Kubernetes Packages

Charmed Kubernetes makes extensive use of snaps, both for Kubernetes services and for client-side tools to operate a cluster. This page details some of the Kubernetes-related snaps available and how they are used.

Client-side Snaps

The following client tools are available. Note that it is not required that you use the Snap version of these tools to work with Charmed Kubernetes, they are just provided as a maintained and tested way of keeping up to date.

kubectl - client for running commands on a Kubernetes cluster. Docs | Snap

kubeadm - a tool for bootstrapping a Kubernetes cluster. Docs | Snap

These are installed in the same way. For example:

sudo snap install kubectl --classic

Note:

If you install tools such as **kubectl** from both the snap store and the apt archive they will be in different locations. Depending on your environment the snap may be resolved before the Debian installed package.

Server Snaps

When installing Charmed Kubernetes, various necessary services are actually installed from snap packages. The installation and management of these snaps is undertaken by the charms; there is no need for a user to interact with the snaps directly. The details here are provided for information only.

Snap	Type	Store page
kube-apiserver	strict	https://snapcraft.io/kube-apiserver
kube-controller-manager	strict	https://snapcraft.io/kube-controller-manager
kube-proxy	classic	https://snapcraft.io/kube-proxy
kube-scheduler	strict	https://snapcraft.io/kube-scheduler
kubelet	classic	https://snapcraft.io/kubelet

Example: kube-apiserver

We will use kube-apiserver as an example. The other services generally work the same way.

Install with snap install:

sudo snap install kube-apiserver

This creates a systemd service named snap.kube-apiserver.daemon. Initially, it will be in an error state because it's missing important configuration:

Running:

systemctl status snap.kube-apiserver.daemon

... will return status similar to:

● snap.kube-apiserver.daemon.service - Service for snap application kube-apiserver.daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/snap.kube-apiserver.daemon.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: inactive (dead) (Result: exit-code) since Fri 2020-09-01 15:54:39 UTC; 11s ago
   ...

The snap can be configured using snap set:

sudo snap set kube-apiserver args="
--etcd-servers=https://172.31.9.254:2379
--etcd-certfile=/root/certs/client.crt
--etcd-keyfile=/root/certs/client.key
--etcd-cafile=/root/certs/ca.crt
--service-cluster-ip-range=10.123.123.0/24
--cert-dir=/root/certs
"

Note:

Any files used by the service, such as certificate files, must be placed within the /root/ directory to be visible to the service. This limitation allows some of the services to run in a strict confinement mode that offers better isolation and security.

After configuring, restart the service and you should see it running:

sudo snap restart kube-apiserver
systemctl status snap.kube-apiserver.daemon

● snap.kube-apiserver.daemon.service - Service for snap application kube-apiserver.daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/snap.kube-apiserver.daemon.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Fri 2017-09-01 16:02:33 UTC; 6s ago
   ...

Going further

Want to know more? Here are a couple good things to know:

If you're confused about what snap set ... is actually doing, you can read the snap configure hooks in /snap/<snap-name>/current/meta/hooks/configure to see how they work.

The configure hook creates an args file at /var/snap/<snap-name>/current/args. This contains the actual arguments that get passed to the service by the snap:

--cert-dir "/root/certs"
--etcd-cafile "/root/certs/ca.crt"
--etcd-certfile "/root/certs/client.crt"
--etcd-keyfile "/root/certs/client.key"
--etcd-servers "https://172.31.9.254:2379"
--service-cluster-ip-range "10.123.123.0/24"

Note:

While you can technically bypass snap set and edit the args file directly, it's best not to do so. The next time the configure hook runs, it will obliterate your changes. This can occur not only from a call to snap set but also during a background refresh of the snap.

The source code for the snaps can be found here:

https://launchpad.net/snap-kubectl

https://launchpad.net/snap-kubeadm

https://launchpad.net/snap-kube-apiserver

https://launchpad.net/snap-kube-controller-manager

https://launchpad.net/snap-kube-scheduler

https://launchpad.net/snap-kubelet

https://launchpad.net/snap-kube-proxy

We appreciate your feedback on the documentation. You can edit this page or file a bug here.

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