pwfoo / k3os

Purpose built OS for Kubernetes and fully managed by Kubernetes.

k3OS

k3OS is a linux distribution designed to remove as much as possible OS maintaince in a Kubernetes cluster. It is specifically designed to only have what is need to run k3s. Additionally the OS is designed to be managed by kubectl once a cluster is bootstrapped. Nodes only need to join a cluster and then all aspects of the OS can be managed from Kubernetes. Both k3OS and k3s upgrades are handled by the k3OS operator.

1. Quick Start
2. Design
3. Installation
4. Configuration
5. Upgrade/Maintenance
6. Building
7. Configuration Reference

Quick Start

Download the ISO from the latest release and run in VMware, VirtualBox, or KVM. The server will automatically start a single node kubernetes cluster. Log in with the user rancher and run kubectl. This is a "live install" running from the ISO media and changes will not persist after reboot.

To copy k3os to local disk, after logging in as rancher run sudo os-config. Then remove the ISO from the virtual machine and reboot.

Live install (boot from ISO) requires at least 1GB of RAM. Local install requires 512MB RAM.

Design

Core design goals of k3OS are

1. Minimal OS for running Kubernetes by way of k3s
2. Ability to upgrade and configure using kubectl
3. Versatile installation to allow easy creation of OS images.

File System Structure

Critical to the design of k3OS is how that file system is structured. A booted system will look as follows

/etc - ephemeral
/usr - read-only (except /usr/local is writable and persistent)
/k3os - system files
/home - persistent
/var - persistent
/opt - persistent
/usr/local - persistent

/etc

All configuration in the system is intended to be ephemeral. If you change anything in /etc it will revert on next reboot. If you wish to persist changes to the configuration they must be done in the k3OS config.yaml which will be applied on each boot.

/usr

The entire user space is stored in /usr and as read-only. The only way to change /usr is to change versions of k3OS. The directory /usr/local is a symlink to /var/local and therefore writable.

/k3os

The k3os directory contains the core operating system files references on boot to construct the file system. It contains a squashfs images and binares for k3os, k3s, and the linux kernel. On boot the appropriate version for all three will be chosen and configured.

/var, /usr/local, /home, /opt

Persistent changes should be kept in /var, '/usr/local', '/home', or '/opt'.

Upstream Distros

Most of the user-space binaries comes from Alpine and are repackaged for k3OS. Currently the kernel source is coming from Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. Some code and a lot of inspiration came from LinuxKit

Installation

Interactive Installation

Interactive installation is done from booting from the ISO. The installation is done by running os-config. The os-config script is only available systems booted live. An installation to disk will not have os-config. Follow the prompts to install k3OS to disk.

The installation will format an entire disk. If you have a single hard disk attached to the system it will not ask which disk but just pick the first and only one.

Automated Installation

Installation can be automated by using kernel cmdline parameters. There are a lot of creative solutions to booting a machine with cmdline args. You can remaster the k3os ISO, PXE boot, use qemu/kvm, or automate input with packer. The kernel and initrd are available in the k3OS release artifacts, along with the ISO.

The cmdline value k3os.mode=install or k3os.fallback_mode=install is required to enable automated installations. Below is a reference of all cmdline args used to automate installation

cmdline	Default	Example	Description
k3os.mode		install	Boot k3OS to the installer, not an interactive session
k3os.fallback_mode		install	If a valid K3OS_STATE partition is not found to boot from, run the installation
k3os.install.silent	false	true	Ensure no questions will be asked
k3os.install.efi	false	true	Format device as gpt and install UEFI boot loader
k3os.install.msdos	false	true	Format device as msdos partition, not gpt
k3os.install.device		/dev/vda	Device to partition and format (/dev/sda, /dev/vda)
k3os.install.config_url		https://gist.github.com/something	The URL of the config to be installed at /k3os/system/config.yaml
k3os.install.iso_url		https://github.com/rancher/k3os/../k3os-amd64.iso	ISO to download and install from if booting from kernel/vmlinuz and not ISO.
k3os.install.no_format		true	Do not partition and format, assume layout exists already
k3os.install.power_off	false	true	Shutdown the machine after install instead of rebooting

Custom partition layout

By default k3OS expects two partitions to exist labeled K3OS_BOOT and K3OS_STATE. K3OS_BOOT should be a vfat formatted partition of at least 500mb of space. K3OS_STATE is expected to be an ext4 formatted filesystem with at least 2GB of disk space. The installer will create these partitions and file system automatically, or you can create them manually if you have a need for an advanced file system layout.

