# node-problem-detector
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node-problem-detector aims to make various node problems visible to the upstream
layers in cluster management stack.
It is a daemon which runs on each node, detects node
problems and reports them to apiserver.
node-problem-detector can either run as a
[DaemonSet](http://kubernetes.io/docs/admin/daemons/) or run standalone.
Now it is running as a
[Kubernetes Addon](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/tree/master/cluster/addons)
enabled by default in the GCE cluster.

# Background
There are tons of node problems could possibly affect the pods running on the
node such as:
* Infrastructure daemon issues: ntp service down;
* Hardware issues: Bad cpu, memory or disk, ntp service down;
* Kernel issues: Kernel deadlock, corrupted file system;
* Container runtime issues: Unresponsive runtime daemon;
* ...

Currently these problems are invisible to the upstream layers in cluster management
stack, so Kubernetes will continue scheduling pods to the bad nodes.

To solve this problem, we introduced this new daemon **node-problem-detector** to
collect node problems from various daemons and make them visible to the upstream
layers. Once upstream layers have the visibility to those problems, we can discuss the
remedy system.

# Problem API
node-problem-detector uses `Event` and `NodeCondition` to report problems to
apiserver.
* `NodeCondition`: Permanent problem that makes the node unavailable for pods should
be reported as `NodeCondition`.
* `Event`: Temporary problem that has limited impact on pod but is informative
should be reported as `Event`.

# Problem Daemon
A problem daemon is a sub-daemon of node-problem-detector. It monitors a specific
kind of node problems and reports them to node-problem-detector.

A problem daemon could be:
* A tiny daemon designed for dedicated usecase of Kubernetes.
* An existing node health monitoring daemon integrated with node-problem-detector.

Currently, a problem daemon is running as a goroutine in the node-problem-detector
binary. In the future, we'll separate node-problem-detector and problem daemons into
different containers, and compose them with pod specification.

List of supported problem daemons:

| Problem Daemon |  NodeCondition  | Description |
|----------------|:---------------:|:------------|
| [KernelMonitor](https://github.com/kubernetes/node-problem-detector/blob/master/config/kernel-monitor.json) | KernelDeadlock | A system log monitor monitors kernel log and reports problem according to predefined rules. |
| [AbrtAdaptor](https://github.com/kubernetes/node-problem-detector/blob/master/config/abrt-adaptor.json) | None | Monitor ABRT log messages and report them further. ABRT (Automatic Bug Report Tool) is health monitoring daemon able to catch kernel problems as well as application crashes of various kinds occurred on the host. For more information visit the [link](https://github.com/abrt). |
| [CustomPluginMonitor](https://github.com/kubernetes/node-problem-detector/blob/master/config/custom-plugin-monitor.json) | On-demand(According to users configuration) | A custom plugin monitor for node-problem-detector to invoke and check various node problems with user defined check scripts. See proposal [here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jK_5YloSYtboj-DtfjmYKxfNnUxCAvohLnsH5aGCAYQ/edit#). |

# Usage
## Flags
* `--version`: Print current version of node-problem-detector.
* `--address`: The address to bind the node problem detector server.
* `--port`: The port to bind the node problem detector server. Use 0 to disable.
* `--system-log-monitors`: List of paths to system log monitor configuration files, comma separated, e.g.
  [config/kernel-monitor.json](https://github.com/kubernetes/node-problem-detector/blob/master/config/kernel-monitor.json).
  Node problem detector will start a separate log monitor for each configuration. You can
  use different log monitors to monitor different system log.
* `--custom-plugin-monitors`: List of paths to custom plugin monitor config files, comma separated, e.g.
  [config/custom-plugin-monitor.json](https://github.com/kubernetes/node-problem-detector/blob/master/config/custom-plugin-monitor.json).
  Node problem detector will start a separate custom plugin monitor for each configuration. You can
  use different custom plugin monitors to monitor different node problems.
* `--apiserver-override`: A URI parameter used to customize how node-problem-detector
connects the apiserver. The format is same as the
[`source`](https://github.com/kubernetes/heapster/blob/master/docs/source-configuration.md#kubernetes)
flag of [Heapster](https://github.com/kubernetes/heapster).
For example, to run without auth, use the following config:
   ```
   http://APISERVER_IP:APISERVER_PORT?inClusterConfig=false
   ```
   Refer [heapster docs](https://github.com/kubernetes/heapster/blob/master/docs/source-configuration.md#kubernetes) for a complete list of available options.
* `--hostname-override`: A customized node name used for node-problem-detector to update conditions and emit events. node-problem-detector gets node name first from `hostname-override`, then `NODE_NAME` environment variable and finally fall back to `os.Hostname`.

## Build Image
Run `make` in the top directory. It will:
* Build the binary.
* Build the docker image. The binary and `config/` are copied into the docker image.

## Push Image
`make push` uploads the docker image to registry. By default, the image will be uploaded to
`gcr.io/google_containers`. It's easy to modify the `Makefile` to push the image
to another registry.

## Start DaemonSet
* Create a file node-problem-detector.yaml with the following yaml.
```yaml
apiVersion: extensions/v1beta1
kind: DaemonSet
metadata:
  name: node-problem-detector
spec:
  template:
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: node-problem-detector
        image: gcr.io/google_containers/node-problem-detector:v0.2
        imagePullPolicy: Always
        securityContext:
          privileged: true
        env:
        - name: NODE_NAME
          valueFrom:
            fieldRef:
              fieldPath: spec.nodeName
        volumeMounts:
        - name: log
          mountPath: /log
          readOnly: true
        - name: localtime
          mountPath: /etc/localtime
          readOnly: true
      volumes:
      - name: log
        # Config `log` to your system log directory
        hostPath:
          path: /var/log/
      - name: localtime
        hostPath:
          path: /etc/localtime
```
* Edit node-problem-detector.yaml to fit your environment: Set `log` volume to your system log directory. (Used by SystemLogMonitor)
* Create the DaemonSet with `kubectl create -f node-problem-detector.yaml`
* If needed, you can use [ConfigMap](http://kubernetes.io/docs/user-guide/configmap/)
to overwrite the `config/`.

## Start Standalone
To run node-problem-detector standalone, you should set `inClusterConfig` to `false` and
teach node-problem-detector how to access apiserver with `apiserver-override`.

To run node-problem-detector standalone with an insecure apiserver connection:
```
node-problem-detector --apiserver-override=http://APISERVER_IP:APISERVER_INSECURE_PORT?inClusterConfig=false
```

For more scenarios, see [here](https://github.com/kubernetes/heapster/blob/master/docs/source-configuration.md#kubernetes)

# Links
* [Design Doc](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cs1kqLziG-Ww145yN6vvlKguPbQQ0psrSBnEqpy0pzE/edit?usp=sharing)
* [Slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1bkJibjwWXy8YnB5fna6p-Ltiy-N5p01zUsA22wCNkXA/edit?usp=sharing)
* [Plugin Interface Proposal](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jK_5YloSYtboj-DtfjmYKxfNnUxCAvohLnsH5aGCAYQ/edit#)
* [Addon Manifest](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/tree/master/cluster/addons/node-problem-detector)
