Knowledge Base  /  Cloud Application Manager  /  Automating Deployments
Knowledge Base  /  Cloud Application Manager  /  Automating Deployments

Using Kubernetes

Updated by Dénes Pál on Jan 02, 2019
Article Code: kb/1197

In this article:

Overview

With the Kubernetes provider of Cloud Application Manager you can create and manage any Kubernetes resource, using Template Boxes with declarative YAML templates.

Audience

All Cloud Application Manager users intended to use a Kubernetes provider.

Prerequisites

Getting started with Kubernetes on Cloud Application Manager

This article is a second part of a series, and requires that a Kubernetes provider is already set up with Cloud Application Manager. Detailed instructions on how to set up a Kubernetes provider can be found in the first part of this article.

Deployment Policies for Kubernetes

Kubernetes Deployment policies are bound to a Namespace. A deployment to Kubernetes is limited to a single namespace, which is defined in the selected Deployment Policy.

When Cloud Application Manager first synchronizes the Kubernetes provider, it creates a sample Deployment Policy Box pointing to the default namespace, or if unavailable, to kube-public or else the first available namespace.

Automatically created Policy Box of a Kubernetes Provider

You can create additional deployment policies either by cloning the sample one, or by navigating to Boxes -> New -> Deployment Policy and selecting Kubernetes as type.

Creating a new Kubernetes Policy Box

You can change the namespace associated with a Deployment Policy by editing the Policy on the Code tab of the Policy Box.

Changing the Namespace for a Kubernetes Policy Box

Create a Template Box

Go to Boxes -> New -> Template and select Kubernetes as type.

Creating a new Kubernetes Template Box

Fill the parameters as usual. Mind that if you define any Requirements in the template box, you also need to list those in a Deployment Policy Box as Claims in order to be able to deploy the Template using that Policy.

Details of a new Kubernetes Template Box

A Kubernetes Template Box can have multiple template files, currently only in YAML format, but Cloud Application Manager also supports Jinja syntax with YAML. You can change the order of template files by dragging and dropping with the mouse, or long-pressing and dragging on a touch-screen device. At least one template file is required to deploy a Kubernetes Template Box.

A Kubernetes Template Box with multiple templates

In YAML it is valid to define multiple documents in a single file, separated by a line with three dashes only, as shown in this snippet below:

...
            memory: 100Mi
        ports:
        - containerPort: 80
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: frontend-{{ service }}
  namespace: {{ namespace }}
...

Kubernetes templates shall not include a hard-coded namespace property in their metadata. Since the namespace is determined and forced by the Deployment Policy Box used to deploy the Instance, the deployment will fail if the template requests a namespace different from the one set with the Policy. The namespace set in the Deployment Policy can be referred with the namespace variable.

If you want to deploy the same Template Box multiple times with the same Deployment Policy (and hence into the same namespace), in order to avoid name collisions, you need to include the value of Cloud Application Manager Service ID in the name of the deployed resources, and perhaps in the labels and selectors as well. Use YAML syntax to paste the Service ID into templates, as shown below:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: frontend-{{ service }}
  namespace: {{ namespace }}
...

The following Jinja variables are always available in templates:

Variable Description
environment Name of the Instance
instance Instance ID
namespace The current Namespace from Deployment Policy
service Service ID
tags List of Tags
workspace Workspace or Owner of the Instance

The New Template dialog offers you the following options:

  • Create a blank template by specifying its filename (please follow *.yaml convention)
  • Upload a YAML template file from disk
  • Download a YAML template from remote URL
  • Import YAML templates from a file or a directory on GitHub

Importing Kubernetes templates from a Github repository

If the URL is a GitHub repository, the files from that directory are automatically imported, as long as the filename ends with .yaml

There are some sample templates to test Kubernetes deployments in this GitHub repository.

If there is already a template file with that name, it won't get overwritten, but duplicate names will block adding new templates, so one of them has to be deleted first in order to continue.

Deploying Kubernetes Template Boxes

When Deploying a Template Box, you need to select a suitable Kubernetes Deployment Policy, with matching claims to the requirements defined in your Template Box.

Endpoints of a Service resource on Kubernetes

On deployment, Cloud Application Manager is going to parse the templates, first by executing Jinja instructions and variable substitutions, then parsing the YAML documents as resources. For every resource defined in the templates, Cloud Application Manager adds some labels and annotations, then submit them one-by-one to the Kubernetes cluster to create new resources, or to update an existing ones. If a resource already exists, Cloud Application Manager generates a patch against the previous known version of the template (stored as an annotation on the Kubernetes resource), or against the current specification of the resource read from the Kubernetes cluster. (In some cases, the later approach could fail: if the resource was created or modified outside of Cloud Application Manager, for example.)

Deploying an Instance on Kubernetes

Endpoints

Cloud Application Manager scans through deployed resources, looking for loadBalancer property in their statuses, and collects ingress IP addresses or hostnames, and populate the Endpoints tab with them.

Endpoints of a Service resource on Kubernetes

Endpoints are collected after deploying or reconfiguring an Instance.

Output Variables

There is no way to define output variables in Kubernetes templates, but Cloud Application Manager will create some output variables from the endpoints found with the deployment, like name_Address, name_Kind, name_Port and name_Protocol.

You can see the output variables of any deployed Instance in the Lifecycle Editor.

Lifecycle Editor of an Instance on Kubernetes

List of Deployed Resources

The resources that have been created with the deployment are shown in the Resources tab of the Instance details page. List of resources is cleared when the instance is terminated.

Deployed Kubernetes resources of an Instance

Resources are collected after deploying or reconfiguring an Instance.

Discovering and Registering Existing Resources

Resources already existing on the cluster are discovered when synchronizing the Kubernetes provider and are shown on the Unregistered Resources tab of the provider, and also on the Instances page as Unregistered.

Unregistered Resources tab of a Kubernetes Provider

You can import an unregistered resource by clicking the arrow symbol in the rightmost column of the table.

Importing an unregistered Kubernetes resource

When registering a resource, Cloud Application Manager creates an Instance Box for the resource, and populates it with a template representing the current schema of the resource on the cluster. It also updates the resource in the cluster with annotations and labels.

Lifecycle Editor showing the template of an imported Kubernetes resource

Once the resource is imported as an Instance, it can be reconfigured or terminated as normal. If any ingress address belongs to the resource, it is listed on the Endpoints tab and also exposed as output variable.

An Instance of an imported Kubernetes resource

Getting General Support

Customers can contact the Lumen Global Operations Support center (support desk) directly for getting help with Cloud Application Manager as well as any other supported product that they’ve subscribed to. Below are three ways to get help.

Contact:

  1. Phone: 888-638-6771

  2. Email: incident@centurylink.com

  3. Create Ticket in Cloud Application Manager: Directly within the platform, users can “Create Ticket” by clicking on the “?” symbol in upper right corner near the users log-in profile icon. This takes users directly to the Managed Servicers Portal where they can open, track and review status of issues that have been raised with the support desk. Additionally, this is how a TAM can be engaged as well.

Instructions:

  1. Provide your name
  2. Cloud Application Manager account name
  3. A brief description of your request or issue for case recording purposes

The support desk will escalate the information to the Primary TAM and transfer the call if desired.