K3s Scheduler¶

New

Introduced in 0.33.0

scheduler-k3s:annotations:set <app|--global> <property> (<value>) [--process-type PROCESS_TYPE] <--resource-type RESOURCE_TYPE>, Set or clear an annotation for a given app/process-type/resource-type combination
scheduler-k3s:autoscaling-auth:set <app|--global> <trigger> [<--metadata key=value>...], Set or clear a scheduler-k3s autoscaling keda trigger authentication resource for an app
scheduler-k3s:autoscaling-auth:report <app|--global> [--format stdout|json] [--include-metadata] # Displays a scheduler-k3s autoscaling auth report for an app
scheduler-k3s:cluster-add [ssh://user@host:port]    # Adds a server node to a Dokku-managed cluster
scheduler-k3s:cluster-list                          # Lists all nodes in a Dokku-managed cluster
scheduler-k3s:cluster-remove [node-id]              # Removes client node to a Dokku-managed cluster
scheduler-k3s:ensure-charts                         # Ensures the k3s charts are installed
scheduler-k3s:initialize                            # Initializes a cluster
scheduler-k3s:labels:set <app|--global> <property> (<value>) [--process-type PROCESS_TYPE] <--resource-type RESOURCE_TYPE>, Set or clear a label for a given app/process-type/resource-type combination
scheduler-k3s:report [<app>] [<flag>]               # Displays a scheduler-k3s report for one or more apps
scheduler-k3s:set [<app>|--global] <key> (<value>)  # Set or clear a scheduler-k3s property for an app or the scheduler
scheduler-k3s:show-kubeconfig                       # Displays the kubeconfig for remote usage
scheduler-k3s:uninstall                             # Uninstalls k3s from the Dokku server

Note

The k3s plugin replaces the external scheduler-kubernetes plugin. Users can continue to use the external plugin as necessary, but all future development will occur on the official core k3s plugin.

For multi-server support, Dokku provides the ability for users to setup a K3s cluster. As with all schedulers, it is set on a per-app basis. The scheduler can currently be overridden by running the following command:

dokku scheduler:set node-js-app selected k3s

As it is the default, unsetting the selected scheduler property is also a valid way to reset the scheduler.

dokku scheduler:set node-js-app k3s

Usage¶

Info

[!IMPORTANT] The k3s plugin requires usage of a docker registry to store deployed image artifacts. See the registry documentation for more details on how to configure a registry.

Initializing a cluster¶

Warning

This command must be run as root

Clusters can be initialized via the scheduler-k3s:initialize command. This will start a k3s cluster on the Dokku node itself.

dokku scheduler-k3s:initialize

By default, the k3s installation can run both app and system workloads. For clusters where app workloads are run on distinct worker nodes, initialize the cluster with the --taint-scheduling flag, which will allow only Critical cluster components on the k3s control-plane nodes.

dokku scheduler-k3s:initialize --taint-scheduling

By default, Dokku will attempt to auto-detect the IP address of the server. In cases where the auto-detected IP address is incorrect, an override may be specified via the --server-ip flag:

dokku scheduler-k3s:initialize --server-ip 192.168.20.15

Dokku's k3s integration natively uses nginx as it's ingress load balancer via ingress-nginx. Properties set by the nginx plugin will be respected, either by turning them into annotations or creating a custom server/location snippet that the ingress-nginx project can use. A ps:restart is required after changing nginx properties in order to have them apply to running resources.

Dokku can also use Traefik on cluster initialization via the Traefik's CRDs. To change the ingress, set the --ingress-class flag:

dokku scheduler-k3s:initialize --ingress-class traefik

Adding nodes to the cluster¶

Warning

The dokku user must be able to ssh onto the server in order to connect nodes to the cluster. The remote user must be root or have sudo enabled, or the install will fail.

Adding a worker node¶

Nodes that run app workloads can be added via the scheduler-k3s:cluster-add command. This will ssh onto the specified server, install k3s, and join it to the current Dokku node in worker mode. Workers are typically used to run app workloads.

dokku scheduler-k3s:cluster-add  ssh://root@worker-1.example.com

If the server isn't in the known_hosts file, the connection will fail. This can be bypassed by setting the --insecure-allow-unknown-hosts flag:

dokku scheduler-k3s:cluster-add --insecure-allow-unknown-hosts ssh://root@worker-1.example.com

By default, Dokku will attempt to auto-detect the IP address of the Dokku server for the remote server to connect to. In cases where the auto-detected IP address is incorrect, an override may be specified via the --server-ip flag:

dokku scheduler-k3s:cluster-add --server-ip 192.168.20.15 ssh://root@worker-1.example.com

Adding a server node¶

Note

Only the initial Dokku server will be properly configured for push deployment, and should be considered your git remote. Additional server nodes are for ensuring high-availability of the K3s etcd state. Ensure this server is properly backed up and restorable or deployments will not work.

