2.3. Placing pods relative to other pods using affinity and anti-affinity rules
Affinity is a property of pods that controls the nodes on which they prefer to be scheduled. Anti-affinity is a property of pods that prevents a pod from being scheduled on a node.
In OpenShift Container Platform pod affinity and pod anti-affinity allow you to constrain which nodes your pod is eligible to be scheduled on based on the key/value labels on other pods.
2.3.1. Understanding pod affinity
Pod affinity and pod anti-affinity allow you to constrain which nodes your pod is eligible to be scheduled on based on the key/value labels on other pods.
- Pod affinity can tell the scheduler to locate a new pod on the same node as other pods if the label selector on the new pod matches the label on the current pod.
- Pod anti-affinity can prevent the scheduler from locating a new pod on the same node as pods with the same labels if the label selector on the new pod matches the label on the current pod.
For example, using affinity rules, you could spread or pack pods within a service or relative to pods in other services. Anti-affinity rules allow you to prevent pods of a particular service from scheduling on the same nodes as pods of another service that are known to interfere with the performance of the pods of the first service. Or, you could spread the pods of a service across nodes or availability zones to reduce correlated failures.
There are two types of pod affinity rules: required and preferred.
Required rules must be met before a pod can be scheduled on a node. Preferred rules specify that, if the rule is met, the scheduler tries to enforce the rules, but does not guarantee enforcement.
Depending on your pod priority and preemption settings, the scheduler might not be able to find an appropriate node for a pod without violating affinity requirements. If so, a pod might not be scheduled.
To prevent this situation, carefully configure pod affinity with equal-priority pods.
You configure pod affinity/anti-affinity through the Pod
spec files. You can specify a required rule, a preferred rule, or both. If you specify both, the node must first meet the required rule, then attempts to meet the preferred rule.
The following example shows a Pod
spec configured for pod affinity and anti-affinity.
In this example, the pod affinity rule indicates that the pod can schedule onto a node only if that node has at least one already-running pod with a label that has the key security
and value S1
. The pod anti-affinity rule says that the pod prefers to not schedule onto a node if that node is already running a pod with label having key security
and value S2
.
Sample Pod
config file with pod affinity
apiVersion: v1 kind: Pod metadata: name: with-pod-affinity spec: affinity: podAffinity: 1 requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution: 2 - labelSelector: matchExpressions: - key: security 3 operator: In 4 values: - S1 5 topologyKey: failure-domain.beta.kubernetes.io/zone containers: - name: with-pod-affinity image: docker.io/ocpqe/hello-pod
- 1
- Stanza to configure pod affinity.
- 2
- Defines a required rule.
- 3 5
- The key and value (label) that must be matched to apply the rule.
- 4
- The operator represents the relationship between the label on the existing pod and the set of values in the
matchExpression
parameters in the specification for the new pod. Can beIn
,NotIn
,Exists
, orDoesNotExist
.
Sample Pod
config file with pod anti-affinity
apiVersion: v1 kind: Pod metadata: name: with-pod-antiaffinity spec: affinity: podAntiAffinity: 1 preferredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution: 2 - weight: 100 3 podAffinityTerm: labelSelector: matchExpressions: - key: security 4 operator: In 5 values: - S2 topologyKey: kubernetes.io/hostname containers: - name: with-pod-affinity image: docker.io/ocpqe/hello-pod
- 1
- Stanza to configure pod anti-affinity.
- 2
- Defines a preferred rule.
- 3
- Specifies a weight for a preferred rule. The node with the highest weight is preferred.
- 4
- Description of the pod label that determines when the anti-affinity rule applies. Specify a key and value for the label.
- 5
- The operator represents the relationship between the label on the existing pod and the set of values in the
matchExpression
parameters in the specification for the new pod. Can beIn
,NotIn
,Exists
, orDoesNotExist
.
If labels on a node change at runtime such that the affinity rules on a pod are no longer met, the pod continues to run on the node.
2.3.2. Configuring a pod affinity rule
The following steps demonstrate a simple two-pod configuration that creates pod with a label and a pod that uses affinity to allow scheduling with that pod.
Procedure
Create a pod with a specific label in the
Pod
spec:$ cat team4.yaml apiVersion: v1 kind: Pod metadata: name: security-s1 labels: security: S1 spec: containers: - name: security-s1 image: docker.io/ocpqe/hello-pod
When creating other pods, edit the
Pod
spec as follows:-
Use the
podAffinity
stanza to configure therequiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution
parameter orpreferredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution
parameter: Specify the key and value that must be met. If you want the new pod to be scheduled with the other pod, use the same
key
andvalue
parameters as the label on the first pod.podAffinity: requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution: - labelSelector: matchExpressions: - key: security operator: In values: - S1 topologyKey: failure-domain.beta.kubernetes.io/zone
-
Specify an
operator
. The operator can beIn
,NotIn
,Exists
, orDoesNotExist
. For example, use the operatorIn
to require the label to be in the node. -
Specify a
topologyKey
, which is a prepopulated Kubernetes label that the system uses to denote such a topology domain.
