vSphere with Tanzu using NSX-T - Part22 - Working with NGINX Ingress Controller

In this article we will go though the steps to deploy a nginx ingress controller on a Tanzu Kubernetes cluster (TKC) and create a simple ingress resource to test its basic functionality.

❯ gcc kg no
NAME                                 STATUS   ROLES                  AGE   VERSION
tkc-control-plane-5m9hd              Ready    control-plane,master   36d   v1.23.8+vmware.3
tkc-workers-6d8wc-5669d8bc79-76f2t   Ready    <none>                 36d   v1.23.8+vmware.3
tkc-workers-6d8wc-5669d8bc79-mtqh7   Ready    <none>                 36d   v1.23.8+vmware.3
tkc-workers-6d8wc-5669d8bc79-xh2gz   Ready    <none>                 36d   v1.23.8+vmware.3

❯ gcc k apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes/ingress-nginx/controller-v1.7.0/deploy/static/provider/cloud/deploy.yaml --namespace=ingress-nginx
namespace/ingress-nginx created
serviceaccount/ingress-nginx created
serviceaccount/ingress-nginx-admission created
role.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/ingress-nginx created
role.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/ingress-nginx-admission created
clusterrole.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/ingress-nginx created
clusterrole.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/ingress-nginx-admission created
rolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/ingress-nginx created
rolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/ingress-nginx-admission created
clusterrolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/ingress-nginx created
clusterrolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/ingress-nginx-admission created
configmap/ingress-nginx-controller created
service/ingress-nginx-controller created
service/ingress-nginx-controller-admission created
deployment.apps/ingress-nginx-controller created
job.batch/ingress-nginx-admission-create created
job.batch/ingress-nginx-admission-patch created
ingressclass.networking.k8s.io/nginx created
validatingwebhookconfiguration.admissionregistration.k8s.io/ingress-nginx-admission created
 

❯ gcc kg ns
NAME                           STATUS   AGE
default                        Active   57d
external-dns                   Active   57d
ingress-nginx                  Active   17s
kube-node-lease                Active   57d
kube-public                    Active   57d
kube-system                    Active   57d
vmware-system-auth             Active   57d
vmware-system-cloud-provider   Active   57d
vmware-system-csi              Active   57d
❯ 
❯ gcc kg deployment,po,svc,ep -n ingress-nginx
NAME                                       READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
deployment.apps/ingress-nginx-controller   1/1     1            1           21h

NAME                                           READY   STATUS      RESTARTS   AGE
pod/ingress-nginx-admission-create-h4sbz       0/1     Completed   0          21h
pod/ingress-nginx-admission-patch-bw2fr        0/1     Completed   0          21h
pod/ingress-nginx-controller-5795977b8-nfrb8   1/1     Running     0          21h

NAME                                         TYPE           CLUSTER-IP      EXTERNAL-IP     PORT(S)                      AGE
service/ingress-nginx-controller             LoadBalancer   10.96.114.127   10.186.124.41   80:30061/TCP,443:31417/TCP   21h
service/ingress-nginx-controller-admission   ClusterIP      10.98.183.189   <none>          443/TCP                      21h

NAME                                           ENDPOINTS                        AGE
endpoints/ingress-nginx-controller             192.168.7.8:443,192.168.7.8:80   21h
endpoints/ingress-nginx-controller-admission   192.168.7.8:8443                 21h

Now the nginx ingress controller is deployed. You can also see the service/ingress-nginx-controller has already got an external IP from NSX-T.

Note: gcc is an alias which points to my TKC kubeconfig file.

❯ alias gcc
gcc='KUBECONFIG=gckubeconfig'
❯   

Lets create a sample deployment and expose it as a service under namespace ingress-nginx.

❯ gcc kubectl create deployment web --image=gcr.io/google-samples/hello-app:1.0 -n ingress-nginx
deployment.apps/web created
❯ gcc kubectl expose deployment web --type=NodePort --port=8080 -n ingress-nginx
service/web exposed
❯
❯ gcc k get deployments.apps web -n ingress-nginx
NAME   READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
web    1/1     1            1           28s
❯ gcc k get svc web -n ingress-nginx
NAME   TYPE       CLUSTER-IP      EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)          AGE
web    NodePort   10.105.243.33   <none>        8080:30750/TCP   28s
❯ gcc k get ep web -n ingress-nginx
NAME   ENDPOINTS          AGE
web    192.168.1.9:8080   39s
❯

Create a pod on the TKC and try to access the svc web from inside the pod. I've already deployed a nginx pod.

❯ gcc k get po nginx
NAME    READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
nginx   1/1     Running   0          96m
❯
❯ gcc k exec -it nginx -- curl 10.105.243.33:8080
Hello, world!
Version: 1.0.0
Hostname: web-746c8679d4-ptmgh
❯

Lets create a second deployment under namespace ingress-nginx.

❯ gcc kubectl create deployment web2 --image=gcr.io/google-samples/hello-app:2.0 -n ingress-nginx
deployment.apps/web2 created
❯
❯ gcc kubectl expose deployment web2 --port=8080 --type=NodePort -n ingress-nginx
service/web2 exposed
❯
❯
❯ gcc k get deployment web2 -n ingress-nginx
NAME   READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
web2   1/1     1            1           56s
❯ gcc k get svc  web2 -n ingress-nginx
NAME   TYPE       CLUSTER-IP    EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)          AGE
web2   NodePort   10.99.79.19   <none>        8080:31695/TCP   65s
❯ gcc k get ep  web2 -n ingress-nginx
NAME   ENDPOINTS           AGE
web2   192.168.2.13:8080   73s

Verify svc web2.

❯ gcc k exec -it nginx -- curl 10.99.79.19:8080
Hello, world!
Version: 2.0.0
Hostname: web2-5858b4c7c5-tmn8x

Service web and web2 are accessible within the TKC. We've already verified it from the nginx pod that runs within the same TKC.

Now, we will create an ingress resource under namespace ingress-nginx.