Server nodes are typically used to replicate the cluster state, and it is recommended to have an odd number of nodes spread across several availability zones (datacenters in close proximity within a region). This allows for higher availability in the event of a cluster failure. Server nodes run control-plane services such as the traefik load balancer and the etcd backing store.

Server nodes can also be added with the scheduler-k3s:cluster-add command by specifying --role server. This will ssh onto the specified server, install k3s, and join it to the current Dokku node in server mode.

dokku scheduler-k3s:cluster-add  --role server ssh://root@server-1.example.com

Server nodes allow any workloads to be scheduled on them by default, in addition to the control-plane, etcd, and the scheduler itself. To avoid app workloads being scheduled on your control-plane, use the --taint-scheduling flag:

dokku scheduler-k3s:cluster-add --role server --taint-scheduling ssh://root@server-1.example.com

If the server isn't in the known_hosts file, the connection will fail. This can be bypassed by setting the --insecure-allow-unknown-hosts flag:

dokku scheduler-k3s:cluster-add --role server --insecure-allow-unknown-hosts ssh://root@server-1.example.com

By default, Dokku will attempt to auto-detect the IP address of the Dokku server for the remote server to connect to. In cases where the auto-detected IP address is incorrect, an override may be specified via the --server-ip flag:

dokku scheduler-k3s:cluster-add --role server --server-ip 192.168.20.15 ssh://root@server-1.example.com

Changing the network interface¶

When attaching an worker or server node, the K3s plugin will look at the IP associated with the eth0 interface and use that to connect the new node to the cluster. To change this, set the network-interface property to the appropriate value.

dokku scheduler-k3s:set --global network-interface eth1

Changing deploy timeouts¶

By default, app deploys will timeout after 300s. To customize this value, set the deploy-timeout property via scheduler-k3s:set:

dokku scheduler-k3s:set node-js-app deploy-timeout 60s

The default value may be set by passing an empty value for the option:

dokku scheduler-k3s:set node-js-app deploy-timeout

The deploy-timeout property can also be set globally. The global default is 300s.

dokku scheduler-k3s:set --global deploy-timeout 60s

The default value may be set by passing an empty value for the option.

dokku scheduler-k3s:set --global deploy-timeout

Customizing the namespace¶

By default, app deploys will run against the default Kubernetes namespace. To customize this value, set the namespace property via scheduler-k3s:set:

dokku scheduler-k3s:set node-js-app namespace lollipop

The default value may be set by passing an empty value for the option:

dokku scheduler-k3s:set node-js-app namespace

The namespace property can also be set globally. The global default is default.

dokku scheduler-k3s:set --global namespace 60s

The default value may be set by passing an empty value for the option.

dokku scheduler-k3s:set --global namespace

Enabling rollback on failure¶

By default, app deploys do not rollback on failure. To enable this functionality, set the rollback-on-failure property via scheduler-k3s:set:

dokku scheduler-k3s:set node-js-app rollback-on-failure true

The default value may be set by passing an empty value for the option:

dokku scheduler-k3s:set node-js-app rollback-on-failure

The rollback-on-failure property can also be set globally. The global default is false.

dokku scheduler-k3s:set --global rollback-on-failure false

The default value may be set by passing an empty value for the option.

dokku scheduler-k3s:set --global rollback-on-failure

Using image pull secrets¶

When authenticating against a registry via registry:login, the scheduler-k3s plugin will authenticate all servers in the cluster against the registry specified. If desired, an image pull secret can be used instead. To customize this value, set the image-pull-secrets property via scheduler-k3s:set:

dokku scheduler-k3s:set node-js-app image-pull-secrets lollipop

The default value may be set by passing an empty value for the option:

dokku scheduler-k3s:set node-js-app image-pull-secrets

The image-pull-secrets property can also be set globally. The global default is empty string, and k3s will use Dokku's locally configured ~/.docker/config.json for any private registry pulls.

dokku scheduler-k3s:set --global image-pull-secrets 60s

The default value may be set by passing an empty value for the option.

dokku scheduler-k3s:set --global image-pull-secrets

SSL Certificates¶

Enabling letsencrypt integration¶

By default, letsencrypt is disabled and https port mappings are ignored. To enable, set the letsencrypt-email-prod or letsencrypt-email-stag property with the --global flag:

# set the value for prod
dokku scheduler-k3s:set --global letsencrypt-email-prod automated@dokku.sh

# set the value for stag
dokku scheduler-k3s:set --global letsencrypt-email-stag automated@dokku.sh

After enabling and rebuilding, all apps with an http:80 port mapping will have a corresponding https:443 added and ssl will be automatically enabled. All http requests will then be redirected to https.

