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Cluster Deployment Errors Scenarios

The following steps will help you troubleshoot errors in the event issues arise while deploying a cluster.

Scenario - Instances Continuously Delete Every 30 Minutes​

An instance is launched and terminated every 30 minutes prior to completion of its deployment, and the Events Tab lists errors with the following message:


Failed to update kubeadmControlPlane Connection timeout connecting to Kubernetes Endpoint

This behavior can occur when Kubernetes services for the launched instance fail to start properly. Common reasons for why a service may fail are:

  • The specified image could not be pulled from the image repository.
  • The cloud init process failed.

Debugging Steps​

  1. Initiate an SSH session with the Kubernetes instance using the SSH key provided during provisioning, and log in as user spectro. If you are initiating an SSH session into an installer instance, log in as user ubuntu.

        ssh --identity_file <_pathToYourSSHkey_> spectro@X.X.X.X

  2. Elevate the user access.

        sudo -i

  3. Verify the Kubelet service is operational.

        systemctl status kubelet.service

  4. If the Kubelet service does not work as expected, do the following. If the service operates correctly, you can skip this step.

    1. Navigate to the /var/log/ folder. 
      cd /var/log/
    2. Scan the cloud-init-output file for any errors. Take note of any errors and address them. 
      cat cloud-init-output.log

  5. If the kubelet service works as expected, do the following.

    • Export the kubeconfig file.
        export KUBECONFIG=/etc/kubernetes/admin.conf
    • Connect with the cluster's Kubernetes API.
        kubectl get pods --all-namespaces
    • When the connection is established, verify the pods are in a Running state. Take note of any pods that are not in Running state.
        kubectl get pods -o wide

    • If all the pods are operating correctly, verify their connection with the Palette API.

      • For clusters using Gateway, verify the connection between the Installer and Gateway instance:

           curl -k https://<KUBE_API_SERVER_IP>:6443

      • For Public Clouds that do not use Gateway, verify the connection between the public Internet and the Kube endpoint:

            curl -k https://<KUBE_API_SERVER_IP>:6443
        info

        You can obtain the URL for the Kubernetes API using this command: kubectl cluster-info

  6. Check stdout for errors. You can also open a support ticket. Visit our support page.

Deployment Violates Pod Security​

Cluster deployment fails with the following message.

Error creating: pods <name of pod> is forbidden: violates PodSecurity "baseline:v<k8s version>": non-default capabilities …

This can happen when the cluster profile uses Kubernetes 1.25 or later and also includes packs that create pods that require elevated privileges.

Debug Steps​

To address this issue, you can change the Pod Security Standards of the namespace where the pod is being created.

  1. Log in to Palette.

  2. Navigate to the left Main Menu and click on Profiles.

  3. Select the profile you are using to deploy the cluster. Palette displays the profile stack and details.

  4. Click on the pack layer in the profile stack that contains the pack configuration.

  5. In the pack's YAML file, add a subfield in the pack section called namespaceLabels if it does not already exist.

  6. In the namespaceLabels section, add a line with the name of your namespace as the key and add pod-security.kubernetes.io/enforce=privileged,pod-security.kubernetes.io/enforce-version=v<k8s_version> as its value. Replace <k8s_version> with the version of Kubernetes on your cluster and only include the major and minor version following the lowercase letter v. For example, v1.25 and v1.28.

  7. If a key matching your namespace already exists, add the labels to the value corresponding to that key.

warning

We recommend only applying the labels to namespaces where pods fail to be created. If your pack creates multiple namespaces, and you are unsure which ones contain pods that need the elevated privileges, you can access the cluster with the kubectl CLI and use the kubectl get pods command. This command lists pods and their namespaces so you can identify the pods that are failing at creation.

For guidance in using the CLI, review Access Cluster with CLI. To learn more about kubectl pod commands, refer to the Kubernetes documentation.

