Enable maintenance mode on AKS

This guide describes a recommended workflow for putting a Portworx node in maintenance mode in your Kubernetes cluster.

Step 1. Migrate application pods using Portworx volumes that are running on this node

Before putting Portworx in maintenance mode on a node, applications running on that node using Portworx need to be migrated. If Portworx is in maintenance mode, existing application pods will end up with read-only volumes and new pods will fail to start.

Perform the following steps to migrate select pods:

1. Cordon the node using:

   kubectl cordon <node>

2. Delete the application pods using Portworx volumes using:

   kubectl delete pod <pod-name>

   Since application pods are expected to be managed by a controller like Deployment or StatefulSet, Kubernetes will spin up a new replacement pod on another node.

Step 2. Enter maintenance mode

pxctl service maintenance --enter

This takes Portworx out of an “Operational” state for a given node. Perform whatever maintenance tasks are needed.

Step 3. Exit maintenance mode

Once you are done with maintenance tasks, run:

pxctl service maintenance --exit

This puts Portworx back in to “Operational” state for a given node.

Step 4. Uncordon the node

You can now uncordon the node using:

kubectl uncordon <node>