Customizing the letsencrypt server¶

The letsencrypt integration is set to the production letsencrypt server by default. This can be changed on an app-level by setting the letsencrypt-server property with the scheduler-k3s:set command

dokku scheduler-k3s:set node-js-app letsencrypt-server staging

The default value may be set by passing an empty value for the option:

dokku scheduler-k3s:set node-js-app letsencrypt-server

The image-pull-secrets property can also be set globally. The global default is production.

dokku scheduler-k3s:set --global letsencrypt-server staging

The default value may be set by passing an empty value for the option.

dokku scheduler-k3s:set --global letsencrypt-server staging

Customizing Annotations and Labels¶

Note

The cron ID is used as the process type if your app deploys any cron tasks

Setting Annotations¶

Dokku injects certain annotations into each created resource by default, but it may be necessary to inject others for tighter integration with third-party tools. The scheduler-k3s:annotations:set command can be used to perform this task. The command takes an app name and a required --resource-type flag.

dokku scheduler-k3s:annotations:set node-js-app annotation.key annotation.value --resource-type deployment

If not specified, the annotation will be applied to all processes within an app, though it may be further scoped to a specific process type via the --process-type flag.

dokku scheduler-k3s:annotations:set node-js-app annotation.key annotation.value --resource-type deployment --process-type web

The following resource types are supported:

certificate
cronjob
deployment
ingress
job
pod
secret
service
serviceaccount
traefik_ingressroute
traefik_middleware

A ps:restart is required after setting annotations in order to have them apply to running resources.

Removing an annotation¶

To unset an annotation, pass an empty value:

dokku scheduler-k3s:annotations:set node-js-app annotation.key --resource-type deployment
dokku scheduler-k3s:annotations:set node-js-app annotation.key --resource-type deployment --process-type web

A ps:restart is required after removing annotations in order to remove them from running resources.

Setting Labels¶

Dokku injects certain labels into each created resource by default, but it may be necessary to inject others for tighter integration with third-party tools. The scheduler-k3s:labels:set command can be used to perform this task. The command takes an app name and a required --resource-type flag.

dokku scheduler-k3s:labels:set node-js-app label.key label.value --resource-type deployment

If not specified, the label will be applied to all processes within an app, though it may be further scoped to a specific process type via the --process-type flag.

dokku scheduler-k3s:labels:set node-js-app label.key label.value --resource-type deployment --process-type web

The following resource types are supported:

certificate
cronjob
deployment
ingress
job
pod
secret
service
serviceaccount
traefik_ingressroute
traefik_middleware

A ps:restart is required after setting labels in order to have them apply to running resources.

Removing a label¶

To unset an label, pass an empty value:

dokku scheduler-k3s:annotations:set node-js-app label.key --resource-type deployment
dokku scheduler-k3s:labels:set node-js-app label.key --resource-type deployment --process-type web

A ps:restart is required after removing labels in order to remove them from running resources.

Autoscaling¶

Workload Autoscaling¶

New

Introduced in 0.33.8 Users with older installations will need to manually install Keda.

Autoscaling in k3s is managed by Keda, which integrates with a variety of external metric providers to allow for autoscaling application workloads.

To enable autoscaling, use the app.json formation.$PROCESS_TYPE.autoscaling key to manage rules. In addition to the existing configuration used for process management, each process type in the formation.$PROCESS_TYPE.autoscaling key can have the following keys:

min_quantity: The minimum number of instances the application can run. If not specified, the quantity specified for the app is used.
max_quantity: The maximum number of instances the application can run. If not specified, the higher value of quantity and the min_quantity is used.
polling_interval_seconds: (default: 30) The interval to wait for polling each of the configured triggers
cooldown_seconds: (default: 300) The number of seconds to wait in between each scaling event
triggers: A list of autoscaling triggers.