Bootstrapped Installation

You can install k3OS to a block device from any modern Linux distribution. Just download and run install.sh. This script will run the same installation as the ISO but it a bit more raw and will not prompt for configuration.

$ ./install.sh --help
Usage: ./install.sh [--efi] [--msdos] [--config https://.../config.yaml] DEVICE ISO_URL

Example: ./install.sh --efi /dev/vda https://github.com/rancher/k3os/releases/download/v0.2.0-rc3/k3os.iso

Configuration

All configuration is done through a single cloud-init style config file that is either packaged in the image, downloaded though cloud-init or managed by Kubernetes. The configuration file is found at

/k3os/system/config.yaml
/var/lib/rancher/k3os/config.yaml
/var/lib/rancher/k3os/config.d/*

The /k3os/system/config.yaml file is reserved for the system installation and should not be modified on a running system. This file is usually populated by during the image build or installation process and contains important bootstrap information (such as networking or cloud-init data sources).

The /var/lib/rancher/k3os/config.yaml or config.d/* files are intended to be used at runtime. These files can be manipulated manually, through scripting, or managed with the Kubernetes operator.

Sample config.yaml

A full example of the k3OS configuration file is as below.

data_sources:
- aws
- cdrom
ssh_authorized_keys:
- ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQAB
- github:ibuildthecloud
write_files:
- enconding: ""
  content: |-
    #!/bin/bash
    echo hi
  owner: root
  path: /etc/rc.local
  permissions: '0755'
hostname: myhost
run_cmd:
- "echo hi && echo bye"
boot_cmd:
- "echo hi && echo bye"
init_cmd:
- "echo hi && echo bye"

k3os:
  modules:
  - kvm
  - nvme
  sysctl:
    kernel.printk: 4 4 1 7
    kernel.kptr_restrict: 1
  dns_nameservers:
  - 8.8.8.8
  - 1.1.1.1
  ntp_servers:
  - 0.us.pool.ntp.org
  - 1.us.pool.ntp.org
  wifi:
  - ssid: home
    passphrase: mypassword
  - ssid: nothome
    passphrase: somethingelse
  password: rancher
  server_url: https://someserver:6443
  token: TOKEN_VALUE
  labels:
    region: us-west-1
    somekey: somevalue
  k3s_args:
  - server
  - "--disable-agent"
  environment:
    http_proxy: http://myserver
    http_proxys: http://myserver
  taints:
  - key1=value1:NoSchedule
  - key1=value1:NoExecute

Refer to the configuration reference for full details of each configuration key.

Kubernetes

Since k3OS is built on k3s all Kubernetes configuration is done by configuring k3s. This is primarily done through environment and k3s_args keys in config.yaml. The write_files key can be used to populate the /var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/manifests folder with apps you'd like to deploy on boot.

Refer to k3s docs for more information as to how to configure Kubernetes.

Kernel cmdline

All configuration can be passed as kernel cmdline parameters too. The keys are dot separated. For example k3os.token=TOKEN. If the key is a slice multiple values are set by repeating the key, for example k3os.dns_nameserver=1.1.1.1 k3os.dns_nameserver=8.8.8.8. You can use the plural or singular form of the name, just ensure you consistently use the same form. For map values the form key[key]=value form is used, for example k3os.sysctl[kernel.printk]="4 4 1 7". If the value has spaces in it ensure that the value is quoted. Boolean keys expect a value of true or false or no value at all means true. For example k3os.install.efi is the same as k3os.install.efi=true.

