Access cloud serverless computing power from a self-managed Kubernetes cluster by using ACK Virtual Node

Introduction to ACK Virtual Node

ACK Virtual Node seamlessly connects Kubernetes to cloud serverless computing power. This allows your self-managed Kubernetes cluster to easily access elastic computing power from the cloud, including CPU and GPU resources. With ACK Virtual Node, you can create serverless pods in your self-managed Kubernetes cluster and use cloud computing power to efficiently handle business growth and traffic peaks.

Prerequisites

• A Kubernetes cluster is deployed. Kubernetes 1.18 or later is recommended.

• An AccessKey pair is created for the Alibaba Cloud Resource Access Management (RAM) user or role that is used for the ACK Virtual Node Helm chart. The RAM user or role must be granted permissions to call Elastic Container Instance (ECI) OpenAPI operations. For more information, see Grant permissions to a RAM user. The required authorization information is as follows:

{
    "Version": "1",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Action": [
                "eci:CreateContainerGroup",
                "eci:DeleteContainerGroup",
                "eci:DescribeContainerGroups",
                "eci:DescribeContainerGroupStatus",
                "eci:DescribeContainerGroupEvents",
                "eci:DescribeContainerLog",
                "eci:UpdateContainerGroup",
                "eci:UpdateContainerGroupByTemplate",
                "eci:CreateContainerGroupFromTemplate",
                "eci:RestartContainerGroup",
                "eci:ExportContainerGroupTemplate",
                "eci:DescribeContainerGroupMetric",
                "eci:DescribeMultiContainerGroupMetric",
                "eci:ExecContainerCommand",
                "eci:CreateImageCache",
                "eci:DescribeImageCaches",
                "eci:DeleteImageCache",
                "vpc:DescribeVSwitches"
            ],
            "Resource": [
                "*"
            ],
            "Effect": "Allow"
        }
    ]
}

Install the component

1. Create a my-values.yaml file based on the following example and save it to a local folder.

   virtualNode:
     image:
       repository: registry-{Region}.ack.aliyuncs.com/acs/virtual-nodes-eci
       tag: v2.12.1
   env:
     ECI_REGION: cn-zhangjiakou
     ECI_VSWITCH: vsw-8vb***
     ECI_SECURITY_GROUP: sg-8vb***
     ECI_ACCESS_KEY: yourAccessKeyID
     ECI_SECRET_KEY: yourAccessKeySecret

   Parameter description:

   Parameter name	Description	Required	Example
   virtualNode.image.repository	The address of the virtual-node image repository.	Required	registry-cn-zhangjiakou.ack.aliyuncs.com/acs/virtual-nodes-eci
   virtualNode.image.tag	The tag of the virtual-node image.	Required	v2.12.1
   env.ECI_REGION	The ID of the region where the Elastic Container Instance resides.	Required	cn-zhangjiakou
   env.ECI_VSWITCH	The ID of the vSwitch where the Elastic Container Instance resides. To specify multiple vSwitches, separate their IDs with commas (,). Reserve a sufficient number of IP addresses for the vSwitches based on the number of serverless pods.	Required	vsw-8vb***
   env.ECI_SECURITY_GROUP	The ID of the security group where the Elastic Container Instance resides.	Required	sg-8vb***
   env.ECI_ACCESS_KEY	The AccessKey ID of your Alibaba Cloud account. Make sure that the account has the permissions to call ECI API operations.	Required	yourAccessKeyID
   env.ECI_SECRET_KEY	The AccessKey secret of your Alibaba Cloud account. Make sure that the account has the permissions to call ECI API operations.	Required	yourAccessKeySecret
   env.KUBERNETES_APISERVER_HOST	API Server address. Set this parameter to specify an API Server address.	Optional	192.168.0.1
   env.KUBERNETES_APISERVER_PORT	The port of the private IP address of the API Server.	Optional	6443
   env.ECI_VPC	The ID of the VPC where the Elastic Container Instance resides.	Optional	vpc-8vb***
   env.ALIYUN_RESOURCEGROUP_ID	The ID of the resource group to which the Elastic Container Instance belongs.	Optional	rg-acf***

2. Run the following command to add the Helm repo.

   helm repo add aliyunhub https://aliacs-app-catalog.oss-cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/charts-incubator/

3. Run the following command to install ack-virtual-node.

   helm install ack-virtual-node aliyunhub/ack-virtual-node --namespace kube-system --values my-values.yaml

4. Run the following command to check the application status.

   kubectl  get no |grep virtual-kubelet

   Expected output:

   virtual-kubelet-cn-zhangjiakou-c   Ready    agent    10d   v1.18.8

Schedule pods to run on cloud serverless computing power

In your self-managed Kubernetes cluster, you can schedule pods to run on ECI using one of the following three methods.