Autoscaling triggers are passed as is to Keda, and should match the configuration keda uses for a given scaler. Below is an example for datadog:

{
    "formation": {
        "web": {
            "autoscaling": {
                "min_quantity": 1,
                "max_quantity": 10,
                "triggers": [
                    {
                        "name": "name-for-trigger",
                        "type": "datadog",
                        "metadata": {
                            "query": "per_second(sum:http.requests{service:myservice1}).rollup(max, 300))/180,per_second(sum:http.backlog{service:myservice1}).rollup(max, 300)/30",
                            "queryValue": "1",
                            "queryAggregator": "max"
                        }
                    }
                ]
            }
        }
    }
}

Each value in the metadata stanza can use the following interpolated strings:

DOKKU_DEPLOYMENT_NAME: The name of the deployment being scaled
DOKKU_PROCESS_TYPE: The name of the process being scaled
DOKKU_APP_NAME: The name of the app being scaled

HTTP Autoscaling¶

In addition to the built-in scalers that Keda provides, Dokku also supports Keda's HTTP Add On. This requires that the addon be properly installed and configured. For existing k3s clusters, this can be performed by the scheduler-k3s:ensure-charts command:

dokku scheduler-k3s:ensure-charts

Note

Users who wish to use this functionality on a cluster not managed by Dokku will need to manually install the keda-http-add-on into the keda namespace. Please consult the keda-http-add-on install documentation for further details.

Warning

If the keda-http-add-on chart is not installed, then this trigger will be ignored.

Once the chart is configured, an http trigger can be specified like so:

{
    "formation": {
        "web": {
            "autoscaling": {
                "min_quantity": 1,
                "max_quantity": 10,
                "triggers": [
                    {
                        "type": "http",
                        "metadata": {
                            "scaledown_period_seconds": "150",
                            "request_rate_target_value": "50"
                        }
                    }
                ]
            }
        }
    }
}

The following metadata properties are supported with the http autoscaler:

scale_by: (default: request_rate) whether to scale by concurrency or request_rate.
scaledown_period_seconds: (default: 300) period to wait after the last reported active before scaling the resource back to 0.
request_rate_granularity_seconds: (default: 1) granualarity of the aggregated requests for the request rate calculation.
request_rate_target_value: (default: 100) target value for the request rate.
request_rate_window_seconds: (default: 60) aggregation window for the request rate calculation.
concurrency_target_value: (default: 100) target value for the request concurrency.

Note that due to Keda limitations, scaling is done by either concurrency or request_rate.

Workload Autoscaling Authentication¶

Most Keda triggers require some form of authentication to query for data. In the Kubernetes API, they are represented by TriggerAuthentication and ClusterTriggerAuthentication resources. Dokku can manage these via the scheduler-k3s:autoscaling-auth commands, and includes generated resources with each helm release generated by a deploy.

If no app-specific authentication is provided for a given trigger type, Dokku will fallback to any globally defined ClusterTriggerAuthentication resources. Autoscaling triggers within an app all share the same TriggerAuthentication resources, while ClusterTriggerAuthentication resources can be shared across all apps deployed by Dokku within a given cluster.

Creating Authentication Resources¶

Users can specify custom authentication resources directly via the Kubernetes api or use the scheduler-k3s:autoscaling-auth:set command to create the resources in the Kubernetes cluster.

dokku scheduler-k3s:autoscaling-auth:set $APP $TRIGGER --metadata apiKey=some-api-key --metadata appKey=some-app-key

For example, the following will configure the authentication for all datadog triggers on the specified app:

dokku scheduler-k3s:autoscaling-auth:set node-js-app datadog --metadata apiKey=1234567890 --metadata appKey=asdfghjkl --metadata datadogSite=us5.datadoghq.com

After execution, Dokku will include the following resources for each specified trigger with the helm release generated on subsequent app deploys:

Secret: an Opaque Secret resource storing the authentication credentials
TriggerAuthentication: A TriggerAuthentication resource that references the secret for use by triggers

If the --global flag is specified instead of an app name, a custom helm chart is created on the fly with the above resources.

Removing Authentication Resources¶

To remove a configured authenticatin resource, run the scheduler-k3s:autoscaling-auth:set command with no metadata specified. Subsequent deploys will not include these resources.

dokku scheduler-k3s:autoscaling-auth:set $APP $TRIGGER_TYPE

Displaying an Authentication Resource report¶

To see a list of authentication resources managed by Dokku, run the scheduler-k3s:autoscaling-auth:report command.

ShellOutput

dokku scheduler-k3s:autoscaling-auth:report node-js-app

====> $APP autoscaling-auth report
      datadog: configured

By default, the report will not display configured metadata - making it safe to include in Dokku report output. To include metadata and their values, add the --include-metadata flag:

ShellOutput

dokku scheduler-k3s:autoscaling-auth:report node-js-app --include-metadata

====> node-js-app autoscaling-auth report
      Datadog:                       configured
      Datadog apiKey:                1234567890
      Datadog appKey:                asdfghjkl
      Datadog datadogSite:           us5.datadoghq.com

Using kubectl remotely¶

Warning

Certain ports must be open for interacting with the remote kubernets api. Refer to the K3s networking documentation for the required open ports between servers prior to running the command.

