Fix three issues with the fluentd-gcp liveness probe: h1. STUCK_THRESHOLD_SECONDS was overridden by LIVENESS_THRESHOLD_SECONDS if defined Probably a copy/paste issue introduced inedf1ffc074
h1. `[[` is [a bashism](https://stackoverflow.com/a/47576482), and will always failed when called with `/bin/sh` Introduced bya844523c20
Given that we call the liveness probe with `/bin/sh`, we cannot use the double-bracketed `[[` syntax for test, as it is not POSIX-compliant and will throw an error. Annoyingly, even through it prints an error, `sh` returns with exit code 0 in this case: ```bash root@fluentd-7mprs:/# sh liveness.sh liveness.sh: 8: liveness.sh: [[: not found liveness.sh: 15: liveness.sh: [[: not found root@fluentd-7mprs:/# echo $? 0 ``` Which means the liveness probe is considered successful by Kubernetes, despite failing to test things as it was intended. This is also probably the reason why this bug wasn't reported sooner :) Thankfully, the test in this case can just as easily be written as POSIX-compliant as it doesn't use any bash-specific features within the `[[` block. h1. Buffers are transient and cannot be relied upon for monitoring Finally, after fixing the above issue, we started seeing the fluentd containers being restarted very often, and found an issue with the underlying logic of the liveness probe. The probe checks that the pod is still alive by running the following command: `find /var/log/fluentd-buffers -type f -newer /tmp/marker-stuck -print -quit` This checks if any _regular_ file exists under `/var/log/fluentd-buffers` that is more recent than a predetermined time, and will return an empty string otherwise. The issue is that these buffers are temporary and volatile, they get created and deleted constantly. Here is an example of running that check every second on a running fluentd: ``` root@fluentd-eks-playground-jdc8m:/# LIVENESS_THRESHOLD_SECONDS=${LIVENESS_THRESHOLD_SECONDS:-300}; root@fluentd-eks-playground-jdc8m:/# STUCK_THRESHOLD_SECONDS=${LIVENESS_THRESHOLD_SECONDS:-900}; root@fluentd-eks-playground-jdc8m:/# touch -d "${STUCK_THRESHOLD_SECONDS} seconds ago" /tmp/marker-stuck; root@fluentd-eks-playground-jdc8m:/# touch -d "${LIVENESS_THRESHOLD_SECONDS} seconds ago" /tmp/marker-liveness; root@fluentd-eks-playground-jdc8m:/# while true; do date ; find /var/log/fluentd-buffers -type f -newer /tmp/marker-stuck -print -quit ; sleep 1 ; done Fri Feb 22 10:52:57 UTC 2019 Fri Feb 22 10:52:58 UTC 2019 /var/log/fluentd-buffers/kubernetes.system.buffer/buffer.b5827964ccf4c7004103c3fa7c8533f85.log Fri Feb 22 10:52:59 UTC 2019 /var/log/fluentd-buffers/kubernetes.system.buffer/buffer.b5827964ccf4c7004103c3fa7c8533f85.log Fri Feb 22 10:53:00 UTC 2019 Fri Feb 22 10:53:01 UTC 2019 /var/log/fluentd-buffers/kubernetes.system.buffer/buffer.b5827964fb8b2eedcccd2763ea7775cc2.log Fri Feb 22 10:53:02 UTC 2019 /var/log/fluentd-buffers/kubernetes.system.buffer/buffer.b5827964fb8b2eedcccd2763ea7775cc2.log Fri Feb 22 10:53:03 UTC 2019 Fri Feb 22 10:53:04 UTC 2019 Fri Feb 22 10:53:05 UTC 2019 Fri Feb 22 10:53:06 UTC 2019 /var/log/fluentd-buffers/kubernetes.system.buffer/buffer.b5827965564883997b673d703af54848b.log Fri Feb 22 10:53:07 UTC 2019 /var/log/fluentd-buffers/kubernetes.system.buffer/buffer.b5827965564883997b673d703af54848b.log Fri Feb 22 10:53:08 UTC 2019 /var/log/fluentd-buffers/kubernetes.system.buffer/buffer.b5827965564883997b673d703af54848b.log Fri Feb 22 10:53:09 UTC 2019 Fri Feb 22 10:53:10 UTC 2019 Fri Feb 22 10:53:11 UTC 2019 Fri Feb 22 10:53:12 UTC 2019 Fri Feb 22 10:53:13 UTC 2019 Fri Feb 22 10:53:14 UTC 2019 Fri Feb 22 10:53:15 UTC 2019 Fri Feb 22 10:53:16 UTC 2019 ``` We can see buffers being created, then disappearing. The LivenessProbe running under these conditions has a ~50% chance of failing, despite fluentd being perfectly happy. I believe that check is probably ok for fluentd installs using large amounts of buffers, in which case the liveness probe will be correct more often than not, but fluentd installs that use buffering less intensively will be negatively impacted by this. My solution to fix this is to check the last updated time of buffering _folders_ within `/var/log/fluentd_buffers`. These _do_ get updated when buffers are created, and do not get deleted as buffers are