: "" 1
        kubeletConfig:
          cpuManagerPolicy: "static" 2
          cpuManagerReconcilePeriod: "5s"
          reservedSystemCPUs: "0,1" 3
          memoryManagerPolicy: "Static" 4
          evictionHard:
            memory.available: "100Mi"
          kubeReserved:
            memory: "512Mi"
          reservedMemory:
            - numaNode: 0
              limits:
                memory: "1124Mi"
          systemReserved:
            memory: "512Mi"
          topologyManagerPolicy: "single-numa-node" 5
      1
      Adjust this label to match the machineConfigPoolSelector in the NUMAResourcesOperator CR.
      2
      For cpuManagerPolicy, static must use a lowercase s.
      3
      Adjust this based on the CPU on your nodes.
      4
      For memoryManagerPolicy, Static must use an uppercase S.
      5
      topologyManagerPolicy must be set to single-numa-node.
    2. Create the KubeletConfig CR by running the following command:

      $ oc create -f nro-kubeletconfig.yaml
      Note

      Applying performance profile or KubeletConfig automatically triggers rebooting of the nodes. If no reboot is triggered, you can troubleshoot the issue by looking at the labels in KubeletConfig that address the node group.

7.3.6. Scheduling workloads with the NUMA-aware scheduler

Now that topo-aware-scheduler is installed, the NUMAResourcesOperator and NUMAResourcesScheduler CRs are applied and your cluster has a matching performance profile or kubeletconfig, you can schedule workloads with the NUMA-aware scheduler using deployment CRs that specify the minimum required resources to process the workload.

The following example deployment uses NUMA-aware scheduling for a sample workload.

Prerequisites

  • Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • Log in as a user with cluster-admin privileges.

Procedure

  1. Get the name of the NUMA-aware scheduler that is deployed in the cluster by running the following command:

    $ oc get numaresourcesschedulers.nodetopology.openshift.io numaresourcesscheduler -o json | jq '.status.schedulerName'

    Example output

    "topo-aware-scheduler"

  2. Create a Deployment CR that uses scheduler named topo-aware-scheduler, for example:

    1. Save the following YAML in the nro-deployment.yaml file:

      apiVersion: apps/v1
      kind: Deployment
      metadata:
        name: numa-deployment-1
        namespace: openshift-numaresources
      spec:
        replicas: 1
        selector:
          matchLabels:
            app: test
        template:
          metadata:
            labels:
              app: test
          spec:
            schedulerName: topo-aware-scheduler 1
            containers:
            - name: ctnr
              image: quay.io/openshifttest/hello-openshift:openshift
              imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
              resources:
                limits:
                  memory: "100Mi"
                  cpu: "10"
                requests:
                  memory: "100Mi"
                  cpu: "10"
            - name: ctnr2
              image: registry.access.redhat.com/rhel:latest
              imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
              command: ["/bin/sh", "-c"]
              args: [ "while true; do sleep 1h; done;" ]
              resources:
                limits:
                  memory: "100Mi"
                  cpu: "8"
                requests:
                  memory: "100Mi"
                  cpu: "8"
      1
      schedulerName must match the name of the NUMA-aware scheduler that is deployed in your cluster, for example topo-aware-scheduler.
    2. Create the Deployment CR by running the following command:

      $ oc create -f nro-deployment.yaml

Verification

  1. Verify that the deployment was successful:

    $ oc get pods -n openshift-numaresources

    Example output

    NAME                                                READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
    numa-deployment-1-6c4f5bdb84-wgn6g                  2/2     Running   0          5m2s
    numaresources-controller-manager-7d9d84c58d-4v65j   1/1     Running   0          18m
    numaresourcesoperator-worker-7d96r                  2/2     Running   4          43m
    numaresourcesoperator-worker-crsht                  2/2     Running   2          43m
    numaresourcesoperator-worker-jp9mw                  2/2     Running   2          43m
    secondary-scheduler-847cb74f84-fpncj                1/1     Running   0          18m

  2. Verify that the topo-aware-scheduler is scheduling the deployed pod by running the following command:

    $ oc describe pod numa-deployment-1-6c4f5bdb84-wgn6g -n openshift-numaresources

    Example output

    Events:
      Type    Reason          Age    From                  Message
      ----    ------          ----   ----                  -------
      Normal  Scheduled       4m45s  topo-aware-scheduler  Successfully assigned openshift-numaresources/numa-deployment-1-6c4f5bdb84-wgn6g to worker-1

    Note

    Deployments that request more resources than is available for scheduling will fail with a MinimumReplicasUnavailable error. The deployment succeeds when the required resources become available. Pods remain in the Pending state until the required resources are available.

  3. Verify that the expected allocated resources are listed for the node.

    1. Identify the node that is running the deployment pod by running the following command:

      $ oc get pods -n openshift-numaresources -o wide

      Example output

      NAME                                 READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE   IP            NODE     NOMINATED NODE   READINESS GATES
      numa-deployment-1-6c4f5bdb84-wgn6g   0/2     Running   0          82m   10.128.2.50   worker-1   <none>  <none>

    2. Run the following command with the name of that node that is running the deployment pod.

      $ oc describe noderesourcetopologies.topology.node.k8s.io worker-1

      Example output

      ...
      
      Zones:
        Costs:
          Name:   node-0
          Value:  10
          Name:   node-1
          Value:  21
        Name:     node-0
        Resources:
          Allocatable:  39
          Available:    21 1
          Capacity:     40
          Name:         cpu
          Allocatable:  6442450944
          Available:    6442450944
          Capacity:     6442450944
          Name:         hugepages-1Gi
          Allocatable:  134217728
          Available:    134217728
          Capacity:     134217728
          Name:         hugepages-2Mi
          Allocatable:  262415904768
          Available:    262206189568
          Capacity:     270146007040
          Name:         memory
        Type:           Node

      1
      The Available capacity is reduced because of the resources that have been allocated to the guaranteed pod.

      Resources consumed by guaranteed pods are subtracted from the available node resources listed under noderesourcetopologies.topology.node.k8s.io.

  4. Resource allocations for pods with a Best-effort or Burstable quality of service (qosClass) are not reflected in the NUMA node resources under noderesourcetopologies.topology.node.k8s.io. If a pod’s consumed resources are not reflected in the node resource calculation, verify that the pod has qosClass of Guaranteed and the CPU request is an integer value, not a decimal value. You can verify the that the pod has a qosClass of Guaranteed by running the following command:

    $ oc get pod numa-deployment-1-6c4f5bdb84-wgn6g -n openshift-numaresources -o jsonpath="{ .status.qosClass }"

    Example output

    Guaranteed

7.4. Optional: Configuring polling operations for NUMA resources updates

The daemons controlled by the NUMA Resources Operator in their nodeGroup poll resources to retrieve updates about available NUMA resources. You can fine-tune polling operations for these daemons by configuring the spec.nodeGroups specification in the NUMAResourcesOperator custom resource (CR). This provides advanced control of polling operations. Configure these specifications to improve scheduling behavior and troubleshoot suboptimal scheduling decisions.

The configuration options are the following:

  • infoRefreshMode: Determines the trigger condition for polling the kubelet. The NUMA Resources Operator reports the resulting information to the API server.
  • infoRefreshPeriod: Determines the duration between polling updates.
  • podsFingerprinting: Determines if point-in-time information for the current set of pods running on a node is exposed in polling updates.

    Note

    The default value for podsFingerprinting is EnabledExclusiveResources. To optimize scheduler performance, set podsFingerprinting to either EnabledExclusiveResources or Enabled. Additionally, configure the cacheResyncPeriod in the NUMAResourcesScheduler custom resource (CR) to a value greater than 0. The cacheResyncPeriod specification helps to report more exact resource availability by monitoring pending resources on nodes.

Prerequisites

  • Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • Log in as a user with cluster-admin privileges.
  • Install the NUMA Resources Operator.

Procedure

  • Configure the spec.nodeGroups specification in your NUMAResourcesOperator CR:

    apiVersion: nodetopology.openshift.io/v1
    kind: NUMAResourcesOperator
    metadata:
      name: numaresourcesoperator
    spec:
      nodeGroups:
      - config:
          infoRefreshMode: Periodic 1
          infoRefreshPeriod: 10s 2
          podsFingerprinting: Enabled 3
        name: worker
    1
    Valid values are Periodic, Events, PeriodicAndEvents. Use Periodic to poll the kubelet at intervals that you define in infoRefreshPeriod. Use Events to poll the kubelet at every pod lifecycle event. Use PeriodicAndEvents to enable both methods.
    2
    Define the polling interval for Periodic or PeriodicAndEvents refresh modes. The field is ignored if the refresh mode is Events.
    3
    Valid values are Enabled, Disabled, and EnabledExclusiveResources. Setting to Enabled or EnabledExclusiveResources is a requirement for the cacheResyncPeriod specification in the NUMAResourcesScheduler.

Verification

  1. After you deploy the NUMA Resources Operator, verify that the node group configurations were applied by running the following command:

    $ oc get numaresop numaresourcesoperator -o json | jq '.status'

    Example output

          ...
    
            "config": {
            "infoRefreshMode": "Periodic",
            "infoRefreshPeriod": "10s",
            "podsFingerprinting": "Enabled"
          },
          "name": "worker"
    
          ...

7.5. Troubleshooting NUMA-aware scheduling

To troubleshoot common problems with NUMA-aware pod scheduling, perform the following steps.

Prerequisites

  • Install the OpenShift Container Platform CLI (oc).
  • Log in as a user with cluster-admin privileges.
  • Install the NUMA Resources Operator and deploy the NUMA-aware secondary scheduler.

Procedure

  1. Verify that the noderesourcetopologies CRD is deployed in the cluster by running the following command:

    $ oc get crd | grep noderesourcetopologies

    Example output

    NAME                                                              CREATED AT
    noderesourcetopologies.topology.node.k8s.io                       2022-01-18T08:28:06Z

  2. Check that the NUMA-aware scheduler name matches the name specified in your NUMA-aware workloads by running the following command:

    $ oc get numaresourcesschedulers.nodetopology.openshift.io numaresourcesscheduler -o json | jq '.status.schedulerName'

    Example output

    topo-aware-scheduler

  3. Verify that NUMA-aware schedulable nodes have the noderesourcetopologies CR applied to them. Run the following command:

    $ oc get noderesourcetopologies.topology.node.k8s.io

    Example output

    NAME                    AGE
    compute-0.example.com   17h
    compute-1.example.com   17h

    Note

    The number of nodes should equal the number of worker nodes that are configured by the machine config pool (mcp) worker definition.

  4. Verify the NUMA zone granularity for all schedulable nodes by running the following command:

    $ oc get noderesourcetopologies.topology.node.k8s.io -o yaml

    Example output

    apiVersion: v1
    items:
    - apiVersion: topology.node.k8s.io/v1
      kind: NodeResourceTopology
      metadata:
        annotations:
          k8stopoawareschedwg/rte-update: periodic
        creationTimestamp: "2022-06-16T08:55:38Z"
        generation: 63760
        name: worker-0
        resourceVersion: "8450223"
        uid: 8b77be46-08c0-4074-927b-d49361471590
      topologyPolicies:
      - SingleNUMANodeContainerLevel
      zones:
      - costs:
        - name: node-0
          value: 10
        - name: node-1
          value: 21
        name: node-0
        resources:
        - allocatable: "38"
          available: "38"
          capacity: "40"
          name: cpu
        - allocatable: "134217728"
          available: "134217728"
          capacity: "134217728"
          name: hugepages-2Mi
        - allocatable: "262352048128"
          available: "262352048128"
          capacity: "270107316224"
          name: memory
        - allocatable: "6442450944"
          available: "6442450944"
          capacity: "6442450944"
          name: hugepages-1Gi
        type: Node
      - costs:
        - name: node-0
          value: 21
        - name: node-1
          value: 10
        name: node-1
        resources:
        - allocatable: "268435456"
          available: "268435456"
          capacity: "268435456"
          name: hugepages-2Mi
        - allocatable: "269231067136"
          available: "269231067136"
          capacity: "270573244416"
          name: memory
        - allocatable: "40"
          available: "40"
          capacity: "40"
          name: cpu
        - allocatable: "1073741824"
          available: "1073741824"
          capacity: "1073741824"
          name: hugepages-1Gi
        type: Node
    - apiVersion: topology.node.k8s.io/v1
      kind: NodeResourceTopology
      metadata:
        annotations:
          k8stopoawareschedwg/rte-update: periodic
        creationTimestamp: "2022-06-16T08:55:37Z"
        generation: 62061
        name: worker-1
        resourceVersion: "8450129"
        uid: e8659390-6f8d-4e67-9a51-1ea34bba1cc3
      topologyPolicies:
      - SingleNUMANodeContainerLevel
      zones: 1
      - costs:
        - name: node-0
          value: 10
        - name: node-1
          value: 21
        name: node-0
        resources: 2
        - allocatable: "38"
          available: "38"
          capacity: "40"
          name: cpu
        - allocatable: "6442450944"
          available: "6442450944"
          capacity: "6442450944"
          name: hugepages-1Gi
        - allocatable: "134217728"
          available: "134217728"
          capacity: "134217728"
          name: hugepages-2Mi
        - allocatable: "262391033856"
          available: "262391033856"
          capacity: "270146301952"
          name: memory
        type: Node
      - costs:
        - name: node-0
          value: 21
        - name: node-1
          value: 10
        name: node-1
        resources:
        - allocatable: "40"
          available: "40"
          capacity: "40"
          name: cpu
        - allocatable: "1073741824"
          available: "1073741824"
          capacity: "1073741824"
          name: hugepages-1Gi
        - allocatable: "268435456"
          available: "268435456"
          capacity: "268435456"
          name: hugepages-2Mi
        - allocatable: "269192085504"
          available: "269192085504"
          capacity: "270534262784"
          name: memory
        type: Node
    kind: List
    metadata:
      resourceVersion: ""
      selfLink: ""

    1
    Each stanza under zones describes the resources for a single NUMA zone.
    2
    resources describes the current state of the NUMA zone resources. Check that resources listed under items.zones.resources.available correspond to the exclusive NUMA zone resources allocated to each guaranteed pod.

7.5.1. Reporting more exact resource availability

Enable the cacheResyncPeriod specification to help the NUMA Resources Operator report more exact resource availability by monitoring pending resources on nodes and synchronizing this information in the scheduler cache at a defined interval. This also helps to minimize Topology Affinity Error errors because of sub-optimal scheduling decisions. The lower the interval, the greater the network load. The cacheResyncPeriod specification is disabled by default.

Prerequisites

  • Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • Log in as a user with cluster-admin privileges.

Procedure

  1. Delete the currently running NUMAResourcesScheduler resource:

    1. Get the active NUMAResourcesScheduler by running the following command:

      $ oc get NUMAResourcesScheduler

      Example output

      NAME                     AGE
      numaresourcesscheduler   92m

    2. Delete the secondary scheduler resource by running the following command:

      $ oc delete NUMAResourcesScheduler numaresourcesscheduler

      Example output

      numaresourcesscheduler.nodetopology.openshift.io "numaresourcesscheduler" deleted

  2. Save the following YAML in the file nro-scheduler-cacheresync.yaml. This example changes the log level to Debug:

    apiVersion: nodetopology.openshift.io/v1
    kind: NUMAResourcesScheduler
    metadata:
      name: numaresourcesscheduler
    spec:
      imageSpec: "registry.redhat.io/openshift4/noderesourcetopology-scheduler-container-rhel8:v4.17"
      cacheResyncPeriod: "5s" 1
    1
    Enter an interval value in seconds for synchronization of the scheduler cache. A value of 5s is typical for most implementations.
  3. Create the updated NUMAResourcesScheduler resource by running the following command:

    $ oc create -f nro-scheduler-cacheresync.yaml

    Example output

    numaresourcesscheduler.nodetopology.openshift.io/numaresourcesscheduler created

Verification steps

  1. Check that the NUMA-aware scheduler was successfully deployed:

    1. Run the following command to check that the CRD is created successfully:

      $ oc get crd | grep numaresourcesschedulers

      Example output

      NAME                                                              CREATED AT
      numaresourcesschedulers.nodetopology.openshift.io                 2022-02-25T11:57:03Z

    2. Check that the new custom scheduler is available by running the following command:

      $ oc get numaresourcesschedulers.nodetopology.openshift.io

      Example output

      NAME                     AGE
      numaresourcesscheduler   3h26m

  2. Check that the logs for the scheduler show the increased log level:

    1. Get the list of pods running in the openshift-numaresources namespace by running the following command:

      $ oc get pods -n openshift-numaresources

      Example output

      NAME                                               READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
      numaresources-controller-manager-d87d79587-76mrm   1/1     Running   0          46h
      numaresourcesoperator-worker-5wm2k                 2/2     Running   0          45h
      numaresourcesoperator-worker-pb75c                 2/2     Running   0          45h
      secondary-scheduler-7976c4d466-qm4sc               1/1     Running   0          21m

    2. Get the logs for the secondary scheduler pod by running the following command:

      $ oc logs secondary-scheduler-7976c4d466-qm4sc -n openshift-numaresources

      Example output

      ...
      I0223 11:04:55.614788       1 reflector.go:535] k8s.io/client-go/informers/factory.go:134: Watch close - *v1.Namespace total 11 items received
      I0223 11:04:56.609114       1 reflector.go:535] k8s.io/client-go/informers/factory.go:134: Watch close - *v1.ReplicationController total 10 items received
      I0223 11:05:22.626818       1 reflector.go:535] k8s.io/client-go/informers/factory.go:134: Watch close - *v1.StorageClass total 7 items received
      I0223 11:05:31.610356       1 reflector.go:535] k8s.io/client-go/informers/factory.go:134: Watch close - *v1.PodDisruptionBudget total 7 items received
      I0223 11:05:31.713032       1 eventhandlers.go:186] "Add event for scheduled pod" pod="openshift-marketplace/certified-operators-thtvq"
      I0223 11:05:53.461016       1 eventhandlers.go:244] "Delete event for scheduled pod" pod="openshift-marketplace/certified-operators-thtvq"

7.5.2. Checking the NUMA-aware scheduler logs

Troubleshoot problems with the NUMA-aware scheduler by reviewing the logs. If required, you can increase the scheduler log level by modifying the spec.logLevel field of the NUMAResourcesScheduler resource. Acceptable values are Normal, Debug, and Trace, with Trace being the most verbose option.

Note

To change the log level of the secondary scheduler, delete the running scheduler resource and re-deploy it with the changed log level. The scheduler is unavailable for scheduling new workloads during this downtime.

Prerequisites

  • Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • Log in as a user with cluster-admin privileges.

Procedure

  1. Delete the currently running NUMAResourcesScheduler resource:

    1. Get the active NUMAResourcesScheduler by running the following command:

      $ oc get NUMAResourcesScheduler

      Example output

      NAME                     AGE
      numaresourcesscheduler   90m

    2. Delete the secondary scheduler resource by running the following command:

      $ oc delete NUMAResourcesScheduler numaresourcesscheduler

      Example output

      numaresourcesscheduler.nodetopology.openshift.io "numaresourcesscheduler" deleted

  2. Save the following YAML in the file nro-scheduler-debug.yaml. This example changes the log level to Debug:

    apiVersion: nodetopology.openshift.io/v1
    kind: NUMAResourcesScheduler
    metadata:
      name: numaresourcesscheduler
    spec:
      imageSpec: "registry.redhat.io/openshift4/noderesourcetopology-scheduler-container-rhel8:v4.17"
      logLevel: Debug
  3. Create the updated Debug logging NUMAResourcesScheduler resource by running the following command:

    $ oc create -f nro-scheduler-debug.yaml

    Example output

    numaresourcesscheduler.nodetopology.openshift.io/numaresourcesscheduler created

Verification steps

  1. Check that the NUMA-aware scheduler was successfully deployed:

    1. Run the following command to check that the CRD is created successfully:

      $ oc get crd | grep numaresourcesschedulers

      Example output

      NAME                                                              CREATED AT
      numaresourcesschedulers.nodetopology.openshift.io                 2022-02-25T11:57:03Z

    2. Check that the new custom scheduler is available by running the following command:

      $ oc get numaresourcesschedulers.nodetopology.openshift.io

      Example output

      NAME                     AGE
      numaresourcesscheduler   3h26m

  2. Check that the logs for the scheduler shows the increased log level:

    1. Get the list of pods running in the openshift-numaresources namespace by running the following command:

      $ oc get pods -n openshift-numaresources

      Example output

      NAME                                               READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
      numaresources-controller-manager-d87d79587-76mrm   1/1     Running   0          46h
      numaresourcesoperator-worker-5wm2k                 2/2     Running   0          45h
      numaresourcesoperator-worker-pb75c                 2/2     Running   0          45h
      secondary-scheduler-7976c4d466-qm4sc               1/1     Running   0          21m

    2. Get the logs for the secondary scheduler pod by running the following command:

      $ oc logs secondary-scheduler-7976c4d466-qm4sc -n openshift-numaresources

      Example output

      ...
      I0223 11:04:55.614788       1 reflector.go:535] k8s.io/client-go/informers/factory.go:134: Watch close - *v1.Namespace total 11 items received
      I0223 11:04:56.609114       1 reflector.go:535] k8s.io/client-go/informers/factory.go:134: Watch close - *v1.ReplicationController total 10 items received
      I0223 11:05:22.626818       1 reflector.go:535] k8s.io/client-go/informers/factory.go:134: Watch close - *v1.StorageClass total 7 items received
      I0223 11:05:31.610356       1 reflector.go:535] k8s.io/client-go/informers/factory.go:134: Watch close - *v1.PodDisruptionBudget total 7 items received
      I0223 11:05:31.713032       1 eventhandlers.go:186] "Add event for scheduled pod" pod="openshift-marketplace/certified-operators-thtvq"
      I0223 11:05:53.461016       1 eventhandlers.go:244] "Delete event for scheduled pod" pod="openshift-marketplace/certified-operators-thtvq"

7.5.3. Troubleshooting the resource topology exporter

Troubleshoot noderesourcetopologies objects where unexpected results are occurring by inspecting the corresponding resource-topology-exporter logs.

Note

It is recommended that NUMA resource topology exporter instances in the cluster are named for nodes they refer to. For example, a worker node with the name worker should have a corresponding noderesourcetopologies object called worker.

Prerequisites

  • Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • Log in as a user with cluster-admin privileges.

Procedure

  1. Get the daemonsets managed by the NUMA Resources Operator. Each daemonset has a corresponding nodeGroup in the NUMAResourcesOperator CR. Run the following command:

    $ oc get numaresourcesoperators.nodetopology.openshift.io numaresourcesoperator -o jsonpath="{.status.daemonsets[0]}"

    Example output

    {"name":"numaresourcesoperator-worker","namespace":"openshift-numaresources"}

  2. Get the label for the daemonset of interest using the value for name from the previous step:

    $ oc get ds -n openshift-numaresources numaresourcesoperator-worker -o jsonpath="{.spec.selector.matchLabels}"

    Example output

    {"name":"resource-topology"}

  3. Get the pods using the resource-topology label by running the following command:

    $ oc get pods -n openshift-numaresources -l name=resource-topology -o wide

    Example output

    NAME                                 READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE    IP            NODE
    numaresourcesoperator-worker-5wm2k   2/2     Running   0          2d1h   10.135.0.64   compute-0.example.com
    numaresourcesoperator-worker-pb75c   2/2     Running   0          2d1h   10.132.2.33   compute-1.example.com

  4. Examine the logs of the resource-topology-exporter container running on the worker pod that corresponds to the node you are troubleshooting. Run the following command:

    $ oc logs -n openshift-numaresources -c resource-topology-exporter numaresourcesoperator-worker-pb75c

    Example output

    I0221 13:38:18.334140       1 main.go:206] using sysinfo:
    reservedCpus: 0,1
    reservedMemory:
      "0": 1178599424
    I0221 13:38:18.334370       1 main.go:67] === System information ===
    I0221 13:38:18.334381       1 sysinfo.go:231] cpus: reserved "0-1"
    I0221 13:38:18.334493       1 sysinfo.go:237] cpus: online "0-103"
    I0221 13:38:18.546750       1 main.go:72]
    cpus: allocatable "2-103"
    hugepages-1Gi:
      numa cell 0 -> 6
      numa cell 1 -> 1
    hugepages-2Mi:
      numa cell 0 -> 64
      numa cell 1 -> 128
    memory:
      numa cell 0 -> 45758Mi
      numa cell 1 -> 48372Mi

7.5.4. Correcting a missing resource topology exporter config map

If you install the NUMA Resources Operator in a cluster with misconfigured cluster settings, in some circumstances, the Operator is shown as active but the logs of the resource topology exporter (RTE) daemon set pods show that the configuration for the RTE is missing, for example:

Info: couldn't find configuration in "/etc/resource-topology-exporter/config.yaml"

This log message indicates that the kubeletconfig with the required configuration was not properly applied in the cluster, resulting in a missing RTE configmap. For example, the following cluster is missing a numaresourcesoperator-worker configmap custom resource (CR):

$ oc get configmap

Example output

NAME                           DATA   AGE
0e2a6bd3.openshift-kni.io      0      6d21h
kube-root-ca.crt               1      6d21h
openshift-service-ca.crt       1      6d21h
topo-aware-scheduler-config    1      6d18h

In a correctly configured cluster, oc get configmap also returns a numaresourcesoperator-worker configmap CR.

