Using Self Node Remediation

You can use the Self Node Remediation Operator to automatically reboot unhealthy nodes. This remediation strategy minimizes downtime for stateful applications and ReadWriteOnce (RWO) volumes, and restores compute capacity if transient failures occur.

About the Self Node Remediation Operator

The Self Node Remediation Operator runs on the cluster nodes and reboots nodes that are identified as unhealthy. The Operator uses the MachineHealthCheck or NodeHealthCheck controller to detect the health of a node in the cluster. When a node is identified as unhealthy, the MachineHealthCheck or the NodeHealthCheck resource creates the SelfNodeRemediation custom resource (CR), which triggers the Self Node Remediation Operator.

The SelfNodeRemediation CR resembles the following YAML file:

apiVersion: self-node-remediation.medik8s.io/v1alpha1
kind: SelfNodeRemediation
metadata:
  name: selfnoderemediation-sample
  namespace: openshift-operators
spec:
status:
  lastError: <last_error_message> (1)

The Self Node Remediation Operator minimizes downtime for stateful applications and restores compute capacity if transient failures occur. You can use this Operator regardless of the management interface, such as IPMI or an API to provision a node, and regardless of the cluster installation type, such as installer-provisioned infrastructure or user-provisioned infrastructure.

About watchdog devices

Watchdog devices can be any of the following:

• Independently powered hardware devices

• Hardware devices that share power with the hosts they control

• Virtual devices implemented in software, or softdog

Hardware watchdog and softdog devices have electronic or software timers, respectively. These watchdog devices are used to ensure that the machine enters a safe state when an error condition is detected. The cluster is required to repeatedly reset the watchdog timer to prove that it is in a healthy state. This timer might elapse due to fault conditions, such as deadlocks, CPU starvation, and loss of network or disk access. If the timer expires, the watchdog device assumes that a fault has occurred and the device triggers a forced reset of the node.

Hardware watchdog devices are more reliable than softdog devices.

Understanding Self Node Remediation Operator behavior with watchdog devices

The Self Node Remediation Operator determines the remediation strategy based on the watchdog devices that are present.

If a hardware watchdog device is configured and available, the Operator uses it for remediation. If a hardware watchdog device is not configured, the Operator enables and uses a softdog device for remediation.

If neither watchdog devices are supported, either by the system or by the configuration, the Operator remediates nodes by using software reboot.

Additional resources

Configuring a watchdog

Control plane fencing

In earlier releases, you could enable Self Node Remediation and Node Health Check on worker nodes. In the event of node failure, you can now also follow remediation strategies on control plane nodes.

Self Node Remediation occurs in two primary scenarios.

• API Server Connectivity

  • In this scenario, the control plane node to be remediated is not isolated. It can be directly connected to the API Server, or it can be indirectly connected to the API Server through worker nodes or control-plane nodes, that are directly connected to the API Server.

  • When there is API Server Connectivity, the control plane node is remediated only if the Node Health Check Operator has created a SelfNodeRemediation custom resource (CR) for the node.

• No API Server Connectivity

  • In this scenario, the control plane node to be remediated is isolated from the API Server. The node cannot connect directly or indirectly to the API Server.

  • When there is no API Server Connectivity, the control plane node will be remediated as outlined with these steps:

    • Check the status of the control plane node with the majority of the peer worker nodes. If the majority of the peer worker nodes cannot be reached, the node will be analyzed further.

      • Self-diagnose the status of the control plane node

        • If self diagnostics passed, no action will be taken.

        • If self diagnostics failed, the node will be fenced and remediated.

        • The self diagnostics currently supported are checking the kubelet service status, and checking endpoint availability using opt in configuration.

    -   If the node did not manage to communicate to most of its worker peers, check the connectivity of the control plane node with other control plane nodes. If the node can communicate with any other control plane peer, no action will be taken. Otherwise, the node will be fenced and remediated.

Installing the Self Node Remediation Operator by using the web console

You can use the OKD web console to install the Self Node Remediation Operator.

Prerequisites

• Log in as a user with cluster-admin privileges.

Procedure

1. In the OKD web console, navigate to Operators → OperatorHub.

2. Search for the Self Node Remediation Operator from the list of available Operators, and then click Install.

3. Keep the default selection of Installation mode and namespace to ensure that the Operator is installed to the openshift-operators namespace.

