PMK Release 5.4 Release Notes

Platform9 Managed Kubernetes Version 5.4 Release Notes

The Platform9 Managed Kubernetes (PMK) version 5.4 release is now available and brings support for Kubernetes 1.21, containerd runtime and new dashboards for viewing, troubleshooting and managing workloads. The 5.4 release is primarily focused on simplifying Kubernetes workload management. This release includes new dashboards for Pods, Deployments, and Services that allow users to see objects configuration, related events, container logs, and access the yaml with the ability to edit it in real time. The release also includes new storage management features that make working with persistent storage easier than ever. Platform9 has added support to automatically detect installed CSI Drivers and create the related storage classes. Further enhancements to storage include deep-dive Storage Class dashboards with events, logs and yaml, as well as dashboards for persistent volumes, persistent volume claims, CSI Drivers and storage providers.

Release Highlights

Workload dashboards

To make Kubernetes easier for both operators and developers, PMK 5.4 introduces the first set of deep-dive workload management dashboards that Platform9 is developing. Pods, Deployments, and Services now have dedicated views that allow users to visualize configurations, instantly access events, and view individual container logs without the need to leave Platform9. Each deep-dive dashboard also exposes the ability to view and edit the object's yaml for fast updates and quick troubleshooting.

Pods Dashboard

Pod Deep Dive Dashboard

Services Dashboard

Edit YAML

Container Logs

Storage dashboards

Storage can be a burden to operate and troubleshoot. PMK 5.4 introduces multiple new workflows for creating Storage Classes and viewing storage related Kubernetes objects. Users can quickly view a storage class, its related PV and PVCs with access to events and logs to quickly diagnose issues.

Storage Class Dashboard

Create New Storage Class

Storage Class Deep Dive Dashboard

Installed CSI Drivers

Platform9 CLI

The 1.9 pf9ctl release (utilizing Go CLI) is now available and can be installed by running the following command.

bash <(curl -sL https://pmkft-assets.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/pf9ctl_setup)

This release contains several minor changes and bug fixes.

New Added support for MFA authentication

New IAM check for cloud providers

New Upgrade command

New Removed the dependency on /tmp folder for the installer script

Fixed Fixed a bug impacting the installation of the CLI

Node Interface Specification

It is now possible to specify the management interface to use on individual nodes, instead of the default behavior of picking from an interface that matches the default gateway. Before attaching a node to a cluster, please configure the IPv4 or IPv6 interface in the corresponding files on the node.

For IPv4:

echo "V4_INTERFACE <exact interface name>" > /var/opt/pf9/kube_interface_v4

For IPv6:

echo "V6_INTERFACE <exact interface name>" > /var/opt/pf9/kube_interface_v6

The node will be onboarded to the cluster with IP address present on the specified interface when the pf9-nodeletd service runs.

Platform9 Virtual Machine OVA

The Platform9 OVA now provides better support for VMware OVA Template controls. This enables users to provide their Platform9 credentials when deploying the OVA, which will automatically configure the Platform9 CLI and once completed, attach it to their cluster.

Login using the initial user and password: ubuntu/ubuntu

VirtualBox OVA : https://pmkft-assets.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/OVA_Images/Platform9_VirtualBox.ova

VMware OVA : https://pmkft-assets.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/OVA_Images/Platform9_vmware.ova

Enhancements & Updates

Added Added the new ability to select either Docker or Containerd as the Container runtime when creating clusters running Kubernetes 1.21. containerd support is in Early Access and not recommended for production use.

Added A new, deep-dive dashboards to view details of multiple Services, logs, events, and the ability to edit the Services yaml.

Added The new ability to set a default cluster and default namespace. Once chosen, Platform9 will use the default settings to load dashboards.

Added New deep-dive dashboards to view Deployment details, logs, events, and the ability to edit the Deployment yaml.

Added New notifications are now divided between Cluster API Notifications and Platform9 API notifications, with detailed views of all notifications.

Added New dashboards to view Persistent Volumes, Persistent Volume Claims, CSI Drivers and Storage Providers.

Added A brand new deep-dive dashboard to view Storage Classes details, logs, events, and the ability to edit the Storage Class yaml.

Added Newly added capability to configure the Storage Class and retention time for Managed Monitoring.

Added Added a newly enhanced “Clusters without Monitoring” view to the monitoring dashboard.

Added Newly added ability to create local user groups within platform9 that can be employed to configure group-based RBAC profiles in managed Kubernetes clusters.

Added Newly added capability to provide advanced configurations for Platform9 Managed coreDNS and Platform9 Managed Monitoring.

Added New Qbert API for add-on versions.

Added Platform9 Managed Monitoring, which has been recently migrated into the Platform9 Add-on framework. Users can now configure data retention and provide a storage class for persistent storage.

Added KubeVirt has been moved into the Platform9 Add-on framework. Users can now dynamically enable and disable KubeVirt at any time during a clusters' lifecycle.

Added Luigi, the new Platform9 Advanced Networking Operator, has been moved into the Platform9 Add-on framework. Users can now enable and disable Luigi at anytime during the clusters' lifecycle.

Added New ability to set the number of coreDNS replicas for Platform9 Managed CoreDNS, using the Add-on framework.

Added Newly added support for the CPU and Topology Manager configuration during any stage of the cluster lifecycle.