❯ cat ing-01.yaml
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: hello-world-ing
  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/ingress.class: "nginx"
spec:
  rules:
  - host: hello-world.info
    http:
      paths:
        - path: /
          pathType: Prefix
          backend:
            service:
              name: web
              port:
                number: 8080
        - path: /v2
          pathType: Prefix
          backend:
            service:
              name: web2
              port:
                number: 8080

❯ gcc k create -f ing-01.yaml -n ingress-nginx
ingress.networking.k8s.io/hello-world-ing created
❯
❯ gcc k get ing -n ingress-nginx
NAME              CLASS    HOSTS              ADDRESS   PORTS   AGE
hello-world-ing   <none>   hello-world.info             80      55s
❯ gcc k get ing -n ingress-nginx
NAME              CLASS    HOSTS              ADDRESS         PORTS   AGE
hello-world-ing   <none>   hello-world.info   10.186.124.41   80      56s

I've created a entry in /etc/hosts file in my laptop so that hello-world.info resolves to 10.186.124.41 which is the external IP of service/ingress-nginx-controller.

❯ cat /etc/hosts
##
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting.  Do not change this entry.
##
127.0.0.1	localhost
255.255.255.255	broadcasthost
::1             localhost
# Added by Docker Desktop
# To allow the same kube context to work on the host and the container:
127.0.0.1 kubernetes.docker.internal
10.186.124.41 hello-world.info
# End of section 

Now from my laptop when I curl to hello-world.info, the request will be served by web svc, and when I curl to hello-world.info/v2, it will be served by web2 svc.

❯
❯ curl hello-world.info
Hello, world!
Version: 1.0.0
Hostname: web-746c8679d4-ptmgh
❯
❯ curl hello-world.info/v2
Hello, world!
Version: 2.0.0
Hostname: web2-5858b4c7c5-tmn8x
❯

Hope it was useful. Cheers! 

References:

https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/access-application-cluster/ingress-minikube/
https://kubernetes.github.io/ingress-nginx/user-guide/basic-usage/

vSphere with Tanzu using NSX-T - Part21 - Pointers while upgrading the stack

Here are some pointers.

The main workflow while upgrading the entire stack is:

1. upgrade NSX-T
2. upgrade vCenter server
3. upgrade ESXi nodes
4. upgrade vSAN and vDS (if required)
5. upgrade WCP

Note: Make sure you follow the compatibility matrix while performing upgrades in a production environment.

NSX-T

While NSX-T is getting upgraded, the host transport nodes will also need to be updated. NSX components will be installed/ updated on the ESXi nodes and may need a reboot also. 

In NSX-T: System > Lifecycle Management > Upgrade > Upgrade NSX > Hosts

Plan

-Upgrade order across groups - Serial

-Pause upgrade condition - When an upgrade unit fails to upgrade

Host Groups

-Upgrade order within group - Serial

-Upgrade mode - Maintenance

 

Notes: 

• There is an in-place upgrade mode for the host groups, and in this mode the NSX component on the ESXi nodes will get updated first and then the node will be placed in MM and then gets rebooted. But we have had some cases where the NSX component update on the ESXi node fails, and the workload/ TKC VMs running on that ESXi loses network connectivity. To fix this the ESXi node has to be rebooted, and while trying to put the node in MM, the TKC VMs running on it fails to get migrated, and the final option is to force reboot the ESXi and that affects the workload running on it. To avoid this case, the safest option is to choose the upgrade mode as Maintenance, so that the TKCs VMs will get migrated off the ESXi node first before updating the NSX component, and even if the component update fails, we are safe to reboot the node as it is in already in MM. 

• We have also noticed in some cases the ESXi nodes in a WCP cluster fails to enter MM. Following are some common cases:

• Orphaned or inaccessible VMs are one of the main causes. You can follow this article to find those and clean them up.

• I have noticed cases like some VMs (vSphere pods) were present on the ESXi host in poweredoff state. In this case the ESXi was stuck 100% in maintenance mode. You will need to check on those VMs and then delete them if required to proceed further.

• There are cases where some TKC VMs were present on the ESXi host and they fail to get migrated. Check whether these VMs are still present at the Kubernetes layer. If not, delete those VMs!

• Check if there are any TKC nodes still present on the ESXi node. There can be cases where the TKC node or nodes are unable to migrate to other available nodes in the cluster due to resource constraints. Check whether the TKC nodes that are unable to migrate is using guaranteed vmclass. The solution is to find out unused resources/ TKCs in the cluster, check with the owner/ user and then delete it if not being used. Another way is to check with the user and change the guaranteed vmclass to besteffort if possible or temporarily reduce the number of worker nodes if the user agrees to do so.
  
  
• Verify whether any pods are running on the respective ESXi worker node:
kubectl get pods -A -o wide | grep ESXi-FQDN
Safely drain the node.

Hope it was useful. Cheers!

vSphere with Tanzu using NSX-T - Part20 - Safely deleting NotReady nodes from a TKC

In this article we will look at a TKC that is stuck at updating phase which has multiple Kubernetes nodes in NotReady state. 

jtimothy-napp01     gc    updating       2021-07-29T16:59:34Z   v1.20.9+vmware.1-tkg.1.a4cee5b     3     3

❯ gcc kg no | grep NotReady | wc -l
       5

❯ gcc kg no
NAME                                STATUS                        ROLES                  AGE    VERSION
gc-control-plane-2rbsb              Ready                         control-plane,master   410d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-control-plane-5zjn4              Ready                         control-plane,master   123d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-control-plane-9t97w              Ready                         control-plane,master   123d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-control-plane-tnhv9              NotReady                      control-plane,master   63d    v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-control-plane-tqvnk              NotReady                      control-plane,master   50d    v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-control-plane-wsclb              NotReady                      <none>                 8d     v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-control-plane-wt6sx              NotReady                      <none>                 30d    v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-control-plane-zthnq              NotReady                      control-plane,master   49d    v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-2v8pl   Ready                         <none>                 458d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-8qs4p   Ready                         <none>                 456d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-r29d5   Ready                         <none>                 458d   v1.20.9+vmware.1

❯ gcc kg po -A -o wide | grep etcd
kube-system                    etcd-gc-control-plane-2rbsb                         0/1     Running            811        410d    172.31.14.6       gc-control-plane-2rbsb              <none>           <none>
kube-system                    etcd-gc-control-plane-5zjn4                         1/1     Running            1          124d    172.31.14.7       gc-control-plane-5zjn4              <none>           <none>
kube-system                    etcd-gc-control-plane-9t97w                         1/1     Running            1          123d    172.31.14.8       gc-control-plane-9t97w              <none>           <none>

Note: gcc is alias that I am using for KUBECONFIG=gckubeconfig, where gckubeconfig is the kubeconfig file for the TKC under consideration.