Phases

Configuration is applied in three distinct phases: initrd, boot, runtime. initrd is ran during the initrd phase before the root disk has been mounted. boot is ran after the root disk is mounted an the file system is setup, but before any services have started. There is no networking available yet at this point. The final stage runtime is executed after networking has come online. If you are using a configuration from a cloud provider (like AWS userdata) it will only be ran in the runtime phase. Below is a table of which config keys are supported in each phase.

Key	initrd	boot	runtime
ssh_authorized_keys		x	x
write_files	x	x	x
hostname	x	x	x
runcmd			x
bootcmd		x
initcmd	x
k3os.data_sources			x
k3os.modules	x	x	x
k3os.sysctls	x	x	x
k3os.ntp_services		x	x
k3os.dns_nameservers		x	x
k3os.wifi		x	x
k3os.password	x	x	x
k3os.server_url		x	x
k3os.token		x	x
k3os.labels		x	x
k3os.k3s_args		x	x
k3os.environment	x	x	x
k3os.taints		x	x
k3os.token		x	x

Networking

Networking is powered by connman. To configure networking a couple helper keys are available: k3os.dns_nameserver, k3os.ntp_servers, k3os.wifi. Refer to the reference for a full explanation of those keys. If you wish to configure a HTTP proxy set the http_proxy, and https_proxy fields in k3os.environment. All other networking configuration should be done by configuring connman directly by using the write_files key to create connman service files.

Upgrade and Maintenance

Upgrading and reconfiguring k3OS is all handled through the Kubernetes operator. The operator is still in development. More details to follow. The basic design is that one can set the desired k3s and k3OS versions, plus there configuration and the operator will roll that out to the cluster.

Building

To build k3OS you just need Docker and then run make. All artifacts will be put in ./dist/artifacts. If you are running on Linux you can run ./scripts/run to run a VM of k3OS in the terminal. To exit the instance type CTRL+a c to get the qemu console and then q for quit.

The source for the kernel is in https://github.com/rancher/k3os-kernel and similarly you just need to have Docker and run make to compile the kernel.

Configuration Reference

Below is a reference of all keys available in the config.yaml

ssh_authorized_keys

A list of SSH authorized keys that should be added to the rancher user. k3OS primarily has one user, rancher. root account is always disabled, has no password, and is never assigned a ssh key. SSH keys can be obtained from GitHub user accounts by using the format github:${USERNAME}. This is done by downloading the keys from https://github.com/${USERNAME}.keys.

Example

ssh_authorized_keys:
- "ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQC2TBZGjE+J8ag11dzkFT58J3XPONrDVmalCNrKxsfADfyy0eqdZrG8hcAxAR/5zuj90Gin2uBR4Sw6Cn4VHsPZcFpXyQCjK1QDADj+WcuhpXOIOY3AB0LZBly9NI0ll+8lo3QtEaoyRLtrMBhQ6Mooy2M3MTG4JNwU9o3yInuqZWf9PvtW6KxMl+ygg1xZkljhemGZ9k0wSrjqif+8usNbzVlCOVQmZwZA+BZxbdcLNwkg7zWJSXzDIXyqM6iWPGXQDEbWLq3+HR1qKucTCSxjbqoe0FD5xcW7NHIME5XKX84yH92n6yn+rxSsyUfhJWYqJd+i0fKf5UbN6qLrtd/D"
- "github:ibuildthecloud"

write_files

A list of files to write to disk on boot. These files can be either plain text, gziped, base64 encoded, or base64+gzip encoded.

Example

write_files:
- encoding: b64
  content: CiMgVGhpcyBmaWxlIGNvbnRyb2xzIHRoZSBzdGF0ZSBvZiBTRUxpbnV4...
  owner: root:root
  path: /etc/connman/main.conf
  permissions: '0644'
- content: |
    # My new /etc/sysconfig/samba file

    SMDBOPTIONS="-D"
  path: /etc/sysconfig/samba
- content: !!binary |
    f0VMRgIBAQAAAAAAAAAAAAIAPgABAAAAwARAAAAAAABAAAAAAAAAAJAVAAAAAA
    AEAAHgAdAAYAAAAFAAAAQAAAAAAAAABAAEAAAAAAAEAAQAAAAAAAwAEAAAAAAA
    AAAAAAAAAwAAAAQAAAAAAgAAAAAAAAACQAAAAAAAAAJAAAAAAAAcAAAAAAAAAB
    ...
  path: /bin/arch
  permissions: '0555'
- content: |
    15 * * * * root ship_logs
  path: /etc/crontab

hostname

Set the system hostname. This value will be overwritten by DHCP if DHCP supplies a hostname for the system.