Prerequisites

  • Install the OpenShift Container Platform CLI (oc).
  • Log in as a user with cluster-admin privileges.
  • Install the NUMA Resources Operator and deploy the NUMA-aware secondary scheduler.

Procedure

  1. Compare the values for spec.machineConfigPoolSelector.matchLabels in kubeletconfig and metadata.labels in the MachineConfigPool (mcp) worker CR using the following commands:

    1. Check the kubeletconfig labels by running the following command:

      $ oc get kubeletconfig -o yaml

      Example output

      machineConfigPoolSelector:
        matchLabels:
          cnf-worker-tuning: enabled

    2. Check the mcp labels by running the following command:

      $ oc get mcp worker -o yaml

      Example output

      labels:
        machineconfiguration.openshift.io/mco-built-in: ""
        pools.operator.machineconfiguration.openshift.io/worker: ""

      The cnf-worker-tuning: enabled label is not present in the MachineConfigPool object.

  2. Edit the MachineConfigPool CR to include the missing label, for example:

    $ oc edit mcp worker -o yaml

    Example output

    labels:
      machineconfiguration.openshift.io/mco-built-in: ""
      pools.operator.machineconfiguration.openshift.io/worker: ""
      cnf-worker-tuning: enabled

  3. Apply the label changes and wait for the cluster to apply the updated configuration. Run the following command:

Verification

  • Check that the missing numaresourcesoperator-worker configmap CR is applied:

    $ oc get configmap

    Example output

    NAME                           DATA   AGE
    0e2a6bd3.openshift-kni.io      0      6d21h
    kube-root-ca.crt               1      6d21h
    numaresourcesoperator-worker   1      5m
    openshift-service-ca.crt       1      6d21h
    topo-aware-scheduler-config    1      6d18h

7.5.5. Collecting NUMA Resources Operator data

You can use the oc adm must-gather CLI command to collect information about your cluster, including features and objects associated with the NUMA Resources Operator.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin role.
  • You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).

Procedure

  • To collect NUMA Resources Operator data with must-gather, you must specify the NUMA Resources Operator must-gather image.

    $ oc adm must-gather --image=registry.redhat.io/numaresources-must-gather/numaresources-must-gather-rhel9:v4.17

Chapter 8. Scalability and performance optimization

8.1. Optimizing storage

Optimizing storage helps to minimize storage use across all resources. By optimizing storage, administrators help ensure that existing storage resources are working in an efficient manner.

8.1.1. Available persistent storage options

Understand your persistent storage options so that you can optimize your OpenShift Container Platform environment.

Table 8.1. Available storage options
Storage typeDescriptionExamples

Block

  • Presented to the operating system (OS) as a block device
  • Suitable for applications that need full control of storage and operate at a low level on files bypassing the file system
  • Also referred to as a Storage Area Network (SAN)
  • Non-shareable, which means that only one client at a time can mount an endpoint of this type

AWS EBS and VMware vSphere support dynamic persistent volume (PV) provisioning natively in the OpenShift Container Platform.

File

  • Presented to the OS as a file system export to be mounted
  • Also referred to as Network Attached Storage (NAS)
  • Concurrency, latency, file locking mechanisms, and other capabilities vary widely between protocols, implementations, vendors, and scales.

RHEL NFS, NetApp NFS [1], and Vendor NFS

Object

  • Accessible through a REST API endpoint
  • Configurable for use in the OpenShift image registry
  • Applications must build their drivers into the application and/or container.

AWS S3

  1. NetApp NFS supports dynamic PV provisioning when using the Trident plugin.

8.1.3. Data storage management

The following table summarizes the main directories that OpenShift Container Platform components write data to.

Table 8.3. Main directories for storing OpenShift Container Platform data
DirectoryNotesSizingExpected growth

/var/log

Log files for all components.

10 to 30 GB.

Log files can grow quickly; size can be managed by growing disks or by using log rotate.

/var/lib/etcd

Used for etcd storage when storing the database.

Less than 20 GB.

Database can grow up to 8 GB.

Will grow slowly with the environment. Only storing metadata.

Additional 20-25 GB for every additional 8 GB of memory.

/var/lib/containers

This is the mount point for the CRI-O runtime. Storage used for active container runtimes, including pods, and storage of local images. Not used for registry storage.

50 GB for a node with 16 GB memory. Note that this sizing should not be used to determine minimum cluster requirements.

Additional 20-25 GB for every additional 8 GB of memory.

Growth is limited by capacity for running containers.

/var/lib/kubelet

Ephemeral volume storage for pods. This includes anything external that is mounted into a container at runtime. Includes environment variables, kube secrets, and data volumes not backed by persistent volumes.

Varies

Minimal if pods requiring storage are using persistent volumes. If using ephemeral storage, this can grow quickly.

8.1.4. Optimizing storage performance for Microsoft Azure

OpenShift Container Platform and Kubernetes are sensitive to disk performance, and faster storage is recommended, particularly for etcd on the control plane nodes.

For production Azure clusters and clusters with intensive workloads, the virtual machine operating system disk for control plane machines should be able to sustain a tested and recommended minimum throughput of 5000 IOPS / 200MBps. This throughput can be provided by having a minimum of 1 TiB Premium SSD (P30). In Azure and Azure Stack Hub, disk performance is directly dependent on SSD disk sizes. To achieve the throughput supported by a Standard_D8s_v3 virtual machine, or other similar machine types, and the target of 5000 IOPS, at least a P30 disk is required.

Host caching must be set to ReadOnly for low latency and high IOPS and throughput when reading data. Reading data from the cache, which is present either in the VM memory or in the local SSD disk, is much faster than reading from the disk, which is in the blob storage.

8.1.5. Additional resources

  • xref :../../observability/logging/log_storage/logging-config-es-store.adoc#logging-config-es-store[Configuring the Elasticsearch log store]

8.2. Optimizing routing

The OpenShift Container Platform HAProxy router can be scaled or configured to optimize performance.

8.2.1. Baseline Ingress Controller (router) performance

The OpenShift Container Platform Ingress Controller, or router, is the ingress point for ingress traffic for applications and services that are configured using routes and ingresses.

When evaluating a single HAProxy router performance in terms of HTTP requests handled per second, the performance varies depending on many factors. In particular:

  • HTTP keep-alive/close mode
  • Route type
  • TLS session resumption client support
  • Number of concurrent connections per target route
  • Number of target routes
  • Back end server page size
  • Underlying infrastructure (network, CPU, and so on)

While performance in your specific environment will vary, Red Hat lab tests on a public cloud instance of size 4 vCPU/16GB RAM. A single HAProxy router handling 100 routes terminated by backends serving 1kB static pages is able to handle the following number of transactions per second.

In HTTP keep-alive mode scenarios:

EncryptionLoadBalancerServiceHostNetwork

none

21515

29622

edge

16743

22913

passthrough

36786

53295

re-encrypt

21583

25198

In HTTP close (no keep-alive) scenarios:

EncryptionLoadBalancerServiceHostNetwork

none

5719

8273

edge

2729

4069

passthrough

4121

5344

re-encrypt

2320

2941

The default Ingress Controller configuration was used with the spec.tuningOptions.threadCount field set to 4. Two different endpoint publishing strategies were tested: Load Balancer Service and Host Network. TLS session resumption was used for encrypted routes. With HTTP keep-alive, a single HAProxy router is capable of saturating a 1 Gbit NIC at page sizes as small as 8 kB.

When running on bare metal with modern processors, you can expect roughly twice the performance of the public cloud instance above. This overhead is introduced by the virtualization layer in place on public clouds and holds mostly true for private cloud-based virtualization as well. The following table is a guide to how many applications to use behind the router:

Number of applicationsApplication type

5-10

static file/web server or caching proxy

100-1000

applications generating dynamic content

In general, HAProxy can support routes for up to 1000 applications, depending on the technology in use. Ingress Controller performance might be limited by the capabilities and performance of the applications behind it, such as language or static versus dynamic content.

Ingress, or router, sharding should be used to serve more routes towards applications and help horizontally scale the routing tier.

For more information on Ingress sharding, see Configuring Ingress Controller sharding by using route labels and Configuring Ingress Controller sharding by using namespace labels.

You can modify the Ingress Controller deployment by using the information provided in Setting Ingress Controller thread count for threads and Ingress Controller configuration parameters for timeouts, and other tuning configurations in the Ingress Controller specification.

8.2.2. Configuring Ingress Controller liveness, readiness, and startup probes

Cluster administrators can configure the timeout values for the kubelet’s liveness, readiness, and startup probes for router deployments that are managed by the OpenShift Container Platform Ingress Controller (router). The liveness and readiness probes of the router use the default timeout value of 1 second, which is too brief when networking or runtime performance is severely degraded. Probe timeouts can cause unwanted router restarts that interrupt application connections. The ability to set larger timeout values can reduce the risk of unnecessary and unwanted restarts.

You can update the timeoutSeconds value on the livenessProbe, readinessProbe, and startupProbe parameters of the router container.

ParameterDescription

livenessProbe

The livenessProbe reports to the kubelet whether a pod is dead and needs to be restarted.

readinessProbe

The readinessProbe reports whether a pod is healthy or unhealthy. When the readiness probe reports an unhealthy pod, then the kubelet marks the pod as not ready to accept traffic. Subsequently, the endpoints for that pod are marked as not ready, and this status propagates to the kube-proxy. On cloud platforms with a configured load balancer, the kube-proxy communicates to the cloud load-balancer not to send traffic to the node with that pod.

startupProbe

The startupProbe gives the router pod up to 2 minutes to initialize before the kubelet begins sending the router liveness and readiness probes. This initialization time can prevent routers with many routes or endpoints from prematurely restarting.

Important

The timeout configuration option is an advanced tuning technique that can be used to work around issues. However, these issues should eventually be diagnosed and possibly a support case or Jira issue opened for any issues that causes probes to time out.

The following example demonstrates how you can directly patch the default router deployment to set a 5-second timeout for the liveness and readiness probes:

$ oc -n openshift-ingress patch deploy/router-default --type=strategic --patch='{"spec":{"template":{"spec":{"containers":[{"name":"router","livenessProbe":{"timeoutSeconds":5},"readinessProbe":{"timeoutSeconds":5}}]}}}}'

Verification

$ oc -n openshift-ingress describe deploy/router-default | grep -e Liveness: -e Readiness:
    Liveness:   http-get http://:1936/healthz delay=0s timeout=5s period=10s #success=1 #failure=3
    Readiness:  http-get http://:1936/healthz/ready delay=0s timeout=5s period=10s #success=1 #failure=3

8.2.3. Configuring HAProxy reload interval

When you update a route or an endpoint associated with a route, the OpenShift Container Platform router updates the configuration for HAProxy. Then, HAProxy reloads the updated configuration for those changes to take effect. When HAProxy reloads, it generates a new process that handles new connections using the updated configuration.

HAProxy keeps the old process running to handle existing connections until those connections are all closed. When old processes have long-lived connections, these processes can accumulate and consume resources.

The default minimum HAProxy reload interval is five seconds. You can configure an Ingress Controller using its spec.tuningOptions.reloadInterval field to set a longer minimum reload interval.

Warning

Setting a large value for the minimum HAProxy reload interval can cause latency in observing updates to routes and their endpoints. To lessen the risk, avoid setting a value larger than the tolerable latency for updates.

Procedure

  • Change the minimum HAProxy reload interval of the default Ingress Controller to 15 seconds by running the following command:

    $ oc -n openshift-ingress-operator patch ingresscontrollers/default --type=merge --patch='{"spec":{"tuningOptions":{"reloadInterval":"15s"}}}'

8.3. Optimizing networking

OVN-Kubernetes uses Generic Network Virtualization Encapsulation (Geneve) a protocol similar to Geneve to tunnel traffic between nodes. This network can be tuned by using network interface controller (NIC) offloads.

Geneve provides benefits over VLANs, such as an increase in networks from 4096 to over 16 million, and layer 2 connectivity across physical networks. This allows for all pods behind a service to communicate with each other, even if they are running on different systems.

Geneve encapsulates all tunneled traffic in user datagram protocol (UDP) packets. However, this leads to increased CPU utilization. Both these outer- and inner-packets are subject to normal checksumming rules to guarantee data is not corrupted during transit. Depending on CPU performance, this additional processing overhead can cause a reduction in throughput and increased latency when compared to traditional, non-overlay networks.

Cloud, VM, and bare metal CPU performance can be capable of handling much more than one Gbps network throughput. When using higher bandwidth links such as 10 or 40 Gbps, reduced performance can occur. This is a known issue in Geneve-based environments and is not specific to containers or OpenShift Container Platform. Any network that relies on Geneve or VXLAN tunnels will perform similarly because of the tunnel implementation.

If you are looking to push beyond one Gbps, you can:

  • Evaluate network plugins that implement different routing techniques, such as border gateway protocol (BGP).
  • Use Geneve-offload capable network adapters. Geneve-offload moves the packet checksum calculation and associated CPU overhead off of the system CPU and onto dedicated hardware on the network adapter. This frees up CPU cycles for use by pods and applications, and allows users to utilize the full bandwidth of their network infrastructure.

Geneve-offload does not reduce latency. However, CPU utilization is reduced even in latency tests.

8.3.1. Optimizing the MTU for your network

There are two important maximum transmission units (MTUs): the network interface controller (NIC) MTU and the cluster network MTU.

The NIC MTU is only configured at the time of OpenShift Container Platform installation. The MTU must be less than or equal to the maximum supported value of the NIC of your network. If you are optimizing for throughput, choose the largest possible value. If you are optimizing for lowest latency, choose a lower value.

For OVN and Geneve, the MTU must be less than the NIC MTU by 100 bytes at a minimum.

8.3.3. Impact of IPsec

Because encrypting and decrypting node hosts uses CPU power, performance is affected both in throughput and CPU usage on the nodes when encryption is enabled, regardless of the IP security system being used.

IPSec encrypts traffic at the IP payload level, before it hits the NIC, protecting fields that would otherwise be used for NIC offloading. This means that some NIC acceleration features might not be usable when IPSec is enabled and will lead to decreased throughput and increased CPU usage.

8.3.4. Additional resources

8.4. Optimizing CPU usage with mount namespace encapsulation

You can optimize CPU usage in OpenShift Container Platform clusters by using mount namespace encapsulation to provide a private namespace for kubelet and CRI-O processes. This reduces the cluster CPU resources used by systemd with no difference in functionality.

Important

Mount namespace encapsulation is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.

8.4.1. Encapsulating mount namespaces

Mount namespaces are used to isolate mount points so that processes in different namespaces cannot view each others' files. Encapsulation is the process of moving Kubernetes mount namespaces to an alternative location where they will not be constantly scanned by the host operating system.

The host operating system uses systemd to constantly scan all mount namespaces: both the standard Linux mounts and the numerous mounts that Kubernetes uses to operate. The current implementation of kubelet and CRI-O both use the top-level namespace for all container runtime and kubelet mount points. However, encapsulating these container-specific mount points in a private namespace reduces systemd overhead with no difference in functionality. Using a separate mount namespace for both CRI-O and kubelet can encapsulate container-specific mounts from any systemd or other host operating system interaction.

This ability to potentially achieve major CPU optimization is now available to all OpenShift Container Platform administrators. Encapsulation can also improve security by storing Kubernetes-specific mount points in a location safe from inspection by unprivileged users.

The following diagrams illustrate a Kubernetes installation before and after encapsulation. Both scenarios show example containers which have mount propagation settings of bidirectional, host-to-container, and none.

Before encapsulation

Here we see systemd, host operating system processes, kubelet, and the container runtime sharing a single mount namespace.

  • systemd, host operating system processes, kubelet, and the container runtime each have access to and visibility of all mount points.
  • Container 1, configured with bidirectional mount propagation, can access systemd and host mounts, kubelet and CRI-O mounts. A mount originating in Container 1, such as /run/a is visible to systemd, host operating system processes, kubelet, container runtime, and other containers with host-to-container or bidirectional mount propagation configured (as in Container 2).
  • Container 2, configured with host-to-container mount propagation, can access systemd and host mounts, kubelet and CRI-O mounts. A mount originating in Container 2, such as /run/b, is not visible to any other context.
  • Container 3, configured with no mount propagation, has no visibility of external mount points. A mount originating in Container 3, such as /run/c, is not visible to any other context.

The following diagram illustrates the system state after encapsulation.

After encapsulation
  • The main systemd process is no longer devoted to unnecessary scanning of Kubernetes-specific mount points. It only monitors systemd-specific and host mount points.
  • The host operating system processes can access only the systemd and host mount points.
  • Using a separate mount namespace for both CRI-O and kubelet completely separates all container-specific mounts away from any systemd or other host operating system interaction whatsoever.
  • The behavior of Container 1 is unchanged, except a mount it creates such as /run/a is no longer visible to systemd or host operating system processes. It is still visible to kubelet, CRI-O, and other containers with host-to-container or bidirectional mount propagation configured (like Container 2).
  • The behavior of Container 2 and Container 3 is unchanged.

8.4.2. Configuring mount namespace encapsulation

You can configure mount namespace encapsulation so that a cluster runs with less resource overhead.

Note

Mount namespace encapsulation is a Technology Preview feature and it is disabled by default. To use it, you must enable the feature manually.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • You have logged in as a user with cluster-admin privileges.

Procedure

  1. Create a file called mount_namespace_config.yaml with the following YAML:

    apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
    kind: MachineConfig
    metadata:
      labels:
        machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: master
      name: 99-kubens-master
    spec:
      config:
        ignition:
          version: 3.2.0
        systemd:
          units:
          - enabled: true
            name: kubens.service
    ---
    apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
    kind: MachineConfig
    metadata:
      labels:
        machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker
      name: 99-kubens-worker
    spec:
      config:
        ignition:
          version: 3.2.0
        systemd:
          units:
          - enabled: true
            name: kubens.service
  2. Apply the mount namespace MachineConfig CR by running the following command:

    $ oc apply -f mount_namespace_config.yaml

    Example output

    machineconfig.machineconfiguration.openshift.io/99-kubens-master created
    machineconfig.machineconfiguration.openshift.io/99-kubens-worker created

  3. The MachineConfig CR can take up to 30 minutes to finish being applied in the cluster. You can check the status of the MachineConfig CR by running the following command:

    $ oc get mcp

    Example output

    NAME     CONFIG                                             UPDATED   UPDATING   DEGRADED   MACHINECOUNT   READYMACHINECOUNT   UPDATEDMACHINECOUNT   DEGRADEDMACHINECOUNT   AGE
    master   rendered-master-03d4bc4befb0f4ed3566a2c8f7636751   False     True       False      3              0                   0                     0                      45m
    worker   rendered-worker-10577f6ab0117ed1825f8af2ac687ddf   False     True       False      3              1                   1

  4. Wait for the MachineConfig CR to be applied successfully across all control plane and worker nodes after running the following command:

    $ oc wait --for=condition=Updated mcp --all --timeout=30m

    Example output

    machineconfigpool.machineconfiguration.openshift.io/master condition met
    machineconfigpool.machineconfiguration.openshift.io/worker condition met

Verification

To verify encapsulation for a cluster host, run the following commands:

  1. Open a debug shell to the cluster host:

    $ oc debug node/<node_name>
  2. Open a chroot session:

    sh-4.4# chroot /host
  3. Check the systemd mount namespace:

    sh-4.4# readlink /proc/1/ns/mnt

    Example output

    mnt:[4026531953]

  4. Check kubelet mount namespace:

    sh-4.4# readlink /proc/$(pgrep kubelet)/ns/mnt

    Example output

    mnt:[4026531840]

  5. Check the CRI-O mount namespace:

    sh-4.4# readlink /proc/$(pgrep crio)/ns/mnt

    Example output

    mnt:[4026531840]

These commands return the mount namespaces associated with systemd, kubelet, and the container runtime. In OpenShift Container Platform, the container runtime is CRI-O.

Encapsulation is in effect if systemd is in a different mount namespace to kubelet and CRI-O as in the above example. Encapsulation is not in effect if all three processes are in the same mount namespace.

8.4.3. Inspecting encapsulated namespaces

You can inspect Kubernetes-specific mount points in the cluster host operating system for debugging or auditing purposes by using the kubensenter script that is available in Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS).

SSH shell sessions to the cluster host are in the default namespace. To inspect Kubernetes-specific mount points in an SSH shell prompt, you need to run the kubensenter script as root. The kubensenter script is aware of the state of the mount encapsulation, and is safe to run even if encapsulation is not enabled.

Note

oc debug remote shell sessions start inside the Kubernetes namespace by default. You do not need to run kubensenter to inspect mount points when you use oc debug.

If the encapsulation feature is not enabled, the kubensenter findmnt and findmnt commands return the same output, regardless of whether they are run in an oc debug session or in an SSH shell prompt.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • You have logged in as a user with cluster-admin privileges.
  • You have configured SSH access to the cluster host.

Procedure

  1. Open a remote SSH shell to the cluster host. For example:

    $ ssh core@<node_name>
  2. Run commands using the provided kubensenter script as the root user. To run a single command inside the Kubernetes namespace, provide the command and any arguments to the kubensenter script. For example, to run the findmnt command inside the Kubernetes namespace, run the following command:

    [core@control-plane-1 ~]$ sudo kubensenter findmnt

    Example output

    kubensenter: Autodetect: kubens.service namespace found at /run/kubens/mnt
    TARGET                                SOURCE                 FSTYPE     OPTIONS
    /                                     /dev/sda4[/ostree/deploy/rhcos/deploy/32074f0e8e5ec453e56f5a8a7bc9347eaa4172349ceab9c22b709d9d71a3f4b0.0]
    |                                                            xfs        rw,relatime,seclabel,attr2,inode64,logbufs=8,logbsize=32k,prjquota
                                          shm                    tmpfs
    ...

  3. To start a new interactive shell inside the Kubernetes namespace, run the kubensenter script without any arguments:

    [core@control-plane-1 ~]$ sudo kubensenter

    Example output

    kubensenter: Autodetect: kubens.service namespace found at /run/kubens/mnt

8.4.4. Running additional services in the encapsulated namespace

Any monitoring tool that relies on the ability to run in the host operating system and have visibility of mount points created by kubelet, CRI-O, or containers themselves, must enter the container mount namespace to see these mount points. The kubensenter script that is provided with OpenShift Container Platform executes another command inside the Kubernetes mount point and can be used to adapt any existing tools.

The kubensenter script is aware of the state of the mount encapsulation feature status, and is safe to run even if encapsulation is not enabled. In that case the script executes the provided command in the default mount namespace.

For example, if a systemd service needs to run inside the new Kubernetes mount namespace, edit the service file and use the ExecStart= command line with kubensenter.

[Unit]
Description=Example service
[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/kubensenter /path/to/original/command arg1 arg2

8.4.5. Additional resources

Chapter 9. Managing bare metal hosts

When you install OpenShift Container Platform on a bare metal cluster, you can provision and manage bare metal nodes using machine and machineset custom resources (CRs) for bare metal hosts that exist in the cluster.

9.1. About bare metal hosts and nodes

To provision a Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) bare metal host as a node in your cluster, first create a MachineSet custom resource (CR) object that corresponds to the bare metal host hardware. Bare metal host compute machine sets describe infrastructure components specific to your configuration. You apply specific Kubernetes labels to these compute machine sets and then update the infrastructure components to run on only those machines.

Machine CR’s are created automatically when you scale up the relevant MachineSet containing a metal3.io/autoscale-to-hosts annotation. OpenShift Container Platform uses Machine CR’s to provision the bare metal node that corresponds to the host as specified in the MachineSet CR.

9.2. Maintaining bare metal hosts

You can maintain the details of the bare metal hosts in your cluster from the OpenShift Container Platform web console. Navigate to ComputeBare Metal Hosts, and select a task from the Actions drop down menu. Here you can manage items such as BMC details, boot MAC address for the host, enable power management, and so on. You can also review the details of the network interfaces and drives for the host.

You can move a bare metal host into maintenance mode. When you move a host into maintenance mode, the scheduler moves all managed workloads off the corresponding bare metal node. No new workloads are scheduled while in maintenance mode.

You can deprovision a bare metal host in the web console. Deprovisioning a host does the following actions:

  1. Annotates the bare metal host CR with cluster.k8s.io/delete-machine: true
  2. Scales down the related compute machine set
Note

Powering off the host without first moving the daemon set and unmanaged static pods to another node can cause service disruption and loss of data.

9.2.1. Adding a bare metal host to the cluster using the web console

You can add bare metal hosts to the cluster in the web console.

Prerequisites

  • Install an RHCOS cluster on bare metal.
  • Log in as a user with cluster-admin privileges.

Procedure

  1. In the web console, navigate to ComputeBare Metal Hosts.
  2. Select Add HostNew with Dialog.
  3. Specify a unique name for the new bare metal host.
  4. Set the Boot MAC address.
  5. Set the Baseboard Management Console (BMC) Address.
  6. Enter the user credentials for the host’s baseboard management controller (BMC).
  7. Select to power on the host after creation, and select Create.
  8. Scale up the number of replicas to match the number of available bare metal hosts. Navigate to ComputeMachineSets, and increase the number of machine replicas in the cluster by selecting Edit Machine count from the Actions drop-down menu.
Note

You can also manage the number of bare metal nodes using the oc scale command and the appropriate bare metal compute machine set.

