KIE Business Central HA - ZK and Helix necessary? - drools

In reference to this: https://docs.jboss.org/drools/release/latestFinal/drools-docs/html_single/#_wb.vfsclustering
specficially: If that VFS is located on each local server, then it must be kept in sync between all servers of a cluster.
Is it possible to avoid the usage of ZK and Helix to coordinate multiple business central servers when a shared PVC (volume mount) in k8s is used.
Say the shared volume was mounted at /opt/jboss/vfs
and the following config was set:
org.uberfire.nio.git.dir /opt/jboss/vfs
org.guvnor.m2repo.dir /opt/jboss/vfs/m2
Does this allow multiple instances to share editor file locks and everything else that needs to be coordinated?

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Orchestration of an NLP model via airflow and kubernetes

This is more of an architecture question. I have a data engineering background and have been using airflow to orchestrate ETL tasks using airflow for a while. I have limited knowledge of containerization and kuberentes. I have a task to come up with a good practice framework for productionalizting our Data science models using an orchestration engine namely airflow.
Our Data science team creates many NLP models to process different text documents from various resources. Previously the model was created by an external team which requires us to create an anacoda environment install libraries on it and run the model. The running of model was very manual where a data engineer would spin us a EC2 instance, and setup the model download the files to the ec2 instance and process the files using the model and take the output for further processing.
We are trying to move away from this to an automated pipeline where we have an airflow dag that basically orchestrates this all. The point where I am struggling is the running the model part.
This is the logical step I am thinking of doing. Please let me know if you think this would be feasible. All of these will be down in airflow. Step 2,3,4 are the ones I am totally unsure how to achieve.
Download files from ftp to s3
**Dynamically spin up a kubernetes cluster and create parallel pod based on number of files to be process.
Split files between those pods so each pod can only process its subset of files
Collate output of model from each pod into s3 location**
Do post processing on them
I am unsure how I can spin up a kuberentes cluster in airflow on runtime and especially how I split files between pods so each pod only processes on its own chunk of files and pushes output to shared location.
The running of the model has two methods. Daily and Complete. Daily would be a delta of files that have been added since last run whereas complete is a historical reprocessing of the whole document catalogue that we run every 6 months. As you can imagine the back catalogue would require alot of parallel processing and pods in parallel to process the number of documents.
I know this is a very generic post but my lack of kuberentes is the issue and any help would be appreciated in pointing me in the right direction.
Normally people schedule the container or PODs as per need on top of k8s cluster, however, I am not sure how frequent you need to crate the k8s cluster.
K8s cluster setup :
You can create the K8s cluster in different ways that are more dependent on the cloud provider and options they provide like SDK, CLI, etc.
Here is one example you can use this option with airflow to create the AWS EKS clusters : https://leftasexercise.com/2019/04/01/python-up-an-eks-cluster-part-i/
Most cloud providers support the CLI option so maybe using just CLI also you can create the K8s cluster.
If you want to use GCP GKE you can also check for the operators to create cluster : https://airflow.apache.org/docs/apache-airflow-providers-google/stable/operators/cloud/kubernetes_engine.html
Split files between those pods so each pod can only process its subset
of files
This is more depends on the file structure, you can mount the S3 direct to all pods, or you can keep the file into NFS and mount it to POD but in all cases you have to manage the directory structure accordingly, you can mount it to POD.
Collate output of model from each pod into s3 location**
You can use boto3 to upload files to S3, Can also mount S3 bucket direct to POD.
it's more now on your structure how big files are generated, and stored.

