# Managing configuration - Some applications need to be configured (obviously!) - There are many ways for our code to pick up configuration: - command-line arguments - environment variables - configuration files - configuration servers (getting configuration from a database, an API...) - ... and more (because programmers can be very creative!) - How can we do these things with containers and Kubernetes? --- ## Passing configuration to containers - There are many ways to pass configuration to code running in a container: - baking it into a custom image - command-line arguments - environment variables - injecting configuration files - exposing it over the Kubernetes API - configuration servers - Let's review these different strategies! --- ## Baking custom images - Put the configuration in the image (it can be in a configuration file, but also `ENV` or `CMD` actions) - It's easy! It's simple! - Unfortunately, it also has downsides: - multiplication of images - different images for dev, staging, prod ... - minor reconfigurations require a whole build/push/pull cycle - Avoid doing it unless you don't have the time to figure out other options --- ## Command-line arguments - Pass options to `args` array in the container specification - Example ([source](https://github.com/coreos/pods/blob/master/kubernetes.yaml#L29)): ```yaml args: - "--data-dir=/var/lib/etcd" - "--advertise-client-urls=http://127.0.0.1:2379" - "--listen-client-urls=http://127.0.0.1:2379" - "--listen-peer-urls=http://127.0.0.1:2380" - "--name=etcd" ``` - The options can be passed directly to the program that we run ... ... or to a wrapper script that will use them to e.g. generate a config file --- ## Command-line arguments, pros & cons - Works great when options are passed directly to the running program (otherwise, a wrapper script can work around the issue) - Works great when there aren't too many parameters (to avoid a 20-lines `args` array) - Requires documentation and/or understanding of the underlying program ("which parameters and flags do I need, again?") - Well-suited for mandatory parameters (without default values) - Not ideal when we need to pass a real configuration file anyway --- ## Environment variables - Pass options through the `env` map in the container specification - Example: ```yaml env: - name: ADMIN_PORT value: "8080" - name: ADMIN_AUTH value: Basic - name: ADMIN_CRED value: "admin:0pensesame!" ``` .warning[`value` must be a string! Make sure that numbers and fancy strings are quoted.] 🤔 Why this weird `{name: xxx, value: yyy}` scheme? It will be revealed soon! --- ## The downward API - In the previous example, environment variables have fixed values - We can also use a mechanism called the *downward API* - The downward API allows exposing pod or container information - either through special files (we won't show that for now) - or through environment variables - The value of these environment variables is computed when the container is started - Remember: environment variables won't (can't) change after container start - Let's see a few concrete examples! --- ## Exposing the pod's namespace ```yaml - name: MY_POD_NAMESPACE valueFrom: fieldRef: fieldPath: metadata.namespace ``` - Useful to generate FQDN of services (in some contexts, a short name is not enough) - For instance, the two commands should be equivalent: ``` curl api-backend curl api-backend.$MY_POD_NAMESPACE.svc.cluster.local ``` --- ## Exposing the pod's IP address ```yaml - name: MY_POD_IP valueFrom: fieldRef: fieldPath: status.podIP ``` - Useful if we need to know our IP address (we could also read it from `eth0`, but this is more solid) --- ## Exposing the container's resource limits ```yaml - name: MY_MEM_LIMIT valueFrom: resourceFieldRef: containerName: test-container resource: limits.memory ``` - Useful for runtimes where memory is garbage collected - Example: the JVM (the memory available to the JVM should be set with the `-Xmx ` flag) - Best practice: set a memory limit, and pass it to the runtime - Note: recent versions of the JVM can do this automatically (see [JDK-8146115](https://bugs.java.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=JDK-8146115)) and [this blog post](https://very-serio.us/2017/12/05/running-jvms-in-kubernetes/) for detailed examples) --- ## More about the downward API - [This documentation page](https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/inject-data-application/environment-variable-expose-pod-information/) tells more about these environment variables - And [this one](https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/inject-data-application/downward-api-volume-expose-pod-information/) explains the other way to use the downward API (through files that get created in the container filesystem) --- ## Environment variables, pros and cons - Works great when the running program expects these variables - Works great for optional parameters with reasonable defaults (since the container image can provide these defaults) - Sort of auto-documented (we can see which environment variables are defined in the image, and their values) - Can be (ab)used with longer values ... - ... You *can* put an entire Tomcat configuration file in an environment ... - ... But *should* you? (Do it if you really need to, we're not judging! But we'll see better ways.) --- ## Injecting configuration files - Sometimes, there is no way around it: we need to inject a full config file - Kubernetes provides a mechanism for that purpose: `configmaps` - A configmap is a Kubernetes resource that exists in a namespace - Conceptually, it's a key/value map (values are arbitrary strings) - We can think about them in (at least) two different ways: - as holding entire configuration file(s) - as holding individual configuration parameters *Note: to hold sensitive information, we can use "Secrets", which are another type of resource behaving very much like configmaps. We'll cover them just after!