Upgrading from Kubernetes

Kairos upgrades can be performed either manually or via Kubernetes if the cluster is composed of Kairos nodes. In order to trigger upgrades, it is required to apply a Plan spec to the target cluster for the upgrade.

Prerequisites

It is necessary system-upgrade-controller to be deployed in the target cluster.

To install it, use kubectl:

kubectl apply -f https://github.com/rancher/system-upgrade-controller/releases/download/v0.9.1/system-upgrade-controller.yaml

Upgrading from version X to version Y with Kubernetes

To trigger an upgrade, create a plan for system-upgrade-controller which refers to the image version that we want to upgrade.

cat <<'EOF' | kubectl apply -f -
---
apiVersion: upgrade.cattle.io/v1
kind: Plan
metadata:
  name: os-upgrade
  namespace: system-upgrade
  labels:
    k3s-upgrade: server
spec:
  concurrency: 1
  # This is the version (tag) of the image to upgrade to.
  version: "leap-15.5-standard-amd64-generic-v3.0.5-k3sv1.29.3-k3s1"
  nodeSelector:
    matchExpressions:
      - {key: kubernetes.io/hostname, operator: Exists}
  serviceAccountName: system-upgrade
  cordon: false
  drain:
    force: false
    disableEviction: true
  upgrade:
    # Here goes the image which is tied to the flavor being used.
    # You can also specify your custom image stored in a public registry.
    image: quay.io/kairos/opensuse
    command:
    - "/usr/sbin/suc-upgrade"
EOF

To check all the available versions, see the images available on the container registry, corresponding to the flavor/version selected.

Note

Several upgrade strategies can be used with system-upgrade-controller which are not illustrated here in this example. For instance, it can be specified in the number of hosts which are running the upgrades, filtering by labels, and more. Refer to the project documentation on how to create efficient strategies to roll upgrades on the nodes. In the example above, the upgrades are applied to every host of the cluster, one-by-one in sequence.

A pod should appear right after which carries on the upgrade and automatically reboots the node:

$ kubectl get pods -A
...
system-upgrade   apply-os-upgrade-on-kairos-with-1a1a24bcf897bd275730bdd8548-h7ffd   0/1     Creating   0          40s

Done! We should have all the basics to get our first cluster rolling, but there is much more we can do.

Verify images attestation during upgrades

Container images can be signed during the build phase of a CI/CD pipeline using Cosign, Kairos signs every artifact as part of the release process.

To ensure that the images used during upgrades match the expected signatures, Kyverno can be used to set up policies. This is done by checking if the signature is present in the OCI registry and if the image was signed using the specified key. The policy rule check fails if either of these conditions is not met.

To learn more about this specific Kyverno feature, you can refer to the documentation. This allows for the verification of image authenticity directly at the node level prior to upgrading.

A Kyverno policy for standard images might look like the following:

apiVersion: kyverno.io/v1
kind: ClusterPolicy
metadata:
  name: check-image
spec:
  validationFailureAction: Enforce
  background: false
  webhookTimeoutSeconds: 30
  failurePolicy: Fail
  rules:
    - name: check-image
      match:
        any:
        - resources:
            kinds:
              - Pod
      verifyImages:
      - imageReferences:
        - "quay.io/kairos/opensuse*"
        attestors:
        - entries:
          # See: https://kyverno.io/docs/writing-policies/verify-images/#keyless-signing-and-verification
          - keyless:
              subject: "https://github.com/kairos-io/provider-kairos/.github/workflows/release.yaml@refs/tags/*"
              issuer: "https://token.actions.githubusercontent.com"
              rekor:
                url: https://rekor.sigstore.dev

To install Kyverno in a Kairos cluster, you can simply use the community bundles. For example, you can use the following installation cloud config file:

#cloud-config

hostname: kyverno-{{ trunc 4 .MachineID }}

# Specify the bundle to use
bundles:
- targets:
  - run://quay.io/kairos/community-bundles:system-upgrade-controller_latest
  - run://quay.io/kairos/community-bundles:cert-manager_latest
  - run://quay.io/kairos/community-bundles:kyverno_latest

users:
- name: kairos
  passwd: kairos

k3s:
 enabled: true

This configuration file prepare the system with the cert-manager, system-upgrade-controller and the kyverno bundle, enabling k3s.

Customize the upgrade plan

It is possible to run additional commands before the upgrade takes place into the node, consider the following example:

---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: custom-script
  namespace: system-upgrade
type: Opaque
stringData:
  upgrade.sh: |
    #!/bin/sh
    set -e

    # custom command, for example, that injects or modifies a configuration option
    sed -i 's/something/to/g' /host/oem/99_custom.yaml
    # run the upgrade script
    /usr/sbin/suc-upgrade    
---
apiVersion: upgrade.cattle.io/v1
kind: Plan
metadata:
  name: custom-os-upgrade
  namespace: system-upgrade
spec:
  concurrency: 1
  # This is the version (tag) of the image.
  version: "leap-15.5-standard-amd64-generic-v3.0.5-k3sv1.29.3-k3s1"
  nodeSelector:
    matchExpressions:
      - { key: kubernetes.io/hostname, operator: Exists }
  serviceAccountName: system-upgrade
  cordon: false
  drain:
    force: false
    disableEviction: true
  upgrade:
    # Here goes the image which is tied to the flavor being used.
    # Currently can pick between opensuse and alpine
    image: quay.io/kairos/opensuse
    command:
      - "/bin/bash"
      - "-c"
    args:
      - bash /host/run/system-upgrade/secrets/custom-script/upgrade.sh
  secrets:
    - name: custom-script
      path: /host/run/system-upgrade/secrets/custom-script

Upgrade from c3os to Kairos

If you already have a c3os deployment, upgrading to Kairos requires changing every instance of c3os to kairos in the configuration file. This can be either done manually or with Kubernetes before rolling the upgrade. Consider customizing the upgrade plan, for instance:

---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: custom-script
  namespace: system-upgrade
type: Opaque
stringData:
  upgrade.sh: |
    #!/bin/sh
    set -e
    sed -i 's/c3os/kairos/g' /host/oem/99_custom.yaml
    /usr/sbin/suc-upgrade    
---
apiVersion: upgrade.cattle.io/v1
kind: Plan
metadata:
  name: custom-os-upgrade
  namespace: system-upgrade
spec:
  concurrency: 1
  # This is the version (tag) of the image.
  version: "leap-15.5-standard-amd64-generic-v3.0.5-k3sv1.29.3-k3s1"
  nodeSelector:
    matchExpressions:
      - { key: kubernetes.io/hostname, operator: Exists }
  serviceAccountName: system-upgrade
  cordon: false
  drain:
    force: false
    disableEviction: true
  upgrade:
    # Here goes the image which is tied to the flavor being used.
    # Currently can pick between opensuse and alpine
    image: quay.io/kairos/opensuse
    command:
      - "/bin/bash"
      - "-c"
    args:
      - bash /host/run/system-upgrade/secrets/custom-script/upgrade.sh
  secrets:
    - name: custom-script
      path: /host/run/system-upgrade/secrets/custom-script

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Last modified February 23, 2024: Reduce sizes and remove warnings (0e183ae)