Lets verify where etcd pods are running.

❯ gcc kg po -A -o wide | grep etcd
kube-system                    etcd-gc-control-plane-2rbsb                         0/1     Running            811        410d    172.31.14.6       gc-control-plane-2rbsb              <none>           <none>
kube-system                    etcd-gc-control-plane-5zjn4                         1/1     Running            1          124d    172.31.14.7       gc-control-plane-5zjn4              <none>           <none>
kube-system                    etcd-gc-control-plane-9t97w                         1/1     Running            1          123d    172.31.14.8       gc-control-plane-9t97w              <none>           <none>

You can see etcd pods are running on nodes that are in Ready status. So now we can go ahead and safely drain and delete the nodes that are NotReady.

❯ notreadynodes=$(gcc kubectl get nodes | grep NotReady | awk '{print $1;}')

❯ echo $notreadynodes
gc-control-plane-tnhv9
gc-control-plane-tqvnk
gc-control-plane-wsclb
gc-control-plane-wt6sx
gc-control-plane-zthnq

❯ echo "$notreadynodes" | while IFS= read -r line ; do echo $line; gcc kubectl drain $line --ignore-daemonsets; gcc kubectl delete node $line; echo "----"; done

gc-control-plane-tnhv9
node/gc-control-plane-tnhv9 already cordoned
WARNING: ignoring DaemonSet-managed Pods: kube-system/calico-node-nzbgq, kube-system/kube-proxy-2jqqr, vmware-system-csi/vsphere-csi-node-46g6r
node/gc-control-plane-tnhv9 drained
node "gc-control-plane-tnhv9" deleted
----
gc-control-plane-tqvnk
node/gc-control-plane-tqvnk already cordoned
WARNING: ignoring DaemonSet-managed Pods: kube-system/calico-node-45xfc, kube-system/kube-proxy-dxrkr, vmware-system-csi/vsphere-csi-node-wrvlk
node/gc-control-plane-tqvnk drained
node "gc-control-plane-tqvnk" deleted
----
gc-control-plane-wsclb
node/gc-control-plane-wsclb already cordoned
WARNING: ignoring DaemonSet-managed Pods: kube-system/calico-node-5t254, kube-system/kube-proxy-jt2dp, vmware-system-csi/vsphere-csi-node-w2bhf
node/gc-control-plane-wsclb drained
node "gc-control-plane-wsclb" deleted
----
gc-control-plane-wt6sx
node/gc-control-plane-wt6sx already cordoned
WARNING: ignoring DaemonSet-managed Pods: kube-system/calico-node-24pn5, kube-system/kube-proxy-b5vl5, vmware-system-csi/vsphere-csi-node-hfjdw
node/gc-control-plane-wt6sx drained
node "gc-control-plane-wt6sx" deleted
----
gc-control-plane-zthnq
node/gc-control-plane-zthnq already cordoned
WARNING: ignoring DaemonSet-managed Pods: kube-system/calico-node-vp895, kube-system/kube-proxy-8mg8n, vmware-system-csi/vsphere-csi-node-hs22g
node/gc-control-plane-zthnq drained
node "gc-control-plane-zthnq" deleted
----

❯ gcc kg no
NAME                                STATUS   ROLES                  AGE    VERSION
gc-control-plane-2rbsb              Ready    control-plane,master   410d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-control-plane-5zjn4              Ready    control-plane,master   123d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-control-plane-9t97w              Ready    control-plane,master   123d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-2v8pl   Ready    <none>                 458d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-8qs4p   Ready    <none>                 456d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-r29d5   Ready    <none>                 458d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
❯
❯ kgtkca | grep jtimothy-napp01
jtimothy-napp01    gc       updating       2021-07-29T16:59:34Z   v1.20.9+vmware.1-tkg.1.a4cee5b     3     3

Now, I waited for few minutes to see whether the reconciliation process will proceed and change the status of the TKC from updating to running. But it was still stuck at updating phase. So I described the TKC.

Conditions:
    Last Transition Time:  2022-12-30T19:47:15Z
    Message:               Rolling 1 replicas with outdated spec (2 replicas up to date)
    Reason:                RollingUpdateInProgress
    Severity:              Warning
    Status:                False
    Type:                  Ready
    Last Transition Time:  2023-01-01T19:19:45Z
    Status:                True
    Type:                  AddonsReady
    Last Transition Time:  2022-12-30T19:47:15Z
    Message:               Rolling 1 replicas with outdated spec (2 replicas up to date)
    Reason:                RollingUpdateInProgress
    Severity:              Warning
    Status:                False
    Type:                  ControlPlaneReady
    Last Transition Time:  2022-07-24T15:53:06Z
    Status:                True
    Type:                  NodePoolsReady
    Last Transition Time:  2022-09-01T09:02:26Z
    Message:               3/3 Control Plane Node(s) healthy. 3/3 Worker Node(s) healthy
    Status:                True
    Type:                  NodesHealthy

Checked vmop logs.

vmware-system-vmop/vmware-system-vmop-controller-manager-85d8986b94-xzd9h[manager]: E0103 08:43:51.449422       1 readiness_worker.go:111] readiness-probe "msg"="readiness probe fails" "error"="dial tcp 172.31.14.6:6443: connect: connection refused" "vmName"="jtimothy-napp01/gc-control-plane-2rbsb" "result"=-1

It says something is wrong with CP node gc-control-plane-2rbsb.

❯ gcc kg po -A -o wide | grep etcd
kube-system                    etcd-gc-control-plane-2rbsb                         0/1     Running            811        410d    172.31.14.6       gc-control-plane-2rbsb              <none>           <none>
kube-system                    etcd-gc-control-plane-5zjn4                         1/1     Running            1          124d    172.31.14.7       gc-control-plane-5zjn4              <none>           <none>
kube-system                    etcd-gc-control-plane-9t97w                         1/1     Running            1          123d    172.31.14.8       gc-control-plane-9t97w              <none>           <none>

You can see etcd pod is not running on first control plane node and is getting continuously restarted. So lets try to drain the CP node gc-control-plane-2rbsb.