Method 1: Configure pod labels

1. Run the following command to deploy the test case with the specified Pod label.

   kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
   apiVersion: apps/v1
   kind: Deployment
   metadata:
     labels:
       app: nginx
     name: nginx-deployment-pod-label
     namespace: default
   spec:
     replicas: 2
     selector:
       matchLabels:
         app: nginx
     template:
       metadata:
         labels:
           alibabacloud.com/eci: 'true'   # Specify the pod label to use cloud serverless computing power
           app: nginx
       spec:
         containers:
           - image: 'registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/eci_open/nginx:1.14.2'
             imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
             name: nginx
             ports:
               - containerPort: 80
                 protocol: TCP
             resources:
               limits:
                 cpu: 500m
   EOF

2. Run the following command to check the application status.

    kubectl get pod -owide | grep nginx-deployment-pod-label

   Expected output:

   nginx-deployment-pod-label-6575548559-7p9hf     1/1     Running   0          33s    192.168.XX.XXX    virtual-kubelet-cn-zhangjiakou-c   <none>           <none>
   nginx-deployment-pod-label-6575548559-tztm6     1/1     Running   0          33s    192.168.XX.XXX    virtual-kubelet-cn-zhangjiakou-c   <none>           <none>

Method 2: Configure namespace labels

1. Run the following command to create a namespace named vk.

   kubectl create ns vk

2. Run the following command to add the alibabacloud.com/eci=true label to the namespace.

   kubectl label namespace vk alibabacloud.com/eci=true

3. Run the following command to deploy the test case to the specified namespace.

   kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
   apiVersion: apps/v1
   kind: Deployment
   metadata:
     labels:
       app: nginx
     name: nginx-deployment-ns-label
     namespace: vk
   spec:
     replicas: 2
     selector:
       matchLabels:
         app: nginx
     template:
       metadata:
         labels:
           app: nginx
       spec:
         containers:
           - image: 'registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/eci_open/nginx:1.14.2'
             imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
             name: nginx
             ports:
               - containerPort: 80
                 protocol: TCP
             resources:
               limits:
                 cpu: 500m
   EOF

4. You can run the following command to check the application status.

   kubectl get po -nvk -owide |grep  nginx-deployment-ns-label

   Expected output:

   nginx-deployment-ns-label-7bc784448c-5llgb   1/1     Running   0          30s   192.168.XX.XXX   virtual-kubelet-cn-zhangjiakou-c   <none>           <none>
   nginx-deployment-ns-label-7bc784448c-8ns9q   1/1     Running   0          30s   192.168.XX.XXX   virtual-kubelet-cn-zhangjiakou-c   <none>           <none>

Method 3: Specify a node name

1. Run the following command to deploy the test case to the specified node.

   kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
   apiVersion: apps/v1
   kind: Deployment
   metadata:
     labels:
       app: nginx
     name: nginx-deployment-node-name
     namespace: default
   spec:
     replicas: 2
     selector:
       matchLabels:
         app: nginx
     template:
       metadata:
         labels:
           app: nginx
       spec:
         nodeName: virtual-kubelet-cn-zhangjiakou-c             # Specify the nodeName of ack-virtual-node
         containers:
           - image: 'registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/eci_open/nginx:1.14.2'
             imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
             name: nginx
             ports:
               - containerPort: 80
                 protocol: TCP
             resources:
               limits:
                 cpu: 500m
   EOF

2. Run the following command to check the application status.

   kubectl get pod -owide |grep nginx-deployment-node-name

   Expected output:

   nginx-deployment-node-name-864dffd59f-jq58n     1/1     Running   0          23s     192.168.XX.XXX     virtual-kubelet-cn-zhangjiakou-c   <none>           <none>
   nginx-deployment-node-name-864dffd59f-r87zp     1/1     Running   0          23s     192.168.XX.XXX     virtual-kubelet-cn-zhangjiakou-c   <none>           <none>

References

• Create a pod with a specified GPU type

• Create a spot instance

• Increase the size of the temporary storage space

• Collect metrics from a specified virtual node

• ACK Virtual Node component overview and release notes