Chapter 4. Configuring OpenShift Serverless applications


4.1. Multi-container support for Serving

You can deploy a multi-container pod by using a single Knative service. This method is useful for separating application responsibilities into smaller, specialized parts.

4.1.1. Configuring a multi-container service

Multi-container support is enabled by default. You can create a multi-container pod by specifiying multiple containers in the service.

Procedure

  1. Modify your service to include additional containers. Only one container can handle requests, so specify ports for exactly one container. Here is an example configuration with two containers:

    Multiple containers configuration

    apiVersion: serving.knative.dev/v1
    kind: Service
    ...
    spec:
      template:
        spec:
          containers:
            - name: first-container 1
              image: gcr.io/knative-samples/helloworld-go
              ports:
                - containerPort: 8080 2
            - name: second-container 3
              image: gcr.io/knative-samples/helloworld-java

    1
    First container configuration.
    2
    Port specification for the first container.
    3
    Second container configuration.

4.1.2. Probing a multi-container service

You can specify readiness and liveness probes for multiple containers. This feature is not enabled by default and you must configure it using the KnativeServing custom resource (CR).

Procedure

  1. Configure multi-container probing for your service by enabling the multi-container-probing feature in the KnativeServing CR.

    Multi-container probing configuration

    ...
    spec:
      config:
        features:
          "multi-container-probing": enabled 1
    ...

    1
    Enabled multi-container-probing feature
  2. Apply the updated KnativeServing CR.

    $ oc apply -f <filename>
  3. Modify your multi-container service to include the specified probes.

    Multi-container probing

    apiVersion: serving.knative.dev/v1
    kind: Service
    ...
    spec:
     template:
       spec:
         containers:
           - name: first-container
             image: ghcr.io/knative/helloworld-go:latest
             ports:
               - containerPort: 8080
             readinessProbe: 1
               httpGet:
                 port: 8080
           - name: second-container
             image: gcr.io/knative-samples/helloworld-java
             readinessProbe: 2
               httpGet:
                 port: 8090

    1
    Readiness probe of the first container
    2
    Readiness probe of the second container

4.1.2.1. Additional resources

4.2. EmptyDir volumes

emptyDir volumes are empty volumes that are created when a pod is created, and are used to provide temporary working disk space. emptyDir volumes are deleted when the pod they were created for is deleted.

4.2.1. Configuring the EmptyDir extension

The kubernetes.podspec-volumes-emptydir extension controls whether emptyDir volumes can be used with Knative Serving. To enable using emptyDir volumes, you must modify the KnativeServing custom resource (CR) to include the following YAML:

Example KnativeServing CR

apiVersion: operator.knative.dev/v1beta1
kind: KnativeServing
metadata:
  name: knative-serving
spec:
  config:
    features:
      kubernetes.podspec-volumes-emptydir: enabled
...

4.3. Persistent Volume Claims for Serving

Some serverless applications require permanent data storage. By configuring different volume types, you can provide data storage for Knative services. Serving supports mounting of the volume types such as secret, configMap, projected, and emptyDir.

You can configure persistent volume claims (PVCs) for your Knative services. The Persistent volume types are implemented as plugins. To determine if there are any persistent volume types available, you can check the available or installed storage classes in your cluster. Persistent volumes are supported, but require a feature flag to be enabled.

Warning

The mounting of large volumes can lead to a considerable delay in the start time of the application.

4.3.1. Enabling PVC support

Procedure

  1. To enable Knative Serving to use PVCs and write to them, modify the KnativeServing custom resource (CR) to include the following YAML:

    Enabling PVCs with write access

    ...
    spec:
      config:
        features:
          "kubernetes.podspec-persistent-volume-claim": enabled
          "kubernetes.podspec-persistent-volume-write": enabled
    ...

    • The kubernetes.podspec-persistent-volume-claim extension controls whether persistent volumes (PVs) can be used with Knative Serving.
    • The kubernetes.podspec-persistent-volume-write extension controls whether PVs are available to Knative Serving with the write access.
  2. To claim a PV, modify your service to include the PV configuration. For example, you might have a persistent volume claim with the following configuration:

    Note

    Use the storage class that supports the access mode you are requesting. For example, you can use the ocs-storagecluster-cephfs storage class for the ReadWriteMany access mode.

    The ocs-storagecluster-cephfs storage class is supported and comes from Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation.

