k3s/examples/guestbook

GuestBook example

This example shows how to build a simple multi-tier web application using Kubernetes and Docker.

The example combines a web frontend, a redis master for storage and a replicated set of redis slaves.

Step Zero: Prerequisites

This example assumes that you have a basic understanding of kubernetes services and that you have forked the repository and turned up a Kubernetes cluster:

$ cd kubernetes
$ hack/dev-build-and-up.sh

Step One: Turn up the redis master

Use the file examples/guestbook/redis-master.json which describes a single pod running a redis key-value server in a container:

{
  "id": "redis-master",
  "kind": "Pod",
  "apiVersion": "v1beta1",
  "desiredState": {
    "manifest": {
      "version": "v1beta1",
      "id": "redis-master",
      "containers": [{
        "name": "master",
        "image": "dockerfile/redis",
        "cpu": 100,
        "ports": [{
          "containerPort": 6379,
          "hostPort": 6379
        }]
      }]
    }
  },
  "labels": {
    "name": "redis-master"
  }
}

Create the redis pod in your Kubernetes cluster by running:

$ cluster/kubectl.sh create -f examples/guestbook/redis-master.json

Once that's up you can list the pods in the cluster, to verify that the master is running:

cluster/kubectl.sh get pods

You'll see a single redis master pod. It will also display the machine that the pod is running on once it gets placed (may take up to thirty seconds):

NAME                IMAGE(S)            HOST                                                       LABELS              STATUS
redis-master        dockerfile/redis    kubernetes-minion-2.c.myproject.internal/130.211.156.189   name=redis-master   Running

If you ssh to that machine, you can run docker ps to see the actual pod:

me@workstation$ gcloud compute ssh --zone us-central1-b kubernetes-minion-2

me@kubernetes-minion-2:~$ sudo docker ps
CONTAINER ID  IMAGE                     COMMAND                CREATED         STATUS        PORTS     NAMES
e3eed3e5e6d1  dockerfile/redis:latest   "redis-server /etc/re  2 minutes ago   Up 2 minutes            k8s_master.9c0a9146_redis-master.etcd_6296f4bd-70fa-11e4-8469-0800279696e1_45331ebc

(Note that initial docker pull may take a few minutes, depending on network conditions. During this time, the get pods command will return Pending because the container has not yet started )

Step Two: Turn up the master service

A Kubernetes 'service' is a named load balancer that proxies traffic to one or more containers. The services in a Kubernetes cluster are discoverable inside other containers via environment variables. Services find the containers to load balance based on pod labels. These environment variables are typically referenced in application code, shell scripts, or other places where one node needs to talk to another in a distributed system. You should catch up on kubernetes services before proceeding.

The pod that you created in Step One has the label name=redis-master. The selector field of the service determines which pods will receive the traffic sent to the service. Use the file examples/guestbook/redis-master-service.json:

{
  "id": "redis-master",
  "kind": "Service",
  "apiVersion": "v1beta1",
  "port": 6379,
  "containerPort": 6379,
  "selector": {
    "name": "redis-master"
  },
  "labels": {
    "name": "redis-master"
  }
}

to create the service by running:

$ cluster/kubectl.sh create -f examples/guestbook/redis-master-service.json
redis-master

$ cluster/kubectl.sh get services
NAME                LABELS              SELECTOR                                  IP                  PORT
kubernetes          <none>              component=apiserver,provider=kubernetes   10.0.29.11          443
kubernetes-ro       <none>              component=apiserver,provider=kubernetes   10.0.141.25         80
redis-master        name=redis-master   name=redis-master                         10.0.16.143         6379

This will cause all pods to see the redis master apparently running on :6379.

Once created, the service proxy on each minion is configured to set up a proxy on the specified port (in this case port 6379).

Step Three: Turn up the replicated slave pods

Although the redis master is a single pod, the redis read slaves are a 'replicated' pod. In Kubernetes, a replication controller is responsible for managing multiple instances of a replicated pod.