❯ gcc k drain gc-control-plane-2rbsb
node/gc-control-plane-2rbsb cordoned
DEPRECATED WARNING: Aborting the drain command in a list of nodes will be deprecated in v1.23.
The new behavior will make the drain command go through all nodes even if one or more nodes failed during the drain.
For now, users can try such experience via: --ignore-errors
error: unable to drain node "gc-control-plane-2rbsb", aborting command...

There are pending nodes to be drained:
 gc-control-plane-2rbsb
cannot delete DaemonSet-managed Pods (use --ignore-daemonsets to ignore): kube-system/calico-node-bdjp7, kube-system/kube-proxy-v9cqf, vmware-system-auth/guest-cluster-auth-svc-n4h2k, vmware-system-csi/vsphere-csi-node-djhpv
cannot delete Pods with local storage (use --delete-emptydir-data to override): vmware-system-csi/vsphere-csi-controller-b4fd6878d-zw5hn

❯ gcc k drain gc-control-plane-2rbsb --ignore-daemonsets --delete-emptydir-data
node/gc-control-plane-2rbsb already cordoned
WARNING: ignoring DaemonSet-managed Pods: kube-system/calico-node-bdjp7, kube-system/kube-proxy-v9cqf, vmware-system-auth/guest-cluster-auth-svc-n4h2k, vmware-system-csi/vsphere-csi-node-djhpv
evicting pod vmware-system-csi/vsphere-csi-controller-b4fd6878d-zw5hn
pod/vsphere-csi-controller-b4fd6878d-zw5hn evicted
node/gc-control-plane-2rbsb evicted

❯ gcc kg no
NAME                                STATUS                     ROLES                  AGE    VERSION
gc-control-plane-2rbsb              Ready,SchedulingDisabled   control-plane,master   410d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-control-plane-5zjn4              Ready                      control-plane,master   123d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-control-plane-9t97w              Ready                      control-plane,master   123d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-2v8pl   Ready                      <none>                 458d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-8qs4p   Ready                      <none>                 456d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-r29d5   Ready                      <none>                 458d   v1.20.9+vmware.1

Now lets delete its corresponding machine object.

❯ k delete machine.cluster.x-k8s.io/gc-control-plane-2rbsb -n jtimothy-napp01
machine.cluster.x-k8s.io "gc-control-plane-2rbsb" deleted
❯
❯ kg machine -n jtimothy-napp01
NAME                                CLUSTER   NODENAME                            PROVIDERID                                       PHASE     AGE    VERSION
gc-control-plane-5zjn4              gc        gc-control-plane-5zjn4              vsphere://42015c9c-feed-5eda-6fbe-f0da5d1434ea   Running   124d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-control-plane-9t97w              gc        gc-control-plane-9t97w              vsphere://4201377e-0f46-40b6-e222-9c723c6adb19   Running   123d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-2v8pl   gc        gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-2v8pl   vsphere://420139b4-83f1-824f-7bd2-ed073a5dcf37   Running   458d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-8qs4p   gc        gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-8qs4p   vsphere://4201d8ac-9cc2-07ac-c352-9f7e812b4367   Running   456d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-r29d5   gc        gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-r29d5   vsphere://42017666-8cb4-2767-5d0b-1d3dc9219db3   Running   458d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
❯
❯ gcc kg no
NAME                                STATUS   ROLES                  AGE    VERSION
gc-control-plane-5zjn4              Ready    control-plane,master   124d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-control-plane-9t97w              Ready    control-plane,master   123d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-2v8pl   Ready    <none>                 458d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-8qs4p   Ready    <none>                 456d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-r29d5   Ready    <none>                 458d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
❯

After few minutes you can see a new machine and the corresponding node got provisioned and the TKC changed from updating to running phase.

❯ kg machine -n jtimothy-napp01
NAME                                CLUSTER   NODENAME                            PROVIDERID                                       PHASE          AGE    VERSION
gc-control-plane-5zjn4              gc        gc-control-plane-5zjn4              vsphere://42015c9c-feed-5eda-6fbe-f0da5d1434ea   Running        124d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-control-plane-9t97w              gc        gc-control-plane-9t97w              vsphere://4201377e-0f46-40b6-e222-9c723c6adb19   Running        123d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-control-plane-dnr66              gc                                                                                             Provisioning   13s    v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-2v8pl   gc        gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-2v8pl   vsphere://420139b4-83f1-824f-7bd2-ed073a5dcf37   Running        458d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-8qs4p   gc        gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-8qs4p   vsphere://4201d8ac-9cc2-07ac-c352-9f7e812b4367   Running        456d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-r29d5   gc        gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-r29d5   vsphere://42017666-8cb4-2767-5d0b-1d3dc9219db3   Running        458d   v1.20.9+vmware.1



❯ kg machine -n jtimothy-napp01
NAME                                CLUSTER   NODENAME                            PROVIDERID                                       PHASE     AGE    VERSION
gc-control-plane-5zjn4              gc        gc-control-plane-5zjn4              vsphere://42015c9c-feed-5eda-6fbe-f0da5d1434ea   Running   124d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-control-plane-9t97w              gc        gc-control-plane-9t97w              vsphere://4201377e-0f46-40b6-e222-9c723c6adb19   Running   124d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-control-plane-dnr66              gc        gc-control-plane-dnr66              vsphere://42011228-b156-3338-752a-e7233c9258dd   Running   2m2s   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-2v8pl   gc        gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-2v8pl   vsphere://420139b4-83f1-824f-7bd2-ed073a5dcf37   Running   458d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-8qs4p   gc        gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-8qs4p   vsphere://4201d8ac-9cc2-07ac-c352-9f7e812b4367   Running   456d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-r29d5   gc        gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-r29d5   vsphere://42017666-8cb4-2767-5d0b-1d3dc9219db3   Running   458d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
❯
❯ gcc kg no
NAME                                STATUS     ROLES                  AGE    VERSION
gc-control-plane-5zjn4              Ready      control-plane,master   124d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-control-plane-9t97w              Ready      control-plane,master   123d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-control-plane-dnr66              NotReady   control-plane,master   35s    v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-2v8pl   Ready      <none>                 458d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-8qs4p   Ready      <none>                 456d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-r29d5   Ready      <none>                 458d   v1.20.9+vmware.1