    PersistentVolumeClaim configuration

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
    metadata:
      name: example-pv-claim
      namespace: my-ns
    spec:
      accessModes:
        - ReadWriteMany
      storageClassName: ocs-storagecluster-cephfs
      resources:
        requests:
          storage: 1Gi

    In this case, to claim a PV with write access, modify your service as follows:

    Knative service PVC configuration

    apiVersion: serving.knative.dev/v1
    kind: Service
    metadata:
      namespace: my-ns
    ...
    spec:
     template:
       spec:
         containers:
             ...
             volumeMounts: 1
               - mountPath: /data
                 name: mydata
                 readOnly: false
         volumes:
           - name: mydata
             persistentVolumeClaim: 2
               claimName: example-pv-claim
               readOnly: false 3

    1
    Volume mount specification.
    2
    Persistent volume claim specification.
    3
    Flag that enables read-only access.
    Note

    To successfully use persistent storage in Knative services, you need additional configuration, such as the user permissions for the Knative container user.

4.3.2. Additional resources for OpenShift Container Platform

4.4. Init containers

Init containers are specialized containers that are run before application containers in a pod. They are generally used to implement initialization logic for an application, which may include running setup scripts or downloading required configurations. You can enable the use of init containers for Knative services by modifying the KnativeServing custom resource (CR).

Note

Init containers may cause longer application start-up times and should be used with caution for serverless applications, which are expected to scale up and down frequently.

4.4.1. Enabling init containers

Prerequisites

  • You have installed OpenShift Serverless Operator and Knative Serving on your cluster.
  • You have cluster administrator permissions on OpenShift Container Platform, or you have cluster or dedicated administrator permissions on Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS or OpenShift Dedicated.

Procedure

  • Enable the use of init containers by adding the kubernetes.podspec-init-containers flag to the KnativeServing CR:

    Example KnativeServing CR

    apiVersion: operator.knative.dev/v1beta1
    kind: KnativeServing
    metadata:
      name: knative-serving
    spec:
      config:
        features:
          kubernetes.podspec-init-containers: enabled
    ...

4.5. Resolving image tags to digests

If the Knative Serving controller has access to the container registry, Knative Serving resolves image tags to a digest when you create a revision of a service. This is known as tag-to-digest resolution, and helps to provide consistency for deployments.

4.5.1. Tag-to-digest resolution

To give the controller access to the container registry on OpenShift Container Platform, you must create a secret and then configure controller custom certificates. You can configure controller custom certificates by modifying the controller-custom-certs spec in the KnativeServing custom resource (CR). The secret must reside in the same namespace as the KnativeServing CR.

If a secret is not included in the KnativeServing CR, this setting defaults to using public key infrastructure (PKI). When using PKI, the cluster-wide certificates are automatically injected into the Knative Serving controller by using the config-service-sa config map. The OpenShift Serverless Operator populates the config-service-sa config map with cluster-wide certificates and mounts the config map as a volume to the controller.

4.5.1.1. Configuring tag-to-digest resolution by using a secret

If the controller-custom-certs spec uses the Secret type, the secret is mounted as a secret volume. Knative components consume the secret directly, assuming that the secret has the required certificates.

Prerequisites

  • You have cluster administrator permissions on OpenShift Container Platform, or you have cluster or dedicated administrator permissions on Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS or OpenShift Dedicated.
  • You have installed the OpenShift Serverless Operator and Knative Serving on your cluster.

Procedure

  1. Create a secret:

    Example command

    $ oc -n knative-serving create secret generic custom-secret --from-file=<secret_name>.crt=<path_to_certificate>

  2. Configure the controller-custom-certs spec in the KnativeServing custom resource (CR) to use the Secret type:

    Example KnativeServing CR

    apiVersion: operator.knative.dev/v1beta1
    kind: KnativeServing
    metadata:
      name: knative-serving
      namespace: knative-serving
    spec:
      controller-custom-certs:
        name: custom-secret
        type: Secret

4.6. Configuring Kourier

Kourier is a lightweight Kubernetes-native Ingress for Knative Serving. Kourier acts as a gateway for Knative, routing HTTP traffic to Knative services.

4.6.1. Customizing kourier-bootstrap for Kourier getaways

The Envoy proxy component in Kourier handles inbound and outbound HTTP traffic for the Knative services. By default, Kourier contains an Envoy bootstrap configuration in the kourier-bootstrap configuration map in the knative-serving-ingress namespace. You can change this configuration.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the OpenShift Serverless Operator and Knative Serving.
  • You have cluster administrator permissions on OpenShift Container Platform, or you have cluster or dedicated administrator permissions on Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS or OpenShift Dedicated.

Procedure

  • Specify a custom bootstrapping configuration map by changing the spec.ingress.kourier.bootstrap-configmap field in the KnativeServing custom resource (CR):

    Example KnativeServing CR

    apiVersion: operator.knative.dev/v1beta1
    kind: KnativeServing
    metadata:
      name: knative-serving
      namespace: knative-serving
    spec:
      config:
        network:
          ingress-class: kourier.ingress.networking.knative.dev
      ingress:
        kourier:
          bootstrap-configmap: my-configmap
          enabled: true
    # ...

