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K8s DNS stack by Kubespray
For K8s cluster nodes, Kubespray configures a Kubernetes DNS
cluster add-on
to serve as an authoritative DNS server for a given dns_domain
and its
svc, default.svc
default subdomains (a total of ndots: 5
max levels).
Other nodes in the inventory, like external storage nodes or a separate etcd cluster node group, considered non-cluster and left up to the user to configure DNS resolve.
DNS variables
There are several global variables which can be used to modify DNS settings:
ndots
ndots value to be used in /etc/resolv.conf
It is important to note that multiple search domains combined with high ndots
values lead to poor performance of DNS stack, so please choose it wisely.
dns_timeout
timeout value to be used in /etc/resolv.conf
dns_attempts
attempts value to be used in /etc/resolv.conf
searchdomains
Custom search domains to be added in addition to the cluster search domains (default.svc.{{ dns_domain }}, svc.{{ dns_domain }}
).
Most Linux systems limit the total number of search domains to 6 and the total length of all search domains
to 256 characters. Depending on the length of dns_domain
, you're limited to less than the total limit.
remove_default_searchdomains: true
will remove the default cluster search domains.
Please note that resolvconf_mode: docker_dns
will automatically add your systems search domains as
additional search domains. Please take this into the accounts for the limits.
nameservers
This variable is only used by resolvconf_mode: host_resolvconf
. These nameservers are added to the hosts
/etc/resolv.conf
after upstream_dns_servers
and thus serve as backup nameservers. If this variable
is not set, a default resolver is chosen (depending on cloud provider or 8.8.8.8 when no cloud provider is specified).
upstream_dns_servers
DNS servers to be added after the cluster DNS. Used by all resolvconf_mode
modes. These serve as backup
DNS servers in early cluster deployment when no cluster DNS is available yet.
dns_upstream_forward_extra_opts
Whether or not upstream DNS servers come from upstream_dns_servers
variable or /etc/resolv.conf, related forward block in coredns (and nodelocaldns) configuration can take options (see https://coredns.io/plugins/forward/ for details).
These are configurable in inventory in as a dictionary in the dns_upstream_forward_extra_opts
variable.
By default, no other option than the ones hardcoded (see roles/kubernetes-apps/ansible/templates/coredns-config.yml.j2
and roles/kubernetes-apps/ansible/templates/nodelocaldns-config.yml.j2
).
coredns_kubernetes_extra_opts
Custom options to be added to the kubernetes coredns plugin.
coredns_kubernetes_extra_domains
Extra domains to be forwarded to the kubernetes coredns plugin.
coredns_rewrite_block
Rewrite plugin block to perform internal message rewriting.
coredns_external_zones
Array of optional external zones to coredns forward queries to. It's injected into
coredns
' config file before default kubernetes zone. Use it as an optimization for well-known zones and/or internal-only
domains, i.e. VPN for internal networks (default is unset)
Example:
coredns_external_zones:
- zones:
- example.com
- example.io:1053
nameservers:
- 1.1.1.1
- 2.2.2.2
cache: 5
- zones:
- https://mycompany.local:4453
nameservers:
- 192.168.0.53
cache: 0
- zones:
- mydomain.tld
nameservers:
- 10.233.0.3
cache: 5
rewrite:
- name stop website.tld website.namespace.svc.cluster.local
or as INI
coredns_external_zones='[{"cache": 30,"zones":["example.com","example.io:453"],"nameservers":["1.1.1.1","2.2.2.2"]}]'
dns_etchosts (coredns)
Optional hosts file content to coredns use as /etc/hosts file. This will also be used by nodelocaldns, if enabled.
Example:
dns_etchosts: |
192.168.0.100 api.example.com
192.168.0.200 ingress.example.com
enable_coredns_reverse_dns_lookups
Whether reverse DNS lookups are enabled in the coredns config. Defaults to true
.
CoreDNS default zone cache plugin
If you wish to configure the caching behaviour of CoreDNS on the default zone, you can do so using the coredns_default_zone_cache_block
string block.
An example value (more information on the plugin's documentation) to:
- raise the max cache TTL to 3600 seconds
- raise the max amount of success responses to cache to 3000
- disable caching of denial responses altogether
- enable pre-fetching of lookups with at least 10 lookups per minute before they expire
Would be as follows:
coredns_default_zone_cache_block: |
cache 3600 {
success 3000
denial 0
prefetch 10 1m
}
Handle old/extra dns_domains
If you need to change the dns_domain of your cluster for whatever reason (switching to or from cluster.local
for example),
and you have workloads that embed it in their configuration you can use the variable old_dns_domains
.
This will add some configuration to coredns and nodelocaldns to ensure the DNS requests using the old domain are handled correctly.
Example:
old_dns_domains:
- example1.com
- example2.com
dns_domain: cluster.local
will make my-svc.my-ns.svc.example1.com
, my-svc.my-ns.svc.example2.com
and my-svc.my-ns.svc.cluster.local
have the same DNS answer.
systemd_resolved_disable_stub_listener
Whether or not to set DNSStubListener=no
when using systemd-resolved. Defaults to true
on Flatcar.
You might need to set it to true
if CoreDNS fails to start with address already in use
errors.
DNS modes supported by Kubespray
You can modify how Kubespray sets up DNS for your cluster with the variables dns_mode
and resolvconf_mode
.
dns_mode
dns_mode
configures how Kubespray will setup cluster DNS. There are four modes available:
dns_mode: coredns (default)
This installs CoreDNS as the default cluster DNS for all queries.
dns_mode: coredns_dual
This installs CoreDNS as the default cluster DNS for all queries, plus a secondary CoreDNS stack.
dns_mode: manual
This does not install coredns, but allows you to specify
manual_dns_server
, which will be configured on nodes for handling Pod DNS.