❯ gcc kg no
NAME                                STATUS   ROLES                  AGE    VERSION
gc-control-plane-5zjn4              Ready    control-plane,master   124d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-control-plane-9t97w              Ready    control-plane,master   123d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-control-plane-dnr66              Ready    control-plane,master   53s    v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-2v8pl   Ready    <none>                 458d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-8qs4p   Ready    <none>                 456d   v1.20.9+vmware.1
gc-workers-ztr5c-6f4b555879-r29d5   Ready    <none>                 458d   v1.20.9+vmware.1

❯ kgtkca | grep jtimothy-napp01
jtimothy-napp01     gc     running      2021-07-29T16:59:34Z   v1.20.9+vmware.1-tkg.1.a4cee5b     3     3

Hope it was useful. Cheers!

Working with Kubernetes using Python - Part 06 - Create namespace

Following code snipet uses Python client for the kubernetes API to create namespace. You will need to specify the kubeconfig file and the context to use for creating the namespace. This is an example case if you are working with multiple kubeconfig files where multiple K8s clusters could be present in each kubeconfig file.

from kubernetes import client, config
import argparse


def load_kubeconfig(kubeconfig_file, context_name):
    try:
        config.load_kube_config(
            config_file=f"{kubeconfig_file}", context=f"{context_name}"
        )
    except config.ConfigException as err:
        print(err)
        raise Exception("Could not configure kubernetes python client!")
    v1 = client.CoreV1Api()
    return v1


def create_ns(v1, ns_name):
    print("Creating namespace")
    namespace = client.V1Namespace(metadata={"name": ns_name})
    ret = v1.create_namespace(namespace)
    print(ret)


def main():
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
    parser.add_argument("-c", "--context", required=True, help="K8s context")
    parser.add_argument("-f", "--file", required=True, help="Kubeconfig file")
    args = parser.parse_args()

    context = args.context

    v1 = load_kubeconfig(args.file, context)

    ns_name = input("Enter namespace name: ")
    create_ns(v1, ns_name)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Following is sample output:

❯ python3 create_namespace.py -c tkc-admin@tkc -f /Users/vineethac/testing/ccs/tkc.kubeconfig
Enter namespace name: vineethac-test11
Creating namespace
{'api_version': 'v1',
 'kind': 'Namespace',
 'metadata': {'annotations': None,
              'cluster_name': None,
              'creation_timestamp': datetime.datetime(2022, 12, 7, 11, 57, 17, tzinfo=tzutc()),
              'deletion_grace_period_seconds': None,
              'deletion_timestamp': None,
              'finalizers': None,
              'generate_name': None,
              'generation': None,
              'labels': {'kubernetes.io/metadata.name': 'vineetha-test11'},
              'managed_fields': [{'api_version': 'v1',
                                  'fields_type': 'FieldsV1',
                                  'fields_v1': {'f:metadata': {'f:labels': {'.': {},
                                                                            'f:kubernetes.io/metadata.name': {}}}},
                                  'manager': 'OpenAPI-Generator',
                                  'operation': 'Update',
                                  'time': datetime.datetime(2022, 12, 7, 11, 57, 17, tzinfo=tzutc())}],
              'name': 'vineethac-test11',
              'namespace': None,
              'owner_references': None,
              'resource_version': '5518430',
              'self_link': None,
              'uid': '0e9f1211-e09f-4d2d-b475-8995bb0c0907'},
 'spec': {'finalizers': ['kubernetes']},
 'status': {'conditions': None, 'phase': 'Active'}}

Working with Kubernetes using Python - Part 05 - Get pods

Following code snipet uses Python client for the kubernetes API to get all pods and pods under a specific namespace for a given context:

from kubernetes import client, config
import argparse


def load_kubeconfig(context_name):
    config.load_kube_config(context=f"{context_name}")
    v1 = client.CoreV1Api()
    return v1


def get_all_pods(v1):
    print("Listing all pods:")
    ret = v1.list_pod_for_all_namespaces(watch=False)
    for i in ret.items:
        print(i.metadata.namespace, i.metadata.name, i.status.phase)


def get_namespaced_pods(v1, ns):
    print(f"Listing all pods under namespace {ns}:")
    ret = v1.list_namespaced_pod(f"{ns}")
    for i in ret.items:
        print(i.metadata.namespace, i.metadata.name, i.status.phase)


def main():
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
    parser.add_argument("-c", "--context", required=True, help="K8s context")
    parser.add_argument("-n", "--namespace", required=False, help="K8s namespace")
    args = parser.parse_args()

    context = args.context
    v1 = load_kubeconfig(context)

    if not args.namespace:
        get_all_pods(v1)
    else:
        get_namespaced_pods(v1, args.namespace)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

vSphere with Tanzu using NSX-T - Part19 - Troubleshooting TKC stuck at creating phase

This article provides basic troubleshooting steps for TKCs (Tanzu Kubernetes Cluster) stuck at creating phase.

Verify status of the TKC

• Use the following commands to verify the TKC status.

kubectl get tkc -n <supervisor_namespace>
kubectl get tkc -n <supervisor_namespace> -o json
kubectl describe tkc <tkc_name> -n <supervisor_namespace>
kubectl get cluster-api -n <supervisor_namespace>
kubectl get vm,machine,wcpmachine -n <supervisor_namespace> 

Cluster health

• Verify health of the supervisor cluster.