Examples​

The following example shows a pack that creates a namespace called "monitoring". In this example, the monitoring namespace does not have any pre-existing labels. You need to add the namespaceLabels line as well as the corresponding key-value pair under it to apply the labels to the monitoring namespace.

pack:
  namespace: "monitoring"

  namespaceLabels:
    "monitoring": "pod-security.kubernetes.io/enforce=privileged,pod-security.kubernetes.io/enforce-version=v1.28"

This second example is similar to the first one. However, in this example, the monitoring key already exists under namespaceLabels, with its original value being "org=spectro,team=dev". Therefore, you add the labels to the existing value:

pack:
  namespace: "monitoring"

  namespaceLabels:
    "monitoring": "org=spectro,team=dev,pod-security.kubernetes.io/enforce=privileged,pod-security.kubernetes.io/enforce-version=v1.28"

Gateway Installer Registration Failures​

There are a couple reasons the Gateway Installer might fail:

  • A bootstrap error might have occured. When the Gateway Installer VM is powered on, it initiates a bootstrap process and registers itself with the tenant portal. This process typically takes 5 to 10 minutes. If the installer fails to register with the tenant portal during this time, it indicates a bootstrapping error.

    To address the issue, SSH into the Installer virtual machine using the key provided during OVA import and inspect the log file located at '/var/log/cloud-init-output.log'.

    The log file contains error messages about any failures that occur while connecting to the Spectro Cloud management platform portal, authenticating, or downloading installation artifacts.

    A common cause for these errors is that the Spectro Cloud management platform console endpoint or the pairing code is typed incorrectly. Ensure that the tenant portal console endpoint does not have a trailing slash. If these properties were incorrectly specified, power down and delete the installer VM and re-launch with the correct values.

  • The VM may not have an outbound connection. The Gateway Installer VM requires outbound connectivity directly or using a proxy. Adjust proxy settings, if applicable, to fix the connectivity or power down and delete the Installer VM, then relaunch it in a network that enables outbound connections.

If these steps do not resolve the Gateway Installer issues, copy the following script to the Installer VM to generate a logs archive. Open a support ticket by visiting our support page. Attach the logs archive so the Spectro Cloud Support team can troubleshoot the issue and provide further guidance:

#!/bin/bash

DESTDIR="/tmp/"

CONTAINER_LOGS_DIR="/var/log/containers/"
CLOUD_INIT_OUTPUT_LOG="/var/log/cloud-init-output.log"
CLOUD_INIT_LOG="/var/log/cloud-init.log"
KERN_LOG="/var/log/kern.log"
KUBELET_LOG="/tmp/kubelet.log"
SYSLOGS="/var/log/syslog*"

FILENAME=spectro-logs-$(date +%-Y%-m%-d)-$(date +%-HH%-MM%-SS).tgz


journalctl -u kubelet > $KUBELET_LOG

tar --create --gzip -h --file=$DESTDIR$FILENAME $CONTAINER_LOGS_DIR $CLOUD_INIT_LOG $CLOUD_INIT_OUTPUT_LOG $KERN_LOG $KUBELET_LOG $SYSLOGS

retVal=$?
if [ $retVal -eq 1 ]; then
    echo "Error creating spectro logs package"
else
	echo "Successfully extracted spectro cloud logs: $DESTDIR$FILENAME"
fi

Gateway Cluster Provisioning Failures​

Installation of the Gateway cluster may run into errors or get stuck in the provisioning state for various reasons like lack of infrastructure resources, lack of availability of IP addresses, inability to perform NTP sync, etc.

While these are the most common failures, some other issues might be related to the underlying VMware environment. The Cluster Details page, which you can access by clicking anywhere on the Gateway widget, contains details of every orchestration step, including an indication of the current task.

Intermittent errors are displayed on the Cluster Details page next to the relevant orchestration task. The Events tab on this page also provides helpful insights into lower-level operations currently being performed. Suppose you believe the orchestration is stuck or failed due to an invalid selection of infrastructure resources or an intermittent problem with the infrastructure. You may reset the Gateway by clicking on the Reset button on the Gateway widget. The Gateway state will transition to Pending. A Gateway in the Pending state allows you to reconfigure the Gateway and start provisioning a new Gateway cluster. If the problem persists, don't hesitate to contact Spectro support via the Service Desk or our support page.