Container Service for Kubernetes:Create and manage Windows node pools in an ACK cluster

Resource reservation

Since May 2021, Windows nodes in ACK clusters version 1.16 or later automatically reserve the following resources at startup:

• 1.5 vCPUs

• 2.5 GB of RAM

• 3 GB of disk space

This reservation keeps the Windows OS, kubelet, and container runtime stable. Windows containers are not subject to out-of-memory (OOM) kill when memory usage exceeds the configured limit — but a memory leak in a container application can still cause the node to crash. For more information, see Node resource reservation policy and Memory requirements for Windows containers.

Console

1. Log on to the ACK console. In the left navigation pane, click Clusters.

2. On the Clusters page, click the name of the target cluster, then choose Nodes > Node Pools in the left navigation pane.

3. On the Node Pools page, click Create Node Pool and configure the following parameters. For a full parameter reference, see Create and manage node pools.

   Parameter	Setting
   Configure Managed Node Pool	Select Disable
   Container Runtime	Select containerd
   Instance Type	Select an instance type with at least 4 vCPUs and 8 GB of memory — for example, ecs.g6.xlarge. Do not select Elastic GPU Service instance types. For a full list, see Instance families.
   Expected Number of Nodes	The number of nodes the pool maintains. The pool scales in or out automatically to match this value.
   Operating System	Select a Windows Server image
   ECS Tags	(Optional) Tags to apply to the underlying ECS instances
   Node Labels	(Optional) Kubernetes labels to apply to the nodes

4. Complete the remaining steps and submit.

The node pool is ready when its Status changes to Active on the Node Pools page.

API

Use the CreateClusterNodePool operation to create a Windows node pool programmatically. The example below shows the key parameters.

{
  "ClusterId": "ca8ed83XXXXXXXXXXXX5ec197",
  "body": {
    "nodepool_info": {
      "name": "nodepool-fXXXXXx",
      "resource_group_id": "rg-acfmXXXXXXXXsjpq"
    },
    "scaling_group": {
      "vswitch_ids": [
        "vsw-bp1XXXXXXXXXXXXX1xm84",
        "vsw-bp1XXXXXXXXXXXX2v6x0a",
        "vsw-bp1XXXXXXXXXXXXXjkxbo"
      ],
      "data_disks": [
        {
          "category": "cloud_essd",
          "size": 120,
          "encrypted": "false",
          "performance_level": "PL0"
        }
      ],
      "vpc_id": "vpc-bpXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXmgb6",
      "instance_charge_type": "PostPaid",
      "internet_max_bandwidth_out": 1,
      "soc_enabled": false,
      "security_hardening_os": false,
      "instance_types": [
        "ecs.g6.xlarge"
      ],
      "instance_patterns": [
        {
          "Cores": 4,
          "Memory": 16,
          "burst_performance_option": "Exclude",
          "excluded_instance_types": [
            "ecs.c6t.*"
          ],
          "instance_type_families": [
            "ecs.g6"
          ]
        }
      ],
      "login_password": "XXXXXX",
      "login_as_non_root": false,
      "system_disk_category": "cloud_essd",
      "system_disk_size": 40,
      "system_disk_performance_level": "PL0",
      "system_disk_encrypted": false,
      "multi_az_policy": "BALANCE",
      "platform": "WindowsServer2022",
      "image_id": "win2022_21H2_x64_dtc_en-us_40G_container_alibase_20240220.vhd",
      "image_type": "WindowsServer2022",
      "desired_size": 1
    },
    "kubernetes_config": {
      "cms_enabled": true,
      "unschedulable": false,
      "runtime": "containerd",
      "runtime_version": "2.1.1"
    },
    "auto_scaling": {
      "enable": false
    },
    "tee_config": {
      "tee_enable": false
    },
    "node_config": {
      "image_acceleration_config": {
        "enable_image_acceleration": false
      }
    }
  }
}

Key parameters:

Terraform

Use the alicloud_cs_kubernetes_node_pool resource to create a Windows node pool. For an overview, see Terraform overview.

provider "alicloud" {
  region = "cn-beijing"
}

resource "alicloud_cs_kubernetes_node_pool" "pool" {
  cluster_id = "c1f801474ea46417d8e83cc482******"

  data_disks {
    category          = "cloud_essd"
    encrypted         = "false"
    performance_level = "PL0"
    size              = 120
  }

  desired_size          = 1
  image_id              = "win2019_1809_x64_dtc_en-us_40G_container_alibase_20240220.vhd"
  image_type            = "Windows"
  install_cloud_monitor = true
  instance_charge_type  = "PostPaid"
  instance_types        = ["ecs.g8i.xlarge"]
  internet_max_bandwidth_out = 0
  login_as_non_root     = false
  multi_az_policy       = "BALANCE"
  node_pool_name        = "nodepool-8liYZX"
  password              = "**********"
  platform              = "WindowsServer2019"
  resource_group_id     = "rg-acfmvnjn2*****"
  runtime_name          = "containerd"
  runtime_version       = "2.1.5"

  scaling_config {
    enable      = false
    is_bond_eip = false
  }

  security_hardening_os         = false
  soc_enabled                   = false
  system_disk_category          = "cloud_essd"
  system_disk_encrypted         = false
  system_disk_performance_level = "PL0"
  system_disk_size              = 40

  tee_config {
    tee_enable = false
  }

  unschedulable = false

  vswitch_ids = [
    "vsw-2ze9k65q3wn23wy*****",
    "vsw-2zekovpspoxgn44*****",
    "vsw-2ze54z91jw267e1*****"
  ]
}