9.2.2. Adding a bare metal host to the cluster using YAML in the web console

You can add bare metal hosts to the cluster in the web console using a YAML file that describes the bare metal host.

Prerequisites

  • Install a RHCOS compute machine on bare metal infrastructure for use in the cluster.
  • Log in as a user with cluster-admin privileges.
  • Create a Secret CR for the bare metal host.

Procedure

  1. In the web console, navigate to ComputeBare Metal Hosts.
  2. Select Add HostNew from YAML.
  3. Copy and paste the below YAML, modifying the relevant fields with the details of your host:

    apiVersion: metal3.io/v1alpha1
    kind: BareMetalHost
    metadata:
      name: <bare_metal_host_name>
    spec:
      online: true
      bmc:
        address: <bmc_address>
        credentialsName: <secret_credentials_name>  1
        disableCertificateVerification: True 2
      bootMACAddress: <host_boot_mac_address>
    1
    credentialsName must reference a valid Secret CR. The baremetal-operator cannot manage the bare metal host without a valid Secret referenced in the credentialsName. For more information about secrets and how to create them, see Understanding secrets.
    2
    Setting disableCertificateVerification to true disables TLS host validation between the cluster and the baseboard management controller (BMC).
  4. Select Create to save the YAML and create the new bare metal host.
  5. Scale up the number of replicas to match the number of available bare metal hosts. Navigate to ComputeMachineSets, and increase the number of machines in the cluster by selecting Edit Machine count from the Actions drop-down menu.

    Note

    You can also manage the number of bare metal nodes using the oc scale command and the appropriate bare metal compute machine set.

9.2.3. Automatically scaling machines to the number of available bare metal hosts

To automatically create the number of Machine objects that matches the number of available BareMetalHost objects, add a metal3.io/autoscale-to-hosts annotation to the MachineSet object.

Prerequisites

  • Install RHCOS bare metal compute machines for use in the cluster, and create corresponding BareMetalHost objects.
  • Install the OpenShift Container Platform CLI (oc).
  • Log in as a user with cluster-admin privileges.

Procedure

  1. Annotate the compute machine set that you want to configure for automatic scaling by adding the metal3.io/autoscale-to-hosts annotation. Replace <machineset> with the name of the compute machine set.

    $ oc annotate machineset <machineset> -n openshift-machine-api 'metal3.io/autoscale-to-hosts=<any_value>'

    Wait for the new scaled machines to start.

Note

When you use a BareMetalHost object to create a machine in the cluster and labels or selectors are subsequently changed on the BareMetalHost, the BareMetalHost object continues be counted against the MachineSet that the Machine object was created from.

9.2.4. Removing bare metal hosts from the provisioner node

In certain circumstances, you might want to temporarily remove bare metal hosts from the provisioner node. For example, during provisioning when a bare metal host reboot is triggered by using the OpenShift Container Platform administration console or as a result of a Machine Config Pool update, OpenShift Container Platform logs into the integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDrac) and issues a delete of the job queue.

To prevent the management of the number of Machine objects that matches the number of available BareMetalHost objects, add a baremetalhost.metal3.io/detached annotation to the MachineSet object.

Note

This annotation has an effect for only BareMetalHost objects that are in either Provisioned, ExternallyProvisioned or Ready/Available state.

Prerequisites

  • Install RHCOS bare metal compute machines for use in the cluster and create corresponding BareMetalHost objects.
  • Install the OpenShift Container Platform CLI (oc).
  • Log in as a user with cluster-admin privileges.

Procedure

  1. Annotate the compute machine set that you want to remove from the provisioner node by adding the baremetalhost.metal3.io/detached annotation.

    $ oc annotate machineset <machineset> -n openshift-machine-api 'baremetalhost.metal3.io/detached'

    Wait for the new machines to start.

    Note

    When you use a BareMetalHost object to create a machine in the cluster and labels or selectors are subsequently changed on the BareMetalHost, the BareMetalHost object continues be counted against the MachineSet that the Machine object was created from.

  2. In the provisioning use case, remove the annotation after the reboot is complete by using the following command:

    $ oc annotate machineset <machineset> -n openshift-machine-api 'baremetalhost.metal3.io/detached-'

Chapter 10. What huge pages do and how they are consumed by applications

10.1. What huge pages do

Memory is managed in blocks known as pages. On most systems, a page is 4Ki. 1Mi of memory is equal to 256 pages; 1Gi of memory is 256,000 pages, and so on. CPUs have a built-in memory management unit that manages a list of these pages in hardware. The Translation Lookaside Buffer (TLB) is a small hardware cache of virtual-to-physical page mappings. If the virtual address passed in a hardware instruction can be found in the TLB, the mapping can be determined quickly. If not, a TLB miss occurs, and the system falls back to slower, software-based address translation, resulting in performance issues. Since the size of the TLB is fixed, the only way to reduce the chance of a TLB miss is to increase the page size.

A huge page is a memory page that is larger than 4Ki. On x86_64 architectures, there are two common huge page sizes: 2Mi and 1Gi. Sizes vary on other architectures. To use huge pages, code must be written so that applications are aware of them. Transparent Huge Pages (THP) attempt to automate the management of huge pages without application knowledge, but they have limitations. In particular, they are limited to 2Mi page sizes. THP can lead to performance degradation on nodes with high memory utilization or fragmentation due to defragmenting efforts of THP, which can lock memory pages. For this reason, some applications may be designed to (or recommend) usage of pre-allocated huge pages instead of THP.

In OpenShift Container Platform, applications in a pod can allocate and consume pre-allocated huge pages.

10.2. How huge pages are consumed by apps

Nodes must pre-allocate huge pages in order for the node to report its huge page capacity. A node can only pre-allocate huge pages for a single size.

Huge pages can be consumed through container-level resource requirements using the resource name hugepages-<size>, where size is the most compact binary notation using integer values supported on a particular node. For example, if a node supports 2048KiB page sizes, it exposes a schedulable resource hugepages-2Mi. Unlike CPU or memory, huge pages do not support over-commitment.

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  generateName: hugepages-volume-
spec:
  containers:
  - securityContext:
      privileged: true
    image: rhel7:latest
    command:
    - sleep
    - inf
    name: example
    volumeMounts:
    - mountPath: /dev/hugepages
      name: hugepage
    resources:
      limits:
        hugepages-2Mi: 100Mi 1
        memory: "1Gi"
        cpu: "1"
  volumes:
  - name: hugepage
    emptyDir:
      medium: HugePages
1
Specify the amount of memory for hugepages as the exact amount to be allocated. Do not specify this value as the amount of memory for hugepages multiplied by the size of the page. For example, given a huge page size of 2MB, if you want to use 100MB of huge-page-backed RAM for your application, then you would allocate 50 huge pages. OpenShift Container Platform handles the math for you. As in the above example, you can specify 100MB directly.

Allocating huge pages of a specific size

Some platforms support multiple huge page sizes. To allocate huge pages of a specific size, precede the huge pages boot command parameters with a huge page size selection parameter hugepagesz=<size>. The <size> value must be specified in bytes with an optional scale suffix [kKmMgG]. The default huge page size can be defined with the default_hugepagesz=<size> boot parameter.

Huge page requirements

  • Huge page requests must equal the limits. This is the default if limits are specified, but requests are not.
  • Huge pages are isolated at a pod scope. Container isolation is planned in a future iteration.
  • EmptyDir volumes backed by huge pages must not consume more huge page memory than the pod request.
  • Applications that consume huge pages via shmget() with SHM_HUGETLB must run with a supplemental group that matches proc/sys/vm/hugetlb_shm_group.

10.3. Consuming huge pages resources using the Downward API

You can use the Downward API to inject information about the huge pages resources that are consumed by a container.

You can inject the resource allocation as environment variables, a volume plugin, or both. Applications that you develop and run in the container can determine the resources that are available by reading the environment variables or files in the specified volumes.

Procedure

  1. Create a hugepages-volume-pod.yaml file that is similar to the following example:

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: Pod
    metadata:
      generateName: hugepages-volume-
      labels:
        app: hugepages-example
    spec:
      containers:
      - securityContext:
          capabilities:
            add: [ "IPC_LOCK" ]
        image: rhel7:latest
        command:
        - sleep
        - inf
        name: example
        volumeMounts:
        - mountPath: /dev/hugepages
          name: hugepage
        - mountPath: /etc/podinfo
          name: podinfo
        resources:
          limits:
            hugepages-1Gi: 2Gi
            memory: "1Gi"
            cpu: "1"
          requests:
            hugepages-1Gi: 2Gi
        env:
        - name: REQUESTS_HUGEPAGES_1GI <.>
          valueFrom:
            resourceFieldRef:
              containerName: example
              resource: requests.hugepages-1Gi
      volumes:
      - name: hugepage
        emptyDir:
          medium: HugePages
      - name: podinfo
        downwardAPI:
          items:
            - path: "hugepages_1G_request" <.>
              resourceFieldRef:
                containerName: example
                resource: requests.hugepages-1Gi
                divisor: 1Gi

    <.> Specifies to read the resource use from requests.hugepages-1Gi and expose the value as the REQUESTS_HUGEPAGES_1GI environment variable. <.> Specifies to read the resource use from requests.hugepages-1Gi and expose the value as the file /etc/podinfo/hugepages_1G_request.

  2. Create the pod from the hugepages-volume-pod.yaml file:

    $ oc create -f hugepages-volume-pod.yaml

Verification

  1. Check the value of the REQUESTS_HUGEPAGES_1GI environment variable:

    $ oc exec -it $(oc get pods -l app=hugepages-example -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}') \
         -- env | grep REQUESTS_HUGEPAGES_1GI

    Example output

    REQUESTS_HUGEPAGES_1GI=2147483648

  2. Check the value of the /etc/podinfo/hugepages_1G_request file:

    $ oc exec -it $(oc get pods -l app=hugepages-example -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}') \
         -- cat /etc/podinfo/hugepages_1G_request

    Example output

    2

10.4. Configuring huge pages at boot time

Nodes must pre-allocate huge pages used in an OpenShift Container Platform cluster. There are two ways of reserving huge pages: at boot time and at run time. Reserving at boot time increases the possibility of success because the memory has not yet been significantly fragmented. The Node Tuning Operator currently supports boot time allocation of huge pages on specific nodes.

Procedure

To minimize node reboots, the order of the steps below needs to be followed:

  1. Label all nodes that need the same huge pages setting by a label.

    $ oc label node <node_using_hugepages> node-role.kubernetes.io/worker-hp=
  2. Create a file with the following content and name it hugepages-tuned-boottime.yaml:

    apiVersion: tuned.openshift.io/v1
    kind: Tuned
    metadata:
      name: hugepages 1
      namespace: openshift-cluster-node-tuning-operator
    spec:
      profile: 2
      - data: |
          [main]
          summary=Boot time configuration for hugepages
          include=openshift-node
          [bootloader]
          cmdline_openshift_node_hugepages=hugepagesz=2M hugepages=50 3
        name: openshift-node-hugepages
    
      recommend:
      - machineConfigLabels: 4
          machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: "worker-hp"
        priority: 30
        profile: openshift-node-hugepages
    1
    Set the name of the Tuned resource to hugepages.
    2
    Set the profile section to allocate huge pages.
    3
    Note the order of parameters is important as some platforms support huge pages of various sizes.
    4
    Enable machine config pool based matching.
  3. Create the Tuned hugepages object

    $ oc create -f hugepages-tuned-boottime.yaml
  4. Create a file with the following content and name it hugepages-mcp.yaml:

    apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
    kind: MachineConfigPool
    metadata:
      name: worker-hp
      labels:
        worker-hp: ""
    spec:
      machineConfigSelector:
        matchExpressions:
          - {key: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role, operator: In, values: [worker,worker-hp]}
      nodeSelector:
        matchLabels:
          node-role.kubernetes.io/worker-hp: ""
  5. Create the machine config pool:

    $ oc create -f hugepages-mcp.yaml

Given enough non-fragmented memory, all the nodes in the worker-hp machine config pool should now have 50 2Mi huge pages allocated.

$ oc get node <node_using_hugepages> -o jsonpath="{.status.allocatable.hugepages-2Mi}"
100Mi
Note

The TuneD bootloader plugin only supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) worker nodes.

10.5. Disabling Transparent Huge Pages

Transparent Huge Pages (THP) attempt to automate most aspects of creating, managing, and using huge pages. Since THP automatically manages the huge pages, this is not always handled optimally for all types of workloads. THP can lead to performance regressions, since many applications handle huge pages on their own. Therefore, consider disabling THP. The following steps describe how to disable THP using the Node Tuning Operator (NTO).

Procedure

  1. Create a file with the following content and name it thp-disable-tuned.yaml:

    apiVersion: tuned.openshift.io/v1
    kind: Tuned
    metadata:
      name: thp-workers-profile
      namespace: openshift-cluster-node-tuning-operator
    spec:
      profile:
      - data: |
          [main]
          summary=Custom tuned profile for OpenShift to turn off THP on worker nodes
          include=openshift-node
    
          [vm]
          transparent_hugepages=never
        name: openshift-thp-never-worker
    
      recommend:
      - match:
        - label: node-role.kubernetes.io/worker
        priority: 25
        profile: openshift-thp-never-worker
  2. Create the Tuned object:

    $ oc create -f thp-disable-tuned.yaml
  3. Check the list of active profiles:

    $ oc get profile -n openshift-cluster-node-tuning-operator

Verification

  • Log in to one of the nodes and do a regular THP check to verify if the nodes applied the profile successfully:

    $ cat /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/enabled

    Example output

    always madvise [never]

Chapter 11. Low latency tuning

11.1. Understanding low latency tuning for cluster nodes

Edge computing has a key role in reducing latency and congestion problems and improving application performance for telco and 5G network applications. Maintaining a network architecture with the lowest possible latency is key for meeting the network performance requirements of 5G. Compared to 4G technology, with an average latency of 50 ms, 5G is targeted to reach latency of 1 ms or less. This reduction in latency boosts wireless throughput by a factor of 10.

11.1.1. About low latency

Many of the deployed applications in the Telco space require low latency that can only tolerate zero packet loss. Tuning for zero packet loss helps mitigate the inherent issues that degrade network performance. For more information, see Tuning for Zero Packet Loss in Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP).

The Edge computing initiative also comes in to play for reducing latency rates. Think of it as being on the edge of the cloud and closer to the user. This greatly reduces the distance between the user and distant data centers, resulting in reduced application response times and performance latency.

Administrators must be able to manage their many Edge sites and local services in a centralized way so that all of the deployments can run at the lowest possible management cost. They also need an easy way to deploy and configure certain nodes of their cluster for real-time low latency and high-performance purposes. Low latency nodes are useful for applications such as Cloud-native Network Functions (CNF) and Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK).

OpenShift Container Platform currently provides mechanisms to tune software on an OpenShift Container Platform cluster for real-time running and low latency (around <20 microseconds reaction time). This includes tuning the kernel and OpenShift Container Platform set values, installing a kernel, and reconfiguring the machine. But this method requires setting up four different Operators and performing many configurations that, when done manually, is complex and could be prone to mistakes.

OpenShift Container Platform uses the Node Tuning Operator to implement automatic tuning to achieve low latency performance for OpenShift Container Platform applications. The cluster administrator uses this performance profile configuration that makes it easier to make these changes in a more reliable way. The administrator can specify whether to update the kernel to kernel-rt, reserve CPUs for cluster and operating system housekeeping duties, including pod infra containers, and isolate CPUs for application containers to run the workloads.

OpenShift Container Platform also supports workload hints for the Node Tuning Operator that can tune the PerformanceProfile to meet the demands of different industry environments. Workload hints are available for highPowerConsumption (very low latency at the cost of increased power consumption) and realTime (priority given to optimum latency). A combination of true/false settings for these hints can be used to deal with application-specific workload profiles and requirements.

Workload hints simplify the fine-tuning of performance to industry sector settings. Instead of a “one size fits all” approach, workload hints can cater to usage patterns such as placing priority on:

  • Low latency
  • Real-time capability
  • Efficient use of power

Ideally, all of the previously listed items are prioritized. Some of these items come at the expense of others however. The Node Tuning Operator is now aware of the workload expectations and better able to meet the demands of the workload. The cluster admin can now specify into which use case that workload falls. The Node Tuning Operator uses the PerformanceProfile to fine tune the performance settings for the workload.

The environment in which an application is operating influences its behavior. For a typical data center with no strict latency requirements, only minimal default tuning is needed that enables CPU partitioning for some high performance workload pods. For data centers and workloads where latency is a higher priority, measures are still taken to optimize power consumption. The most complicated cases are clusters close to latency-sensitive equipment such as manufacturing machinery and software-defined radios. This last class of deployment is often referred to as Far edge. For Far edge deployments, ultra-low latency is the ultimate priority, and is achieved at the expense of power management.

11.1.2. About Hyper-Threading for low latency and real-time applications

Hyper-Threading is an Intel processor technology that allows a physical CPU processor core to function as two logical cores, executing two independent threads simultaneously. Hyper-Threading allows for better system throughput for certain workload types where parallel processing is beneficial. The default OpenShift Container Platform configuration expects Hyper-Threading to be enabled.

For telecommunications applications, it is important to design your application infrastructure to minimize latency as much as possible. Hyper-Threading can slow performance times and negatively affect throughput for compute-intensive workloads that require low latency. Disabling Hyper-Threading ensures predictable performance and can decrease processing times for these workloads.

Note

Hyper-Threading implementation and configuration differs depending on the hardware you are running OpenShift Container Platform on. Consult the relevant host hardware tuning information for more details of the Hyper-Threading implementation specific to that hardware. Disabling Hyper-Threading can increase the cost per core of the cluster.

11.2. Tuning nodes for low latency with the performance profile

Tune nodes for low latency by using the cluster performance profile. You can restrict CPUs for infra and application containers, configure huge pages, Hyper-Threading, and configure CPU partitions for latency-sensitive processes.

11.2.1. Creating a performance profile

Learn about the Performance Profile Creator (PPC) and how you can use it to create a performance profile.

11.2.1.1. About the Performance Profile Creator

The Performance Profile Creator (PPC) is a command-line tool, delivered with the Node Tuning Operator, used to create the performance profile. The tool consumes must-gather data from the cluster and several user-supplied profile arguments. The PPC generates a performance profile that is appropriate for your hardware and topology.

The tool is run by one of the following methods:

  • Invoking podman
  • Calling a wrapper script
11.2.1.2. Gathering data about your cluster using the must-gather command

The Performance Profile Creator (PPC) tool requires must-gather data. As a cluster administrator, run the must-gather command to capture information about your cluster.

Prerequisites

  • Access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin role.
  • The OpenShift CLI (oc) installed.

Procedure

  1. Optional: Verify that a matching machine config pool exists with a label:

    $ oc describe mcp/worker-rt

    Example output

    Name:         worker-rt
    Namespace:
    Labels:       machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role=worker-rt

  2. If a matching label does not exist add a label for a machine config pool (MCP) that matches with the MCP name:

    $ oc label mcp <mcp_name> machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role=<mcp_name>
  3. Navigate to the directory where you want to store the must-gather data.
  4. Collect cluster information by running the following command:

    $ oc adm must-gather
  5. Optional: Create a compressed file from the must-gather directory:

    $ tar cvaf must-gather.tar.gz must-gather/
    Note

    Compressed output is required if you are running the Performance Profile Creator wrapper script.

11.2.1.3. Running the Performance Profile Creator using Podman

As a cluster administrator, you can run podman and the Performance Profile Creator to create a performance profile.

Prerequisites

  • Access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin role.
  • A cluster installed on bare-metal hardware.
  • A node with podman and OpenShift CLI (oc) installed.
  • Access to the Node Tuning Operator image.

Procedure

  1. Check the machine config pool:

    $ oc get mcp

    Example output

    NAME         CONFIG                                                 UPDATED   UPDATING   DEGRADED   MACHINECOUNT   READYMACHINECOUNT   UPDATEDMACHINECOUNT   DEGRADEDMACHINECOUNT   AGE
    master       rendered-master-acd1358917e9f98cbdb599aea622d78b       True      False      False      3              3                   3                     0                      22h
    worker-cnf   rendered-worker-cnf-1d871ac76e1951d32b2fe92369879826   False     True       False      2              1                   1                     0                      22h

  2. Use Podman to authenticate to registry.redhat.io:

    $ podman login registry.redhat.io
    Username: <username>
    Password: <password>
  3. Optional: Display help for the PPC tool:

    $ podman run --rm --entrypoint performance-profile-creator registry.redhat.io/openshift4/ose-cluster-node-tuning-operator:v4.17 -h

    Example output

    A tool that automates creation of Performance Profiles
    
    Usage:
      performance-profile-creator [flags]
    
    Flags:
          --disable-ht                        Disable Hyperthreading
      -h, --help                              help for performance-profile-creator
          --info string                       Show cluster information; requires --must-gather-dir-path, ignore the other arguments. [Valid values: log, json] (default "log")
          --mcp-name string                   MCP name corresponding to the target machines (required)
          --must-gather-dir-path string       Must gather directory path (default "must-gather")
          --offlined-cpu-count int            Number of offlined CPUs
          --per-pod-power-management          Enable Per Pod Power Management
          --power-consumption-mode string     The power consumption mode.  [Valid values: default, low-latency, ultra-low-latency] (default "default")
          --profile-name string               Name of the performance profile to be created (default "performance")
          --reserved-cpu-count int            Number of reserved CPUs (required)
          --rt-kernel                         Enable Real Time Kernel (required)
          --split-reserved-cpus-across-numa   Split the Reserved CPUs across NUMA nodes
          --topology-manager-policy string    Kubelet Topology Manager Policy of the performance profile to be created. [Valid values: single-numa-node, best-effort, restricted] (default "restricted")
          --user-level-networking             Run with User level Networking(DPDK) enabled

  4. Run the Performance Profile Creator tool in discovery mode:

    Note

    Discovery mode inspects your cluster by using the output from must-gather. The output produced includes information on the following conditions:

    • The NUMA cell partitioning with the allocated CPU ids
    • Whether Hyper-Threading is enabled

    Using this information you can set appropriate values for some of the arguments supplied to the Performance Profile Creator tool.

    $ podman run --entrypoint performance-profile-creator -v <path_to_must-gather>/must-gather:/must-gather:z registry.redhat.io/openshift4/ose-cluster-node-tuning-operator:v4.17 --info log --must-gather-dir-path /must-gather
    Note

    This command uses the performance profile creator as a new entry point to podman. It maps the must-gather data for the host into the container image and invokes the required user-supplied profile arguments to produce the my-performance-profile.yaml file.

    The -v option can be the path to either of the following components:

    • The must-gather output directory
    • An existing directory containing the must-gather decompressed .tar file

    The info option requires a value which specifies the output format. Possible values are log and JSON. The JSON format is reserved for debugging.

  5. Run podman:

    $ podman run --entrypoint performance-profile-creator -v /must-gather:/must-gather:z registry.redhat.io/openshift4/ose-cluster-node-tuning-operator:v4.17 --mcp-name=worker-cnf --reserved-cpu-count=4 --rt-kernel=true --split-reserved-cpus-across-numa=false --must-gather-dir-path /must-gather --power-consumption-mode=ultra-low-latency --offlined-cpu-count=6 > my-performance-profile.yaml
    Note

    The Performance Profile Creator arguments are shown in the Performance Profile Creator arguments table. The following arguments are required:

    • reserved-cpu-count
    • mcp-name
    • rt-kernel

    The mcp-name argument in this example is set to worker-cnf based on the output of the command oc get mcp. For single-node OpenShift use --mcp-name=master.

  6. Review the created YAML file:

    $ cat my-performance-profile.yaml

    Example output

    apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2
    kind: PerformanceProfile
    metadata:
      name: performance
    spec:
      cpu:
        isolated: 2-39,48-79
        offlined: 42-47
        reserved: 0-1,40-41
      machineConfigPoolSelector:
        machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker-cnf
      nodeSelector:
        node-role.kubernetes.io/worker-cnf: ""
      numa:
        topologyPolicy: restricted
      realTimeKernel:
        enabled: true
      workloadHints:
        highPowerConsumption: true
        realTime: true

  7. Apply the generated profile:

    $ oc apply -f my-performance-profile.yaml

Additional resources

11.2.1.3.1. How to run podman to create a performance profile

The following example illustrates how to run podman to create a performance profile with 20 reserved CPUs that are to be split across the NUMA nodes.

Node hardware configuration:

  • 80 CPUs
  • Hyperthreading enabled
  • Two NUMA nodes
  • Even numbered CPUs run on NUMA node 0 and odd numbered CPUs run on NUMA node 1

Run podman to create the performance profile:

$ podman run --entrypoint performance-profile-creator -v /must-gather:/must-gather:z registry.redhat.io/openshift4/ose-cluster-node-tuning-operator:v4.17 --mcp-name=worker-cnf --reserved-cpu-count=20 --rt-kernel=true --split-reserved-cpus-across-numa=true --must-gather-dir-path /must-gather > my-performance-profile.yaml

The created profile is described in the following YAML:

  apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2
  kind: PerformanceProfile
  metadata:
    name: performance
  spec:
    cpu:
      isolated: 10-39,50-79
      reserved: 0-9,40-49
    nodeSelector:
      node-role.kubernetes.io/worker-cnf: ""
    numa:
      topologyPolicy: restricted
    realTimeKernel:
      enabled: true
Note

In this case, 10 CPUs are reserved on NUMA node 0 and 10 are reserved on NUMA node 1.