* --- ## Configmaps storing entire files - In this case, each key/value pair corresponds to a configuration file - Key = name of the file - Value = content of the file - There can be one key/value pair, or as many as necessary (for complex apps with multiple configuration files) - Examples: ``` # Create a configmap with a single key, "app.conf" kubectl create configmap my-app-config --from-file=app.conf # Create a configmap with a single key, "app.conf" but another file kubectl create configmap my-app-config --from-file=app.conf=app-prod.conf # Create a configmap with multiple keys (one per file in the config.d directory) kubectl create configmap my-app-config --from-file=config.d/ ``` --- ## Configmaps storing individual parameters - In this case, each key/value pair corresponds to a parameter - Key = name of the parameter - Value = value of the parameter - Examples: ``` # Create a configmap with two keys kubectl create cm my-app-config \ --from-literal=foreground=red \ --from-literal=background=blue # Create a configmap from a file containing key=val pairs kubectl create cm my-app-config \ --from-env-file=app.conf ``` --- ## Exposing configmaps to containers - Configmaps can be exposed as plain files in the filesystem of a container - this is achieved by declaring a volume and mounting it in the container - this is particularly effective for configmaps containing whole files - Configmaps can be exposed as environment variables in the container - this is achieved with the downward API - this is particularly effective for configmaps containing individual parameters - Let's see how to do both! --- ## Passing a configuration file with a configmap - We will start a load balancer powered by HAProxy - We will use the [official `haproxy` image](https://hub.docker.com/_/haproxy/) - It expects to find its configuration in `/usr/local/etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg` - We will provide a simple HAproxy configuration, `k8s/haproxy.cfg` - It listens on port 80, and load balances connections between IBM and Google --- ## Creating the configmap .exercise[ - Go to the `k8s` directory in the repository: ```bash cd ~/container.training/k8s ``` - Create a configmap named `haproxy` and holding the configuration file: ```bash kubectl create configmap haproxy --from-file=haproxy.cfg ``` - Check what our configmap looks like: ```bash kubectl get configmap haproxy -o yaml ``` ] --- ## Using the configmap We are going to use the following pod definition: ```yaml apiVersion: v1 kind: Pod metadata: name: haproxy spec: volumes: - name: config configMap: name: haproxy containers: - name: haproxy image: haproxy volumeMounts: - name: config mountPath: /usr/local/etc/haproxy/ ``` --- ## Using the configmap - The resource definition from the previous slide is in `k8s/haproxy.yaml` .exercise[ - Create the HAProxy pod: ```bash kubectl apply -f ~/container.training/k8s/haproxy.yaml ``` - Check the IP address allocated to the pod: ```bash kubectl get pod haproxy -o wide IP=$(kubectl get pod haproxy -o json | jq -r .status.podIP) ``` ] --- ## Testing our load balancer - The load balancer will send: - half of the connections to Google - the other half to IBM .exercise[ - Access the load balancer a few times: ```bash curl $IP curl $IP curl $IP ``` ] We should see connections served by Google, and others served by IBM.
(Each server sends us a redirect page. Look at the URL that they send us to!) --- ## Exposing configmaps with the downward API - We are going to run a Docker registry on a custom port - By default, the registry listens on port 5000 - This can be changed by setting environment variable `REGISTRY_HTTP_ADDR` - We are going to store the port number in a configmap - Then we will expose that configmap as a container environment variable --- ## Creating the configmap .exercise[ - Our configmap will have a single key, `http.addr`: ```bash kubectl create configmap registry --from-literal=http.addr=0.0.0.0:80 ``` - Check our configmap: ```bash kubectl get configmap registry -o yaml ``` ] --- ## Using the configmap We are going to use the following pod definition: ```yaml apiVersion: v1 kind: Pod metadata: name: registry spec: containers: - name: registry image: registry env: - name: REGISTRY_HTTP_ADDR valueFrom: configMapKeyRef: name: registry key: http.addr ``` --- ## Using the configmap - The resource definition from the previous slide is in `k8s/registry.yaml` .exercise[ - Create the registry pod: ```bash kubectl apply -f ~/container.training/k8s/registry.yaml ``` - Check the IP address allocated to the pod: ```bash kubectl get pod registry -o wide IP=$(kubectl get pod registry -o json | jq -r .status.podIP) ``` - Confirm that the registry is available on port 80: ```bash curl $IP/v2/_catalog ``` ] --- ## Passwords, tokens, sensitive information - For sensitive information, there is another special resource: *Secrets* - Secrets and Configmaps work almost the same way (we'll expose the differences on the next slide) - The *intent* is different, though: *"You should use secrets for things which are actually secret like API keys, credentials, etc., and use config map for not-secret configuration data."* *"In the future there will likely be some differentiators for secrets like rotation or support for backing the secret API w/ HSMs, etc."* (Source: [the author of both features](https://stackoverflow.com/a/36925553/580281 )) --- ## Differences between configmaps and secrets - Secrets are base64-encoded when shown with `kubectl get secrets -o yaml` - keep in mind that this is just *encoding*, not *encryption* - it is very easy to [automatically extract and decode secrets](https://medium.com/@mveritym/decoding-kubernetes-secrets-60deed7a96a3) - [Secrets can be encrypted at rest](https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/administer-cluster/encrypt-data/) - With RBAC, we can authorize a user to access configmaps, but not secrets (since they are two different kinds of resources)