emptied, making them the perfect candidate for our use. Here's an example with the `-d` flag for directories: ``` root@fluentd-eks-playground-jdc8m:/# while true; do date ; find /var/log/fluentd-buffers -type d -newer /tmp/marker-stuck -print -quit ; sleep 1 ; done Fri Feb 22 10:57:51 UTC 2019 /var/log/fluentd-buffers/kubernetes.system.buffer Fri Feb 22 10:57:52 UTC 2019 /var/log/fluentd-buffers/kubernetes.system.buffer Fri Feb 22 10:57:53 UTC 2019 /var/log/fluentd-buffers/kubernetes.system.buffer Fri Feb 22 10:57:54 UTC 2019 /var/log/fluentd-buffers/kubernetes.system.buffer Fri Feb 22 10:57:55 UTC 2019 /var/log/fluentd-buffers/kubernetes.system.buffer Fri Feb 22 10:57:56 UTC 2019 /var/log/fluentd-buffers/kubernetes.system.buffer Fri Feb 22 10:57:57 UTC 2019 /var/log/fluentd-buffers/kubernetes.system.buffer Fri Feb 22 10:57:58 UTC 2019 /var/log/fluentd-buffers/kubernetes.system.buffer Fri Feb 22 10:57:59 UTC 2019 /var/log/fluentd-buffers/kubernetes.system.buffer Fri Feb 22 10:58:00 UTC 2019 /var/log/fluentd-buffers/kubernetes.system.buffer Fri Feb 22 10:58:01 UTC 2019 /var/log/fluentd-buffers/kubernetes.system.buffer Fri Feb 22 10:58:02 UTC 2019 /var/log/fluentd-buffers/kubernetes.system.buffer Fri Feb 22 10:58:03 UTC 2019 /var/log/fluentd-buffers/kubernetes.system.buffer ``` And example of the directory being updated as new buffers come in: ``` root@fluentd-eks-playground-jdc8m:/# ls -lah /var/log/fluentd-buffers/kubernetes.system.buffer total 0 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 6 Feb 22 11:17 . drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 38 Feb 22 11:14 .. root@fluentd-eks-playground-jdc8m:/# ls -lah /var/log/fluentd-buffers/kubernetes.system.buffer total 16K drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 224 Feb 22 11:18 . drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 38 Feb 22 11:14 .. -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.8K Feb 22 11:18 buffer.b58279be6e21e8b29fc333a7d50096ed0.log -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 215 Feb 22 11:18 buffer.b58279be6e21e8b29fc333a7d50096ed0.log.meta -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 429 Feb 22 11:18 buffer.b58279be6f09bdfe047a96486a525ece2.log -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 195 Feb 22 11:18 buffer.b58279be6f09bdfe047a96486a525ece2.log.meta root@fluentd-eks-playground-jdc8m:/# ls -lah /var/log/fluentd-buffers/kubernetes.system.buffer total 0 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 6 Feb 22 11:18 . drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 38 Feb 22 11:14 .. ```
Kubernetes

Kubernetes is an open source system for managing containerized applications across multiple hosts; providing basic mechanisms for deployment, maintenance, and scaling of applications.
Kubernetes builds upon a decade and a half of experience at Google running production workloads at scale using a system called Borg, combined with best-of-breed ideas and practices from the community.
Kubernetes is hosted by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). If you are a company that wants to help shape the evolution of technologies that are container-packaged, dynamically-scheduled and microservices-oriented, consider joining the CNCF. For details about who's involved and how Kubernetes plays a role, read the CNCF announcement.
To start using Kubernetes
See our documentation on kubernetes.io.
Try our interactive tutorial.
Take a free course on Scalable Microservices with Kubernetes.
To start developing Kubernetes
The community repository hosts all information about building Kubernetes from source, how to contribute code and documentation, who to contact about what, etc.
If you want to build Kubernetes right away there are two options:
You have a working Go environment.
$ go get -d k8s.io/kubernetes
$ cd $GOPATH/src/k8s.io/kubernetes
$ make
You have a working Docker environment.
$ git clone https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes
$ cd kubernetes
$ make quick-release
For the full story, head over to the developer's documentation.
Support
If you need support, start with the troubleshooting guide, and work your way through the process that we've outlined.
That said, if you have questions, reach out to us one way or another.