Enable approvals in OpenShift vSphere for Autopilot
Summary and Key concepts
Summary:
This article explains how to use Portworx Autopilot rules with approval workflows. It covers creating an AutopilotRule
that requires manual approval before taking actions, such as expanding a PVC. The workflow includes creating the application, storage class, PVCs, and AutopilotRule, then monitoring the rule as it triggers when specified conditions (like volume usage exceeding 50%) are met. Afterward, the article demonstrates how to approve or decline the action via the ActionApproval
resource. Once approved, the action (e.g., volume resizing) proceeds; otherwise, it remains in a declined state until the ActionApproval
object is deleted.
Kubernetes Concepts:
- PersistentVolumeClaim (PVC): A request for storage resources in Kubernetes. Autopilot can resize PVCs based on predefined rules.
- StorageClass: Defines different types of storage that can be dynamically provisioned in Kubernetes.
- kubectl patch: A command used to modify Kubernetes resources, such as approving or declining an
ActionApproval
.
Portworx Concepts:
- Autopilot: Automates storage operations like resizing PVCs based on rules and conditions.
Prerequisites
- Autopilot 1.3.0 and above
Overview
The general workflow of using an AutopilotRule with approvals enabled consists of the following:
- Create AutopilotRule with approvals enabled
- Approve or Decline the action by using the ActionApproval CRD
The general workflow expands to the following steps. The Example section later will cover a detailed working example.
- Create an AutopilotRule with
enforcement: approvalRequired
in the spec - Wait until the objects meet the conditions specified in the rule. For example, if the rule is to expand a volume when its usage is greater than 50%, wait for this condition.
- Once the conditions are met, list of the action approvals in the namespace. Identity the item in the list for the concerned object.
- Update the
approvalState
field in the ActionApproval object spec toapproved
ordeclined
. - Based on whether you approved or declined in the previous step, the action will either proceed or get declined respectively.
Example
The example below demonstrates an AutopilotRule that expands Postgres PVCs whose usage increases more than 50%. The rule will require approvals before any action to expand the PVC can take place.
Create specs
Application and PVC specs
Create the storage and application spec files:
-
Create
namespace.yaml
and place the following content inside it:apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
name: pg1
labels:
type: db -
Create
postgres-sc.yaml
and place the following content inside it:##### Portworx storage class
apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
kind: StorageClass
metadata:
name: postgres-pgbench-sc
provisioner: pxd.portworx.com
parameters:
repl: "2"
allowVolumeExpansion: true -
Create
postgres-vol.yaml
and place the following content inside it:kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
name: pgbench-data
labels:
app: postgres
spec:
storageClassName: postgres-pgbench-sc
accessModes:
- ReadWriteOnce
resources:
requests:
storage: 10Gi
---
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
name: pgbench-state
spec:
storageClassName: postgres-pgbench-sc
accessModes:
- ReadWriteOnce
resources:
requests:
storage: 1Gi -
Create
postgres-app.yaml
and place the following content inside it. Note the following:-
The application in this example is a PostgreSQL database with a pgbench sidecar.
-
The
SIZE
environment variable in this spec instructs pgbench to write 8GiB of data to the volume. Since the PVC is only 10GiB in size, Autopilot will resize the PVC when needed.apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
name: pgbench
labels:
app: pgbench
spec:
selector:
matchLabels:
app: pgbench
strategy:
rollingUpdate:
maxSurge: 1
maxUnavailable: 1
type: RollingUpdate
replicas: 1
template:
metadata:
labels:
app: pgbench
spec:
schedulerName: stork
containers:
- image: postgres:9.5
name: postgres
ports:
- containerPort: 5432
env:
- name: POSTGRES_USER
value: pgbench
- name: POSTGRES_PASSWORD
value: superpostgres
- name: PGBENCH_PASSWORD
value: superpostgres
- name: PGDATA
value: /var/lib/postgresql/data/pgdata
volumeMounts:
- mountPath: /var/lib/postgresql/data
name: pgbenchdb
- name: pgbench
image: portworx/torpedo-pgbench:latest
imagePullPolicy: "Always"
env:
- name: PG_HOST
value: 127.0.0.1
- name: PG_USER
value: pgbench
- name: SIZE
value: "8"
volumeMounts:
- mountPath: /var/lib/postgresql/data
name: pgbenchdb
- mountPath: /pgbench
name: pgbenchstate
volumes:
- name: pgbenchdb
persistentVolumeClaim:
claimName: pgbench-data
- name: pgbenchstate
persistentVolumeClaim:
claimName: pgbench-state
-
AutopilotRule spec
Once you've created your storage and application specs, you can create an AutopilotRule that controls them.