How to upsize volume of Terraformed EKS node

We have been using Terraform for almost a year now to manage all kinds of resources on AWS from bastion hosts to VPCs, RDS and also EKS.
We are sometimes really baffled by the EKS module. It could however be due to lack of understanding (and documentation), so here it goes:
Problem: Upsizing Disk (volume)
module "eks" {
source = "terraform-aws-modules/eks/aws"
version = "12.2.0"
cluster_name = local.cluster_name
cluster_version = "1.19"
subnets = module.vpc.private_subnets
#...
node_groups = {
first = {
desired_capacity = 1
max_capacity = 5
min_capacity = 1
instance_type = "m5.large"
}
}
I thought the default value for this (dev) k8s cluster's node can easily be the default 20GBs but it's filling up fast so I know want to change disk_size to let's say 40GBs.
=> I thought I could just add something like disk_size=40 and done.
terraform plan tells me I need to replace the node. This is a 1 node cluster, so not good. And even if it were I don't want to e.g. drain nodes. That's why I thought we are using managed k8s like EKS.
Expected behaviour: since these are elastic volumes I should be able to upsize but not downsize, why is that not possible? I can def. do so from the AWS UI.
Sure with a slightly scary warning:
Are you sure that you want to modify volume vol-xx?
It may take some time for performance changes to take full effect.
You may need to extend the OS file system on the volume to use any newly-allocated space
But I can work with the provided docs on that: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/recognize-expanded-volume-linux.html?icmpid=docs_ec2_console
Any guidelines on how to up the storage? If I do so with the UI but don't touch Terraform then my EKS state will be nuked/out of sync.
To my knowledge, there is currently no way to resize an EKS node volume without recreating the node using Terraform.
Fortunately, there is a workaround: As you also found out, you can directly change the node size via the AWS UI or API. To update your state file afterward, you can run terraform apply -refresh-only to download the latest data (e.g., the increased node volume size). After that, you can change the node size in your Terraform plan to keep both plan and state in sync.
For the future, you might want to look into moving to ephemeral nodes as (at least my) experience shows that you will have unforeseeable changes to clusters and nodes from time to time. Already planning with replaceable nodes in mind will make these changes substantially easier.
By using the terraform-aws-eks terraform module you are actually following the "ephemeral nodes" paradigm, because for both ways of creating instances (self-managed workers or managed node groups) the module is creating Autoscaling Groups that create EC2 instances out of a Launch Template.
ASG and Launch Templates are specifically designed so that you don't care anymore about specific nodes, and rather you just care about the number of nodes. This means that for updating the nodes, you just replace them with new ones, which will use the new updated launch template (with more GBs for example, or with a new updated AMI, or a new instance type).
This is called "rolling updates", and it can be done manually (adding new instances, then draining the node, then deleting the old node), with scripts (see: eks-rolling-update in github by Hellofresh), or it can be done automagically if you use the AWS managed nodes (the ones you are actually using when specifying "node_groups", that is why if you add more GB, it will replace the node automatically when you run apply).
And this paradigm is the most common when operating Kubernetes in the cloud (and also very common on-premise datacenters when using virtualization).
Option 1) Self Managed Workers
With self managed nodes, when you change a parameter like disk_size or instance_type, it will change the Launch Template. It will update the $latest version tag, which is commonly where the ASG is pointing to (although can be changed). This means that old instances will not see any change, but new ones will have the updated configuration.
If you want to change the existing instances, you actually want to replace them with new ones. That is what this ephemeral nodes paradigm is.
One by one you can drain the old instances while increasing the number of desired_instances on the ASG, or let the cluster autoscaler do the job. Alternatively, you can use an automated script which does this for you for each ASG: https://github.com/hellofresh/eks-rolling-update
In terraform_aws_eks module, you create self managed workers by either using worker_groups or worker_groups_launch_template (recommended) field
Option 2) Managed Nodes
Managed nodes is an EKS-specific feature. You configure them very similarly, but in reality, it is an abstraction, and AWS will create the actual underlying ASG.
You can specify a Launch Template to be used by the ASG and its version. Some config can be specified at the managed node level (i.e. AMI and instance_types) and at the Launch Template (if it wasn't specified in the former).
Any change on the node group level config, or on the Launch Template version, will trigger an automatic rolling update, which will replace all old instances.
You can delay the rolling update by just not pointing to the $latest version (or pointing to $default, and not updating the $default tag when changing the LT).
In terraform_aws_eks module, you create self managed workers by using the node_groups field. You can also play with these settings: create_launch_template=true and set_instance_types_on_lt=true if you want the module to create the LT for you (alternatively you can just not use it, or pass a reference to one); and to set the instance_type on such LT as specified above.
But behavior is similar to worker groups. In no case you will have your existing instances changed. You can only change them manually.
However, there is an alternative: The manual way
You can use the EKS module to create the control plane, but then use a regular EC2 resource in terraform (https://registry.terraform.io/providers/hashicorp/aws/latest/docs/resources/instance) to create one ore multiple (using count or for_each) instances.
If you create the instances using the aws_instance resource, then terraform will patch those instances (updated-in-place) when any change is allowed (i.e. increasing the root volue GB or the instance type; whereas changing the AMI will force a replacement).
The only tricky part, is that you need to configure the cloud-init script to make the instance join the cluster (something that is automatically done by the EKS module when using self/managed node groups).
However, it is very possible, and you can borrow the script from the module and plug it into the aws_instance's user_data field (https://registry.terraform.io/providers/hashicorp/aws/latest/docs/resources/instance#user_data)
In this case (when talking about disk_size), however, you still need to manually (either by SSH, or by running an hacky exec using terraform) to patch the XFS filesystem so it sees the increased disk space.
Another alternative: Consider Kubernetes storage
That said, there is also another alternative for certain use cases. If you want to increase the disk space of those instances because of one of your applications using a hostPath, then it might be the case that you can use a kubernetes built-in storage solution using the EBS CSI driver.
For example, I manage an ElasticSearch cluster in Kubernetes (and deploy it from terraform with the helm module), and it uses dynamic storage provisioning to request an EBS volume (note that performance is the same, because both root and this other volume are EBS volumes). EBS CSI driver supports volume expansion, so I can just increase this disk by changing a terraform variable.
To conclude, I would not recommend the aws_instance way, unless you understand it and are sure you really want it. It may make sense in certain cases, but definitely not common