Added New! Platform9 now supports containerd runtime.

Added New users can now change their MetalLB IP Range configuration at any stage of the cluster lifecycle.

Added New! Platform9 now supports Kubernetes 1.21.

Added The new MetalLB now supports Named Address Pools. Users can add MetalLB as a Managed Add-on and configure it with multiple IP Pool Ranges for use in the Service configuration.

Added New ability for users to gracefully recover from stalled cluster upgrades using the Batch Advanced upgrade workflow.

Enhanced Updated the Platform9 AWS IAM Policy.

Enhanced Updated — Platform9 has completed CIS Benchmark Conformance.

Enhanced Updated the Deployed Apps dashboard to be more responsive and load faster.

Enhanced Updated the deploy Pod, Deployment, and Details wizard with new YAML editing capabilities.

Enhanced Updated the Create Storage Class wizard to automatically detect installed storage class drivers. We have also added support for AWS, Azure, and Google native storage drivers.

Enhanced Updated — Changed Kubernetes Control Plane scaling options to allow new nodes to be added when the cluster has failed quorum.

Enhanced Updated the Pods, Deployments, and Services dashboards with new workload details and the ability to delve further into dashboards details.

Enhanced Updated — Added the ability to scale multiple worker nodes simultaneously on BareOS clusters.

Bug Fixes

Fixed Fixed a bug causing the RBAC screen not to render Roles and Bindings.

Fixed Fixed a bug that was impacting the ability to change AWS autoscaling.

Fixed Fixed a bug impacting etcd backup intervals.

Fixed Fixed a bug that was causing Prometheus alerts not to auto-clear.

Fixed Fixed a bug that was causing Metrics Server to fail.

Fixed Fixed an incorrect API call that referenced POST, not GET in the Qbert API reference.

Fixed Fixed a Calico bug that would cause pod networking to break if Kernel IP Forwarding was not enabled.

Fixed Fixed a bug that would cause delays when disabling Monitoring from the Platform9 web app.

Fixed Fixed an issue that was causing Qbert to fail due to ResMgr conflicts.

Fixed Fixed a bug impacting the add-on watch flag.

Fixed Fixed a bug that was impacting cluster upgrades.

Fixed Fixed a OOMKill bug impacting Platform9 Add-on Manager.

Fixed Fixed a bug impacting RBAC to Platform9 User Group bindings.

Fixed Fixed a bug that would cause nodes set as unscheduled to automatically reset to schedule after a reboot.

Package Updates

The following packed components have been upgraded:

1. calico: “v3.18.1”
2. casaws: “1.14.8"
3. casazure: “1.13.8”
4. cni: “v0.9.0"
5. coredns: “1.8.0”
6. dashboard: “2.0.1"
7. etcd: “v3.4.14”
8. flannel: “v0.14.0"
9. kubevirtaddon: “0.45.0"
10. luigi: “0.3.0"
11. metallb: “0.10.2”
12. metricsserver: “0.5.0"
13. monitoring: “0.46.0”
14. profileagent: “2.0.0"

Please refer to the Managed Kubernetes Support Matrix for v5.4 to view all currently deployed or supported upstream component versions.

Early Access Features

The following features are part of early access:

• KubeVirt: Platform9 now supports KubeVirt as part of our Early Access program.
  • KubeVirt can be enabled during cluster creation, and once enabled, VMs can be created using a YAML file. Learn more at virtualization on Kubernetes.
  • New: KubeVirt Early Access — View running Virtual Machine details with the VM Details dashboard.
  • New: KubeVirt Early Access — View all running virtual machines on the KubeVirt dashboards.

Known Issues

Known Issue All changes made to the Platform9 Managed Monitoring are lost upon upgrade. Please contact Platform9 Support before making any customizations.

Known Issue Calico IPAM is only supported when using Calico CNI.

Known Issue Calico IPIP is not supported on IPv6 clusters. IPv6 clusters should be created with IPIP set to Never.

Known Issue Deregistering an EKS, AKS, or GKE cluster will only remove it from Platform9. If Platform9 monitoring has deployed on the EKS cluster, it will not be removed. The monitoring stack must be removed manually before deregistering the cluster.

Known Issue EKS, AKS, or GKE Cluster Import “401 Unauthorized” Notification and Empty Dashboards.

If an AWS Cloud Provider is configured to import clusters without the correct identity being added to the target cluster, Platform9 will be unable to access the cluster.

It's important to note that if you have used a Cloud Provider to register an EKS, AKS, or GKE cluster that was created with IAM user credentials, which no longer have access to the EKS, AKS, or GKE K8s clusters, Platform9 will fail with an 401 Unauthorized error until that IAM user is given access to the K8s cluster.

View the EKS documentation here to ensure the correct access has been provisioned at for each imported cluster. https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/knowledge-center/amazon-eks-cluster-access/

Known Issue Platform9 monitoring won't work on ARM-based nodes on EKS, AKS, or GKE.

Known Issue EKS, AKS, or GKE Clusters running within a Private only VPC will be imported in read-only mode, and no Kubernetes data will be available.

Known Issue EKS, AKS, and GKE Cluster running within a Private VPC will not show any data on the Workloads, RBAC, Monitoring and Storage Dashboards.