11.2.1.3.2. Running the Performance Profile Creator wrapper script

The performance profile wrapper script simplifies the running of the Performance Profile Creator (PPC) tool. It hides the complexities associated with running podman and specifying the mapping directories and it enables the creation of the performance profile.

Prerequisites

  • Access to the Node Tuning Operator image.
  • Access to the must-gather tarball.

Procedure

  1. Create a file on your local machine named, for example, run-perf-profile-creator.sh:

    $ vi run-perf-profile-creator.sh
  2. Paste the following code into the file:

    #!/bin/bash
    
    readonly CONTAINER_RUNTIME=${CONTAINER_RUNTIME:-podman}
    readonly CURRENT_SCRIPT=$(basename "$0")
    readonly CMD="${CONTAINER_RUNTIME} run --entrypoint performance-profile-creator"
    readonly IMG_EXISTS_CMD="${CONTAINER_RUNTIME} image exists"
    readonly IMG_PULL_CMD="${CONTAINER_RUNTIME} image pull"
    readonly MUST_GATHER_VOL="/must-gather"
    
    NTO_IMG="registry.redhat.io/openshift4/ose-cluster-node-tuning-operator:v4.17"
    MG_TARBALL=""
    DATA_DIR=""
    
    usage() {
      print "Wrapper usage:"
      print "  ${CURRENT_SCRIPT} [-h] [-p image][-t path] -- [performance-profile-creator flags]"
      print ""
      print "Options:"
      print "   -h                 help for ${CURRENT_SCRIPT}"
      print "   -p                 Node Tuning Operator image"
      print "   -t                 path to a must-gather tarball"
    
      ${IMG_EXISTS_CMD} "${NTO_IMG}" && ${CMD} "${NTO_IMG}" -h
    }
    
    function cleanup {
      [ -d "${DATA_DIR}" ] && rm -rf "${DATA_DIR}"
    }
    trap cleanup EXIT
    
    exit_error() {
      print "error: $*"
      usage
      exit 1
    }
    
    print() {
      echo  "$*" >&2
    }
    
    check_requirements() {
      ${IMG_EXISTS_CMD} "${NTO_IMG}" || ${IMG_PULL_CMD} "${NTO_IMG}" || \
          exit_error "Node Tuning Operator image not found"
    
      [ -n "${MG_TARBALL}" ] || exit_error "Must-gather tarball file path is mandatory"
      [ -f "${MG_TARBALL}" ] || exit_error "Must-gather tarball file not found"
    
      DATA_DIR=$(mktemp -d -t "${CURRENT_SCRIPT}XXXX") || exit_error "Cannot create the data directory"
      tar -zxf "${MG_TARBALL}" --directory "${DATA_DIR}" || exit_error "Cannot decompress the must-gather tarball"
      chmod a+rx "${DATA_DIR}"
    
      return 0
    }
    
    main() {
      while getopts ':hp:t:' OPT; do
        case "${OPT}" in
          h)
            usage
            exit 0
            ;;
          p)
            NTO_IMG="${OPTARG}"
            ;;
          t)
            MG_TARBALL="${OPTARG}"
            ;;
          ?)
            exit_error "invalid argument: ${OPTARG}"
            ;;
        esac
      done
      shift $((OPTIND - 1))
    
      check_requirements || exit 1
    
      ${CMD} -v "${DATA_DIR}:${MUST_GATHER_VOL}:z" "${NTO_IMG}" "$@" --must-gather-dir-path "${MUST_GATHER_VOL}"
      echo "" 1>&2
    }
    
    main "$@"
  3. Add execute permissions for everyone on this script:

    $ chmod a+x run-perf-profile-creator.sh
  4. Optional: Display the run-perf-profile-creator.sh command usage:

    $ ./run-perf-profile-creator.sh -h

    Expected output

    Wrapper usage:
      run-perf-profile-creator.sh [-h] [-p image][-t path] -- [performance-profile-creator flags]
    
    Options:
       -h                 help for run-perf-profile-creator.sh
       -p                 Node Tuning Operator image 1
       -t                 path to a must-gather tarball 2
    A tool that automates creation of Performance Profiles
    
    Usage:
      performance-profile-creator [flags]
    
    Flags:
          --disable-ht                        Disable Hyperthreading
      -h, --help                              help for performance-profile-creator
          --info string                       Show cluster information; requires --must-gather-dir-path, ignore the other arguments. [Valid values: log, json] (default "log")
          --mcp-name string                   MCP name corresponding to the target machines (required)
          --must-gather-dir-path string       Must gather directory path (default "must-gather")
          --offlined-cpu-count int            Number of offlined CPUs
          --per-pod-power-management          Enable Per Pod Power Management
          --power-consumption-mode string     The power consumption mode.  [Valid values: default, low-latency, ultra-low-latency] (default "default")
          --profile-name string               Name of the performance profile to be created (default "performance")
          --reserved-cpu-count int            Number of reserved CPUs (required)
          --rt-kernel                         Enable Real Time Kernel (required)
          --split-reserved-cpus-across-numa   Split the Reserved CPUs across NUMA nodes
          --topology-manager-policy string    Kubelet Topology Manager Policy of the performance profile to be created. [Valid values: single-numa-node, best-effort, restricted] (default "restricted")
          --user-level-networking             Run with User level Networking(DPDK) enabled
          --enable-hardware-tuning            Enable setting maximum CPU frequencies

    Note

    There two types of arguments:

    • Wrapper arguments namely -h, -p and -t
    • PPC arguments
    1
    Optional: Specify the Node Tuning Operator image. If not set, the default upstream image is used: registry.redhat.io/openshift4/ose-cluster-node-tuning-operator:v4.17.
    2
    -t is a required wrapper script argument and specifies the path to a must-gather tarball.
  5. Run the performance profile creator tool in discovery mode:

    Note

    Discovery mode inspects your cluster using the output from must-gather. The output produced includes information on:

    • The NUMA cell partitioning with the allocated CPU IDs
    • Whether hyperthreading is enabled

    Using this information you can set appropriate values for some of the arguments supplied to the Performance Profile Creator tool.

    $ ./run-perf-profile-creator.sh -t /must-gather/must-gather.tar.gz -- --info=log
    Note

    The info option requires a value which specifies the output format. Possible values are log and JSON. The JSON format is reserved for debugging.

  6. Check the machine config pool:

    $ oc get mcp

    Example output

    NAME         CONFIG                                                 UPDATED   UPDATING   DEGRADED   MACHINECOUNT   READYMACHINECOUNT   UPDATEDMACHINECOUNT   DEGRADEDMACHINECOUNT   AGE
    master       rendered-master-acd1358917e9f98cbdb599aea622d78b       True      False      False      3              3                   3                     0                      22h
    worker-cnf   rendered-worker-cnf-1d871ac76e1951d32b2fe92369879826   False     True       False      2              1                   1                     0                      22h

  7. Create a performance profile:

    $ ./run-perf-profile-creator.sh -t /must-gather/must-gather.tar.gz -- --mcp-name=worker-cnf --reserved-cpu-count=2 --rt-kernel=true > my-performance-profile.yaml
    Note

    The Performance Profile Creator arguments are shown in the Performance Profile Creator arguments table. The following arguments are required:

    • reserved-cpu-count
    • mcp-name
    • rt-kernel

    The mcp-name argument in this example is set to worker-cnf based on the output of the command oc get mcp. For single-node OpenShift use --mcp-name=master.

  8. Review the created YAML file:

    $ cat my-performance-profile.yaml

    Example output

    apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2
    kind: PerformanceProfile
    metadata:
      name: performance
    spec:
      cpu:
        isolated: 1-39,41-79
        reserved: 0,40
      nodeSelector:
        node-role.kubernetes.io/worker-cnf: ""
      numa:
        topologyPolicy: restricted
      realTimeKernel:
        enabled: false

    Note

    When you pass the argument --enable-hardware-tuning as a flag to the Performance Profile Creator, the generated PerformanceProfile includes guidance on how to set frequency settings as follows:

    apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2
    kind: PerformanceProfile
    metadata:
      name: performance
    spec:
    ……………………
    ……………………
    #HardwareTuning is an advanced feature, and only intended to be used if
    #user is aware of the vendor recommendation on maximum cpu frequency.
    #The structure must follow
    #
    # hardwareTuning:
    #   isolatedCpuFreq: <Maximum frequency for applications running on isolated CPUs>
    #   reservedCpuFreq: <Maximum frequency for platform software running on reserved CPUs>
  9. Apply the generated profile:

    Note

    Install the Node Tuning Operator before applying the profile.

    $ oc apply -f my-performance-profile.yaml
11.2.1.3.3. Performance Profile Creator arguments
Table 11.1. Performance Profile Creator arguments
ArgumentDescription

disable-ht

Disable hyperthreading.

Possible values: true or false.

Default: false.

Warning

If this argument is set to true you should not disable hyperthreading in the BIOS. Disabling hyperthreading is accomplished with a kernel command line argument.

--enable-hardware-tuning

Enable the setting of maximum CPU frequencies. This parameter is optional.

To enable this feature, set the maximum frequency for applications running on isolated and reserved CPUs for both of the following:

  • spec.hardwareTuning.isolatedCpuFreq
  • spec.hardwareTuning.reservedCpuFreq

info

This captures cluster information and is used in discovery mode only. Discovery mode also requires the must-gather-dir-path argument. If any other arguments are set they are ignored.

Possible values:

  • log
  • JSON

    Note

    These options define the output format with the JSON format being reserved for debugging.

Default: log.

mcp-name

MCP name for example worker-cnf corresponding to the target machines. This parameter is required.

must-gather-dir-path

Must gather directory path. This parameter is required.

When the user runs the tool with the wrapper script must-gather is supplied by the script itself and the user must not specify it.

offlined-cpu-count

Number of offlined CPUs.

Note

This must be a natural number greater than 0. If not enough logical processors are offlined then error messages are logged. The messages are:

Error: failed to compute the reserved and isolated CPUs: please ensure that reserved-cpu-count plus offlined-cpu-count should be in the range [0,1]
Error: failed to compute the reserved and isolated CPUs: please specify the offlined CPU count in the range [0,1]

power-consumption-mode

The power consumption mode.

Possible values:

  • default: CPU partitioning with enabled power management and basic low-latency.
  • low-latency: Enhanced measures to improve latency figures.
  • ultra-low-latency: Priority given to optimal latency, at the expense of power management.

Default: default.

per-pod-power-management

Enable per pod power management. You cannot use this argument if you configured ultra-low-latency as the power consumption mode.

Possible values: true or false.

Default: false.

profile-name

Name of the performance profile to create. Default: performance.

reserved-cpu-count

Number of reserved CPUs. This parameter is required.

Note

This must be a natural number. A value of 0 is not allowed.

rt-kernel

Enable real-time kernel. This parameter is required.

Possible values: true or false.

split-reserved-cpus-across-numa

Split the reserved CPUs across NUMA nodes.

Possible values: true or false.

Default: false.

topology-manager-policy

Kubelet Topology Manager policy of the performance profile to be created.

Possible values:

  • single-numa-node
  • best-effort
  • restricted

Default: restricted.

user-level-networking

Run with user level networking (DPDK) enabled.

Possible values: true or false.

Default: false.

11.2.1.4. Reference performance profiles

Use the following reference performance profiles as the basis to develop your own custom profiles.

11.2.1.4.1. Performance profile template for clusters that use OVS-DPDK on OpenStack

To maximize machine performance in a cluster that uses Open vSwitch with the Data Plane Development Kit (OVS-DPDK) on Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP), you can use a performance profile.

You can use the following performance profile template to create a profile for your deployment.

Performance profile template for clusters that use OVS-DPDK

apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2
kind: PerformanceProfile
metadata:
  name: cnf-performanceprofile
spec:
  additionalKernelArgs:
    - nmi_watchdog=0
    - audit=0
    - mce=off
    - processor.max_cstate=1
    - idle=poll
    - intel_idle.max_cstate=0
    - default_hugepagesz=1GB
    - hugepagesz=1G
    - intel_iommu=on
  cpu:
    isolated: <CPU_ISOLATED>
    reserved: <CPU_RESERVED>
  hugepages:
    defaultHugepagesSize: 1G
    pages:
      - count: <HUGEPAGES_COUNT>
        node: 0
        size: 1G
  nodeSelector:
    node-role.kubernetes.io/worker: ''
  realTimeKernel:
    enabled: false
    globallyDisableIrqLoadBalancing: true

Insert values that are appropriate for your configuration for the CPU_ISOLATED, CPU_RESERVED, and HUGEPAGES_COUNT keys.

11.2.1.4.2. Telco RAN DU reference design performance profile template

The following performance profile configures node-level performance settings for OpenShift Container Platform clusters on commodity hardware to host telco RAN DU workloads.

Telco RAN DU reference design performance profile

apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2
kind: PerformanceProfile
metadata:
  # if you change this name make sure the 'include' line in TunedPerformancePatch.yaml
  # matches this name: include=openshift-node-performance-${PerformanceProfile.metadata.name}
  # Also in file 'validatorCRs/informDuValidator.yaml':
  # name: 50-performance-${PerformanceProfile.metadata.name}
  name: openshift-node-performance-profile
  annotations:
    ran.openshift.io/reference-configuration: "ran-du.redhat.com"
spec:
  additionalKernelArgs:
    - "rcupdate.rcu_normal_after_boot=0"
    - "efi=runtime"
    - "vfio_pci.enable_sriov=1"
    - "vfio_pci.disable_idle_d3=1"
    - "module_blacklist=irdma"
  cpu:
    isolated: $isolated
    reserved: $reserved
  hugepages:
    defaultHugepagesSize: $defaultHugepagesSize
    pages:
      - size: $size
        count: $count
        node: $node
  machineConfigPoolSelector:
    pools.operator.machineconfiguration.openshift.io/$mcp: ""
  nodeSelector:
    node-role.kubernetes.io/$mcp: ''
  numa:
    topologyPolicy: "restricted"
  # To use the standard (non-realtime) kernel, set enabled to false
  realTimeKernel:
    enabled: true
  workloadHints:
    # WorkloadHints defines the set of upper level flags for different type of workloads.
    # See https://github.com/openshift/cluster-node-tuning-operator/blob/master/docs/performanceprofile/performance_profile.md#workloadhints
    # for detailed descriptions of each item.
    # The configuration below is set for a low latency, performance mode.
    realTime: true
    highPowerConsumption: false
    perPodPowerManagement: false

11.2.1.4.3. Telco core reference design performance profile template

The following performance profile configures node-level performance settings for OpenShift Container Platform clusters on commodity hardware to host telco core workloads.

Telco core reference design performance profile

apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2
kind: PerformanceProfile
metadata:
  # if you change this name make sure the 'include' line in TunedPerformancePatch.yaml
  # matches this name: include=openshift-node-performance-${PerformanceProfile.metadata.name}
  # Also in file 'validatorCRs/informDuValidator.yaml':
  # name: 50-performance-${PerformanceProfile.metadata.name}
  name: openshift-node-performance-profile
  annotations:
    ran.openshift.io/reference-configuration: "ran-du.redhat.com"
spec:
  additionalKernelArgs:
    - "rcupdate.rcu_normal_after_boot=0"
    - "efi=runtime"
    - "vfio_pci.enable_sriov=1"
    - "vfio_pci.disable_idle_d3=1"
    - "module_blacklist=irdma"
  cpu:
    isolated: $isolated
    reserved: $reserved
  hugepages:
    defaultHugepagesSize: $defaultHugepagesSize
    pages:
      - size: $size
        count: $count
        node: $node
  machineConfigPoolSelector:
    pools.operator.machineconfiguration.openshift.io/$mcp: ""
  nodeSelector:
    node-role.kubernetes.io/$mcp: ''
  numa:
    topologyPolicy: "restricted"
  # To use the standard (non-realtime) kernel, set enabled to false
  realTimeKernel:
    enabled: true
  workloadHints:
    # WorkloadHints defines the set of upper level flags for different type of workloads.
    # See https://github.com/openshift/cluster-node-tuning-operator/blob/master/docs/performanceprofile/performance_profile.md#workloadhints
    # for detailed descriptions of each item.
    # The configuration below is set for a low latency, performance mode.
    realTime: true
    highPowerConsumption: false
    perPodPowerManagement: false

11.2.2. Supported performance profile API versions

The Node Tuning Operator supports v2, v1, and v1alpha1 for the performance profile apiVersion field. The v1 and v1alpha1 APIs are identical. The v2 API includes an optional boolean field globallyDisableIrqLoadBalancing with a default value of false.

Upgrading the performance profile to use device interrupt processing

When you upgrade the Node Tuning Operator performance profile custom resource definition (CRD) from v1 or v1alpha1 to v2, globallyDisableIrqLoadBalancing is set to true on existing profiles.

Note

globallyDisableIrqLoadBalancing toggles whether IRQ load balancing will be disabled for the Isolated CPU set. When the option is set to true it disables IRQ load balancing for the Isolated CPU set. Setting the option to false allows the IRQs to be balanced across all CPUs.

Upgrading Node Tuning Operator API from v1alpha1 to v1

When upgrading Node Tuning Operator API version from v1alpha1 to v1, the v1alpha1 performance profiles are converted on-the-fly using a "None" Conversion strategy and served to the Node Tuning Operator with API version v1.

Upgrading Node Tuning Operator API from v1alpha1 or v1 to v2

When upgrading from an older Node Tuning Operator API version, the existing v1 and v1alpha1 performance profiles are converted using a conversion webhook that injects the globallyDisableIrqLoadBalancing field with a value of true.

11.2.3. Configuring node power consumption and realtime processing with workload hints

Procedure

  • Create a PerformanceProfile appropriate for the environment’s hardware and topology by using the Performance Profile Creator (PPC) tool. The following table describes the possible values set for the power-consumption-mode flag associated with the PPC tool and the workload hint that is applied.
Table 11.2. Impact of combinations of power consumption and real-time settings on latency
Performance Profile creator settingHintEnvironmentDescription

Default

workloadHints:
highPowerConsumption: false
realTime: false

High throughput cluster without latency requirements

Performance achieved through CPU partitioning only.

Low-latency

workloadHints:
highPowerConsumption: false
realTime: true

Regional data-centers

Both energy savings and low-latency are desirable: compromise between power management, latency and throughput.

Ultra-low-latency

workloadHints:
highPowerConsumption: true
realTime: true

Far edge clusters, latency critical workloads

Optimized for absolute minimal latency and maximum determinism at the cost of increased power consumption.

Per-pod power management

workloadHints:
realTime: true
highPowerConsumption: false
perPodPowerManagement: true

Critical and non-critical workloads

Allows for power management per pod.

Example

The following configuration is commonly used in a telco RAN DU deployment.

    apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2
    kind: PerformanceProfile
    metadata:
      name: workload-hints
    spec:
      ...
      workloadHints:
        realTime: true
        highPowerConsumption: false
        perPodPowerManagement: false 1
1
Disables some debugging and monitoring features that can affect system latency.
Note

When the realTime workload hint flag is set to true in a performance profile, add the cpu-quota.crio.io: disable annotation to every guaranteed pod with pinned CPUs. This annotation is necessary to prevent the degradation of the process performance within the pod. If the realTime workload hint is not explicitly set, it defaults to true.

For more information how combinations of power consumption and real-time settings impact latency, see Understanding workload hints.

11.2.4. Configuring power saving for nodes that run colocated high and low priority workloads

You can enable power savings for a node that has low priority workloads that are colocated with high priority workloads without impacting the latency or throughput of the high priority workloads. Power saving is possible without modifications to the workloads themselves.

Important

The feature is supported on Intel Ice Lake and later generations of Intel CPUs. The capabilities of the processor might impact the latency and throughput of the high priority workloads.

Prerequisites

  • You enabled C-states and operating system controlled P-states in the BIOS

Procedure

  1. Generate a PerformanceProfile with the per-pod-power-management argument set to true:

    $ podman run --entrypoint performance-profile-creator -v \
    /must-gather:/must-gather:z registry.redhat.io/openshift4/ose-cluster-node-tuning-operator:v4.17 \
    --mcp-name=worker-cnf --reserved-cpu-count=20 --rt-kernel=true \
    --split-reserved-cpus-across-numa=false --topology-manager-policy=single-numa-node \
    --must-gather-dir-path /must-gather --power-consumption-mode=low-latency \ 1
    --per-pod-power-management=true > my-performance-profile.yaml
    1
    The power-consumption-mode argument must be default or low-latency when the per-pod-power-management argument is set to true.

    Example PerformanceProfile with perPodPowerManagement

    apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2
    kind: PerformanceProfile
    metadata:
         name: performance
    spec:
        [.....]
        workloadHints:
            realTime: true
            highPowerConsumption: false
            perPodPowerManagement: true

  2. Set the default cpufreq governor as an additional kernel argument in the PerformanceProfile custom resource (CR):

    apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2
    kind: PerformanceProfile
    metadata:
         name: performance
    spec:
        ...
        additionalKernelArgs:
        - cpufreq.default_governor=schedutil 1
    1
    Using the schedutil governor is recommended, however, you can use other governors such as the ondemand or powersave governors.
  3. Set the maximum CPU frequency in the TunedPerformancePatch CR:

    spec:
      profile:
      - data: |
          [sysfs]
          /sys/devices/system/cpu/intel_pstate/max_perf_pct = <x> 1
    1
    The max_perf_pct controls the maximum frequency that the cpufreq driver is allowed to set as a percentage of the maximum supported cpu frequency. This value applies to all CPUs. You can check the maximum supported frequency in /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/cpuinfo_max_freq. As a starting point, you can use a percentage that caps all CPUs at the All Cores Turbo frequency. The All Cores Turbo frequency is the frequency that all cores will run at when the cores are all fully occupied.

11.2.5. Restricting CPUs for infra and application containers

Generic housekeeping and workload tasks use CPUs in a way that may impact latency-sensitive processes. By default, the container runtime uses all online CPUs to run all containers together, which can result in context switches and spikes in latency. Partitioning the CPUs prevents noisy processes from interfering with latency-sensitive processes by separating them from each other. The following table describes how processes run on a CPU after you have tuned the node using the Node Tuning Operator:

Table 11.3. Process' CPU assignments
Process typeDetails

Burstable and BestEffort pods

Runs on any CPU except where low latency workload is running

Infrastructure pods

Runs on any CPU except where low latency workload is running

Interrupts

Redirects to reserved CPUs (optional in OpenShift Container Platform 4.7 and later)

Kernel processes

Pins to reserved CPUs

Latency-sensitive workload pods

Pins to a specific set of exclusive CPUs from the isolated pool

OS processes/systemd services

Pins to reserved CPUs

The allocatable capacity of cores on a node for pods of all QoS process types, Burstable, BestEffort, or Guaranteed, is equal to the capacity of the isolated pool. The capacity of the reserved pool is removed from the node’s total core capacity for use by the cluster and operating system housekeeping duties.

Example 1

A node features a capacity of 100 cores. Using a performance profile, the cluster administrator allocates 50 cores to the isolated pool and 50 cores to the reserved pool. The cluster administrator assigns 25 cores to QoS Guaranteed pods and 25 cores for BestEffort or Burstable pods. This matches the capacity of the isolated pool.

Example 2

A node features a capacity of 100 cores. Using a performance profile, the cluster administrator allocates 50 cores to the isolated pool and 50 cores to the reserved pool. The cluster administrator assigns 50 cores to QoS Guaranteed pods and one core for BestEffort or Burstable pods. This exceeds the capacity of the isolated pool by one core. Pod scheduling fails because of insufficient CPU capacity.

The exact partitioning pattern to use depends on many factors like hardware, workload characteristics and the expected system load. Some sample use cases are as follows:

  • If the latency-sensitive workload uses specific hardware, such as a network interface controller (NIC), ensure that the CPUs in the isolated pool are as close as possible to this hardware. At a minimum, you should place the workload in the same Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) node.
  • The reserved pool is used for handling all interrupts. When depending on system networking, allocate a sufficiently-sized reserve pool to handle all the incoming packet interrupts. In 4.17 and later versions, workloads can optionally be labeled as sensitive.

The decision regarding which specific CPUs should be used for reserved and isolated partitions requires detailed analysis and measurements. Factors like NUMA affinity of devices and memory play a role. The selection also depends on the workload architecture and the specific use case.

Important

The reserved and isolated CPU pools must not overlap and together must span all available cores in the worker node.

To ensure that housekeeping tasks and workloads do not interfere with each other, specify two groups of CPUs in the spec section of the performance profile.

  • isolated - Specifies the CPUs for the application container workloads. These CPUs have the lowest latency. Processes in this group have no interruptions and can, for example, reach much higher DPDK zero packet loss bandwidth.
  • reserved - Specifies the CPUs for the cluster and operating system housekeeping duties. Threads in the reserved group are often busy. Do not run latency-sensitive applications in the reserved group. Latency-sensitive applications run in the isolated group.