❯ kubectl get node
NAME                               STATUS   ROLES                  AGE   VERSION
4201a7b2667b0f3b021efcf7c9d1726b   Ready    control-plane,master   86d   v1.22.6+vmware.wcp.2
4201bead67e21a8813415642267cd54a   Ready    control-plane,master   86d   v1.22.6+vmware.wcp.2
4201e0e8e29b0ddb4b59d3165dd40941   Ready    control-plane,master   86d   v1.22.6+vmware.wcp.2
wxx-08-r02esx13.xxxxxyyyy.com      Ready    agent                  85d   v1.22.6-sph-db56d46
wxx-08-r02esx14.xxxxxyyyy.com      Ready    agent                  85d   v1.22.6-sph-db56d46
wxx-08-r02esx15.xxxxxyyyy.com      Ready    agent                  85d   v1.22.6-sph-db56d46
wxx-08-r02esx16.xxxxxyyyy.com      Ready    agent                  85d   v1.22.6-sph-db56d46
wxx-08-r02esx17.xxxxxyyyy.com      Ready    agent                  85d   v1.22.6-sph-db56d46
wxx-08-r02esx18.xxxxxyyyy.com      Ready    agent                  85d   v1.22.6-sph-db56d46
wxx-08-r02esx19.xxxxxyyyy.com      Ready    agent                  85d   v1.22.6-sph-db56d46
wxx-08-r02esx20.xxxxxyyyy.com      Ready    agent                  85d   v1.22.6-sph-db56d46
wxx-08-r02esx21.xxxxxyyyy.com      Ready    agent                  85d   v1.22.6-sph-db56d46
wxx-08-r02esx22.xxxxxyyyy.com      Ready    agent                  85d   v1.22.6-sph-db56d46
wxx-08-r02esx23.xxxxxyyyy.com      Ready    agent                  85d   v1.22.6-sph-db56d46
wxx-08-r02esx24.xxxxxyyyy.com      Ready    agent                  85d   v1.22.6-sph-db56d46
❯
❯ kubectl get --raw '/healthz?verbose'
[+]ping ok
[+]log ok
[+]etcd ok
[+]poststarthook/start-kube-apiserver-admission-initializer ok
[+]poststarthook/generic-apiserver-start-informers ok
[+]poststarthook/priority-and-fairness-config-consumer ok
[+]poststarthook/priority-and-fairness-filter ok
[+]poststarthook/start-apiextensions-informers ok
[+]poststarthook/start-apiextensions-controllers ok
[+]poststarthook/crd-informer-synced ok
[+]poststarthook/bootstrap-controller ok
[+]poststarthook/rbac/bootstrap-roles ok
[+]poststarthook/scheduling/bootstrap-system-priority-classes ok
[+]poststarthook/priority-and-fairness-config-producer ok
[+]poststarthook/start-cluster-authentication-info-controller ok
[+]poststarthook/aggregator-reload-proxy-client-cert ok
[+]poststarthook/start-kube-aggregator-informers ok
[+]poststarthook/apiservice-registration-controller ok
[+]poststarthook/apiservice-status-available-controller ok
[+]poststarthook/kube-apiserver-autoregistration ok
[+]autoregister-completion ok
[+]poststarthook/apiservice-openapi-controller ok
healthz check passed 

Terminating namespaces

• Check for namespaces stuck at terminating phase. If there are any, properly clean them up by removing all child objects. 
• You can use this kubectl get-all plugin to see all resources under a namespace.  Then clean them up properly. Mostly you need to set finalizers of remaining child resources to null. Following is a sample case where 2 PVCs where stuck at terminating and they were cleaned up by setting its finalizers to null.
  

❯ kg ns | grep Terminating
rgettam-gettam                                  Terminating   226d
❯
❯ k get-all -n rgettam-gettam
NAME                                                                                             NAMESPACE       AGE
persistentvolumeclaim/58ef0d27-ba66-4f4e-b4d7-43bd1c4fb833-c8c0c111-e480-4df4-baf8-d140d0237e1d  rgettam-gettam  86d
persistentvolumeclaim/58ef0d27-ba66-4f4e-b4d7-43bd1c4fb833-e5c99b7e-1397-4a9d-b38c-53a25cab6c3f  rgettam-gettam  86d
❯
❯ kg pvc -n rgettam-gettam
NAME                                                                        STATUS        VOLUME                                     CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   STORAGECLASS              AGE
58ef0d27-ba66-4f4e-b4d7-43bd1c4fb833-c8c0c111-e480-4df4-baf8-d140d0237e1d   Terminating   pvc-bd4252fb-bfed-4ef3-ab5a-43718f9cbed5   8Gi        RWO            sxx-01-vcxx-wcp-mgmt   86d
58ef0d27-ba66-4f4e-b4d7-43bd1c4fb833-e5c99b7e-1397-4a9d-b38c-53a25cab6c3f   Terminating   pvc-8bc9daa1-21cf-4af2-973e-af28d66a7f5e   30Gi       RWO            sxx-01-vcxx-wcp-mgmt   86d
❯
❯ kg pvc -n rgettam-gettam --no-headers | awk '{print $1}' | xargs -I{} kubectl patch -n rgettam-gettam pvc {} -p '{"metadata":{"finalizers": null}}'

• You can also do kubectl get namespace <namespace> -oyaml and the status section will show if there are resources/ content to be deleted or any finalizers remaining.
  
• Verify vmop-controller pod logs, and restart them if required.
  

IP_BLOCK_EXHAUSTED

• Check CIDR usage of the supervisor cluster.
  

❯ kg clusternetworkinfos
NAME                                                AGE
domain-c1006-06046c54-c9e5-41aa-bc2c-52d72c05bce4   160d
❯
❯ kg clusternetworkinfos domain-c1006-06046c54-c9e5-41aa-bc2c-52d72c05bce4 -o json | jq .usage
{
  "egressCIDRUsage": {
    "allocated": 33,
    "total": 1024
  },
  "ingressCIDRUsage": {
    "allocated": 42,
    "total": 1024
  },
  "subnetCIDRUsage": {
    "allocated": 832,
    "total": 1024
  }
} 

• When the IP blocks of supervisor cluster are exhausted, you will find the following warning when you describe the TKC.

 Conditions:
    Last Transition Time:  2022-10-05T18:34:35Z
    Message:               Cannot realize subnet
    Reason:                ClusterNetworkProvisionFailed
    Severity:              Warning
    Status:                False
    Type:                  Ready 

• Also when you check the namespace, you can see the following ncp error IP_BLOCK_EXHAUSTED.

 ❯ kg ns tsql-integration-test -oyaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  annotations:
    calaxxxx.xxxyy.com/xxxrole-created: "1"
    ncp/error: IP_BLOCK_EXHAUSTED
    ncp/router_id: t1_d0a2af0f-8430-4250-9fcf-807a4afe51aa_rtr
    vmware-system-resource-pool: resgroup-307480
    vmware-system-vm-folder: group-v307481
  creationTimestamp: "2022-10-05T17:35:18Z"

Notes:

• If the subnetCIDRUsage IP block is exhausted, you may need to remove some old/ unused namespaces, and that will release some IPs. If that is not possible, you may need to consider adding new subnet.