Copying directories into minikube and persisting them

I am trying to copy some directories into the minikube VM to be used by some of the pods that are running. These include API credential files and template files used at run time by the application. I have found you can copy files using scp into the /home/docker/ directory, however these files are not persisted over reboots of the VM. I have read files/directories are persisted if stored in the /data/ directory on the VM (among others) however I get permission denied when trying to copy files to these directories.
Are there:
A: Any directories in minikube that will persist data that aren't protected in this way
B: Any other ways of doing the above without running into this issue (could well be going about this the wrong way)
To clarify, I have already been able to mount the files from /home/docker/ into the pods using volumes, so it's just the persisting data I'm unclear about.
Kubernetes has dedicated object types for these sorts of things. API credential files you might store in a Secret, and template files (if they aren't already built into your Docker image) could go into a ConfigMap. Both of them can either get translated to environment variables or mounted as artificial volumes in running containers.
In my experience, trying to store data directly on a node isn't a good practice. It's common enough to have multiple nodes, to not directly have login access to those nodes, and for them to be created and destroyed outside of your direct control (imagine an autoscaler running on a cloud provider that creates a new node when all of the existing nodes are 90% scheduled). There's a good chance your data won't (or can't) be on the host where you expect it.
This does lead to a proliferation of Kubernetes objects and associated resources, and you might find a Helm chart to be a good resource to tie them together. You can check the chart into source control along with your application, and deploy the whole thing in one shot. While it has a couple of useful features beyond just packaging resources together (a deploy-time configuration system, a templating language for the Kubernetes YAML itself) you can ignore these if you don't need them and just write a bunch of YAML files and a small control file.
For minikube, data kept in $HOME/.minikube/files directory is copied to / directory in VM host by minikube.

Best practice to deploy wso2 esb policies

I have setup an ESB cluster using jdbc connections to ms sql databases for local and remotely mounted config and gov registries. 1x mgt and 2xworker
Our .car file contains some ws-security policy artifacts which go to config. When I deploy to mgt it deploys OK. I have SVN dep sync setup to the cluster and when it picks up the .car it starts to deploy on the worker but fails when loading the policy files into conf. It is trying to duplicate the policy in the shared conf and fails - of course that is right but; how should I deploy these 'shared' artifacts when a .car file is distributed by svn? I need to be able to control the deploy properly. The only way I can see is via the dev studio which is terrible for our change management practice.
Thanks for you help.
I can recommend multiple solutions. You can decide what to choose from them.
Since you have only 2 worker nodes, you can get rid of (disable) deployment synchronization and deploy the car files to all the nodes. I believe you have some automated process, so it wont be a problem to deploy to all nodes. While doing so, modify your project to bundle the policies to a separate car file and the services to another. When deploying, you deploy the policies only to management node and the services to all nodes.
Second option is to, add the policies to local registry. i.e. Not the config registry, not the governance registry. Then, when you deploy the car to the management node, it will add the policies to local registry of the management node. When the car file is dep-synced, worker nodes will deploy them and they will add the policies to their local registry. This will avoid the worker nodes trying to add the policies to the same location.
By going through the question, I felt you have external databases to the local registry too. But, its not necessary. You can use the internal H2 database for the local registry. H2 databases sometimes get corrupted. If such a thing happens, all you have to do is, delete the H2 database and restart the server with -Dsetup option. Having an external DB is fine. But, thats an overkill.

AppFabric setup in a domain

So I am a little confused by reading the documents.
I want to setup AppFabric caching and hosting.
Can I do the following?
DC
SQL Server
AppFabric1
AppFabric2
All these computers are joined to the DC.
I want to be able to have AppFabric1 be the mainhost but also part of the cache cluster?
What about AppFabric2? or AppFabricX? How can I make them part of the cache cluster?
Do I have to make AppFabric1 and AppFabric2 configured in Windows as part of a cluster (i.e setup the entire environment as a cluster)?
Can I install AppFabric independently on AppFabric1 and 2 and have them cluster together and "make it work"? If so - how?
I see documentation about setting it up in a webfarm but also a workgroup... and that's it. nothing about computers joined to a domain.
I want to setup AppFabric caching and hosting.
Caching and Hosting are two totaly different things and generally don't share the same use cases.
AppFabric Caching provides an in-memory, distributed cache platform for Windows Server, previously named Velocity. The cache cluster is a collection of one or more instances of the Caching Service working together. You can easily add new cache host without restarting the cluster in the "storage location" (xml or sql server).
Can I install AppFabric independently on AppFabric1 and 2 and have
them cluster together and "make it work"? If so - how?
Don't worry... this can be done easily during installation. In addition, there are powerfull PS module to to the same thing.
AppFabric Hosting enhance the hosting of WCF and Workflow Foundation services in WAS (autostart, monitoring of hosted services, workflow persistence, ...). There is no cluster here and basically you just have to configure to monitoring/persistence DB for each server.
Just try it !
When you are adding the second node in the AppFabric cluster, make sure to choose the option Join Cluster (instead of New Cluster) and point to the path of the share where you stored the configuration (assuming that you used FILE SHARE to store the configuration of the cluster). The share that you used should be accessible from Appfabric2.