Procedure

  1. Create a performance profile appropriate for the environment’s hardware and topology.
  2. Add the reserved and isolated parameters with the CPUs you want reserved and isolated for the infra and application containers:

    apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2
    kind: PerformanceProfile
    metadata:
      name: infra-cpus
    spec:
      cpu:
        reserved: "0-4,9" 1
        isolated: "5-8" 2
      nodeSelector: 3
        node-role.kubernetes.io/worker: ""
    1
    Specify which CPUs are for infra containers to perform cluster and operating system housekeeping duties.
    2
    Specify which CPUs are for application containers to run workloads.
    3
    Optional: Specify a node selector to apply the performance profile to specific nodes.

11.2.6. Configuring Hyper-Threading for a cluster

To configure Hyper-Threading for an OpenShift Container Platform cluster, set the CPU threads in the performance profile to the same cores that are configured for the reserved or isolated CPU pools.

Note

If you configure a performance profile, and subsequently change the Hyper-Threading configuration for the host, ensure that you update the CPU isolated and reserved fields in the PerformanceProfile YAML to match the new configuration.

Warning

Disabling a previously enabled host Hyper-Threading configuration can cause the CPU core IDs listed in the PerformanceProfile YAML to be incorrect. This incorrect configuration can cause the node to become unavailable because the listed CPUs can no longer be found.

Prerequisites

  • Access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin role.
  • Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).

Procedure

  1. Ascertain which threads are running on what CPUs for the host you want to configure.

    You can view which threads are running on the host CPUs by logging in to the cluster and running the following command:

    $ lscpu --all --extended

    Example output

    CPU NODE SOCKET CORE L1d:L1i:L2:L3 ONLINE MAXMHZ    MINMHZ
    0   0    0      0    0:0:0:0       yes    4800.0000 400.0000
    1   0    0      1    1:1:1:0       yes    4800.0000 400.0000
    2   0    0      2    2:2:2:0       yes    4800.0000 400.0000
    3   0    0      3    3:3:3:0       yes    4800.0000 400.0000
    4   0    0      0    0:0:0:0       yes    4800.0000 400.0000
    5   0    0      1    1:1:1:0       yes    4800.0000 400.0000
    6   0    0      2    2:2:2:0       yes    4800.0000 400.0000
    7   0    0      3    3:3:3:0       yes    4800.0000 400.0000

    In this example, there are eight logical CPU cores running on four physical CPU cores. CPU0 and CPU4 are running on physical Core0, CPU1 and CPU5 are running on physical Core 1, and so on.

    Alternatively, to view the threads that are set for a particular physical CPU core (cpu0 in the example below), open a shell prompt and run the following:

    $ cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/topology/thread_siblings_list

    Example output

    0-4

  2. Apply the isolated and reserved CPUs in the PerformanceProfile YAML. For example, you can set logical cores CPU0 and CPU4 as isolated, and logical cores CPU1 to CPU3 and CPU5 to CPU7 as reserved. When you configure reserved and isolated CPUs, the infra containers in pods use the reserved CPUs and the application containers use the isolated CPUs.

    ...
      cpu:
        isolated: 0,4
        reserved: 1-3,5-7
    ...
    Note

    The reserved and isolated CPU pools must not overlap and together must span all available cores in the worker node.

Important

Hyper-Threading is enabled by default on most Intel processors. If you enable Hyper-Threading, all threads processed by a particular core must be isolated or processed on the same core.

When Hyper-Threading is enabled, all guaranteed pods must use multiples of the simultaneous multi-threading (SMT) level to avoid a "noisy neighbor" situation that can cause the pod to fail. See Static policy options for more information.

11.2.6.1. Disabling Hyper-Threading for low latency applications

When configuring clusters for low latency processing, consider whether you want to disable Hyper-Threading before you deploy the cluster. To disable Hyper-Threading, perform the following steps:

  1. Create a performance profile that is appropriate for your hardware and topology.
  2. Set nosmt as an additional kernel argument. The following example performance profile illustrates this setting:

    apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2
    kind: PerformanceProfile
    metadata:
      name: example-performanceprofile
    spec:
      additionalKernelArgs:
        - nmi_watchdog=0
        - audit=0
        - mce=off
        - processor.max_cstate=1
        - idle=poll
        - intel_idle.max_cstate=0
        - nosmt
      cpu:
        isolated: 2-3
        reserved: 0-1
      hugepages:
        defaultHugepagesSize: 1G
        pages:
          - count: 2
            node: 0
            size: 1G
      nodeSelector:
        node-role.kubernetes.io/performance: ''
      realTimeKernel:
        enabled: true
    Note

    When you configure reserved and isolated CPUs, the infra containers in pods use the reserved CPUs and the application containers use the isolated CPUs.

11.2.7. Managing device interrupt processing for guaranteed pod isolated CPUs

The Node Tuning Operator can manage host CPUs by dividing them into reserved CPUs for cluster and operating system housekeeping duties, including pod infra containers, and isolated CPUs for application containers to run the workloads. This allows you to set CPUs for low latency workloads as isolated.

Device interrupts are load balanced between all isolated and reserved CPUs to avoid CPUs being overloaded, with the exception of CPUs where there is a guaranteed pod running. Guaranteed pod CPUs are prevented from processing device interrupts when the relevant annotations are set for the pod.

In the performance profile, globallyDisableIrqLoadBalancing is used to manage whether device interrupts are processed or not. For certain workloads, the reserved CPUs are not always sufficient for dealing with device interrupts, and for this reason, device interrupts are not globally disabled on the isolated CPUs. By default, Node Tuning Operator does not disable device interrupts on isolated CPUs.

11.2.7.1. Finding the effective IRQ affinity setting for a node

Some IRQ controllers lack support for IRQ affinity setting and will always expose all online CPUs as the IRQ mask. These IRQ controllers effectively run on CPU 0.

The following are examples of drivers and hardware that Red Hat are aware lack support for IRQ affinity setting. The list is, by no means, exhaustive:

  • Some RAID controller drivers, such as megaraid_sas
  • Many non-volatile memory express (NVMe) drivers
  • Some LAN on motherboard (LOM) network controllers
  • The driver uses managed_irqs
Note

The reason they do not support IRQ affinity setting might be associated with factors such as the type of processor, the IRQ controller, or the circuitry connections in the motherboard.

If the effective affinity of any IRQ is set to an isolated CPU, it might be a sign of some hardware or driver not supporting IRQ affinity setting. To find the effective affinity, log in to the host and run the following command:

$ find /proc/irq -name effective_affinity -printf "%p: " -exec cat {} \;

Example output

/proc/irq/0/effective_affinity: 1
/proc/irq/1/effective_affinity: 8
/proc/irq/2/effective_affinity: 0
/proc/irq/3/effective_affinity: 1
/proc/irq/4/effective_affinity: 2
/proc/irq/5/effective_affinity: 1
/proc/irq/6/effective_affinity: 1
/proc/irq/7/effective_affinity: 1
/proc/irq/8/effective_affinity: 1
/proc/irq/9/effective_affinity: 2
/proc/irq/10/effective_affinity: 1
/proc/irq/11/effective_affinity: 1
/proc/irq/12/effective_affinity: 4
/proc/irq/13/effective_affinity: 1
/proc/irq/14/effective_affinity: 1
/proc/irq/15/effective_affinity: 1
/proc/irq/24/effective_affinity: 2
/proc/irq/25/effective_affinity: 4
/proc/irq/26/effective_affinity: 2
/proc/irq/27/effective_affinity: 1
/proc/irq/28/effective_affinity: 8
/proc/irq/29/effective_affinity: 4
/proc/irq/30/effective_affinity: 4
/proc/irq/31/effective_affinity: 8
/proc/irq/32/effective_affinity: 8
/proc/irq/33/effective_affinity: 1
/proc/irq/34/effective_affinity: 2

Some drivers use managed_irqs, whose affinity is managed internally by the kernel and userspace cannot change the affinity. In some cases, these IRQs might be assigned to isolated CPUs. For more information about managed_irqs, see Affinity of managed interrupts cannot be changed even if they target isolated CPU.

11.2.7.2. Configuring node interrupt affinity

Configure a cluster node for IRQ dynamic load balancing to control which cores can receive device interrupt requests (IRQ).

Prerequisites

  • For core isolation, all server hardware components must support IRQ affinity. To check if the hardware components of your server support IRQ affinity, view the server’s hardware specifications or contact your hardware provider.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the OpenShift Container Platform cluster as a user with cluster-admin privileges.
  2. Set the performance profile apiVersion to use performance.openshift.io/v2.
  3. Remove the globallyDisableIrqLoadBalancing field or set it to false.
  4. Set the appropriate isolated and reserved CPUs. The following snippet illustrates a profile that reserves 2 CPUs. IRQ load-balancing is enabled for pods running on the isolated CPU set:

    apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2
    kind: PerformanceProfile
    metadata:
      name: dynamic-irq-profile
    spec:
      cpu:
        isolated: 2-5
        reserved: 0-1
    ...
    Note

    When you configure reserved and isolated CPUs, operating system processes, kernel processes, and systemd services run on reserved CPUs. Infrastructure pods run on any CPU except where the low latency workload is running. Low latency workload pods run on exclusive CPUs from the isolated pool. For more information, see "Restricting CPUs for infra and application containers".

11.2.8. Configuring huge pages

Nodes must pre-allocate huge pages used in an OpenShift Container Platform cluster. Use the Node Tuning Operator to allocate huge pages on a specific node.

OpenShift Container Platform provides a method for creating and allocating huge pages. Node Tuning Operator provides an easier method for doing this using the performance profile.

For example, in the hugepages pages section of the performance profile, you can specify multiple blocks of size, count, and, optionally, node:

hugepages:
   defaultHugepagesSize: "1G"
   pages:
   - size:  "1G"
     count:  4
     node:  0 1
1
node is the NUMA node in which the huge pages are allocated. If you omit node, the pages are evenly spread across all NUMA nodes.
Note

Wait for the relevant machine config pool status that indicates the update is finished.

These are the only configuration steps you need to do to allocate huge pages.

Verification

  • To verify the configuration, see the /proc/meminfo file on the node:

    $ oc debug node/ip-10-0-141-105.ec2.internal
    # grep -i huge /proc/meminfo

    Example output

    AnonHugePages:    ###### ##
    ShmemHugePages:        0 kB
    HugePages_Total:       2
    HugePages_Free:        2
    HugePages_Rsvd:        0
    HugePages_Surp:        0
    Hugepagesize:       #### ##
    Hugetlb:            #### ##

  • Use oc describe to report the new size:

    $ oc describe node worker-0.ocp4poc.example.com | grep -i huge

    Example output

                                       hugepages-1g=true
     hugepages-###:  ###
     hugepages-###:  ###

11.2.8.1. Allocating multiple huge page sizes

You can request huge pages with different sizes under the same container. This allows you to define more complicated pods consisting of containers with different huge page size needs.

For example, you can define sizes 1G and 2M and the Node Tuning Operator will configure both sizes on the node, as shown here:

spec:
  hugepages:
    defaultHugepagesSize: 1G
    pages:
    - count: 1024
      node: 0
      size: 2M
    - count: 4
      node: 1
      size: 1G

11.2.9. Reducing NIC queues using the Node Tuning Operator

The Node Tuning Operator facilitates reducing NIC queues for enhanced performance. Adjustments are made using the performance profile, allowing customization of queues for different network devices.

11.2.9.1. Adjusting the NIC queues with the performance profile

The performance profile lets you adjust the queue count for each network device.

Supported network devices:

  • Non-virtual network devices
  • Network devices that support multiple queues (channels)

Unsupported network devices:

  • Pure software network interfaces
  • Block devices
  • Intel DPDK virtual functions

Prerequisites

  • Access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin role.
  • Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).

Procedure

  1. Log in to the OpenShift Container Platform cluster running the Node Tuning Operator as a user with cluster-admin privileges.
  2. Create and apply a performance profile appropriate for your hardware and topology. For guidance on creating a profile, see the "Creating a performance profile" section.
  3. Edit this created performance profile:

    $ oc edit -f <your_profile_name>.yaml
  4. Populate the spec field with the net object. The object list can contain two fields:

    • userLevelNetworking is a required field specified as a boolean flag. If userLevelNetworking is true, the queue count is set to the reserved CPU count for all supported devices. The default is false.
    • devices is an optional field specifying a list of devices that will have the queues set to the reserved CPU count. If the device list is empty, the configuration applies to all network devices. The configuration is as follows:

      • interfaceName: This field specifies the interface name, and it supports shell-style wildcards, which can be positive or negative.

        • Example wildcard syntax is as follows: <string> .*
        • Negative rules are prefixed with an exclamation mark. To apply the net queue changes to all devices other than the excluded list, use !<device>, for example, !eno1.
      • vendorID: The network device vendor ID represented as a 16-bit hexadecimal number with a 0x prefix.
      • deviceID: The network device ID (model) represented as a 16-bit hexadecimal number with a 0x prefix.

        Note

        When a deviceID is specified, the vendorID must also be defined. A device that matches all of the device identifiers specified in a device entry interfaceName, vendorID, or a pair of vendorID plus deviceID qualifies as a network device. This network device then has its net queues count set to the reserved CPU count.

        When two or more devices are specified, the net queues count is set to any net device that matches one of them.

  5. Set the queue count to the reserved CPU count for all devices by using this example performance profile:

    apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2
    kind: PerformanceProfile
    metadata:
      name: manual
    spec:
      cpu:
        isolated: 3-51,55-103
        reserved: 0-2,52-54
      net:
        userLevelNetworking: true
      nodeSelector:
        node-role.kubernetes.io/worker-cnf: ""
  6. Set the queue count to the reserved CPU count for all devices matching any of the defined device identifiers by using this example performance profile:

    apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2
    kind: PerformanceProfile
    metadata:
      name: manual
    spec:
      cpu:
        isolated: 3-51,55-103
        reserved: 0-2,52-54
      net:
        userLevelNetworking: true
        devices:
        - interfaceName: "eth0"
        - interfaceName: "eth1"
        - vendorID: "0x1af4"
          deviceID: "0x1000"
      nodeSelector:
        node-role.kubernetes.io/worker-cnf: ""
  7. Set the queue count to the reserved CPU count for all devices starting with the interface name eth by using this example performance profile:

    apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2
    kind: PerformanceProfile
    metadata:
      name: manual
    spec:
      cpu:
        isolated: 3-51,55-103
        reserved: 0-2,52-54
      net:
        userLevelNetworking: true
        devices:
        - interfaceName: "eth*"
      nodeSelector:
        node-role.kubernetes.io/worker-cnf: ""
  8. Set the queue count to the reserved CPU count for all devices with an interface named anything other than eno1 by using this example performance profile:

    apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2
    kind: PerformanceProfile
    metadata:
      name: manual
    spec:
      cpu:
        isolated: 3-51,55-103
        reserved: 0-2,52-54
      net:
        userLevelNetworking: true
        devices:
        - interfaceName: "!eno1"
      nodeSelector:
        node-role.kubernetes.io/worker-cnf: ""
  9. Set the queue count to the reserved CPU count for all devices that have an interface name eth0, vendorID of 0x1af4, and deviceID of 0x1000 by using this example performance profile:

    apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2
    kind: PerformanceProfile
    metadata:
      name: manual
    spec:
      cpu:
        isolated: 3-51,55-103
        reserved: 0-2,52-54
      net:
        userLevelNetworking: true
        devices:
        - interfaceName: "eth0"
        - vendorID: "0x1af4"
          deviceID: "0x1000"
      nodeSelector:
        node-role.kubernetes.io/worker-cnf: ""
  10. Apply the updated performance profile:

    $ oc apply -f <your_profile_name>.yaml

Additional resources

11.2.9.2. Verifying the queue status

In this section, a number of examples illustrate different performance profiles and how to verify the changes are applied.

Example 1

In this example, the net queue count is set to the reserved CPU count (2) for all supported devices.

The relevant section from the performance profile is:

apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2
metadata:
  name: performance
spec:
  kind: PerformanceProfile
  spec:
    cpu:
      reserved: 0-1  #total = 2
      isolated: 2-8
    net:
      userLevelNetworking: true
# ...
  • Display the status of the queues associated with a device using the following command:

    Note

    Run this command on the node where the performance profile was applied.

    $ ethtool -l <device>
  • Verify the queue status before the profile is applied:

    $ ethtool -l ens4

    Example output

    Channel parameters for ens4:
    Pre-set maximums:
    RX:         0
    TX:         0
    Other:      0
    Combined:   4
    Current hardware settings:
    RX:         0
    TX:         0
    Other:      0
    Combined:   4

  • Verify the queue status after the profile is applied:

    $ ethtool -l ens4

    Example output

    Channel parameters for ens4:
    Pre-set maximums:
    RX:         0
    TX:         0
    Other:      0
    Combined:   4
    Current hardware settings:
    RX:         0
    TX:         0
    Other:      0
    Combined:   2 1

1
The combined channel shows that the total count of reserved CPUs for all supported devices is 2. This matches what is configured in the performance profile.

Example 2

In this example, the net queue count is set to the reserved CPU count (2) for all supported network devices with a specific vendorID.

The relevant section from the performance profile is:

apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2
metadata:
  name: performance
spec:
  kind: PerformanceProfile
  spec:
    cpu:
      reserved: 0-1  #total = 2
      isolated: 2-8
    net:
      userLevelNetworking: true
      devices:
      - vendorID = 0x1af4
# ...
  • Display the status of the queues associated with a device using the following command:

    Note

    Run this command on the node where the performance profile was applied.

    $ ethtool -l <device>
  • Verify the queue status after the profile is applied:

    $ ethtool -l ens4

    Example output

    Channel parameters for ens4:
    Pre-set maximums:
    RX:         0
    TX:         0
    Other:      0
    Combined:   4
    Current hardware settings:
    RX:         0
    TX:         0
    Other:      0
    Combined:   2 1

1
The total count of reserved CPUs for all supported devices with vendorID=0x1af4 is 2. For example, if there is another network device ens2 with vendorID=0x1af4 it will also have total net queues of 2. This matches what is configured in the performance profile.

Example 3

In this example, the net queue count is set to the reserved CPU count (2) for all supported network devices that match any of the defined device identifiers.

The command udevadm info provides a detailed report on a device. In this example the devices are:

# udevadm info -p /sys/class/net/ens4
...
E: ID_MODEL_ID=0x1000
E: ID_VENDOR_ID=0x1af4
E: INTERFACE=ens4
...
# udevadm info -p /sys/class/net/eth0
...
E: ID_MODEL_ID=0x1002
E: ID_VENDOR_ID=0x1001
E: INTERFACE=eth0
...
  • Set the net queues to 2 for a device with interfaceName equal to eth0 and any devices that have a vendorID=0x1af4 with the following performance profile:

    apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2
    metadata:
      name: performance
    spec:
      kind: PerformanceProfile
        spec:
          cpu:
            reserved: 0-1  #total = 2
            isolated: 2-8
          net:
            userLevelNetworking: true
            devices:
            - interfaceName = eth0
            - vendorID = 0x1af4
    ...
  • Verify the queue status after the profile is applied:

    $ ethtool -l ens4

    Example output

    Channel parameters for ens4:
    Pre-set maximums:
    RX:         0
    TX:         0
    Other:      0
    Combined:   4
    Current hardware settings:
    RX:         0
    TX:         0
    Other:      0
    Combined:   2 1

    1
    The total count of reserved CPUs for all supported devices with vendorID=0x1af4 is set to 2. For example, if there is another network device ens2 with vendorID=0x1af4, it will also have the total net queues set to 2. Similarly, a device with interfaceName equal to eth0 will have total net queues set to 2.
11.2.9.3. Logging associated with adjusting NIC queues

Log messages detailing the assigned devices are recorded in the respective Tuned daemon logs. The following messages might be recorded to the /var/log/tuned/tuned.log file:

  • An INFO message is recorded detailing the successfully assigned devices:

    INFO tuned.plugins.base: instance net_test (net): assigning devices ens1, ens2, ens3
  • A WARNING message is recorded if none of the devices can be assigned:

    WARNING  tuned.plugins.base: instance net_test: no matching devices available

11.3. Provisioning real-time and low latency workloads

Many organizations need high performance computing and low, predictable latency, especially in the financial and telecommunications industries.

OpenShift Container Platform provides the Node Tuning Operator to implement automatic tuning to achieve low latency performance and consistent response time for OpenShift Container Platform applications. You use the performance profile configuration to make these changes. You can update the kernel to kernel-rt, reserve CPUs for cluster and operating system housekeeping duties, including pod infra containers, isolate CPUs for application containers to run the workloads, and disable unused CPUs to reduce power consumption.

Note

When writing your applications, follow the general recommendations described in RHEL for Real Time processes and threads.

11.3.1. Scheduling a low latency workload onto a worker with real-time capabilities

You can schedule low latency workloads onto a worker node where a performance profile that configures real-time capabilities is applied.

Note

To schedule the workload on specific nodes, use label selectors in the Pod custom resource (CR). The label selectors must match the nodes that are attached to the machine config pool that was configured for low latency by the Node Tuning Operator.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • You have logged in as a user with cluster-admin privileges.
  • You have applied a performance profile in the cluster that tunes worker nodes for low latency workloads.

Procedure

  1. Create a Pod CR for the low latency workload and apply it in the cluster, for example:

    Example Pod spec configured to use real-time processing

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: Pod
    metadata:
      name: dynamic-low-latency-pod
      annotations:
        cpu-quota.crio.io: "disable" 1
        cpu-load-balancing.crio.io: "disable" 2
        irq-load-balancing.crio.io: "disable" 3
    spec:
      securityContext:
        runAsNonRoot: true
        seccompProfile:
          type: RuntimeDefault
      containers:
      - name: dynamic-low-latency-pod
        image: "registry.redhat.io/openshift4/cnf-tests-rhel8:v4.17"
        command: ["sleep", "10h"]
        resources:
          requests:
            cpu: 2
            memory: "200M"
          limits:
            cpu: 2
            memory: "200M"
        securityContext:
          allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
          capabilities:
            drop: [ALL]
      nodeSelector:
        node-role.kubernetes.io/worker-cnf: "" 4
      runtimeClassName: performance-dynamic-low-latency-profile 5
    # ...

    1
    Disables the CPU completely fair scheduler (CFS) quota at the pod run time.
    2
    Disables CPU load balancing.
    3
    Opts the pod out of interrupt handling on the node.
    4
    The nodeSelector label must match the label that you specify in the Node CR.
    5
    runtimeClassName must match the name of the performance profile configured in the cluster.
  2. Enter the pod runtimeClassName in the form performance-<profile_name>, where <profile_name> is the name from the PerformanceProfile YAML. In the previous example, the name is performance-dynamic-low-latency-profile.
  3. Ensure the pod is running correctly. Status should be running, and the correct cnf-worker node should be set:

    $ oc get pod -o wide

    Expected output

    NAME                     READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE     IP           NODE
    dynamic-low-latency-pod  1/1     Running   0          5h33m   10.131.0.10  cnf-worker.example.com

  4. Get the CPUs that the pod configured for IRQ dynamic load balancing runs on:

    $ oc exec -it dynamic-low-latency-pod -- /bin/bash -c "grep Cpus_allowed_list /proc/self/status | awk '{print $2}'"

    Expected output

    Cpus_allowed_list:  2-3

Verification

Ensure the node configuration is applied correctly.

  1. Log in to the node to verify the configuration.

    $ oc debug node/<node-name>
  2. Verify that you can use the node file system:

    sh-4.4# chroot /host

    Expected output

    sh-4.4#

  3. Ensure the default system CPU affinity mask does not include the dynamic-low-latency-pod CPUs, for example, CPUs 2 and 3.

    sh-4.4# cat /proc/irq/default_smp_affinity

    Example output

    33

  4. Ensure the system IRQs are not configured to run on the dynamic-low-latency-pod CPUs:

    sh-4.4# find /proc/irq/ -name smp_affinity_list -exec sh -c 'i="$1"; mask=$(cat $i); file=$(echo $i); echo $file: $mask' _ {} \;

    Example output

    /proc/irq/0/smp_affinity_list: 0-5
    /proc/irq/1/smp_affinity_list: 5
    /proc/irq/2/smp_affinity_list: 0-5
    /proc/irq/3/smp_affinity_list: 0-5
    /proc/irq/4/smp_affinity_list: 0
    /proc/irq/5/smp_affinity_list: 0-5
    /proc/irq/6/smp_affinity_list: 0-5
    /proc/irq/7/smp_affinity_list: 0-5
    /proc/irq/8/smp_affinity_list: 4
    /proc/irq/9/smp_affinity_list: 4
    /proc/irq/10/smp_affinity_list: 0-5
    /proc/irq/11/smp_affinity_list: 0
    /proc/irq/12/smp_affinity_list: 1
    /proc/irq/13/smp_affinity_list: 0-5
    /proc/irq/14/smp_affinity_list: 1
    /proc/irq/15/smp_affinity_list: 0
    /proc/irq/24/smp_affinity_list: 1
    /proc/irq/25/smp_affinity_list: 1
    /proc/irq/26/smp_affinity_list: 1
    /proc/irq/27/smp_affinity_list: 5
    /proc/irq/28/smp_affinity_list: 1
    /proc/irq/29/smp_affinity_list: 0
    /proc/irq/30/smp_affinity_list: 0-5

Warning

When you tune nodes for low latency, the usage of execution probes in conjunction with applications that require guaranteed CPUs can cause latency spikes. Use other probes, such as a properly configured set of network probes, as an alternative.

