Create a workflow cluster to manage multiple workflow tasks - Container Service for Kubernetes

Run Argo Workflows at scale on serverless ECI by optimizing Kubernetes cluster parameters for efficient elastic scheduling, with preemptible instances for cost efficiency.

Prerequisites

Ensure that you have:

Distributed Cloud Container Platform for Kubernetes (ACK One) is activated.
Elastic Container Instance (ECI) is activated.
A Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) and vSwitches are created
Alibaba Cloud CLI 3.0.159 or later installed and credentials configured
The AliyunAdcpFullAccess policy is granted to the RAM user
jq installed (required for CLI steps):
- macOS: brew install jq
- CentOS: yum install jq
- Ubuntu: apt-get install jq

Create a workflow cluster

Use the console

Log on to the ACK One console.

On the Workflow Cluster page, click Create Workflow Cluster. Configure the following parameters and click Create.

Parameter	Description
Cluster Name	1–63 characters: letters, digits, underscores (`_`), and hyphens (`-`). Must start with a letter.
Region	The deployment region.
VPC	The VPC for the cluster.
vSwitch	The vSwitch within the VPC.
SLB Instance for API Server	No configuration required. A Server Load Balancer (SLB) slb.s2.small instance is auto-created. Deleting it makes the API server inaccessible. See Billing overview .
Create and Associate EIP	Specifies whether to create an elastic IP address (EIP) and expose the API server to the Internet. The EIP cannot be disassociated afterward because child clusters may already use the fleet's public access endpoint. If disabled, the API server is not Internet-accessible. See Billing overview.
Enable Collection of Operation Logs and Auditing Logs	Enables Simple Log Service (SLS). Creates a service named k8s-log-{ClusterID} that collects `kube-apiserver` and `kube-controller-manager` logs for auditing. See Billing overview.

Use the Alibaba Cloud CLI

Set environment variables. Replace placeholders with your resource IDs.

export REGION_ID=cn-zhangjiakou
export VPC_ID=<your-vpc-id>
export VSWITCH_IDS='["<vsw-id-1>","<vsw-id-2>"]'
export CLUSTER_NAME=workflow1

Configure the CLI region and create a workflow cluster.

Parameter	Required	Description
`Profile`	Yes	Set to `XFlow`.
`RegionId`	Yes	The region where the cluster is deployed.
`VpcId`	Yes	The ID of the VPC.
`VSwitches`	Yes	JSON array of vSwitch IDs. Use different zones for high availability.
`Name`	No	The cluster name.
`IsEnterpriseSecurityGroup`	Yes	Set to true to use an enterprise security group.`true` to use an advanced security group.
`ApiServerPublicEip`	No	Set to `true` to expose the API server via an EIP.

aliyun configure set --region $REGION_ID
aliyun adcp CreateHubCluster \
  --Profile XFlow \
  --RegionId $REGION_ID \
  --VpcId $VPC_ID \
  --VSwitches "$VSWITCH_IDS" \
  --Name $CLUSTER_NAME \
  --ApiServerPublicEip true \
  --IsEnterpriseSecurityGroup true

Sample output:

{
    "ClusterId": "c1234abcd...",
    "RequestId": "A1B2C3D4...",
    "TaskId": "T9876..."
}

Save the ClusterId value for the following steps.

export CLUSTER_ID=<your-cluster-id>

Wait for the cluster to reach the running state.

aliyun adcp DescribeHubClusterDetails --ClusterId $CLUSTER_ID | jq .Cluster.ClusterInfo

Rerun until the status shows running.

Generate and export a kubeconfig file.

aliyun adcp DescribeHubClusterKubeconfig --ClusterId $CLUSTER_ID \
  | jq -r .Kubeconfig \
  | tee ack-argo-workflow-kubeconfig

export KUBECONFIG=ack-argo-workflow-kubeconfig

Both kubectl and the Argo CLI now target this cluster by default.

Delete a workflow cluster

Important

Delete all workflows, pods, and ECI instances in the cluster before deletion.

Use the console

Log on to the ACK One console.
Select the cluster to delete from the drop-down list.
On the Workflow Cluster page, click Delete Workflow Cluster. Click OK to confirm.

Use the Alibaba Cloud CLI

Disable Argo Server and delete the associated SLB and ECI instances.

aliyun adcp UpdateHubClusterFeature --ArgoServerEnabled false --ClusterId $CLUSTER_ID

Delete the workflow cluster.

aliyun adcp DeleteHubCluster --ClusterId $CLUSTER_ID

Next steps

References

Modify workflow cluster configuration