-
Use the
Create the pod.
$ oc create -f <pod-spec>.yaml
2.3.3. Configuring a pod anti-affinity rule
The following steps demonstrate a simple two-pod configuration that creates pod with a label and a pod that uses an anti-affinity preferred rule to attempt to prevent scheduling with that pod.
Procedure
Create a pod with a specific label in the
Pod
spec:$ cat team4.yaml apiVersion: v1 kind: Pod metadata: name: security-s2 labels: security: S2 spec: containers: - name: security-s2 image: docker.io/ocpqe/hello-pod
-
When creating other pods, edit the
Pod
spec to set the following parameters: Use the
podAntiAffinity
stanza to configure therequiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution
parameter orpreferredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution
parameter:- Specify a weight for the node, 1-100. The node that with highest weight is preferred.
Specify the key and values that must be met. If you want the new pod to not be scheduled with the other pod, use the same
key
andvalue
parameters as the label on the first pod.podAntiAffinity: preferredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution: - weight: 100 podAffinityTerm: labelSelector: matchExpressions: - key: security operator: In values: - S2 topologyKey: kubernetes.io/hostname
- For a preferred rule, specify a weight, 1-100.
-
Specify an
operator
. The operator can beIn
,NotIn
,Exists
, orDoesNotExist
. For example, use the operatorIn
to require the label to be in the node.
-
Specify a
topologyKey
, which is a prepopulated Kubernetes label that the system uses to denote such a topology domain. Create the pod.
$ oc create -f <pod-spec>.yaml
2.3.4. Sample pod affinity and anti-affinity rules
The following examples demonstrate pod affinity and pod anti-affinity.
2.3.4.1. Pod Affinity
The following example demonstrates pod affinity for pods with matching labels and label selectors.
The pod team4 has the label
team:4
.$ cat team4.yaml apiVersion: v1 kind: Pod metadata: name: team4 labels: team: "4" spec: containers: - name: ocp image: docker.io/ocpqe/hello-pod
The pod team4a has the label selector
team:4
underpodAffinity
.$ cat pod-team4a.yaml apiVersion: v1 kind: Pod metadata: name: team4a spec: affinity: podAffinity: requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution: - labelSelector: matchExpressions: - key: team operator: In values: - "4" topologyKey: kubernetes.io/hostname containers: - name: pod-affinity image: docker.io/ocpqe/hello-pod
- The team4a pod is scheduled on the same node as the team4 pod.
2.3.4.2. Pod Anti-affinity
The following example demonstrates pod anti-affinity for pods with matching labels and label selectors.
The pod pod-s1 has the label
security:s1
.cat pod-s1.yaml apiVersion: v1 kind: Pod metadata: name: pod-s1 labels: security: s1 spec: containers: - name: ocp image: docker.io/ocpqe/hello-pod
The pod pod-s2 has the label selector
security:s1
underpodAntiAffinity
.cat pod-s2.yaml apiVersion: v1 kind: Pod metadata: name: pod-s2 spec: affinity: podAntiAffinity: requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution: - labelSelector: matchExpressions: - key: security operator: In values: - s1 topologyKey: kubernetes.io/hostname containers: - name: pod-antiaffinity image: docker.io/ocpqe/hello-pod
-
The pod pod-s2 cannot be scheduled on the same node as
pod-s1
.
2.3.4.3. Pod Affinity with no Matching Labels
The following example demonstrates pod affinity for pods without matching labels and label selectors.
The pod pod-s1 has the label
security:s1
.$ cat pod-s1.yaml apiVersion: v1 kind: Pod metadata: name: pod-s1 labels: security: s1 spec: containers: - name: ocp image: docker.io/ocpqe/hello-pod
The pod pod-s2 has the label selector
security:s2
.$ cat pod-s2.yaml apiVersion: v1 kind: Pod metadata: name: pod-s2 spec: affinity: podAffinity: requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution: - labelSelector: matchExpressions: - key: security operator: In values: - s2 topologyKey: kubernetes.io/hostname containers: - name: pod-affinity image: docker.io/ocpqe/hello-pod
The pod pod-s2 is not scheduled unless there is a node with a pod that has the
security:s2
label. If there is no other pod with that label, the new pod remains in a pending state:Example output
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE IP NODE pod-s2 0/1 Pending 0 32s <none>