11.3.2. Creating a pod with a guaranteed QoS class

Keep the following in mind when you create a pod that is given a QoS class of Guaranteed:

  • Every container in the pod must have a memory limit and a memory request, and they must be the same.
  • Every container in the pod must have a CPU limit and a CPU request, and they must be the same.

The following example shows the configuration file for a pod that has one container. The container has a memory limit and a memory request, both equal to 200 MiB. The container has a CPU limit and a CPU request, both equal to 1 CPU.

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: qos-demo
  namespace: qos-example
spec:
  securityContext:
    runAsNonRoot: true
    seccompProfile:
      type: RuntimeDefault
  containers:
  - name: qos-demo-ctr
    image: <image-pull-spec>
    resources:
      limits:
        memory: "200Mi"
        cpu: "1"
      requests:
        memory: "200Mi"
        cpu: "1"
    securityContext:
      allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
      capabilities:
        drop: [ALL]
  1. Create the pod:

    $ oc  apply -f qos-pod.yaml --namespace=qos-example
  2. View detailed information about the pod:

    $ oc get pod qos-demo --namespace=qos-example --output=yaml

    Example output

    spec:
      containers:
        ...
    status:
      qosClass: Guaranteed

    Note

    If you specify a memory limit for a container, but do not specify a memory request, OpenShift Container Platform automatically assigns a memory request that matches the limit. Similarly, if you specify a CPU limit for a container, but do not specify a CPU request, OpenShift Container Platform automatically assigns a CPU request that matches the limit.

11.3.3. Disabling CPU load balancing in a Pod

Functionality to disable or enable CPU load balancing is implemented on the CRI-O level. The code under the CRI-O disables or enables CPU load balancing only when the following requirements are met.

  • The pod must use the performance-<profile-name> runtime class. You can get the proper name by looking at the status of the performance profile, as shown here:

    apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2
    kind: PerformanceProfile
    ...
    status:
      ...
      runtimeClass: performance-manual

The Node Tuning Operator is responsible for the creation of the high-performance runtime handler config snippet under relevant nodes and for creation of the high-performance runtime class under the cluster. It will have the same content as the default runtime handler except that it enables the CPU load balancing configuration functionality.

To disable the CPU load balancing for the pod, the Pod specification must include the following fields:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  #...
  annotations:
    #...
    cpu-load-balancing.crio.io: "disable"
    #...
  #...
spec:
  #...
  runtimeClassName: performance-<profile_name>
  #...
Note

Only disable CPU load balancing when the CPU manager static policy is enabled and for pods with guaranteed QoS that use whole CPUs. Otherwise, disabling CPU load balancing can affect the performance of other containers in the cluster.

11.3.4. Disabling power saving mode for high priority pods

You can configure pods to ensure that high priority workloads are unaffected when you configure power saving for the node that the workloads run on.

When you configure a node with a power saving configuration, you must configure high priority workloads with performance configuration at the pod level, which means that the configuration applies to all the cores used by the pod.

By disabling P-states and C-states at the pod level, you can configure high priority workloads for best performance and lowest latency.

Table 11.4. Configuration for high priority workloads
AnnotationPossible ValuesDescription

cpu-c-states.crio.io:

  • "enable"
  • "disable"
  • "max_latency:microseconds"

This annotation allows you to enable or disable C-states for each CPU. Alternatively, you can also specify a maximum latency in microseconds for the C-states. For example, enable C-states with a maximum latency of 10 microseconds with the setting cpu-c-states.crio.io: "max_latency:10". Set the value to "disable" to provide the best performance for a pod.

cpu-freq-governor.crio.io:

Any supported cpufreq governor.

Sets the cpufreq governor for each CPU. The "performance" governor is recommended for high priority workloads.

Prerequisites

  • You have configured power saving in the performance profile for the node where the high priority workload pods are scheduled.

Procedure

  1. Add the required annotations to your high priority workload pods. The annotations override the default settings.

    Example high priority workload annotation

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: Pod
    metadata:
      #...
      annotations:
        #...
        cpu-c-states.crio.io: "disable"
        cpu-freq-governor.crio.io: "performance"
        #...
      #...
    spec:
      #...
      runtimeClassName: performance-<profile_name>
      #...

  2. Restart the pods to apply the annotation.

11.3.5. Disabling CPU CFS quota

To eliminate CPU throttling for pinned pods, create a pod with the cpu-quota.crio.io: "disable" annotation. This annotation disables the CPU completely fair scheduler (CFS) quota when the pod runs.

Example pod specification with cpu-quota.crio.io disabled

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  annotations:
      cpu-quota.crio.io: "disable"
spec:
    runtimeClassName: performance-<profile_name>
#...

Note

Only disable CPU CFS quota when the CPU manager static policy is enabled and for pods with guaranteed QoS that use whole CPUs. For example, pods that contain CPU-pinned containers. Otherwise, disabling CPU CFS quota can affect the performance of other containers in the cluster.

11.3.6. Disabling interrupt processing for CPUs where pinned containers are running

To achieve low latency for workloads, some containers require that the CPUs they are pinned to do not process device interrupts. A pod annotation, irq-load-balancing.crio.io, is used to define whether device interrupts are processed or not on the CPUs where the pinned containers are running. When configured, CRI-O disables device interrupts where the pod containers are running.

To disable interrupt processing for CPUs where containers belonging to individual pods are pinned, ensure that globallyDisableIrqLoadBalancing is set to false in the performance profile. Then, in the pod specification, set the irq-load-balancing.crio.io pod annotation to disable.

The following pod specification contains this annotation:

apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2
kind: Pod
metadata:
  annotations:
      irq-load-balancing.crio.io: "disable"
spec:
    runtimeClassName: performance-<profile_name>
...

11.4. Debugging low latency node tuning status

Use the PerformanceProfile custom resource (CR) status fields for reporting tuning status and debugging latency issues in the cluster node.

11.4.1. Debugging low latency CNF tuning status

The PerformanceProfile custom resource (CR) contains status fields for reporting tuning status and debugging latency degradation issues. These fields report on conditions that describe the state of the operator’s reconciliation functionality.

A typical issue can arise when the status of machine config pools that are attached to the performance profile are in a degraded state, causing the PerformanceProfile status to degrade. In this case, the machine config pool issues a failure message.

The Node Tuning Operator contains the performanceProfile.spec.status.Conditions status field:

Status:
  Conditions:
    Last Heartbeat Time:   2020-06-02T10:01:24Z
    Last Transition Time:  2020-06-02T10:01:24Z
    Status:                True
    Type:                  Available
    Last Heartbeat Time:   2020-06-02T10:01:24Z
    Last Transition Time:  2020-06-02T10:01:24Z
    Status:                True
    Type:                  Upgradeable
    Last Heartbeat Time:   2020-06-02T10:01:24Z
    Last Transition Time:  2020-06-02T10:01:24Z
    Status:                False
    Type:                  Progressing
    Last Heartbeat Time:   2020-06-02T10:01:24Z
    Last Transition Time:  2020-06-02T10:01:24Z
    Status:                False
    Type:                  Degraded

The Status field contains Conditions that specify Type values that indicate the status of the performance profile:

Available
All machine configs and Tuned profiles have been created successfully and are available for cluster components are responsible to process them (NTO, MCO, Kubelet).
Upgradeable
Indicates whether the resources maintained by the Operator are in a state that is safe to upgrade.
Progressing
Indicates that the deployment process from the performance profile has started.
Degraded

Indicates an error if:

  • Validation of the performance profile has failed.
  • Creation of all relevant components did not complete successfully.

Each of these types contain the following fields:

Status
The state for the specific type (true or false).
Timestamp
The transaction timestamp.
Reason string
The machine readable reason.
Message string
The human readable reason describing the state and error details, if any.
11.4.1.1. Machine config pools

A performance profile and its created products are applied to a node according to an associated machine config pool (MCP). The MCP holds valuable information about the progress of applying the machine configurations created by performance profiles that encompass kernel args, kube config, huge pages allocation, and deployment of rt-kernel. The Performance Profile controller monitors changes in the MCP and updates the performance profile status accordingly.

The only conditions returned by the MCP to the performance profile status is when the MCP is Degraded, which leads to performanceProfile.status.condition.Degraded = true.

Example

The following example is for a performance profile with an associated machine config pool (worker-cnf) that was created for it:

  1. The associated machine config pool is in a degraded state:

    # oc get mcp

    Example output

    NAME         CONFIG                                                 UPDATED   UPDATING   DEGRADED   MACHINECOUNT   READYMACHINECOUNT   UPDATEDMACHINECOUNT   DEGRADEDMACHINECOUNT   AGE
    master       rendered-master-2ee57a93fa6c9181b546ca46e1571d2d       True      False      False      3              3                   3                     0                      2d21h
    worker       rendered-worker-d6b2bdc07d9f5a59a6b68950acf25e5f       True      False      False      2              2                   2                     0                      2d21h
    worker-cnf   rendered-worker-cnf-6c838641b8a08fff08dbd8b02fb63f7c   False     True       True       2              1                   1                     1                      2d20h

  2. The describe section of the MCP shows the reason:

    # oc describe mcp worker-cnf

    Example output

      Message:               Node node-worker-cnf is reporting: "prepping update:
      machineconfig.machineconfiguration.openshift.io \"rendered-worker-cnf-40b9996919c08e335f3ff230ce1d170\" not
      found"
        Reason:                1 nodes are reporting degraded status on sync

  3. The degraded state should also appear under the performance profile status field marked as degraded = true:

    # oc describe performanceprofiles performance

    Example output

    Message: Machine config pool worker-cnf Degraded Reason: 1 nodes are reporting degraded status on sync.
    Machine config pool worker-cnf Degraded Message: Node yquinn-q8s5v-w-b-z5lqn.c.openshift-gce-devel.internal is
    reporting: "prepping update: machineconfig.machineconfiguration.openshift.io
    \"rendered-worker-cnf-40b9996919c08e335f3ff230ce1d170\" not found".    Reason:  MCPDegraded
       Status:  True
       Type:    Degraded

11.4.2. Collecting low latency tuning debugging data for Red Hat Support

When opening a support case, it is helpful to provide debugging information about your cluster to Red Hat Support.

The must-gather tool enables you to collect diagnostic information about your OpenShift Container Platform cluster, including node tuning, NUMA topology, and other information needed to debug issues with low latency setup.

For prompt support, supply diagnostic information for both OpenShift Container Platform and low latency tuning.

11.4.2.1. About the must-gather tool

The oc adm must-gather CLI command collects the information from your cluster that is most likely needed for debugging issues, such as:

  • Resource definitions
  • Audit logs
  • Service logs

You can specify one or more images when you run the command by including the --image argument. When you specify an image, the tool collects data related to that feature or product. When you run oc adm must-gather, a new pod is created on the cluster. The data is collected on that pod and saved in a new directory that starts with must-gather.local. This directory is created in your current working directory.

11.4.2.2. Gathering low latency tuning data

Use the oc adm must-gather CLI command to collect information about your cluster, including features and objects associated with low latency tuning, including:

  • The Node Tuning Operator namespaces and child objects.
  • MachineConfigPool and associated MachineConfig objects.
  • The Node Tuning Operator and associated Tuned objects.
  • Linux kernel command line options.
  • CPU and NUMA topology
  • Basic PCI device information and NUMA locality.

Prerequisites

  • Access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin role.
  • The OpenShift Container Platform CLI (oc) installed.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the directory where you want to store the must-gather data.
  2. Collect debugging information by running the following command:

    $ oc adm must-gather

    Example output

    [must-gather      ] OUT Using must-gather plug-in image: quay.io/openshift-release
    When opening a support case, bugzilla, or issue please include the following summary data along with any other requested information:
    ClusterID: 829er0fa-1ad8-4e59-a46e-2644921b7eb6
    ClusterVersion: Stable at "<cluster_version>"
    ClusterOperators:
    	All healthy and stable
    
    
    [must-gather      ] OUT namespace/openshift-must-gather-8fh4x created
    [must-gather      ] OUT clusterrolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/must-gather-rhlgc created
    [must-gather-5564g] POD 2023-07-17T10:17:37.610340849Z Gathering data for ns/openshift-cluster-version...
    [must-gather-5564g] POD 2023-07-17T10:17:38.786591298Z Gathering data for ns/default...
    [must-gather-5564g] POD 2023-07-17T10:17:39.117418660Z Gathering data for ns/openshift...
    [must-gather-5564g] POD 2023-07-17T10:17:39.447592859Z Gathering data for ns/kube-system...
    [must-gather-5564g] POD 2023-07-17T10:17:39.803381143Z Gathering data for ns/openshift-etcd...
    
    ...
    
    Reprinting Cluster State:
    When opening a support case, bugzilla, or issue please include the following summary data along with any other requested information:
    ClusterID: 829er0fa-1ad8-4e59-a46e-2644921b7eb6
    ClusterVersion: Stable at "<cluster_version>"
    ClusterOperators:
    	All healthy and stable

  3. Create a compressed file from the must-gather directory that was created in your working directory. For example, on a computer that uses a Linux operating system, run the following command:

    $ tar cvaf must-gather.tar.gz must-gather-local.54213423446277122891
    1
    Replace must-gather-local.5421342344627712289// with the directory name created by the must-gather tool.
    Note

    Create a compressed file to attach the data to a support case or to use with the Performance Profile Creator wrapper script when you create a performance profile.

  4. Attach the compressed file to your support case on the Red Hat Customer Portal.

11.5. Performing latency tests for platform verification

You can use the Cloud-native Network Functions (CNF) tests image to run latency tests on a CNF-enabled OpenShift Container Platform cluster, where all the components required for running CNF workloads are installed. Run the latency tests to validate node tuning for your workload.

The cnf-tests container image is available at registry.redhat.io/openshift4/cnf-tests-rhel8:v4.17.

11.5.1. Prerequisites for running latency tests

Your cluster must meet the following requirements before you can run the latency tests:

  1. You have configured a performance profile with the Node Tuning Operator.
  2. You have applied all the required CNF configurations in the cluster.
  3. You have a pre-existing MachineConfigPool CR applied in the cluster. The default worker pool is worker-cnf.

11.5.2. Measuring latency

The cnf-tests image uses three tools to measure the latency of the system:

  • hwlatdetect
  • cyclictest
  • oslat

Each tool has a specific use. Use the tools in sequence to achieve reliable test results.

hwlatdetect
Measures the baseline that the bare-metal hardware can achieve. Before proceeding with the next latency test, ensure that the latency reported by hwlatdetect meets the required threshold because you cannot fix hardware latency spikes by operating system tuning.
cyclictest
Verifies the real-time kernel scheduler latency after hwlatdetect passes validation. The cyclictest tool schedules a repeated timer and measures the difference between the desired and the actual trigger times. The difference can uncover basic issues with the tuning caused by interrupts or process priorities. The tool must run on a real-time kernel.
oslat
Behaves similarly to a CPU-intensive DPDK application and measures all the interruptions and disruptions to the busy loop that simulates CPU heavy data processing.

The tests introduce the following environment variables:

Table 11.5. Latency test environment variables
Environment variablesDescription

LATENCY_TEST_DELAY

Specifies the amount of time in seconds after which the test starts running. You can use the variable to allow the CPU manager reconcile loop to update the default CPU pool. The default value is 0.

LATENCY_TEST_CPUS

Specifies the number of CPUs that the pod running the latency tests uses. If you do not set the variable, the default configuration includes all isolated CPUs.

LATENCY_TEST_RUNTIME

Specifies the amount of time in seconds that the latency test must run. The default value is 300 seconds.

Note

To prevent the Ginkgo 2.0 test suite from timing out before the latency tests complete, set the -ginkgo.timeout flag to a value greater than LATENCY_TEST_RUNTIME + 2 minutes. If you also set a LATENCY_TEST_DELAY value then you must set -ginkgo.timeout to a value greater than LATENCY_TEST_RUNTIME + LATENCY_TEST_DELAY + 2 minutes. The default timeout value for the Ginkgo 2.0 test suite is 1 hour.

HWLATDETECT_MAXIMUM_LATENCY

Specifies the maximum acceptable hardware latency in microseconds for the workload and operating system. If you do not set the value of HWLATDETECT_MAXIMUM_LATENCY or MAXIMUM_LATENCY, the tool compares the default expected threshold (20μs) and the actual maximum latency in the tool itself. Then, the test fails or succeeds accordingly.

CYCLICTEST_MAXIMUM_LATENCY

Specifies the maximum latency in microseconds that all threads expect before waking up during the cyclictest run. If you do not set the value of CYCLICTEST_MAXIMUM_LATENCY or MAXIMUM_LATENCY, the tool skips the comparison of the expected and the actual maximum latency.

OSLAT_MAXIMUM_LATENCY

Specifies the maximum acceptable latency in microseconds for the oslat test results. If you do not set the value of OSLAT_MAXIMUM_LATENCY or MAXIMUM_LATENCY, the tool skips the comparison of the expected and the actual maximum latency.

MAXIMUM_LATENCY

Unified variable that specifies the maximum acceptable latency in microseconds. Applicable for all available latency tools.

Note

Variables that are specific to a latency tool take precedence over unified variables. For example, if OSLAT_MAXIMUM_LATENCY is set to 30 microseconds and MAXIMUM_LATENCY is set to 10 microseconds, the oslat test will run with maximum acceptable latency of 30 microseconds.

11.5.3. Running the latency tests

Run the cluster latency tests to validate node tuning for your Cloud-native Network Functions (CNF) workload.

Note

When executing podman commands as a non-root or non-privileged user, mounting paths can fail with permission denied errors. To make the podman command work, append :Z to the volumes creation; for example, -v $(pwd)/:/kubeconfig:Z. This allows podman to do the proper SELinux relabeling.

Procedure

  1. Open a shell prompt in the directory containing the kubeconfig file.

    You provide the test image with a kubeconfig file in current directory and its related $KUBECONFIG environment variable, mounted through a volume. This allows the running container to use the kubeconfig file from inside the container.

  2. Run the latency tests by entering the following command:

    $ podman run -v $(pwd)/:/kubeconfig:Z -e KUBECONFIG=/kubeconfig/kubeconfig \
    -e LATENCY_TEST_RUNTIME=<time_in_seconds>\
    -e MAXIMUM_LATENCY=<time_in_microseconds> \
    registry.redhat.io/openshift4/cnf-tests-rhel8:v4.17 /usr/bin/test-run.sh \
    --ginkgo.v --ginkgo.timeout="24h"
  3. Optional: Append --ginkgo.dryRun flag to run the latency tests in dry-run mode. This is useful for checking what commands the tests run.
  4. Optional: Append --ginkgo.v flag to run the tests with increased verbosity.
  5. Optional: Append --ginkgo.timeout="24h" flag to ensure the Ginkgo 2.0 test suite does not timeout before the latency tests complete.

    Important

    The default runtime for each test is 300 seconds. For valid latency test results, run the tests for at least 12 hours by updating the LATENCY_TEST_RUNTIME variable.

11.5.3.1. Running hwlatdetect

The hwlatdetect tool is available in the rt-kernel package with a regular subscription of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9.x.

Note

When executing podman commands as a non-root or non-privileged user, mounting paths can fail with permission denied errors. To make the podman command work, append :Z to the volumes creation; for example, -v $(pwd)/:/kubeconfig:Z. This allows podman to do the proper SELinux relabeling.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the real-time kernel in the cluster.
  • You have logged in to registry.redhat.io with your Customer Portal credentials.

Procedure

  • To run the hwlatdetect tests, run the following command, substituting variable values as appropriate:

    $ podman run -v $(pwd)/:/kubeconfig:Z -e KUBECONFIG=/kubeconfig/kubeconfig \
    -e LATENCY_TEST_RUNTIME=600 -e MAXIMUM_LATENCY=20 \
    registry.redhat.io/openshift4/cnf-tests-rhel8:v4.17 \
    /usr/bin/test-run.sh --ginkgo.focus="hwlatdetect" --ginkgo.v --ginkgo.timeout="24h"

    The hwlatdetect test runs for 10 minutes (600 seconds). The test runs successfully when the maximum observed latency is lower than MAXIMUM_LATENCY (20 μs).

    If the results exceed the latency threshold, the test fails.

    Important

    For valid results, the test should run for at least 12 hours.

    Example failure output

    running /usr/bin/cnftests -ginkgo.v -ginkgo.focus=hwlatdetect
    I0908 15:25:20.023712      27 request.go:601] Waited for 1.046586367s due to client-side throttling, not priority and fairness, request: GET:https://api.hlxcl6.lab.eng.tlv2.redhat.com:6443/apis/imageregistry.operator.openshift.io/v1?timeout=32s
    Running Suite: CNF Features e2e integration tests
    =================================================
    Random Seed: 1662650718
    Will run 1 of 3 specs
    
    [...]
    
    • Failure [283.574 seconds]
    [performance] Latency Test
    /remote-source/app/vendor/github.com/openshift/cluster-node-tuning-operator/test/e2e/performanceprofile/functests/4_latency/latency.go:62
      with the hwlatdetect image
      /remote-source/app/vendor/github.com/openshift/cluster-node-tuning-operator/test/e2e/performanceprofile/functests/4_latency/latency.go:228
        should succeed [It]
        /remote-source/app/vendor/github.com/openshift/cluster-node-tuning-operator/test/e2e/performanceprofile/functests/4_latency/latency.go:236
    
        Log file created at: 2022/09/08 15:25:27
        Running on machine: hwlatdetect-b6n4n
        Binary: Built with gc go1.17.12 for linux/amd64
        Log line format: [IWEF]mmdd hh:mm:ss.uuuuuu threadid file:line] msg
        I0908 15:25:27.160620       1 node.go:39] Environment information: /proc/cmdline: BOOT_IMAGE=(hd1,gpt3)/ostree/rhcos-c6491e1eedf6c1f12ef7b95e14ee720bf48359750ac900b7863c625769ef5fb9/vmlinuz-4.18.0-372.19.1.el8_6.x86_64 random.trust_cpu=on console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200n8 ignition.platform.id=metal ostree=/ostree/boot.1/rhcos/c6491e1eedf6c1f12ef7b95e14ee720bf48359750ac900b7863c625769ef5fb9/0 ip=dhcp root=UUID=5f80c283-f6e6-4a27-9b47-a287157483b2 rw rootflags=prjquota boot=UUID=773bf59a-bafd-48fc-9a87-f62252d739d3 skew_tick=1 nohz=on rcu_nocbs=0-3 tuned.non_isolcpus=0000ffff,ffffffff,fffffff0 systemd.cpu_affinity=4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,69,70,71,72,73,74,75,76,77,78,79 intel_iommu=on iommu=pt isolcpus=managed_irq,0-3 nohz_full=0-3 tsc=nowatchdog nosoftlockup nmi_watchdog=0 mce=off skew_tick=1 rcutree.kthread_prio=11 + +
        I0908 15:25:27.160830       1 node.go:46] Environment information: kernel version 4.18.0-372.19.1.el8_6.x86_64
        I0908 15:25:27.160857       1 main.go:50] running the hwlatdetect command with arguments [/usr/bin/hwlatdetect --threshold 1 --hardlimit 1 --duration 100 --window 10000000us --width 950000us]
        F0908 15:27:10.603523       1 main.go:53] failed to run hwlatdetect command; out: hwlatdetect:  test duration 100 seconds
           detector: tracer
           parameters:
                Latency threshold: 1us 1
                Sample window:     10000000us
                Sample width:      950000us
             Non-sampling period:  9050000us
                Output File:       None
    
        Starting test
        test finished
        Max Latency: 326us 2
        Samples recorded: 5
        Samples exceeding threshold: 5
        ts: 1662650739.017274507, inner:6, outer:6
        ts: 1662650749.257272414, inner:14, outer:326
        ts: 1662650779.977272835, inner:314, outer:12
        ts: 1662650800.457272384, inner:3, outer:9
        ts: 1662650810.697273520, inner:3, outer:2
    
    [...]
    
    JUnit report was created: /junit.xml/cnftests-junit.xml
    
    
    Summarizing 1 Failure:
    
    [Fail] [performance] Latency Test with the hwlatdetect image [It] should succeed
    /remote-source/app/vendor/github.com/openshift/cluster-node-tuning-operator/test/e2e/performanceprofile/functests/4_latency/latency.go:476
    
    Ran 1 of 194 Specs in 365.797 seconds
    FAIL! -- 0 Passed | 1 Failed | 0 Pending | 2 Skipped
    --- FAIL: TestTest (366.08s)
    FAIL

    1
    You can configure the latency threshold by using the MAXIMUM_LATENCY or the HWLATDETECT_MAXIMUM_LATENCY environment variables.
    2
    The maximum latency value measured during the test.
Example hwlatdetect test results

You can capture the following types of results:

  • Rough results that are gathered after each run to create a history of impact on any changes made throughout the test.
  • The combined set of the rough tests with the best results and configuration settings.

Example of good results

hwlatdetect: test duration 3600 seconds
detector: tracer
parameters:
Latency threshold: 10us
Sample window: 1000000us
Sample width: 950000us
Non-sampling period: 50000us
Output File: None

Starting test
test finished
Max Latency: Below threshold
Samples recorded: 0

The hwlatdetect tool only provides output if the sample exceeds the specified threshold.