Use the file examples/guestbook/redis-slave-controller.json:

{
  "id": "redis-slave-controller",
  "kind": "ReplicationController",
  "apiVersion": "v1beta1",
  "desiredState": {
    "replicas": 2,
    "replicaSelector": {"name": "redisslave"},
    "podTemplate": {
      "desiredState": {
         "manifest": {
           "version": "v1beta1",
           "id": "redis-slave-controller",
           "containers": [{
             "name": "slave",
             "image": "brendanburns/redis-slave",
             "cpu": 200,
             "ports": [{"containerPort": 6379, "hostPort": 6380}]
           }]
         }
       },
       "labels": {
         "name": "redisslave",
         "uses": "redis-master",
       }
      }},
  "labels": {"name": "redisslave"}
}

to create the replication controller by running:

$ cluster/kubectl.sh create -f examples/guestbook/redis-slave-controller.json
redis-slave-controller

# cluster/kubectl.sh get replicationcontrollers
NAME                    IMAGE(S)                   SELECTOR            REPLICAS
redis-slave-controller  brendanburns/redis-slave   name=redisslave     2

The redis slave configures itself by looking for the Kubernetes service environment variables in the container environment. In particular, the redis slave is started with the following command:

redis-server --slaveof ${REDIS_MASTER_SERVICE_HOST:-$SERVICE_HOST} $REDIS_MASTER_SERVICE_PORT

You might be curious about where the REDIS_MASTER_SERVICE_HOST is coming from. It is provided to this container when it is launched via the kubernetes services, which create environment variables (there is a well defined syntax for how service names get transformed to environment variable names in the documentation linked above).

Once that's up you can list the pods in the cluster, to verify that the master and slaves are running:

$ cluster/kubectl.sh get pods
NAME                                   IMAGE(S)                   HOST                                                        LABELS                              STATUS
redis-master                           dockerfile/redis           kubernetes-minion-2.c.myproject.internal/130.211.156.189    name=redis-master                   Running
ee68394b-7fca-11e4-a220-42010af0a5f1   brendanburns/redis-slave   kubernetes-minion-3.c.myproject.internal/130.211.179.212    name=redisslave,uses=redis-master   Running
ee694768-7fca-11e4-a220-42010af0a5f1   brendanburns/redis-slave   kubernetes-minion-4.c.myproject.internal/130.211.168.210    name=redisslave,uses=redis-master   Running

You will see a single redis master pod and two redis slave pods.

Step Four: Create the redis slave service

Just like the master, we want to have a service to proxy connections to the read slaves. In this case, in addition to discovery, the slave service provides transparent load balancing to clients. The service specification for the slaves is in examples/guestbook/redis-slave-service.json:

{
  "id": "redisslave",
  "kind": "Service",
  "apiVersion": "v1beta1",
  "port": 6379,
  "containerPort": 6379,
  "labels": {
    "name": "redisslave"
  },
  "selector": {
    "name": "redisslave"
  }
}

This time the selector for the service is name=redisslave, because that identifies the pods running redis slaves. It may also be helpful to set labels on your service itself as we've done here to make it easy to locate them with the cluster/kubectl.sh get services -l "label=value" command.

Now that you have created the service specification, create it in your cluster by running:

$ cluster/kubectl.sh create -f examples/guestbook/redis-slave-service.json
redisslave

$ cluster/kubectl.sh get services

NAME                LABELS              SELECTOR                                  IP                  PORT
kubernetes          <none>              component=apiserver,provider=kubernetes   10.0.29.11          443
kubernetes-ro       <none>              component=apiserver,provider=kubernetes   10.0.141.25         80
redis-master        name=redis-master   name=redis-master                         10.0.16.143         6379
redisslave          name=redisslave     name=redisslave                           10.0.217.148        6379

Step Five: Create the frontend pod

This is a simple PHP server that is configured to talk to either the slave or master services depending on whether the request is a read or a write. It exposes a simple AJAX interface, and serves an angular-based UX. Like the redis read slaves it is a replicated service instantiated by a replication controller.