Use this method if you plan to install your own DNS server in the cluster after
initial deployment.
dns_mode: none
This does not install any of DNS solution at all. This basically disables cluster DNS completely and leaves you with a non functional cluster.
resolvconf_mode
resolvconf_mode
configures how Kubespray will setup DNS for hostNetwork: true
PODs and non-k8s containers.
There are three modes available:
resolvconf_mode: host_resolvconf (default)
This activates the classic Kubespray behavior that modifies the hosts /etc/resolv.conf
file and dhclient
configuration to point to the cluster dns server (either coredns or coredns_dual, depending on dns_mode).
As cluster DNS is not available on early deployment stage, this mode is split into 2 stages. In the first
stage (dns_early: true
), /etc/resolv.conf
is configured to use the DNS servers found in upstream_dns_servers
and nameservers
. Later, /etc/resolv.conf
is reconfigured to use the cluster DNS server first, leaving
the other nameservers as backups.
Also note, existing records will be purged from the /etc/resolv.conf
,
including resolvconf's base/head/cloud-init config files and those that come from dhclient.
resolvconf_mode: docker_dns
This sets up the docker daemon with additional --dns/--dns-search/--dns-opt flags.
The following nameservers are added to the docker daemon (in the same order as listed here):
- cluster nameserver (depends on dns_mode)
- content of optional upstream_dns_servers variable
- host system nameservers (read from hosts /etc/resolv.conf)
The following search domains are added to the docker daemon (in the same order as listed here):
- cluster domains (
default.svc.{{ dns_domain }}
,svc.{{ dns_domain }}
) - content of optional searchdomains variable
- host system search domains (read from hosts /etc/resolv.conf)
The following dns options are added to the docker daemon
- ndots:{{ ndots }}
- timeout:2
- attempts:2
These dns options can be overridden by setting a different list:
docker_dns_options:
- ndots:{{ ndots }}
- timeout:2
- attempts:2
- rotate
For normal PODs, k8s will ignore these options and setup its own DNS settings for the PODs, taking
the --cluster_dns (either coredns or coredns_dual, depending on dns_mode) kubelet option into account.
For hostNetwork: true
PODs however, k8s will let docker setup DNS settings. Docker containers which
are not started/managed by k8s will also use these docker options.
The host system name servers are added to ensure name resolution is also working while cluster DNS is not running yet. This is especially important in early stages of cluster deployment. In this early stage, DNS queries to the cluster DNS will timeout after a few seconds, resulting in the system nameserver being used as a backup nameserver. After cluster DNS is running, all queries will be answered by the cluster DNS servers, which in turn will forward queries to the system nameserver if required.
resolvconf_mode: none
Does nothing regarding /etc/resolv.conf
. This leaves you with a cluster that works as expected in most cases.
The only exception is that hostNetwork: true
PODs and non-k8s managed containers will not be able to resolve
cluster service names.
Nodelocal DNS cache
Setting enable_nodelocaldns
to true
will make pods reach out to the dns (core-dns) caching agent running on the same node, thereby avoiding iptables DNAT rules and connection tracking. The local caching agent will query core-dns (depending on what main DNS plugin is configured in your cluster) for cache misses of cluster hostnames(cluster.local suffix by default).
More information on the rationale behind this implementation can be found here.
As per the 2.10 release, Nodelocal DNS cache is enabled by default.
External zones
It's possible to extent the nodelocaldns
' configuration by adding an array of external zones. For example:
nodelocaldns_external_zones:
- zones:
- example.com
- example.io:1053
nameservers:
- 1.1.1.1
- 2.2.2.2
cache: 5
- zones:
- https://mycompany.local:4453
nameservers:
- 192.168.0.53
dns_etchosts (nodelocaldns)
See dns_etchosts above.
Nodelocal DNS HA
Under some circumstances the single POD nodelocaldns implementation may not be able to be replaced soon enough and a cluster upgrade or a nodelocaldns upgrade can cause DNS requests to time out for short intervals. If for any reason your applications cannot tolerate this behavior you can enable a redundant nodelocal DNS pod on each node:
enable_nodelocaldns_secondary: true
Note: when the nodelocaldns secondary is enabled, the primary is instructed to no longer tear down the iptables rules it sets up to direct traffic to itself. In case both daemonsets have failing pods on the same node, this can cause a DNS blackout with traffic no longer being forwarded to the coredns central service as a fallback. Please ensure you account for this also if you decide to disable the nodelocaldns cache.
There is a time delta (in seconds) allowed for the secondary nodelocaldns to survive in case both primary and secondary daemonsets are updated at the same time. It is advised to tune this variable after you have performed some tests in your own environment.
nodelocaldns_secondary_skew_seconds: 5
Limitations
-
Kubespray has yet ways to configure Kubedns addon to forward requests SkyDns can not answer with authority to arbitrary recursive resolvers. This task is left for future. See official SkyDns docs for details.
-
There is no way to specify a custom value for the SkyDNS
ndots
param. -
the
searchdomains
have a limitation of a 6 names and 256 chars length. Due to defaultsvc, default.svc
subdomains, the actual limits are a 4 names and 239 chars respectively. Ifremove_default_searchdomains: true
added you are back to 6 names. -
the
nameservers
have a limitation of a 3 servers, although there is a way to mitigate that with theupstream_dns_servers
, see below. Anyway, thenameservers
can take no more than a two custom DNS servers because of one slot is reserved for a Kubernetes cluster needs.