Example of bad results

hwlatdetect: test duration 3600 seconds
detector: tracer
parameters:Latency threshold: 10usSample window: 1000000us
Sample width: 950000usNon-sampling period: 50000usOutput File: None

Starting tests:1610542421.275784439, inner:78, outer:81
ts: 1610542444.330561619, inner:27, outer:28
ts: 1610542445.332549975, inner:39, outer:38
ts: 1610542541.568546097, inner:47, outer:32
ts: 1610542590.681548531, inner:13, outer:17
ts: 1610543033.818801482, inner:29, outer:30
ts: 1610543080.938801990, inner:90, outer:76
ts: 1610543129.065549639, inner:28, outer:39
ts: 1610543474.859552115, inner:28, outer:35
ts: 1610543523.973856571, inner:52, outer:49
ts: 1610543572.089799738, inner:27, outer:30
ts: 1610543573.091550771, inner:34, outer:28
ts: 1610543574.093555202, inner:116, outer:63

The output of hwlatdetect shows that multiple samples exceed the threshold. However, the same output can indicate different results based on the following factors:

  • The duration of the test
  • The number of CPU cores
  • The host firmware settings
Warning

Before proceeding with the next latency test, ensure that the latency reported by hwlatdetect meets the required threshold. Fixing latencies introduced by hardware might require you to contact the system vendor support.

Not all latency spikes are hardware related. Ensure that you tune the host firmware to meet your workload requirements. For more information, see Setting firmware parameters for system tuning.

11.5.3.2. Running cyclictest

The cyclictest tool measures the real-time kernel scheduler latency on the specified CPUs.

Note

When executing podman commands as a non-root or non-privileged user, mounting paths can fail with permission denied errors. To make the podman command work, append :Z to the volumes creation; for example, -v $(pwd)/:/kubeconfig:Z. This allows podman to do the proper SELinux relabeling.

Prerequisites

  • You have logged in to registry.redhat.io with your Customer Portal credentials.
  • You have installed the real-time kernel in the cluster.
  • You have applied a cluster performance profile by using Node Tuning Operator.

Procedure

  • To perform the cyclictest, run the following command, substituting variable values as appropriate:

    $ podman run -v $(pwd)/:/kubeconfig:Z -e KUBECONFIG=/kubeconfig/kubeconfig \
    -e LATENCY_TEST_CPUS=10 -e LATENCY_TEST_RUNTIME=600 -e MAXIMUM_LATENCY=20 \
    registry.redhat.io/openshift4/cnf-tests-rhel8:v4.17 \
    /usr/bin/test-run.sh --ginkgo.focus="cyclictest" --ginkgo.v --ginkgo.timeout="24h"

    The command runs the cyclictest tool for 10 minutes (600 seconds). The test runs successfully when the maximum observed latency is lower than MAXIMUM_LATENCY (in this example, 20 μs). Latency spikes of 20 μs and above are generally not acceptable for telco RAN workloads.

    If the results exceed the latency threshold, the test fails.

    Important

    For valid results, the test should run for at least 12 hours.

    Example failure output

    running /usr/bin/cnftests -ginkgo.v -ginkgo.focus=cyclictest
    I0908 13:01:59.193776      27 request.go:601] Waited for 1.046228824s due to client-side throttling, not priority and fairness, request: GET:https://api.compute-1.example.com:6443/apis/packages.operators.coreos.com/v1?timeout=32s
    Running Suite: CNF Features e2e integration tests
    =================================================
    Random Seed: 1662642118
    Will run 1 of 3 specs
    
    [...]
    
    Summarizing 1 Failure:
    
    [Fail] [performance] Latency Test with the cyclictest image [It] should succeed
    /remote-source/app/vendor/github.com/openshift/cluster-node-tuning-operator/test/e2e/performanceprofile/functests/4_latency/latency.go:220
    
    Ran 1 of 194 Specs in 161.151 seconds
    FAIL! -- 0 Passed | 1 Failed | 0 Pending | 2 Skipped
    --- FAIL: TestTest (161.48s)
    FAIL

Example cyclictest results

The same output can indicate different results for different workloads. For example, spikes up to 18μs are acceptable for 4G DU workloads, but not for 5G DU workloads.

Example of good results

running cmd: cyclictest -q -D 10m -p 1 -t 16 -a 2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16,54,56,58,60,62,64,66,68 -h 30 -i 1000 -m
# Histogram
000000 000000   000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000
000001 000000   000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000
000002 579506   535967  418614  573648  532870  529897  489306  558076  582350  585188  583793  223781  532480  569130  472250  576043
More histogram entries ...
# Total: 000600000 000600000 000600000 000599999 000599999 000599999 000599998 000599998 000599998 000599997 000599997 000599996 000599996 000599995 000599995 000599995
# Min Latencies: 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002
# Avg Latencies: 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002
# Max Latencies: 00005 00005 00004 00005 00004 00004 00005 00005 00006 00005 00004 00005 00004 00004 00005 00004
# Histogram Overflows: 00000 00000 00000 00000 00000 00000 00000 00000 00000 00000 00000 00000 00000 00000 00000 00000
# Histogram Overflow at cycle number:
# Thread 0:
# Thread 1:
# Thread 2:
# Thread 3:
# Thread 4:
# Thread 5:
# Thread 6:
# Thread 7:
# Thread 8:
# Thread 9:
# Thread 10:
# Thread 11:
# Thread 12:
# Thread 13:
# Thread 14:
# Thread 15:

Example of bad results

running cmd: cyclictest -q -D 10m -p 1 -t 16 -a 2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16,54,56,58,60,62,64,66,68 -h 30 -i 1000 -m
# Histogram
000000 000000   000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000
000001 000000   000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000  000000
000002 564632   579686  354911  563036  492543  521983  515884  378266  592621  463547  482764  591976  590409  588145  589556  353518
More histogram entries ...
# Total: 000599999 000599999 000599999 000599997 000599997 000599998 000599998 000599997 000599997 000599996 000599995 000599996 000599995 000599995 000599995 000599993
# Min Latencies: 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002
# Avg Latencies: 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002 00002
# Max Latencies: 00493 00387 00271 00619 00541 00513 00009 00389 00252 00215 00539 00498 00363 00204 00068 00520
# Histogram Overflows: 00001 00001 00001 00002 00002 00001 00000 00001 00001 00001 00002 00001 00001 00001 00001 00002
# Histogram Overflow at cycle number:
# Thread 0: 155922
# Thread 1: 110064
# Thread 2: 110064
# Thread 3: 110063 155921
# Thread 4: 110063 155921
# Thread 5: 155920
# Thread 6:
# Thread 7: 110062
# Thread 8: 110062
# Thread 9: 155919
# Thread 10: 110061 155919
# Thread 11: 155918
# Thread 12: 155918
# Thread 13: 110060
# Thread 14: 110060
# Thread 15: 110059 155917

11.5.3.3. Running oslat

The oslat test simulates a CPU-intensive DPDK application and measures all the interruptions and disruptions to test how the cluster handles CPU heavy data processing.

Note

When executing podman commands as a non-root or non-privileged user, mounting paths can fail with permission denied errors. To make the podman command work, append :Z to the volumes creation; for example, -v $(pwd)/:/kubeconfig:Z. This allows podman to do the proper SELinux relabeling.

Prerequisites

  • You have logged in to registry.redhat.io with your Customer Portal credentials.
  • You have applied a cluster performance profile by using the Node Tuning Operator.

Procedure

  • To perform the oslat test, run the following command, substituting variable values as appropriate:

    $ podman run -v $(pwd)/:/kubeconfig:Z -e KUBECONFIG=/kubeconfig/kubeconfig \
    -e LATENCY_TEST_CPUS=10 -e LATENCY_TEST_RUNTIME=600 -e MAXIMUM_LATENCY=20 \
    registry.redhat.io/openshift4/cnf-tests-rhel8:v4.17 \
    /usr/bin/test-run.sh --ginkgo.focus="oslat" --ginkgo.v --ginkgo.timeout="24h"

    LATENCY_TEST_CPUS specifies the number of CPUs to test with the oslat command.

    The command runs the oslat tool for 10 minutes (600 seconds). The test runs successfully when the maximum observed latency is lower than MAXIMUM_LATENCY (20 μs).

    If the results exceed the latency threshold, the test fails.

    Important

    For valid results, the test should run for at least 12 hours.

    Example failure output

    running /usr/bin/cnftests -ginkgo.v -ginkgo.focus=oslat
    I0908 12:51:55.999393      27 request.go:601] Waited for 1.044848101s due to client-side throttling, not priority and fairness, request: GET:https://compute-1.example.com:6443/apis/machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1?timeout=32s
    Running Suite: CNF Features e2e integration tests
    =================================================
    Random Seed: 1662641514
    Will run 1 of 3 specs
    
    [...]
    
    • Failure [77.833 seconds]
    [performance] Latency Test
    /remote-source/app/vendor/github.com/openshift/cluster-node-tuning-operator/test/e2e/performanceprofile/functests/4_latency/latency.go:62
      with the oslat image
      /remote-source/app/vendor/github.com/openshift/cluster-node-tuning-operator/test/e2e/performanceprofile/functests/4_latency/latency.go:128
        should succeed [It]
        /remote-source/app/vendor/github.com/openshift/cluster-node-tuning-operator/test/e2e/performanceprofile/functests/4_latency/latency.go:153
    
        The current latency 304 is bigger than the expected one 1 : 1
    
    [...]
    
    Summarizing 1 Failure:
    
    [Fail] [performance] Latency Test with the oslat image [It] should succeed
    /remote-source/app/vendor/github.com/openshift/cluster-node-tuning-operator/test/e2e/performanceprofile/functests/4_latency/latency.go:177
    
    Ran 1 of 194 Specs in 161.091 seconds
    FAIL! -- 0 Passed | 1 Failed | 0 Pending | 2 Skipped
    --- FAIL: TestTest (161.42s)
    FAIL

    1
    In this example, the measured latency is outside the maximum allowed value.

11.5.4. Generating a latency test failure report

Use the following procedures to generate a JUnit latency test output and test failure report.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • You have logged in as a user with cluster-admin privileges.

Procedure

  • Create a test failure report with information about the cluster state and resources for troubleshooting by passing the --report parameter with the path to where the report is dumped:

    $ podman run -v $(pwd)/:/kubeconfig:Z -v $(pwd)/reportdest:<report_folder_path> \
    -e KUBECONFIG=/kubeconfig/kubeconfig registry.redhat.io/openshift4/cnf-tests-rhel8:v4.17 \
    /usr/bin/test-run.sh --report <report_folder_path> --ginkgo.v

    where:

    <report_folder_path>
    Is the path to the folder where the report is generated.

11.5.5. Generating a JUnit latency test report

Use the following procedures to generate a JUnit latency test output and test failure report.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • You have logged in as a user with cluster-admin privileges.

Procedure

  • Create a JUnit-compliant XML report by passing the --junit parameter together with the path to where the report is dumped:

    Note

    You must create the junit folder before running this command.

    $ podman run -v $(pwd)/:/kubeconfig:Z -v $(pwd)/junit:/junit \
    -e KUBECONFIG=/kubeconfig/kubeconfig registry.redhat.io/openshift4/cnf-tests-rhel8:v4.17 \
    /usr/bin/test-run.sh --ginkgo.junit-report junit/<file-name>.xml --ginkgo.v

    where:

    junit
    Is the folder where the junit report is stored.

11.5.6. Running latency tests on a single-node OpenShift cluster

You can run latency tests on single-node OpenShift clusters.

Note

When executing podman commands as a non-root or non-privileged user, mounting paths can fail with permission denied errors. To make the podman command work, append :Z to the volumes creation; for example, -v $(pwd)/:/kubeconfig:Z. This allows podman to do the proper SELinux relabeling.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • You have logged in as a user with cluster-admin privileges.
  • You have applied a cluster performance profile by using the Node Tuning Operator.

Procedure

  • To run the latency tests on a single-node OpenShift cluster, run the following command:

    $ podman run -v $(pwd)/:/kubeconfig:Z -e KUBECONFIG=/kubeconfig/kubeconfig \
    -e LATENCY_TEST_RUNTIME=<time_in_seconds> registry.redhat.io/openshift4/cnf-tests-rhel8:v4.17 \
    /usr/bin/test-run.sh --ginkgo.v --ginkgo.timeout="24h"
    Note

    The default runtime for each test is 300 seconds. For valid latency test results, run the tests for at least 12 hours by updating the LATENCY_TEST_RUNTIME variable. To run the buckets latency validation step, you must specify a maximum latency. For details on maximum latency variables, see the table in the "Measuring latency" section.

    After running the test suite, all the dangling resources are cleaned up.

11.5.7. Running latency tests in a disconnected cluster

The CNF tests image can run tests in a disconnected cluster that is not able to reach external registries. This requires two steps:

  1. Mirroring the cnf-tests image to the custom disconnected registry.
  2. Instructing the tests to consume the images from the custom disconnected registry.
Mirroring the images to a custom registry accessible from the cluster

A mirror executable is shipped in the image to provide the input required by oc to mirror the test image to a local registry.

  1. Run this command from an intermediate machine that has access to the cluster and registry.redhat.io:

    $ podman run -v $(pwd)/:/kubeconfig:Z -e KUBECONFIG=/kubeconfig/kubeconfig \
    registry.redhat.io/openshift4/cnf-tests-rhel8:v4.17 \
    /usr/bin/mirror -registry <disconnected_registry> | oc image mirror -f -

    where:

    <disconnected_registry>
    Is the disconnected mirror registry you have configured, for example, my.local.registry:5000/.
  2. When you have mirrored the cnf-tests image into the disconnected registry, you must override the original registry used to fetch the images when running the tests, for example:

    podman run -v $(pwd)/:/kubeconfig:Z -e KUBECONFIG=/kubeconfig/kubeconfig \
    -e IMAGE_REGISTRY="<disconnected_registry>" \
    -e CNF_TESTS_IMAGE="cnf-tests-rhel8:v4.17" \
    -e LATENCY_TEST_RUNTIME=<time_in_seconds> \
    <disconnected_registry>/cnf-tests-rhel8:v4.17 /usr/bin/test-run.sh --ginkgo.v --ginkgo.timeout="24h"
Configuring the tests to consume images from a custom registry

You can run the latency tests using a custom test image and image registry using CNF_TESTS_IMAGE and IMAGE_REGISTRY variables.

  • To configure the latency tests to use a custom test image and image registry, run the following command:

    $ podman run -v $(pwd)/:/kubeconfig:Z -e KUBECONFIG=/kubeconfig/kubeconfig \
    -e IMAGE_REGISTRY="<custom_image_registry>" \
    -e CNF_TESTS_IMAGE="<custom_cnf-tests_image>" \
    -e LATENCY_TEST_RUNTIME=<time_in_seconds> \
    registry.redhat.io/openshift4/cnf-tests-rhel8:v4.17 /usr/bin/test-run.sh --ginkgo.v --ginkgo.timeout="24h"

    where:

    <custom_image_registry>
    is the custom image registry, for example, custom.registry:5000/.
    <custom_cnf-tests_image>
    is the custom cnf-tests image, for example, custom-cnf-tests-image:latest.
Mirroring images to the cluster OpenShift image registry

OpenShift Container Platform provides a built-in container image registry, which runs as a standard workload on the cluster.

Procedure

  1. Gain external access to the registry by exposing it with a route:

    $ oc patch configs.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io/cluster --patch '{"spec":{"defaultRoute":true}}' --type=merge
  2. Fetch the registry endpoint by running the following command:

    $ REGISTRY=$(oc get route default-route -n openshift-image-registry --template='{{ .spec.host }}')
  3. Create a namespace for exposing the images:

    $ oc create ns cnftests
  4. Make the image stream available to all the namespaces used for tests. This is required to allow the tests namespaces to fetch the images from the cnf-tests image stream. Run the following commands:

    $ oc policy add-role-to-user system:image-puller system:serviceaccount:cnf-features-testing:default --namespace=cnftests
    $ oc policy add-role-to-user system:image-puller system:serviceaccount:performance-addon-operators-testing:default --namespace=cnftests
  5. Retrieve the docker secret name and auth token by running the following commands:

    $ SECRET=$(oc -n cnftests get secret | grep builder-docker | awk {'print $1'}
    $ TOKEN=$(oc -n cnftests get secret $SECRET -o jsonpath="{.data['\.dockercfg']}" | base64 --decode | jq '.["image-registry.openshift-image-registry.svc:5000"].auth')
  6. Create a dockerauth.json file, for example:

    $ echo "{\"auths\": { \"$REGISTRY\": { \"auth\": $TOKEN } }}" > dockerauth.json
  7. Do the image mirroring:

    $ podman run -v $(pwd)/:/kubeconfig:Z -e KUBECONFIG=/kubeconfig/kubeconfig \
    registry.redhat.io/openshift4/cnf-tests-rhel8:4.17 \
    /usr/bin/mirror -registry $REGISTRY/cnftests |  oc image mirror --insecure=true \
    -a=$(pwd)/dockerauth.json -f -
  8. Run the tests:

    $ podman run -v $(pwd)/:/kubeconfig:Z -e KUBECONFIG=/kubeconfig/kubeconfig \
    -e LATENCY_TEST_RUNTIME=<time_in_seconds> \
    -e IMAGE_REGISTRY=image-registry.openshift-image-registry.svc:5000/cnftests cnf-tests-local:latest /usr/bin/test-run.sh --ginkgo.v --ginkgo.timeout="24h"
Mirroring a different set of test images

You can optionally change the default upstream images that are mirrored for the latency tests.

Procedure

  1. The mirror command tries to mirror the upstream images by default. This can be overridden by passing a file with the following format to the image:

    [
        {
            "registry": "public.registry.io:5000",
            "image": "imageforcnftests:4.17"
        }
    ]
  2. Pass the file to the mirror command, for example saving it locally as images.json. With the following command, the local path is mounted in /kubeconfig inside the container and that can be passed to the mirror command.

    $ podman run -v $(pwd)/:/kubeconfig:Z -e KUBECONFIG=/kubeconfig/kubeconfig \
    registry.redhat.io/openshift4/cnf-tests-rhel8:v4.17 /usr/bin/mirror \
    --registry "my.local.registry:5000/" --images "/kubeconfig/images.json" \
    |  oc image mirror -f -

11.5.8. Troubleshooting errors with the cnf-tests container

To run latency tests, the cluster must be accessible from within the cnf-tests container.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • You have logged in as a user with cluster-admin privileges.

Procedure

  • Verify that the cluster is accessible from inside the cnf-tests container by running the following command:

    $ podman run -v $(pwd)/:/kubeconfig:Z -e KUBECONFIG=/kubeconfig/kubeconfig \
    registry.redhat.io/openshift4/cnf-tests-rhel8:v4.17 \
    oc get nodes

    If this command does not work, an error related to spanning across DNS, MTU size, or firewall access might be occurring.

Chapter 12. Improving cluster stability in high latency environments using worker latency profiles

If the cluster administrator has performed latency tests for platform verification, they can discover the need to adjust the operation of the cluster to ensure stability in cases of high latency. The cluster administrator need change only one parameter, recorded in a file, which controls four parameters affecting how supervisory processes read status and interpret the health of the cluster. Changing only the one parameter provides cluster tuning in an easy, supportable manner.

The Kubelet process provides the starting point for monitoring cluster health. The Kubelet sets status values for all nodes in the OpenShift Container Platform cluster. The Kubernetes Controller Manager (kube controller) reads the status values every 10 seconds, by default. If the kube controller cannot read a node status value, it loses contact with that node after a configured period. The default behavior is:

  1. The node controller on the control plane updates the node health to Unhealthy and marks the node Ready condition`Unknown`.
  2. In response, the scheduler stops scheduling pods to that node.
  3. The Node Lifecycle Controller adds a node.kubernetes.io/unreachable taint with a NoExecute effect to the node and schedules any pods on the node for eviction after five minutes, by default.

This behavior can cause problems if your network is prone to latency issues, especially if you have nodes at the network edge. In some cases, the Kubernetes Controller Manager might not receive an update from a healthy node due to network latency. The Kubelet evicts pods from the node even though the node is healthy.

To avoid this problem, you can use worker latency profiles to adjust the frequency that the Kubelet and the Kubernetes Controller Manager wait for status updates before taking action. These adjustments help to ensure that your cluster runs properly if network latency between the control plane and the worker nodes is not optimal.

These worker latency profiles contain three sets of parameters that are pre-defined with carefully tuned values to control the reaction of the cluster to increased latency. No need to experimentally find the best values manually.

You can configure worker latency profiles when installing a cluster or at any time you notice increased latency in your cluster network.

12.1. Understanding worker latency profiles

Worker latency profiles are four different categories of carefully-tuned parameters. The four parameters which implement these values are node-status-update-frequency, node-monitor-grace-period, default-not-ready-toleration-seconds and default-unreachable-toleration-seconds. These parameters can use values which allow you control the reaction of the cluster to latency issues without needing to determine the best values using manual methods.

Important

Setting these parameters manually is not supported. Incorrect parameter settings adversely affect cluster stability.

All worker latency profiles configure the following parameters:

node-status-update-frequency
Specifies how often the kubelet posts node status to the API server.
node-monitor-grace-period
Specifies the amount of time in seconds that the Kubernetes Controller Manager waits for an update from a kubelet before marking the node unhealthy and adding the node.kubernetes.io/not-ready or node.kubernetes.io/unreachable taint to the node.
default-not-ready-toleration-seconds
Specifies the amount of time in seconds after marking a node unhealthy that the Kube API Server Operator waits before evicting pods from that node.
default-unreachable-toleration-seconds
Specifies the amount of time in seconds after marking a node unreachable that the Kube API Server Operator waits before evicting pods from that node.

The following Operators monitor the changes to the worker latency profiles and respond accordingly:

  • The Machine Config Operator (MCO) updates the node-status-update-frequency parameter on the worker nodes.
  • The Kubernetes Controller Manager updates the node-monitor-grace-period parameter on the control plane nodes.
  • The Kubernetes API Server Operator updates the default-not-ready-toleration-seconds and default-unreachable-toleration-seconds parameters on the control plane nodes.

Although the default configuration works in most cases, OpenShift Container Platform offers two other worker latency profiles for situations where the network is experiencing higher latency than usual. The three worker latency profiles are described in the following sections:

Default worker latency profile

With the Default profile, each Kubelet updates its status every 10 seconds (node-status-update-frequency). The Kube Controller Manager checks the statuses of Kubelet every 5 seconds (node-monitor-grace-period).

The Kubernetes Controller Manager waits 40 seconds for a status update from Kubelet before considering the Kubelet unhealthy. If no status is made available to the Kubernetes Controller Manager, it then marks the node with the node.kubernetes.io/not-ready or node.kubernetes.io/unreachable taint and evicts the pods on that node.

If a pod on that node has the NoExecute taint, the pod is run according to tolerationSeconds. If the pod has no taint, it will be evicted in 300 seconds (default-not-ready-toleration-seconds and default-unreachable-toleration-seconds settings of the Kube API Server).

ProfileComponentParameterValue

Default

kubelet

node-status-update-frequency

10s

Kubelet Controller Manager

node-monitor-grace-period

40s

Kubernetes API Server Operator

default-not-ready-toleration-seconds

300s

Kubernetes API Server Operator

default-unreachable-toleration-seconds

300s

Medium worker latency profile

Use the MediumUpdateAverageReaction profile if the network latency is slightly higher than usual.

The MediumUpdateAverageReaction profile reduces the frequency of kubelet updates to 20 seconds and changes the period that the Kubernetes Controller Manager waits for those updates to 2 minutes. The pod eviction period for a pod on that node is reduced to 60 seconds. If the pod has the tolerationSeconds parameter, the eviction waits for the period specified by that parameter.

The Kubernetes Controller Manager waits for 2 minutes to consider a node unhealthy. In another minute, the eviction process starts.

ProfileComponentParameterValue

MediumUpdateAverageReaction

kubelet

node-status-update-frequency

20s

Kubelet Controller Manager

node-monitor-grace-period

2m

Kubernetes API Server Operator

default-not-ready-toleration-seconds

60s

Kubernetes API Server Operator

default-unreachable-toleration-seconds

60s

Low worker latency profile

Use the LowUpdateSlowReaction profile if the network latency is extremely high.

The LowUpdateSlowReaction profile reduces the frequency of kubelet updates to 1 minute and changes the period that the Kubernetes Controller Manager waits for those updates to 5 minutes. The pod eviction period for a pod on that node is reduced to 60 seconds. If the pod has the tolerationSeconds parameter, the eviction waits for the period specified by that parameter.

The Kubernetes Controller Manager waits for 5 minutes to consider a node unhealthy. In another minute, the eviction process starts.

ProfileComponentParameterValue

LowUpdateSlowReaction

kubelet

node-status-update-frequency

1m

Kubelet Controller Manager

node-monitor-grace-period

5m

Kubernetes API Server Operator

default-not-ready-toleration-seconds

60s

Kubernetes API Server Operator

default-unreachable-toleration-seconds

60s

12.2. Implementing worker latency profiles at cluster creation

Important

To edit the configuration of the installer, you will first need to use the command openshift-install create manifests to create the default node manifest as well as other manifest YAML files. This file structure must exist before we can add workerLatencyProfile. The platform on which you are installing may have varying requirements. Refer to the Installing section of the documentation for your specific platform.