4. Click Install.

Verification

To confirm that the installation is successful:

1. Navigate to the Operators → Installed Operators page.

2. Check that the Operator is installed in the openshift-operators namespace and its status is Succeeded.

If the Operator is not installed successfully:

1. Navigate to the Operators → Installed Operators page and inspect the Status column for any errors or failures.

2. Navigate to the Workloads → Pods page and check the logs in any pods in the self-node-remediation-controller-manager project that are reporting issues.

Installing the Self Node Remediation Operator by using the CLI

You can use the OpenShift CLI (oc) to install the Self Node Remediation Operator.

You can install the Self Node Remediation Operator in your own namespace or in the openshift-operators namespace.

To install the Operator in your own namespace, follow the steps in the procedure.

To install the Operator in the openshift-operators namespace, skip to step 3 of the procedure because the steps to create a new Namespace custom resource (CR) and an OperatorGroup CR are not required.

Prerequisites

• Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).

• Log in as a user with cluster-admin privileges.

Procedure

1. Create a Namespace custom resource (CR) for the Self Node Remediation Operator:

   1. Define the Namespace CR and save the YAML file, for example, self-node-remediation-namespace.yaml:

      apiVersion: v1
      kind: Namespace
      metadata:
        name: self-node-remediation

   2. To create the Namespace CR, run the following command:

      $ oc create -f self-node-remediation-namespace.yaml

2. Create an OperatorGroup CR:

   1. Define the OperatorGroup CR and save the YAML file, for example, self-node-remediation-operator-group.yaml:

      apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1
      kind: OperatorGroup
      metadata:
        name: self-node-remediation-operator
        namespace: self-node-remediation

   2. To create the OperatorGroup CR, run the following command:

      $ oc create -f self-node-remediation-operator-group.yaml

3. Create a Subscription CR:

   1. Define the Subscription CR and save the YAML file, for example, self-node-remediation-subscription.yaml:

      apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
      kind: Subscription
      metadata:
          name: self-node-remediation-operator
          namespace: self-node-remediation (1)
      spec:
          channel: stable
          installPlanApproval: Manual (2)
          name: self-node-remediation-operator
          source: redhat-operators
          sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace
          package: self-node-remediation

      1	Specify the Namespace where you want to install the Self Node Remediation Operator. To install the Self Node Remediation Operator in the openshift-operators namespace, specify openshift-operators in the Subscription CR.
      2	Set the approval strategy to Manual in case your specified version is superseded by a later version in the catalog. This plan prevents an automatic upgrade to a later version and requires manual approval before the starting CSV can complete the installation.

   2. To create the Subscription CR, run the following command:

      $ oc create -f self-node-remediation-subscription.yaml

Verification

1. Verify that the installation succeeded by inspecting the CSV resource:

   $ oc get csv -n self-node-remediation

   Example output

   NAME                               DISPLAY                          VERSION   REPLACES   PHASE
   self-node-remediation.v.0.4.0      Self Node Remediation Operator   v.0.4.0              Succeeded

2. Verify that the Self Node Remediation Operator is up and running:

   $ oc get deploy -n self-node-remediation

   Example output

   NAME                                        READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
   self-node-remediation-controller-manager    1/1     1            1           28h

3. Verify that the Self Node Remediation Operator created the SelfNodeRemediationConfig CR:

   $ oc get selfnoderemediationconfig -n self-node-remediation

   Example output

   NAME                           AGE
   self-node-remediation-config   28h

4. Verify that each self node remediation pod is scheduled and running on each worker node:

   $ oc get daemonset -n self-node-remediation

   Example output

   NAME                      DESIRED  CURRENT  READY  UP-TO-DATE  AVAILABLE  NODE SELECTOR  AGE
   self-node-remediation-ds  3        3        3      3           3          <none>         28h

   This command is unsupported for the control plane nodes.

Configuring the Self Node Remediation Operator

The Self Node Remediation Operator creates the SelfNodeRemediationConfig CR and the SelfNodeRemediationTemplate Custom Resource Definition (CRD).