The pod is described in the file examples/guestbook/frontend-controller.json:

{
  "id": "frontend-controller",
  "kind": "ReplicationController",
  "apiVersion": "v1beta1",
  "desiredState": {
    "replicas": 3,
    "replicaSelector": {"name": "frontend"},
    "podTemplate": {
      "desiredState": {
         "manifest": {
           "version": "v1beta1",
           "id": "frontend-controller",
           "containers": [{
             "name": "php-redis",
             "image": "kubernetes/example-guestbook-php-redis",
             "cpu": 100,
             "memory": 50000000,
             "ports": [{"containerPort": 80, "hostPort": 8000}]
           }]
         }
       },
       "labels": {
         "name": "frontend",
         "uses": "redisslave,redis-master"
       }
      }},
  "labels": {"name": "frontend"}
}

Using this file, you can turn up your frontend with:

$ cluster/kubectl.sh create -f examples/guestbook/frontend-controller.json
frontend-controller

$ cluster/kubectl.sh get replicationcontrollers
NAME                    IMAGE(S)                                   SELECTOR            REPLICAS
redis-slave-controller  brendanburns/redis-slave                   name=redisslave     2
frontend-controller     kubernetes/example-guestbook-php-redis     name=frontend       3

Once that's up (it may take ten to thirty seconds to create the pods) you can list the pods in the cluster, to verify that the master, slaves and frontends are running:

$ cluster/kubectl.sh get pods
NAME                                   IMAGE(S)                                   HOST                                                       LABELS                                       STATUS
redis-master                           dockerfile/redis                           kubernetes-minion-2.c.myproject.internal/130.211.156.189   name=redis-master                            Running
ee68394b-7fca-11e4-a220-42010af0a5f1   brendanburns/redis-slave                   kubernetes-minion-3.c.myproject.internal/130.211.179.212   name=redisslave,uses=redis-master            Running
ee694768-7fca-11e4-a220-42010af0a5f1   brendanburns/redis-slave                   kubernetes-minion-4.c.myproject.internal/130.211.168.210   name=redisslave,uses=redis-master            Running
9fbad0d6-7fcb-11e4-a220-42010af0a5f1   kubernetes/example-guestbook-php-redis     kubernetes-minion-1.c.myproject.internal/130.211.185.78    name=frontend,uses=redisslave,redis-master   Running
9fbbf70e-7fcb-11e4-a220-42010af0a5f1   kubernetes/example-guestbook-php-redis     kubernetes-minion-2.c.myproject.internal/130.211.156.189   name=frontend,uses=redisslave,redis-master   Running
9fbdbeca-7fcb-11e4-a220-42010af0a5f1   kubernetes/example-guestbook-php-redis     kubernetes-minion-4.c.myproject.internal/130.211.168.210   name=frontend,uses=redisslave,redis-master   Running

You will see a single redis master pod, two redis slaves, and three frontend pods.

The code for the PHP service looks like this:

<?

set_include_path('.:/usr/share/php:/usr/share/pear:/vendor/predis');

error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', 1);

require 'predis/autoload.php';

if (isset($_GET['cmd']) === true) {
  header('Content-Type: application/json');
  if ($_GET['cmd'] == 'set') {
    $client = new Predis\Client([
      'scheme' => 'tcp',
      'host'   => getenv('REDIS_MASTER_SERVICE_HOST') ?: getenv('SERVICE_HOST'),
      'port'   => getenv('REDIS_MASTER_SERVICE_PORT'),
    ]);
    $client->set($_GET['key'], $_GET['value']);
    print('{"message": "Updated"}');
  } else {
    $read_port = getenv('REDIS_MASTER_SERVICE_PORT');

    if (isset($_ENV['REDISSLAVE_SERVICE_PORT'])) {
      $read_port = getenv('REDISSLAVE_SERVICE_PORT');
    }
    $client = new Predis\Client([
      'scheme' => 'tcp',
      'host'   => getenv('REDIS_MASTER_SERVICE_HOST') ?: getenv('SERVICE_HOST'),
      'port'   => $read_port,
    ]);

    $value = $client->get($_GET['key']);
    print('{"data": "' . $value . '"}');
  }
} else {
  phpinfo();
} ?>

To play with the service itself, find the name of a frontend, grab the external IP of that host from the Google Cloud Console or the gcloud tool, and visit http://<host-ip>:8000.

$ gcloud compute instances list

You may need to open the firewall for port 8000 using the console or the gcloud tool. The following command will allow traffic from any source to instances tagged kubernetes-minion:

$ gcloud compute firewall-rules create --allow=tcp:8000 --target-tags=kubernetes-minion kubernetes-minion-8000

If you are running Kubernetes locally, you can just visit http://localhost:8000. For details about limiting traffic to specific sources, see the GCE firewall documentation.

Step Six: Cleanup

To turn down a Kubernetes cluster:

$ cluster/kube-down.sh