The workerLatencyProfile must be added to the manifest in the following sequence:

  1. Create the manifest needed to build the cluster, using a folder name appropriate for your installation.
  2. Create a YAML file to define config.node. The file must be in the manifests directory.
  3. When defining workerLatencyProfile in the manifest for the first time, specify any of the profiles at cluster creation time: Default, MediumUpdateAverageReaction or LowUpdateSlowReaction.

Verification

  • Here is an example manifest creation showing the spec.workerLatencyProfile Default value in the manifest file:

    $ openshift-install create manifests --dir=<cluster-install-dir>
  • Edit the manifest and add the value. In this example we use vi to show an example manifest file with the "Default" workerLatencyProfile value added:

    $ vi <cluster-install-dir>/manifests/config-node-default-profile.yaml

    Example output

    apiVersion: config.openshift.io/v1
    kind: Node
    metadata:
    name: cluster
    spec:
    workerLatencyProfile: "Default"

12.3. Using and changing worker latency profiles

To change a worker latency profile to deal with network latency, edit the node.config object to add the name of the profile. You can change the profile at any time as latency increases or decreases.

You must move one worker latency profile at a time. For example, you cannot move directly from the Default profile to the LowUpdateSlowReaction worker latency profile. You must move from the Default worker latency profile to the MediumUpdateAverageReaction profile first, then to LowUpdateSlowReaction. Similarly, when returning to the Default profile, you must move from the low profile to the medium profile first, then to Default.

Note

You can also configure worker latency profiles upon installing an OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

Procedure

To move from the default worker latency profile:

  1. Move to the medium worker latency profile:

    1. Edit the node.config object:

      $ oc edit nodes.config/cluster
    2. Add spec.workerLatencyProfile: MediumUpdateAverageReaction:

      Example node.config object

      apiVersion: config.openshift.io/v1
      kind: Node
      metadata:
        annotations:
          include.release.openshift.io/ibm-cloud-managed: "true"
          include.release.openshift.io/self-managed-high-availability: "true"
          include.release.openshift.io/single-node-developer: "true"
          release.openshift.io/create-only: "true"
        creationTimestamp: "2022-07-08T16:02:51Z"
        generation: 1
        name: cluster
        ownerReferences:
        - apiVersion: config.openshift.io/v1
          kind: ClusterVersion
          name: version
          uid: 36282574-bf9f-409e-a6cd-3032939293eb
        resourceVersion: "1865"
        uid: 0c0f7a4c-4307-4187-b591-6155695ac85b
      spec:
        workerLatencyProfile: MediumUpdateAverageReaction 1
      
      # ...

      1
      Specifies the medium worker latency policy.

      Scheduling on each worker node is disabled as the change is being applied.

  2. Optional: Move to the low worker latency profile:

    1. Edit the node.config object:

      $ oc edit nodes.config/cluster
    2. Change the spec.workerLatencyProfile value to LowUpdateSlowReaction:

      Example node.config object

      apiVersion: config.openshift.io/v1
      kind: Node
      metadata:
        annotations:
          include.release.openshift.io/ibm-cloud-managed: "true"
          include.release.openshift.io/self-managed-high-availability: "true"
          include.release.openshift.io/single-node-developer: "true"
          release.openshift.io/create-only: "true"
        creationTimestamp: "2022-07-08T16:02:51Z"
        generation: 1
        name: cluster
        ownerReferences:
        - apiVersion: config.openshift.io/v1
          kind: ClusterVersion
          name: version
          uid: 36282574-bf9f-409e-a6cd-3032939293eb
        resourceVersion: "1865"
        uid: 0c0f7a4c-4307-4187-b591-6155695ac85b
      spec:
        workerLatencyProfile: LowUpdateSlowReaction 1
      
      # ...

      1
      Specifies use of the low worker latency policy.

Scheduling on each worker node is disabled as the change is being applied.

Verification

  • When all nodes return to the Ready condition, you can use the following command to look in the Kubernetes Controller Manager to ensure it was applied:

    $ oc get KubeControllerManager -o yaml | grep -i workerlatency -A 5 -B 5

    Example output

    # ...
        - lastTransitionTime: "2022-07-11T19:47:10Z"
          reason: ProfileUpdated
          status: "False"
          type: WorkerLatencyProfileProgressing
        - lastTransitionTime: "2022-07-11T19:47:10Z" 1
          message: all static pod revision(s) have updated latency profile
          reason: ProfileUpdated
          status: "True"
          type: WorkerLatencyProfileComplete
        - lastTransitionTime: "2022-07-11T19:20:11Z"
          reason: AsExpected
          status: "False"
          type: WorkerLatencyProfileDegraded
        - lastTransitionTime: "2022-07-11T19:20:36Z"
          status: "False"
    # ...

    1
    Specifies that the profile is applied and active.

To change the medium profile to default or change the default to medium, edit the node.config object and set the spec.workerLatencyProfile parameter to the appropriate value.

12.4. Example steps for displaying resulting values of workerLatencyProfile

You can display the values in the workerLatencyProfile with the following commands.

Verification

  1. Check the default-not-ready-toleration-seconds and default-unreachable-toleration-seconds fields output by the Kube API Server:

    $ oc get KubeAPIServer -o yaml | grep -A 1 default-

    Example output

    default-not-ready-toleration-seconds:
    - "300"
    default-unreachable-toleration-seconds:
    - "300"

  2. Check the values of the node-monitor-grace-period field from the Kube Controller Manager:

    $ oc get KubeControllerManager -o yaml | grep -A 1 node-monitor

    Example output

    node-monitor-grace-period:
    - 40s

  3. Check the nodeStatusUpdateFrequency value from the Kubelet. Set the directory /host as the root directory within the debug shell. By changing the root directory to /host, you can run binaries contained in the host’s executable paths:

    $ oc debug node/<worker-node-name>
    $ chroot /host
    # cat /etc/kubernetes/kubelet.conf|grep nodeStatusUpdateFrequency

    Example output

      “nodeStatusUpdateFrequency”: “10s”

These outputs validate the set of timing variables for the Worker Latency Profile.

Chapter 13. Workload partitioning

Workload partitioning separates compute node CPU resources into distinct CPU sets. The primary objective is to keep platform pods on the specified cores to avoid interrupting the CPUs the customer workloads are running on.

Workload partitioning isolates OpenShift Container Platform services, cluster management workloads, and infrastructure pods to run on a reserved set of CPUs. This ensures that the remaining CPUs in the cluster deployment are untouched and available exclusively for non-platform workloads. The minimum number of reserved CPUs required for the cluster management is four CPU Hyper-Threads (HTs).

In the context of enabling workload partitioning and managing CPU resources effectively, nodes that are not configured correctly will not be permitted to join the cluster through a node admission webhook. When the workload partitioning feature is enabled, the machine config pools for control plane and worker will be supplied with configurations for nodes to use. Adding new nodes to these pools will make sure they are correctly configured before joining the cluster.

Currently, nodes must have uniform configurations per machine config pool to ensure that correct CPU affinity is set across all nodes within that pool. After admission, nodes within the cluster identify themselves as supporting a new resource type called management.workload.openshift.io/cores and accurately report their CPU capacity. Workload partitioning can be enabled during cluster installation only by adding the additional field cpuPartitioningMode to the install-config.yaml file.

When workload partitioning is enabled, the management.workload.openshift.io/cores resource allows the scheduler to correctly assign pods based on the cpushares capacity of the host, not just the default cpuset. This ensures more precise allocation of resources for workload partitioning scenarios.

Workload partitioning ensures that CPU requests and limits specified in the pod’s configuration are respected. In OpenShift Container Platform 4.16 or later, accurate CPU usage limits are set for platform pods through CPU partitioning. As workload partitioning uses the custom resource type of management.workload.openshift.io/cores, the values for requests and limits are the same due to a requirement by Kubernetes for extended resources. However, the annotations modified by workload partitioning correctly reflect the desired limits.

Note

Extended resources cannot be overcommitted, so request and limit must be equal if both are present in a container spec.

13.1. Enabling workload partitioning

With workload partitioning, cluster management pods are annotated to correctly partition them into a specified CPU affinity. These pods operate normally within the minimum size CPU configuration specified by the reserved value in the Performance Profile. Additional Day 2 Operators that make use of workload partitioning should be taken into account when calculating how many reserved CPU cores should be set aside for the platform.

Workload partitioning isolates user workloads from platform workloads using standard Kubernetes scheduling capabilities.

Note

Workload partitioning can only be enabled during cluster installation. You cannot disable workload partitioning postinstallation.

Use this procedure to enable workload partitioning cluster wide:

Procedure

  • In the install-config.yaml file, add the additional field cpuPartitioningMode and set it to AllNodes.

    apiVersion: v1
    baseDomain: devcluster.openshift.com
    cpuPartitioningMode: AllNodes 1
    compute:
      - architecture: amd64
        hyperthreading: Enabled
        name: worker
        platform: {}
        replicas: 3
    controlPlane:
      architecture: amd64
      hyperthreading: Enabled
      name: master
      platform: {}
      replicas: 3
    1
    Sets up a cluster for CPU partitioning at install time. The default value is None.

13.2. Performance profiles and workload partitioning

Applying a performance profile allows you to make use of the workload partitioning feature. An appropriately configured performance profile specifies the isolated and reserved CPUs. The recommended way to create a performance profile is to use the Performance Profile Creator (PPC) tool to create the performance profile.

13.3. Sample performance profile configuration

apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2
kind: PerformanceProfile
metadata:
  # if you change this name make sure the 'include' line in TunedPerformancePatch.yaml
  # matches this name: include=openshift-node-performance-${PerformanceProfile.metadata.name}
  # Also in file 'validatorCRs/informDuValidator.yaml':
  # name: 50-performance-${PerformanceProfile.metadata.name}
  name: openshift-node-performance-profile
  annotations:
    ran.openshift.io/reference-configuration: "ran-du.redhat.com"
spec:
  additionalKernelArgs:
    - "rcupdate.rcu_normal_after_boot=0"
    - "efi=runtime"
    - "vfio_pci.enable_sriov=1"
    - "vfio_pci.disable_idle_d3=1"
    - "module_blacklist=irdma"
  cpu:
    isolated: $isolated
    reserved: $reserved
  hugepages:
    defaultHugepagesSize: $defaultHugepagesSize
    pages:
      - size: $size
        count: $count
        node: $node
  machineConfigPoolSelector:
    pools.operator.machineconfiguration.openshift.io/$mcp: ""
  nodeSelector:
    node-role.kubernetes.io/$mcp: ''
  numa:
    topologyPolicy: "restricted"
  # To use the standard (non-realtime) kernel, set enabled to false
  realTimeKernel:
    enabled: true
  workloadHints:
    # WorkloadHints defines the set of upper level flags for different type of workloads.
    # See https://github.com/openshift/cluster-node-tuning-operator/blob/master/docs/performanceprofile/performance_profile.md#workloadhints
    # for detailed descriptions of each item.
    # The configuration below is set for a low latency, performance mode.
    realTime: true
    highPowerConsumption: false
    perPodPowerManagement: false
Table 13.1. PerformanceProfile CR options for single-node OpenShift clusters
PerformanceProfile CR fieldDescription

metadata.name

Ensure that name matches the following fields set in related GitOps ZTP custom resources (CRs):

  • include=openshift-node-performance-${PerformanceProfile.metadata.name} in TunedPerformancePatch.yaml
  • name: 50-performance-${PerformanceProfile.metadata.name} in validatorCRs/informDuValidator.yaml

spec.additionalKernelArgs

"efi=runtime" Configures UEFI secure boot for the cluster host.

spec.cpu.isolated

Set the isolated CPUs. Ensure all of the Hyper-Threading pairs match.

Important

The reserved and isolated CPU pools must not overlap and together must span all available cores. CPU cores that are not accounted for cause an undefined behaviour in the system.

spec.cpu.reserved

Set the reserved CPUs. When workload partitioning is enabled, system processes, kernel threads, and system container threads are restricted to these CPUs. All CPUs that are not isolated should be reserved.

spec.hugepages.pages

  • Set the number of huge pages (count)
  • Set the huge pages size (size).
  • Set node to the NUMA node where the hugepages are allocated (node)

spec.realTimeKernel

Set enabled to true to use the realtime kernel.

spec.workloadHints

Use workloadHints to define the set of top level flags for different type of workloads. The example configuration configures the cluster for low latency and high performance.

Chapter 14. Using the Node Observability Operator

The Node Observability Operator collects and stores CRI-O and Kubelet profiling or metrics from scripts of compute nodes.

With the Node Observability Operator, you can query the profiling data, enabling analysis of performance trends in CRI-O and Kubelet. It supports debugging performance-related issues and executing embedded scripts for network metrics by using the run field in the custom resource definition. To enable CRI-O and Kubelet profiling or scripting, you can configure the type field in the custom resource definition.

Important

The Node Observability Operator is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.

14.1. Workflow of the Node Observability Operator

The following workflow outlines on how to query the profiling data using the Node Observability Operator:

  1. Install the Node Observability Operator in the OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
  2. Create a NodeObservability custom resource to enable the CRI-O profiling on the worker nodes of your choice.
  3. Run the profiling query to generate the profiling data.

14.2. Installing the Node Observability Operator

The Node Observability Operator is not installed in OpenShift Container Platform by default. You can install the Node Observability Operator by using the OpenShift Container Platform CLI or the web console.

14.2.1. Installing the Node Observability Operator using the CLI

You can install the Node Observability Operator by using the OpenShift CLI (oc).

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • You have access to the cluster with cluster-admin privileges.

Procedure

  1. Confirm that the Node Observability Operator is available by running the following command:

    $ oc get packagemanifests -n openshift-marketplace node-observability-operator

    Example output

    NAME                            CATALOG                AGE
    node-observability-operator     Red Hat Operators      9h

  2. Create the node-observability-operator namespace by running the following command:

    $ oc new-project node-observability-operator
  3. Create an OperatorGroup object YAML file:

    cat <<EOF | oc apply -f -
    apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1
    kind: OperatorGroup
    metadata:
      name: node-observability-operator
      namespace: node-observability-operator
    spec:
      targetNamespaces: []
    EOF
  4. Create a Subscription object YAML file to subscribe a namespace to an Operator:

    cat <<EOF | oc apply -f -
    apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
    kind: Subscription
    metadata:
      name: node-observability-operator
      namespace: node-observability-operator
    spec:
      channel: alpha
      name: node-observability-operator
      source: redhat-operators
      sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace
    EOF

Verification

  1. View the install plan name by running the following command:

    $ oc -n node-observability-operator get sub node-observability-operator -o yaml | yq '.status.installplan.name'

    Example output

    install-dt54w

  2. Verify the install plan status by running the following command:

    $ oc -n node-observability-operator get ip <install_plan_name> -o yaml | yq '.status.phase'

    <install_plan_name> is the install plan name that you obtained from the output of the previous command.

    Example output

    COMPLETE

  3. Verify that the Node Observability Operator is up and running:

    $ oc get deploy -n node-observability-operator

    Example output

    NAME                                            READY   UP-TO-DATE  AVAILABLE   AGE
    node-observability-operator-controller-manager  1/1     1           1           40h

14.2.2. Installing the Node Observability Operator using the web console

You can install the Node Observability Operator from the OpenShift Container Platform web console.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to the cluster with cluster-admin privileges.
  • You have access to the OpenShift Container Platform web console.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
  2. In the Administrator’s navigation panel, expand OperatorsOperatorHub.
  3. In the All items field, enter Node Observability Operator and select the Node Observability Operator tile.
  4. Click Install.
  5. On the Install Operator page, configure the following settings:

    1. In the Update channel area, click alpha.
    2. In the Installation mode area, click A specific namespace on the cluster.
    3. From the Installed Namespace list, select node-observability-operator from the list.
    4. In the Update approval area, select Automatic.
    5. Click Install.

Verification

  1. In the Administrator’s navigation panel, expand OperatorsInstalled Operators.
  2. Verify that the Node Observability Operator is listed in the Operators list.

14.3. Requesting CRI-O and Kubelet profiling data using the Node Observability Operator

Creating a Node Observability custom resource to collect CRI-O and Kubelet profiling data.

14.3.1. Creating the Node Observability custom resource

You must create and run the NodeObservability custom resource (CR) before you run the profiling query. When you run the NodeObservability CR, it creates the necessary machine config and machine config pool CRs to enable the CRI-O profiling on the worker nodes matching the nodeSelector.

Important

If CRI-O profiling is not enabled on the worker nodes, the NodeObservabilityMachineConfig resource gets created. Worker nodes matching the nodeSelector specified in NodeObservability CR restarts. This might take 10 or more minutes to complete.

Note

Kubelet profiling is enabled by default.

The CRI-O unix socket of the node is mounted on the agent pod, which allows the agent to communicate with CRI-O to run the pprof request. Similarly, the kubelet-serving-ca certificate chain is mounted on the agent pod, which allows secure communication between the agent and node’s kubelet endpoint.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the Node Observability Operator.
  • You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • You have access to the cluster with cluster-admin privileges.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the OpenShift Container Platform CLI by running the following command:

    $ oc login -u kubeadmin https://<HOSTNAME>:6443
  2. Switch back to the node-observability-operator namespace by running the following command:

    $ oc project node-observability-operator
  3. Create a CR file named nodeobservability.yaml that contains the following text:

        apiVersion: nodeobservability.olm.openshift.io/v1alpha2
        kind: NodeObservability
        metadata:
          name: cluster 1
        spec:
          nodeSelector:
            kubernetes.io/hostname: <node_hostname> 2
          type: crio-kubelet
    1
    You must specify the name as cluster because there should be only one NodeObservability CR per cluster.
    2
    Specify the nodes on which the Node Observability agent must be deployed.
  4. Run the NodeObservability CR:

    oc apply -f nodeobservability.yaml

    Example output

    nodeobservability.olm.openshift.io/cluster created

  5. Review the status of the NodeObservability CR by running the following command:

    $ oc get nob/cluster -o yaml | yq '.status.conditions'

    Example output

    conditions:
      conditions:
      - lastTransitionTime: "2022-07-05T07:33:54Z"
        message: 'DaemonSet node-observability-ds ready: true NodeObservabilityMachineConfig
          ready: true'
        reason: Ready
        status: "True"
        type: Ready

    NodeObservability CR run is completed when the reason is Ready and the status is True.

14.3.2. Running the profiling query

To run the profiling query, you must create a NodeObservabilityRun resource. The profiling query is a blocking operation that fetches CRI-O and Kubelet profiling data for a duration of 30 seconds. After the profiling query is complete, you must retrieve the profiling data inside the container file system /run/node-observability directory. The lifetime of data is bound to the agent pod through the emptyDir volume, so you can access the profiling data while the agent pod is in the running status.

Important

You can request only one profiling query at any point of time.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the Node Observability Operator.
  • You have created the NodeObservability custom resource (CR).
  • You have access to the cluster with cluster-admin privileges.

Procedure

  1. Create a NodeObservabilityRun resource file named nodeobservabilityrun.yaml that contains the following text:

    apiVersion: nodeobservability.olm.openshift.io/v1alpha2
    kind: NodeObservabilityRun
    metadata:
      name: nodeobservabilityrun
    spec:
      nodeObservabilityRef:
        name: cluster
  2. Trigger the profiling query by running the NodeObservabilityRun resource:

    $ oc apply -f nodeobservabilityrun.yaml
  3. Review the status of the NodeObservabilityRun by running the following command:

    $ oc get nodeobservabilityrun nodeobservabilityrun -o yaml  | yq '.status.conditions'

    Example output

    conditions:
    - lastTransitionTime: "2022-07-07T14:57:34Z"
      message: Ready to start profiling
      reason: Ready
      status: "True"
      type: Ready
    - lastTransitionTime: "2022-07-07T14:58:10Z"
      message: Profiling query done
      reason: Finished
      status: "True"
      type: Finished

    The profiling query is complete once the status is True and type is Finished.

  4. Retrieve the profiling data from the container’s /run/node-observability path by running the following bash script:

    for a in $(oc get nodeobservabilityrun nodeobservabilityrun -o yaml | yq .status.agents[].name); do
      echo "agent ${a}"
      mkdir -p "/tmp/${a}"
      for p in $(oc exec "${a}" -c node-observability-agent -- bash -c "ls /run/node-observability/*.pprof"); do
        f="$(basename ${p})"
        echo "copying ${f} to /tmp/${a}/${f}"
        oc exec "${a}" -c node-observability-agent -- cat "${p}" > "/tmp/${a}/${f}"
      done
    done

14.4. Node Observability Operator scripting

Scripting allows you to run pre-configured bash scripts, using the current Node Observability Operator and Node Observability Agent.

These scripts monitor key metrics like CPU load, memory pressure, and worker node issues. They also collect sar reports and custom performance metrics.

14.4.1. Creating the Node Observability custom resource for scripting

You must create and run the NodeObservability custom resource (CR) before you run the scripting. When you run the NodeObservability CR, it enables the agent in scripting mode on the compute nodes matching the nodeSelector label.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the Node Observability Operator.
  • You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • You have access to the cluster with cluster-admin privileges.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the OpenShift Container Platform cluster by running the following command:

    $ oc login -u kubeadmin https://<host_name>:6443
  2. Switch to the node-observability-operator namespace by running the following command:

    $ oc project node-observability-operator
  3. Create a file named nodeobservability.yaml that contains the following content:

        apiVersion: nodeobservability.olm.openshift.io/v1alpha2
        kind: NodeObservability
        metadata:
          name: cluster 1
        spec:
          nodeSelector:
            kubernetes.io/hostname: <node_hostname> 2
          type: scripting 3
    1
    You must specify the name as cluster because there should be only one NodeObservability CR per cluster.
    2
    Specify the nodes on which the Node Observability agent must be deployed.
    3
    To deploy the agent in scripting mode, you must set the type to scripting.
  4. Create the NodeObservability CR by running the following command:

    $ oc apply -f nodeobservability.yaml

    Example output

    nodeobservability.olm.openshift.io/cluster created

  5. Review the status of the NodeObservability CR by running the following command:

    $ oc get nob/cluster -o yaml | yq '.status.conditions'

    Example output

    conditions:
      conditions:
      - lastTransitionTime: "2022-07-05T07:33:54Z"
        message: 'DaemonSet node-observability-ds ready: true NodeObservabilityScripting
          ready: true'
        reason: Ready
        status: "True"
        type: Ready

    The NodeObservability CR run is completed when the reason is Ready and status is "True".

14.4.2. Configuring Node Observability Operator scripting

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the Node Observability Operator.
  • You have created the NodeObservability custom resource (CR).
  • You have access to the cluster with cluster-admin privileges.

Procedure

  1. Create a file named nodeobservabilityrun-script.yaml that contains the following content:

    apiVersion: nodeobservability.olm.openshift.io/v1alpha2
    kind: NodeObservabilityRun
    metadata:
      name: nodeobservabilityrun-script
      namespace: node-observability-operator
    spec:
      nodeObservabilityRef:
        name: cluster
        type: scripting
    Important

    You can request only the following scripts:

    • metrics.sh
    • network-metrics.sh (uses monitor.sh)
  2. Trigger the scripting by creating the NodeObservabilityRun resource with the following command:

    $ oc apply -f nodeobservabilityrun-script.yaml
  3. Review the status of the NodeObservabilityRun scripting by running the following command:

    $ oc get nodeobservabilityrun nodeobservabilityrun-script -o yaml  | yq '.status.conditions'

    Example output

    Status:
      Agents:
        Ip:    10.128.2.252
        Name:  node-observability-agent-n2fpm
        Port:  8443
        Ip:    10.131.0.186
        Name:  node-observability-agent-wcc8p
        Port:  8443
      Conditions:
        Conditions:
          Last Transition Time:  2023-12-19T15:10:51Z
          Message:               Ready to start profiling
          Reason:                Ready
          Status:                True
          Type:                  Ready
          Last Transition Time:  2023-12-19T15:11:01Z
          Message:               Profiling query done
          Reason:                Finished
          Status:                True
          Type:                  Finished
      Finished Timestamp:        2023-12-19T15:11:01Z
      Start Timestamp:           2023-12-19T15:10:51Z

    The scripting is complete once Status is True and Type is Finished.

  4. Retrieve the scripting data from the root path of the container by running the following bash script:

    #!/bin/bash
    
    RUN=$(oc get nodeobservabilityrun --no-headers | awk '{print $1}')
    
    for a in $(oc get nodeobservabilityruns.nodeobservability.olm.openshift.io/${RUN} -o json | jq .status.agents[].name); do
      echo "agent ${a}"
      agent=$(echo ${a} | tr -d "\"\'\`")
      base_dir=$(oc exec "${agent}" -c node-observability-agent -- bash -c "ls -t | grep node-observability-agent" | head -1)
      echo "${base_dir}"
      mkdir -p "/tmp/${agent}"
      for p in $(oc exec "${agent}" -c node-observability-agent -- bash -c "ls ${base_dir}"); do
        f="/${base_dir}/${p}"
        echo "copying ${f} to /tmp/${agent}/${p}"
        oc exec "${agent}" -c node-observability-agent -- cat ${f} > "/tmp/${agent}/${p}"
      done
    done

14.5. Additional resources

For more information on how to collect worker metrics, see Red Hat Knowledgebase article.

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