• After removing the old/ unused namespaces, and even if IPs are available, sometimes the TKCs will be stuck at creating phase! In that case, check the ncp, vmop, and capw controller pods and you may need to restart them. What I observed is usually after restart of ncp pod, vmop-controller pods, and all pods under vmware-system-capw namespaces the VMs will start getting deployed and the TKC creation will progress and complete successfully.

Resource availability

• Check whether there are enough resources available in the cluster.

LAST SEEN  TYPE   REASON       OBJECT                    MESSAGE
3m23s    Warning  UpdateFailure   virtualmachine/magna3-control-plane-9rhl4   The host does not have sufficient CPU resources to satisfy the reservation.
80s     Warning  ReconcileFailure  wcpmachine/magna3-control-plane-s5s9t-p2cxj  vm is not yet powered on: vmware-system-capw-controller-manager/WCPMachine//chakravartha-magna3/magna3/magna3-control-plane-s5s9t-p2cxj 

• Check for resource limits applied to the namespace.

Check whether storage policy is assigned to the namespace

27m         Warning   ReconcileFailure               wcpmachine/gc-pool-0-cv8vz-5snbc          admission webhook "default.validating.virtualmachine.vmoperator.xxxyy.com" denied the request: StorageClass wdc-10-vc21c01-wcp-pod is not assigned to any ResourceQuotas in namespace mpereiramaia-demo2

• In this case, the storage policy wasnt assigned to the ns. I assigned the storage policy wdc-10-vc21c01-wcp-pod to the respective namespace, and the TKC deployment was successful.

Check Content library can sync properly

• Sometimes issues related to CL can cause TKCs to get stuck at creating phase! Check this blog post for more details.

KCP can't remediate

Message:               KCP can't remediate if current replicas are less or equal then 1
Reason:                WaitingForRemediation @ Machine/gc-control-plane-zpssc
Severity:              Warning

• In this case, you can just edit the TKC spec, change the control plane vmclass to a different class and save. Once the deployment is complete and TKC is running, edit the TKC spec again and revert the vmclass that you modified earlier to its original class. This process will re-provision the control plane.
  

TKC VMs waiting for IP

• In this case, take a look at NSXT and check whether all Edge nodes are healthy. If there are mismatch errors, resolve them.
• You may also check ncp pod logs and restart ncp pod if required.

VirtualMachineClassBindingNotFound

Conditions:
    Last Transition Time:  2021-05-05T18:19:10Z
    Message:               1 of 2 completed
    Reason:                VirtualMachineClassBindingNotFound @ Machine/tkc-dev-control-plane-wxd57
    Severity:              Error
    Status:                False
    Message:               0/1 Control Plane Node(s) healthy. 0/2 Worker Node(s) healthy
Events:
  Normal  PhaseChanged  7m22s  vmware-system-tkg/vmware-system-tkg-controller-manager/tanzukubernetescluster-status-controller  cluster changes from creating phase to failed phase

• This happens when the virtualmachineclassbindings are missing and can be resolved by adding all/ required VM Class to the Namespace using the vSphere Client. Following are the steps to add VM Classes to a namespace:

• Log into vCenter web UI
• From Hosts and Clusters > Select the namespace > Summary tab > VM Service tile > Click Manage VM Classes
• Select all required VM Classes and click OK

Verify NSX-T objects

• Issues at the NSX-T side can also cause the TKC to be stuck at creating phase. Following is a sample case and you can see these logs when you describe the TKC:
  

Message: 2 errors occurred:

   * failed to configure DNS for /, Kind= namespace-test-01/gc: unable to reconcile kubeadm ConfigMap's CoreDNS info: unable to retrieve kubeadm Configmap from the guest cluster: configmaps "kubeadm-config" not found
   * failed to configure kube-proxy for /, Kind= namespace-test-01/gc: unable to retrieve kube-proxy daemonset from the guest cluster: daemonsets.apps "kube-proxy" not found

• In this case, these were some issues with the virtual servers in loadbalancer. Some stale entries of virtual servers were still present and their IP didn't get removed properly and it was causing some intermittent connectivity issues to some of the other services of type loadbalancer. And, new TKC deployment within that affected namespace also gets stuck due to this. In our case we deleted the affected namespace, and recreated it, that cleaned up all those virtual server state entries and the load balancer, and new TKC deployments were successful. So it will be worth to check on the health and staus of NSX-T objects in case you have TKC deployment issues.
  

Check for broken TKCs in the cluster

• Sometimes the TKC deployments are very slow and takes more than 30 minutes. In this case, you may notice that the first control plane VM will get deployed in like 30-45 minutes after the TKC creation has started. Look for vmop controller logs. Following is sample log:

❯ kail -n vmware-system-vmop
vmware-system-vmop/vmware-system-vmop-controller-manager-55459cb46b-2psrk[manager]: E1027 11:49:44.725620       1 readiness_worker.go:111] readiness-probe "msg"="readiness probe fails" "error"="dial tcp 172.29.9.212:6443: connect: connection refused" "vmName"="ciroscosta-cartographer/kontinue-control-plane-svlk4" "result"=-1

vmware-system-vmop/vmware-system-vmop-controller-manager-55459cb46b-2psrk[manager]: E1027 11:49:49.888653       1 readiness_worker.go:111] readiness-probe "msg"="readiness probe fails" "error"="dial tcp 172.29.2.66:6443: connect: connection refused" "vmName"="whaozhe-platform/gc-control-plane-mf4p5" "result"=-1

• In the above case, two of the TKCs were broken/ stuck at updating phase and we were unable to connect to its control plane.

ciroscosta-cartographer    kontinue    updating       2021-10-29T18:47:46Z   v1.20.9+vmware.1-tkg.1.a4cee5b    1     2
whaozhe-platform           gc          updating       2022-01-27T03:59:31Z   v1.20.12+vmware.1-tkg.1.b9a42f3   1     10

• After removing the namespaces with broken TKCs, new deployments were completing succesfully. 
  