Create a YAML spec for the autopilot rule named autopilotrule-approval-example.yaml
and place the following content inside it:
apiVersion: autopilot.libopenstorage.org/v1alpha1
kind: AutopilotRule
metadata:
name: volume-resize
spec:
#### enforcement indicates that actions from this rule need approval
enforcement: approvalRequired
##### selector filters the objects affected by this rule given labels
selector:
matchLabels:
app: postgres
##### namespaceSelector selects the namespaces of the objects affected by this rule
namespaceSelector:
matchLabels:
type: db
##### conditions are the symptoms to evaluate. All conditions are AND'ed
conditions:
# volume usage should be less than 50%
expressions:
- key: "100 * (px_volume_usage_bytes / px_volume_capacity_bytes)"
operator: Gt
values:
- "50"
##### action to perform when condition is true
actions:
- name: openstorage.io.action.volume/resize
params:
# resize volume by scalepercentage of current size
scalepercentage: "100"
# volume capacity should not exceed 400GiB
maxsize: "400Gi"
Apply specs
Once you've designed your specs, deploy them:
oc apply -f autopilotrule-approval-example.yaml
oc apply -f namespace.yaml
oc apply -f postgres-sc.yaml
oc apply -f postgres-vol.yaml -n pg1
oc apply -f postgres-app.yaml -n pg1
Approve or decline the action
Wait until conditions are triggered
After you apply the specs above, Postgres will start populating data to the PVC. Once Autopilot detects that the volume usage is greater than 50%, it will create an ActionApproval object in the pg1 namespace.
List the Kubernetes events for this rule and wait until your rule is in the ActionAwaitingApproval state.
oc get events --field-selector involvedObject.kind=AutopilotRule,involvedObject.name=volume-resize -n default -w
LAST SEEN TYPE REASON OBJECT MESSAGE
10m Normal Transition autopilotrule/volume-resize rule: volume-resize:pvc-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-9ddd748cfe8e transition from Initializing => Normal
67s Normal Transition autopilotrule/volume-resize rule: volume-resize:pvc-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-9ddd748cfe8e transition from Normal => Triggered
34s Normal Transition autopilotrule/volume-resize rule: volume-resize:pvc-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-9ddd748cfe8e transition from Triggered => ActionAwaitingApproval
If you only see Initializing => Normal
as the event, this means postgres is still writing data to your volume and usage has not crossed 50%.
Approve the action
-
List the
actionapproval
for this object:oc get actionapproval -n pg1
NAME APPROVAL-STATE
volume-resize-pvc-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-9ddd748cfe8e pending -
Patch and approve the actionapproval:
oc patch actionapproval -n pg1 volume-resize-pvc-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-9ddd748cfe8e --type=merge -p '{"spec":{"approvalState":"approved"}}'
actionapproval.autopilot.libopenstorage.org/volume-resize-pvc-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-9ddd748cfe8e patched
-
Once approved, you will see that the actions will progress. List the events again:
oc get events --field-selector involvedObject.kind=AutopilotRule,involvedObject.name=volume-resize -n default -w
LAST SEEN TYPE REASON OBJECT MESSAGE
19m Normal Transition autopilotrule/volume-resize rule: volume-resize:pvc-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-9ddd748cfe8e transition from Initializing => Normal
10m Normal Transition autopilotrule/volume-resize rule: volume-resize:pvc-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-9ddd748cfe8e transition from Normal => Triggered
9m47s Normal Transition autopilotrule/volume-resize rule: volume-resize:pvc-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-9ddd748cfe8e transition from Triggered => ActionAwaitingApproval
8m52s Normal Transition autopilotrule/volume-resize rule: volume-resize:pvc-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-9ddd748cfe8e transition from ActionAwaitingApproval => ActiveActionsPending
7m51s Normal Transition autopilotrule/volume-resize rule: volume-resize:pvc-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-9ddd748cfe8e transition from ActiveActionsPending => ActiveActionsInProgress
7m20s Normal Transition autopilotrule/volume-resize rule: volume-resize:pvc-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-9ddd748cfe8e transition from ActiveActionsInProgress => ActiveActionsTaken
Decline the action
To decline, you should use declined instead of approved in the patch command.
Actions for the object will continue to stay in declined state until the actionapproval
object is present and has approval state as declined. When you want Autopilot to resume monitoring this object, delete the actionapproval object.
For e.g for the above case,
oc delete actionapproval -n pg1 volume-resize-pvc-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-9ddd748cfe8e