Understanding the Self Node Remediation Operator configuration

The Self Node Remediation Operator creates the SelfNodeRemediationConfig CR with the name self-node-remediation-config. The CR is created in the namespace of the Self Node Remediation Operator.

A change in the SelfNodeRemediationConfig CR re-creates the Self Node Remediation daemon set.

The SelfNodeRemediationConfig CR resembles the following YAML file:

apiVersion: self-node-remediation.medik8s.io/v1alpha1
kind: SelfNodeRemediationConfig
metadata:
  name: self-node-remediation-config
  namespace: openshift-operators
spec:
  safeTimeToAssumeNodeRebootedSeconds: 180 (1)
  watchdogFilePath: /dev/watchdog (2)
  isSoftwareRebootEnabled: true (3)
  apiServerTimeout: 15s (4)
  apiCheckInterval: 5s (5)
  maxApiErrorThreshold: 3 (6)
  peerApiServerTimeout: 5s (7)
  peerDialTimeout: 5s (8)
  peerRequestTimeout: 5s (9)
  peerUpdateInterval: 15m (10)

controllers.SelfNodeRemediationConfig
ignoring selfnoderemediationconfig CRs that are not named ‘self-node-remediation-config’
or not in the namespace of the operator:
‘openshift-operators’ {“selfnoderemediationconfig”:
“openshift-operators/selfnoderemediationconfig-copy”}

Understanding the Self Node Remediation Template configuration

The Self Node Remediation Operator also creates the SelfNodeRemediationTemplate Custom Resource Definition (CRD). This CRD defines the remediation strategy for the nodes. The following remediation strategies are available:

ResourceDeletion

This remediation strategy removes the pods and associated volume attachments on the node rather than the node object. This strategy helps to recover workloads faster. ResourceDeletion is the default remediation strategy.

NodeDeletion

This remediation strategy is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. In the current release, the ResourceDeletion strategy is used even if the NodeDeletion strategy is selected.

The Self Node Remediation Operator creates the SelfNodeRemediationTemplate CR for the strategy self-node-remediation-resource-deletion-template, which the ResourceDeletion remediation strategy uses.

The SelfNodeRemediationTemplate CR resembles the following YAML file:

apiVersion: self-node-remediation.medik8s.io/v1alpha1
kind: SelfNodeRemediationTemplate
metadata:
  creationTimestamp: "2022-03-02T08:02:40Z"
  name: self-node-remediation-<remediation_object>-deletion-template (1)
  namespace: openshift-operators
spec:
  template:
    spec:
      remediationStrategy: <remediation_strategy>  (2)

Troubleshooting the Self Node Remediation Operator

General troubleshooting

Issue

You want to troubleshoot issues with the Self Node Remediation Operator.

Resolution

Check the Operator logs.

Checking the daemon set

Issue

The Self Node Remediation Operator is installed but the daemon set is not available.

Resolution

Check the Operator logs for errors or warnings.

Unsuccessful remediation

Issue

An unhealthy node was not remediated.

Resolution

Verify that the SelfNodeRemediation CR was created by running the following command:

$ oc get snr -A

If the MachineHealthCheck controller did not create the SelfNodeRemediation CR when the node turned unhealthy, check the logs of the MachineHealthCheck controller. Additionally, ensure that the MachineHealthCheck CR includes the required specification to use the remediation template.

If the SelfNodeRemediation CR was created, ensure that its name matches the unhealthy node or the machine object.

Daemon set and other Self Node Remediation Operator resources exist even after uninstalling the Operator

Issue

The Self Node Remediation Operator resources, such as the daemon set, configuration CR, and the remediation template CR, exist even after after uninstalling the Operator.

Resolution

To remove the Self Node Remediation Operator resources, delete the resources by running the following commands for each resource type:

$ oc delete ds <self-node-remediation-ds> -n <namespace>

$ oc delete snrc <self-node-remediation-config> -n <namespace>

$ oc delete snrt <self-node-remediation-template> -n <namespace>

Gathering data about the Self Node Remediation Operator

To collect debugging information about the Self Node Remediation Operator, use the must-gather tool. For information about the must-gather image for the Self Node Remediation Operator, see Gathering data about specific features.

Additional resources

• Using Operator Lifecycle Manager on restricted networks.

• Deleting Operators from a cluster