Kubernetes Upgrades

Scope

The Wayfinder GUI supports upgrades at the cluster level for control planes and node pools. Support for using the CLI for upgrades can be found here.

User Actions:

1. Navigate to the upgrade area within the Wayfinder GUI
2. Approve upgrades when needed
3. View the available upgrade information within the Wayfinder GUI

Administrative Checklist:

1. Review user access requirements
2. Decide which upgrade method to use
3. Configure auto-approval settings for the chosen upgrade method
4. View additional information on how Wayfinder's upgrade process works
5. View support for upcoming functionality
6. Contact us if you have any questions or if you need support

FAQs:

• How do I get to the upgrades tab?
• Why can't I view/apply upgrades?
• Why can't I view/edit the auto-approval settings?
• How do I update auto-approval for existing clusters?
• How do I set up auto-approval for new clusters?
• Why is it not asking me to approve the upgrades?
• Why is it asking me to approve upgrades?
• When does Wayfinder check for new upgrades?
• Which checks does Wayfinder perform?
• What happens when an upgrade fails?
• Which upgrade strategy does Wayfinder use?
• How does the upgrade status in the GUI change?
• What is the format for the auto-approval values?

User Actions

Navigation

In Wayfinder's web interface:

• Select Admin, then navigate to Kubernetes > Clusters
• Select the cluster's name
• Select the Updates tab
• Available kubernetes updgrades (node pool and/or control plane) are presented to you

Approve upgrades

• Navigate to the upgrades tab
• Expand the upgrade accordions to view relevant upgrade information such as the version number and the upgrade's status
• When the upgrade status is in Waiting Approval, click on the icon to open the 'approval dialogue' box, then click on approve.

View upgrade information

The upgrade overview section advertises which Kubernetes upgrade versions are available for a particular cluster. The upgrade overview information is outlined below.

Column name	Column description	Values
Type	Signifies what type of upgrade it is	Kubernetes: Signifies that the Kubernetes upgrade applies to the Control Plane Node Pool: Signifies that the Kubernetes upgrade applies to the Node Pool
Name	Name of the upgrade target	[Name of control plane]: Name of the control plane to be upgraded [Name of node pool]: Name of the node pool to be upgraded
Current Version	The current version of the upgrade target	Version number

Detailed upgrade information is available from the respective accordions in the upgrade overview section. Users can click on the black triangle in the Type column to expand or close the accordion. Each row in the accordion is an upgradeable version, and Wayfinder will apply the upgrades from earliest to latest release date. The upgrade detailed information is outlined below.

Column name	Column description	Values
Version	Signifies the version number that the target is going to be upgraded to	Version number
Released	Date that the upgrade was released by the cloud provider	yyyy-mm-dd
Status	The status of the upgrade process	Calculating Prerequisites: Wayfinder is finding upgrade prerequisites. No action needed from user. Awaiting Approval: (Only shown with manual-approval method) Wayfinder is waiting for the user to approve the upgrade: Click on the Yes button to approve the upgrade. The upgrade process will start after approval. Click on No to cancel the upgrade prompt and approve the upgrade later. In Progress: Wayfinder is busy applying the upgrade. No action needed from user. Applied: The upgrade has been successfully applied. No action needed from user.

Administrative Checklist

User Access

Default permissions

By default, users with the workspace.clustermanager role can view and apply upgrades. Users who have extended Wayfinder's default user access module, should review the permissions if they encounter access issues.

Upgrade Methods

Auto-approval method

Requires auto-approval to be set to yes: Wayfinder automatically applies upgrades without the user’s intervention. Non-critical sites should consider using the auto-approval method.

Manual-approval method

Requires auto-approval to be set to no. Wayfinder waits for users to approve the upgrade before continuing with applying the upgrade. Critical sites should consider using the manual-approval method.

Auto-approval settings

The user's interaction with the upgrade workflow is governed through auto-approval settings which can be specified when a cluster is created or toggled for existing clusters.

note

• Changes to existing auto-approval settings do not affect 'in-flight' upgrades
• The ability to access/edit the approval settings can be administered using cluster plans

Setting auto-approval during cluster creation

1. When creating a new cluster, toggle the cluster parameters to 'show advanced options'
2. Scroll down to the Upgrades accordion and toggle the radio button to the value that is needed

Setting auto-approval for existing clusters

1. Navigate to the Settings Tab for the selected cluster
2. Click on the Edit button and toggle the radio-button to the value that is needed

Auto-approval values

• Default option for auto-approval is no : Signifies the manual-approval upgrade method that requires the user to approve the upgrade.
• Options for yes:
  • Signifies the auto-approval upgrade method.
  • Auto-upgrade start time: Specifies the earliest time that auto-upgrades can commence.
    Example: 03:00 | Format {hh:mm}
  • Auto-upgrade duration: Specifies the auto-upgrade maintenance window duration.
    Example: 2hr | Format {xxhr}, where xx signifies the number of hours.

Additional Information

Upgrade availability

Wayfinder checks for new upgradable versions from each of the supported cloud providers (AWS, Azure, GCP). This check happens every 24 hours after Wayfinder's initial instance startup. Upgrades can be applied as soon as they are advertised in the Wayfinder GUI. Human intervention may be needed (see auto-approval settings).

Upgrade process

Wayfinder performs a prerequisite check to ensure that the upgrade is successful. This involves Wayfinder finding dependencies between the control plane and node pool versions and then applying them iteratively to avoid conflicts. Wayfinder will try and reconcile if the upgrade fails.

Continuous failures of an upgrade may be due to the reconciliation process failing. This may happen during irrecoverable situations, such as when unsupported fields are included. Appvia recommends that users contact the Appvia Support Portal when they notice continuous upgrade failures.

Upgrade strategy

The upgrade strategy defines how the upgrade should be applied. The choices are:

• In-place: This strategy uses the cloud provider's native upgrade mechanism. Wayfinder simply instructs the cloud to perform the requested upgrade.
• Replacement (coming soon): Wayfinder replaces the node pools one-by-one, creating new node pools at the target version. Thereafter, Wayfinder migrates the workloads from the old to the new.

Upgrade progress indicators

Wayfinder performs Prerequisite checks to find dependencies between versions. This status may be omitted from the Wayfinder GUI when checks finish quickly.

Thereafter:

Auto-approval method: The status will transition to In Progress, which shows that Wayfinder is applying the upgrade. Thereafter, the status will transition to Applied.

Manual-approval method: The status will transition to Awaiting Approval. This state will persist until the user approves the upgrade from within the Wayfinder GUI. Once the user has approved the upgrade, the status will transition to In Progress, which shows that Wayfinder is applying the upgrade. Thereafter, the status will transition to Applied.

Upcoming Functionality

CLI Support

Support for upgrading Kubernetes from the Wayfinder CLI will be announced in the release section as soon as it becomes available. Appvia recommends that users use the Wayfinder GUI until the CLI functionality is supported. Using the Wayfinder GUI will avoid unexpected system behaviour.

Replacement strategy

Wayfinder currently uses the in-place upgrade strategy. Support for the upgrade replacement strategy will be announced in the release section as soon as it becomes available.

Support

If you have any questions or if you need help with your Wayfinder instance, then please contact us via the Appvia Support Portal.

Also see the Support and Maintenance Terms of Service.