ack-virtual-node

Introduction

The ack-virtual-node component is developed based on the open source project Virtual Kubelet and is extended to support Aliyun Provider. Many improvements are made to the ack-virtual-node component to enable seamless integration between Kubernetes and Elastic Container Instance. This way, Kubernetes clusters are empowered with high elasticity and are no longer limited by the computing capacity of cluster nodes. You can dynamically create Elastic Container Instance-based pods to meet your business requirements. This saves the trouble of cluster sizing.

The ack-virtual-node component can be used to run pods as serverless container groups in Elastic Container Instance. The pay-as-you-go billing method is supported. This ensures optimal auto scaling capability and avoids unnecessary resource usage. You can use ack-virtual-node to improve the efficiency of application deployment and auto scaling, and minimize the computing cost in multiple scenarios. These scenarios include Job tasks, continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD), Apache Spark big data computing, and online application auto scaling.

For more information about Elastic Container Instance-based pods, see Elastic Container Instance overview.

Usage notes

Use ack-virtual-node to create a pod.

1. Configure permissions.

   Before you can install the component in a registered cluster, you must specify the AccessKey information to authenticate requests that are sent to cloud resources. Before you set the AccessKey information, create a Resource Access Management (RAM) user and grant the RAM user the permissions to access Alibaba Cloud resources.

   1. Create a RAM user.

      For more information, see Create a RAM user.

   2. Create a permission policy.
      For more information, see Create a custom policy.

      The following template provides an example of the permission policy for ack-virtual-node:

      {
          "Version": "1",
          "Statement": [
              {
                  "Action": [
                      "eci:CreateContainerGroup",
                      "eci:DeleteContainerGroup",
                      "eci:DescribeContainerGroups",
                      "eci:DescribeContainerLog",
                      "eci:UpdateContainerGroup",
                      "eci:UpdateContainerGroupByTemplate",
                      "eci:CreateContainerGroupFromTemplate",
                      "eci:RestartContainerGroup",
                      "eci:ExportContainerGroupTemplate",
                      "eci:DescribeContainerGroupMetric",
                      "eci:DescribeMultiContainerGroupMetric",
                      "eci:ExecContainerCommand",
                      "eci:CreateImageCache",
                      "eci:DescribeImageCaches",
                      "eci:DeleteImageCache"
                  ],
                  "Resource": [
                      "*"
                  ],
                  "Effect": "Allow"
              }
          ]
      }

   3. Grant permissions to the RAM user

      For more information, see Grant permissions to a RAM user.

   4. Create an AccessKey pair for the RAM user.

      For more information about how to create an AccessKey pair for the RAM user, see Obtain an AccessKey pair.

      Run the following command to create a Secret that is used by ack-virtual-node:

      kubectl create nskubectl -n kube-system create secret generic alibaba-addon-secret --from-literal='access-key-id=<your access key id>' --from-literal='access-key-secret=<your access key secret>'

      Replace <your access key id> and <your access key secret> in the command with your AccessKey ID and AccessKey secret.

2. Install ack-virtual-node.
   1. Log on to the ACK console.
   2. On the Clusters page, find the cluster that you want to manage and choose More > Manage System Components in the Actions column.
   3. Find ack-virtual-node and click Install.
3. Create an Elastic Container Instance-based pod.
   You can use ack-virtual-node to create an Elastic Container Instance-based pod in the following ways:
   • Add the label eci=true to the pod.

     kubectl run nginx --image nginx -l eci=true

   • Add the label eci=true to the namespace where the pod is to be deployed.

     kubectl create ns vk
     
     kubectl label namespace vk eci=true
     
     kubectl -n vk run nginx --image nginx

Release notes

May 2021

April 2021

March 2021

February 2021

December 2020

September 2020

March 2020