4.7. Restrictive network policies

4.7.1. Clusters with restrictive network policies

If you are using a cluster that multiple users have access to, your cluster might use network policies to control which pods, services, and namespaces can communicate with each other over the network. If your cluster uses restrictive network policies, it is possible that Knative system pods are not able to access your Knative application. For example, if your namespace has the following network policy, which denies all requests, Knative system pods cannot access your Knative application:

Example NetworkPolicy object that denies all requests to the namespace

kind: NetworkPolicy
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
metadata:
  name: deny-by-default
  namespace: example-namespace
spec:
  podSelector:
  ingress: []

4.7.2. Enabling communication with Knative applications on a cluster with restrictive network policies

To allow access to your applications from Knative system pods, you must add a label to each of the Knative system namespaces, and then create a NetworkPolicy object in your application namespace that allows access to the namespace for other namespaces that have this label.

Important

A network policy that denies requests to non-Knative services on your cluster still prevents access to these services. However, by allowing access from Knative system namespaces to your Knative application, you are allowing access to your Knative application from all namespaces in the cluster.

If you do not want to allow access to your Knative application from all namespaces on the cluster, you might want to use JSON Web Token authentication for Knative services instead. JSON Web Token authentication for Knative services requires Service Mesh.

Prerequisites

  • Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • OpenShift Serverless Operator and Knative Serving are installed on your cluster.

Procedure

  1. Add the knative.openshift.io/system-namespace=true label to each Knative system namespace that requires access to your application:

    1. Label the knative-serving namespace:

      $ oc label namespace knative-serving knative.openshift.io/system-namespace=true
    2. Label the knative-serving-ingress namespace:

      $ oc label namespace knative-serving-ingress knative.openshift.io/system-namespace=true
    3. Label the knative-eventing namespace:

      $ oc label namespace knative-eventing knative.openshift.io/system-namespace=true
    4. Label the knative-kafka namespace:

      $ oc label namespace knative-kafka knative.openshift.io/system-namespace=true
  2. Create a NetworkPolicy object in your application namespace to allow access from namespaces with the knative.openshift.io/system-namespace label:

    Example NetworkPolicy object

    apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
    kind: NetworkPolicy
    metadata:
      name: <network_policy_name> 1
      namespace: <namespace> 2
    spec:
      ingress:
      - from:
        - namespaceSelector:
            matchLabels:
              knative.openshift.io/system-namespace: "true"
      podSelector: {}
      policyTypes:
      - Ingress

    1
    Provide a name for your network policy.
    2
    The namespace where your application exists.

4.8. Configuring revision timeouts

You can configure timeout durations for revisions globally or individually to control the time spent on requests.

4.8.1. Configuring revision timeout

You can configure the default number of seconds for the revision timeout based on the request.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the OpenShift Serverless Operator and Knative Serving.
  • You have cluster administrator permissions on OpenShift Container Platform, or cluster or dedicated administrator permissions on Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS or OpenShift Dedicated.

Procedure

  • Choose the appropriate method to configure the revision timeout:

    • To configure the revision timeout globally, set the revision-timeout-seconds field in the KnativeServing custom resource (CR):

      apiVersion: operator.knative.dev/v1beta1
      kind: KnativeServing
      metadata:
        name: knative-serving
        namespace: knative-serving
      spec:
        config:
          defaults:
            revision-timeout-seconds: "300"
    • To configure the timeout per revision by setting the timeoutSeconds field in your service definition:

      apiVersion: serving.knative.dev/v1
      kind: Service
      metadata:
        namespace: my-ns
      spec:
        template:
          spec:
            timeoutSeconds: 300
            containers:
            - image: ghcr.io/knative/helloworld-go:latest

4.8.2. Configuring maximum revision timeout

By seting the maximum revision timeout, you can ensure that no revision can exceed a specific limit.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the OpenShift Serverless Operator and Knative Serving.
  • You have cluster administrator permissions on OpenShift Container Platform, or cluster or dedicated administrator permissions on Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS or OpenShift Dedicated.

Procedure

  • To configure the maximum revision timeout, set the max-revision-timeout-seconds field in the KnativeServing custom resource (CR):

    If this value is increased, the activator `terminationGracePeriodSeconds` should also be increased to prevent in-flight requests being disrupted.
    apiVersion: operator.knative.dev/v1beta1
    kind: KnativeServing
    metadata:
      name: knative-serving
      namespace: knative-serving
    spec:
      config:
        defaults:
          max-revision-timeout-seconds: "600"
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