Restart system pods

• Sometimes restart of some of the system controller pods resoves the issue. I usually delete all the pods of the following namespaces and they will get restarted in a few seconds.

k delete pod --all --namespace=vmware-system-vmop
k delete pod --all --namespace=vmware-system-capw
k delete pod --all --namespace=vmware-system-tkg
k delete pod --all --namespace=vmware-system-csi
k delete pod --all --namespace=vmware-system-nsx

Hope this was useful. Cheers!

vSphere with Tanzu using NSX-T - Part18 - Troubleshooting vSphere pods with ProviderFailed status

In this article, we will take a look at fixing vSphere pods with ProviderFailed status. Following is an example:

svc-opa-gatekeeper-domain-c61                 gatekeeper-controller-manager-5ccbc7fd79-5gn2n                    0/1     ProviderFailed     0          2d14h
svc-opa-gatekeeper-domain-c61                 gatekeeper-controller-manager-5ccbc7fd79-5jtvj                    0/1     ProviderFailed     0          2d13h
svc-opa-gatekeeper-domain-c61                 gatekeeper-controller-manager-5ccbc7fd79-5whtt                    0/1     ProviderFailed     0          2d14h
svc-opa-gatekeeper-domain-c61                 gatekeeper-controller-manager-5ccbc7fd79-6p2zv                    0/1     ProviderFailed     0          2d13h
svc-opa-gatekeeper-domain-c61                 gatekeeper-controller-manager-5ccbc7fd79-7r92p                    0/1     ProviderFailed     0          2d14h

When describing the pod, you can see the message "Unable to find backing for logical switch".

❯ 
❯ kd po gatekeeper-controller-manager-5ccbc7fd79-5gn2n -n svc-opa-gatekeeper-domain-c61
Name:                 gatekeeper-controller-manager-5ccbc7fd79-5gn2n
Namespace:            svc-opa-gatekeeper-domain-c61
Priority:             2000000000
Priority Class Name:  system-cluster-critical
Node:                 esx-1.sddc-35-82-xxxxx.xxxxxxx.com/
Labels:               control-plane=controller-manager
                      gatekeeper.sh/operation=webhook
                      gatekeeper.sh/system=yes
                      pod-template-hash=5ccbc7fd79
Annotations:          attachment_id: 668b681b-fef6-43e5-8009-5ac8deb6da11
                      kubernetes.io/psp: wcp-default-psp
                      mac: 04:50:56:00:08:1e
                      vlan: None
                      vmware-system-ephemeral-disk-uuid: 6000C297-d1ba-ce8c-97ba-683a3c8f5321
                      vmware-system-image-references: {"manager":"gatekeeper-111fd0f684141bdad12c811b4f954ae3d60a6c27-v52049"}
                      vmware-system-vm-moid: vm-89777:750f38c6-3b0e-41b7-a94f-4d4aef08e19b
                      vmware-system-vm-uuid: 500c9c37-7055-1708-92d4-8ffdf932c8f9
Status:               Failed
Reason:               ProviderFailed
Message:              Unable to find backing for logical switch 03f0dcd4-a5d9-431e-ae9e-d796ddca0131: timed out waiting for the condition Unable to find backing for logical switch: 03f0dcd4-a5d9-431e-ae9e-d796ddca0131
IP:
IPs:                  <none>

A workaround for this is to restart the spherelet service on the ESXi host where you see this issue. If there are multiple ESXi nodes having same issue, you could consider restarting the spherelet service on all ESXi worker nodes. In a production setup you may want to consider placing the ESXi in maintenance mode before restarting the spherelet service. In my case, we usually restart the spherelet service directly without placing the ESXi in MM. Following is the PowerCLI way to check/ restart spherelet service on ESXi worker nodes:

 

> Connect-VIServer wdc-10-vc21

> Get-VMHost | Get-VMHostService | where {$_.Key -eq "spherelet"}  | select VMHost,Key,Running | ft

VMHost                        Key       Running
------                        ---       -------
wdc-10-r0xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx spherelet    True
wdc-10-r0xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx spherelet    True
wdc-10-r0xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx spherelet    True
wdc-10-r0xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx spherelet    True
wdc-10-r0xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx spherelet    True
wdc-10-r0xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx spherelet    True
wdc-10-r0xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx spherelet    True
wdc-10-r0xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx spherelet    True
wdc-10-r0xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx spherelet    True
wdc-10-r0xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx spherelet    True
wdc-10-r0xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx spherelet    True
wdc-10-r0xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx spherelet    True

> $sphereletservice = Get-VMHost wdc-10-r0xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx | Get-VMHostService | where {$_.Key -eq "spherelet"}
> Stop-VMHostService -HostService $sphereletservice

Perform operation?
Perform operation Stop host service. on spherelet?
[Y] Yes  [A] Yes to All  [N] No  [L] No to All  [S] Suspend  [?] Help (default is "Y"): Y

Key                  Label                          Policy     Running  Required
---                  -----                          ------     -------  --------
spherelet            spherelet                      on         False    False

> Get-VMHost wdc-10-r0xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx | Get-VMHostService | where {$_.Key -eq "spherelet"}

Key                  Label                          Policy     Running  Required
---                  -----                          ------     -------  --------
spherelet            spherelet                      on         False    False

> Start-VMHostService -HostService $sphereletservice

Key                  Label                          Policy     Running  Required
---                  -----                          ------     -------  --------
spherelet            spherelet                      on         True     False

To restart spherelet service on all ESXi worker nodes of a cluster:

> Get-Cluster

Name                           HAEnabled  HAFailover DrsEnabled DrsAutomationLevel
                                          Level
----                           ---------  ---------- ---------- ------------------
wdc-10-vcxxc01                 True       1          True       FullyAutomated

> Get-Cluster -Name wdc-10-vcxxc01 | Get-VMHost | foreach { Restart-VMHostService -HostService ($_ | Get-VMHostService | where {$_.Key -eq "spherelet"}) }

After restarting the spherelet service, new pods will come up fine and be in Running status. But you may need to clean up all those pods with ProviderFailed status using kubectl. 

kubectl get pods -A | grep ProviderFailed | awk '{print $2 " --namespace=" $1}' | xargs kubectl delete pod

Hope it was useful. Cheers!