Example

hostname: myhostname

initcmd, bootcmd, runcmd

All three keys are used to run arbitrary commands on startup in the respective phases of initrd, boot and runtime. Commands are ran after write_files so it is possible to write a script to disk and run it from these commands. That often makes it easier to do longer form setup.

k3os.data_sources

These are the data sources used for download config from cloud provider. The valid options are

aws
gcp
openstack
packet
scaleway
vultr
cdrom

More than one can be supported at a time, for example:

k3os:
  data_sources:
  - openstack
  - cdrom

k3os.modules

A list of kernel modules to be loaded on start.

Example

k3os:
  modules:
  - kvm
  - nvme

k3os.sysctls

Kernel sysctl to setup on start. These are the same configuration you'd typically find in /etc/sysctl.conf.

k3os:
  sysctl:
    kernel.printk: 4 4 1 7
    kernel.kptr_restrict: 1

k3os.ntp_servers

Fallback ntp servers to use if NTP is not configured elsewhere in connman.

Example

k3os:
  ntp_servers:
  - 0.us.pool.ntp.org
  - 1.us.pool.ntp.org

k3os.dns_nameservers

Fallback DNS name servers to use if DNS is not configured by DHCP or in a connman service config.

Example

k3os:
  dns_nameservers:
  - 8.8.8.8
  - 1.1.1.1

k3os.wifi

Simple wifi configuration. All that is accepted is SSID and Passphrase. If you require more complex configuration then you should use write_files to write a connman service config.

Example:

k3os:
  wifi:
  - ssid: home
    passphrase: mypassword
  - ssid: nothome
    passphrase: somethingelse

k3os.password

The password for the rancher user. By default there is no password for the rancher user. If you set a password at runtime it will be reset on next boot because /etc is ephemeral. The value of the password can be clear text or an encrypted form. The easiest way to get this encrypted form is to just change your password on a Linux system and copy the value of the second field from /etc/shadow. You can also encrypt a password using openssl passwd -1.

Example

k3os:
  password: "$1$tYtghCfK$QHa51MS6MVAcfUKuOzNKt0"

Or clear text

k3os:
  password: supersecure

k3os.server_url

The URL of the k3s server to join as an agent.

Example

k3os:
  server_url: https://myserver:6443

k3os.token

The cluster secret or node token. If the value matches the format of a node token it will automatically be assume to be a node token. Otherwise it is treated as a cluster secret.

Example

k3os:
  token: myclustersecret

Or a node token

k3os:
  token: "K1074ec55daebdf54ef48294b0ddf0ce1c3cb64ee7e3d0b9ec79fbc7baf1f7ddac6::node:77689533d0140c7019416603a05275d4"

k3os.labels

Labels to be assigned to this node in Kubernetes on registration. After the node is first registered in Kubernetes the value of this setting will be ignored.

Example

k3os:
  labels:
    region: us-west-1
    somekey: somevalue

k3os.k3s_args

Arguments to be passed to the k3s process. The arguments should start with server or agent to be valid.

Example

k3os:
  k3s_args:
  - server
  - "--disable-agent"

k3os.environment

Environment variables to be set on k3s an other processes like the boot process. Primary use of this field is to set the http proxy.

Example

k3os:
  environment:
    http_proxy: http://myserver
    http_proxys: http://myserver

k3os.taints

Taints to set on the current node when it is first registered. After the node is first registered the value of this field is ignored.

k3os:
  taints:
  - "key1=value1:NoSchedule"
  - "key1=value1:NoExecute"

License

Copyright (c) 2014-2019 Rancher Labs, Inc.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.