By default, Dokku assumes that all it controls all actions on the cluster, and thus does not expose the kubectl binary for administrators. To interact with kubectl, you will need to retrieve the kubeconfig for the cluster and configure your client to use that configuration.

dokku scheduler-k3s:show-kubeconfig

Interacting with an external Kubernetes cluster¶

While the k3s scheduler plugin is designed to work with a Dokku-managed k3s cluster, Dokku can be configured to interact with any Kubernetes cluster by setting the global kubeconfig-path to a path to a custom kubeconfig on the Dokku server. This property is only available at a global level.

dokku scheduler-k3s:set --global kubeconfig-path /path/to/custom/kubeconfig

To set the default value, omit the value from the scheduler-k3s:set call:

dokku scheduler-k3s:set --global kubeconfig-path

The default value for the kubeconfig-path is the k3s kubeconfig located at /etc/rancher/k3s/k3s.yaml.

Customizing the Kubernetes context¶

When interacting with a custom Kubeconfig, the kube-context property can be set to specify a specific context within the kubeconfig to use. This property is available only at the global leve.

dokku scheduler-k3s:set --global kube-context lollipop

To set the default value, omit the value from the scheduler-k3s:set call:

dokku scheduler-k3s:set --global kube-context

The default value for the kube-context is an empty string, and will result in Dokku using the current context within the kubeconfig.

Customizing Helm Chart Properties¶

Dokku includes a number of helm charts by default with settings that are optimized for Dokku. That said, it may be useful to further customize the charts for a given environment. Users can customize which charts are installed by setting properties prefixed with chart.$CHART_NAME. with the --global flag.

dokku scheduler-k3s:set --global chart.cert-manager.version 1.13.3

Note

Properties follow dot-notation, and are expanded according to Helm's internal logic. See the Helm documentation for helm install for further details.

To unset a chart property, omit the value from the scheduler-k3s:set call:

dokku scheduler-k3s:set --global chart.cert-manager.version

A scheduler-k3s:ensure-charts command with the --force flag is required after changing any chart properties in order to have them apply. This will install all charts, not just the ones that have changed.

dokku scheduler-k3s:ensure-charts --force

Alternatively, a comma separated list of chart names can be specified to only force install the specified charts:

dokku scheduler-k3s:ensure-charts --force --chart-names cert-manager

Scheduler Interface¶

The following sections describe implemented and unimplemented scheduler functionality for the k3s scheduler.

Implemented Commands and Triggers¶

This plugin implements various functionality through plugn triggers to integrate with Docker for running apps on a single server. The following functionality is supported by the scheduler-k3s plugin.

apps:clone
apps:destroy
apps:rename
cron
enter
deploy
healthchecks
- Due to Kubernetes limitations, only a single healthcheck is supported for each of the liveness, readiness, and startup healthchecks
- Due to Kubernetes limitations, content checks are not supported
- Ports specified in the app.json are ignored in favor of the container port on the port mapping detected
logs
nginx
- Properties set by the nginx plugin will be respected, either by turning them into annotations or creating a custom server/location snippet that the ingress-nginx project can use. A ps:restart after changing any nginx properties is required in order to have them apply.
- The nginx:access-logs and nginx:error-logs commands will fetch logs from one running ingress-nginx pod.
- The nginx:show-config command will retrieve any server blocks associated with a domain attached to the app from one running ingress-nginx pod.
ps:stop
run
- The scheduler-post-run trigger is not always triggered
run:detached
run:list

Unimplemented command functionality¶

run:logs
ps:inspect

The following Dokku functionality is not implemented at this time.

vector log integration
persistent storage

Logging support¶

App logs for the logs command are fetched by Dokku from running containers via the kubectl cli. Persisting logs via Vector is not implemented at this time. Users may choose to configure the Vector Kubernetes integration directly by following this guide.

Supported Resource Management Properties¶

The k3s scheduler supports a minimal list of resource limits and reservations:

cpu: is specified in number of CPUs a process can access.
memory: should be specified with a suffix of b (bytes), Ki (kilobytes), Mi (megabytes), Gi (gigabytes). Default unit is Mi (megabytes).

If unspecified for any task, the default reservation will be .1 CPU and 128Mi RAM, with no limit set for either CPU or RAM. This is to avoid issues with overscheduling pods on a cluster. To avoid issues, set more specific values for at least resource reservations. If unbounded utilization is desired, set CPU and Memory to 0m and 0Mi, respectively.

Note

Cron tasks retrieve resource limits based on the computed cron task ID.