Deploy Multi-Master K8S Cluster with External Etcd using Kubeadm

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5 min read

In the realm of managing applications, Kubernetes reigns supreme. It's like having a conductor for your software orchestra, making sure everything plays in harmony. This blog will guide you through setting up a Multi-Master Kubernetes cluster with External Etcd using Kubeadm.

Environment

1. The HAProxy Load Balancer: At IP 20.20.20.100, Haproxy maintains high availability in the control plane

2. Kubernetes Master Nodes:

  • 20.20.20.11

  • 20.20.20.12

  • 20.20.20.13

3. Kubernetes Worker Nodes:

  • 20.20.20.21

  • 20.20.20.22

  • 20.20.20.23

4. Etcd Nodes: Here we will put etcd on the same node as the master

Setup Hosts

1. Exec on all nodes

vim /etc/hosts

20.20.20.100 k8s-lb
20.20.20.11 k8s-master-1
20.20.20.12 k8s-master-2
20.20.20.13 k8s-master-3
20.20.20.21 k8s-worker-1
20.20.20.22 k8s-worker-2
20.20.20.23 k8s-worker-3

Installing the HAProxy load balancer

Exec on lb node.

1. Update apt repository.

apt update && apt upgrade -y

2. Install haproxy.

sudo apt-get install haproxy

3. Configure HAProxy to load balance the traffic between the three Kubernetes master nodes.

vim /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg

global
...

default
...


frontend kubernetes
bind 20.20.20.100:6443
option tcplog
mode tcp
default_backend kubernetes-master-nodes


backend kubernetes-master-nodes
mode tcp
balance roundrobin
option tcp-check
server k8s-master-1 20.20.20.11:6443 check fall 3 rise 2
server k8s-master-2 20.20.20.12:6443 check fall 3 rise 2
server k8s-master-3 20.20.20.13:6443 check fall 3 rise 2

4. Restart haproxy.

sudo systemctl restart haproxy

Generating TLS Certificate for Etcd Cluster

Exec on master-1

1. Download the cffsl binaries.

wget https://pkg.cfssl.org/R1.2/cfssl_linux-amd64
wget https://pkg.cfssl.org/R1.2/cfssljson_linux-amd64

2. Add the execution permission to the binaries

chmod +x cfssl*

3. Move binary to /usr/local/bin

sudo mv cfssl_linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/cfssl
sudo mv cfssljson_linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/cfssljson

4. Verify

cfssl version

5. Create the certificate authority configuration file

 vim ca-config.json
{
  "signing": {
    "default": {
      "expiry": "8760h"
    },
    "profiles": {
      "kubernetes": {
        "usages": ["signing", "key encipherment", "server auth", "client auth"],
        "expiry": "8760h"
      }
    }
  }
}

6. Create the certificate authority signing request configuration file.

 vim ca-csr.json
{
  "CN": "Kubernetes",
  "key": {
    "algo": "rsa",
    "size": 2048
  },
  "names": [
  {
    "C": "IE",
    "L": "Cork",
    "O": "Kubernetes",
    "OU": "CA",
    "ST": "Cork Co."
  }
 ]
}

7. Generate the certificate authority certificate and private key.

cfssl gencert -initca ca-csr.json | cfssljson -bare ca

8. Verify that the ca-key.pem and the ca.pem were generated.

ls -la

9. Create the certificate signing request configuration file.

vim kubernetes-csr.json
{
  "CN": "kubernetes",
  "key": {
    "algo": "rsa",
    "size": 2048
  },
  "names": [
  {
    "C": "IE",
    "L": "Cork",
    "O": "Kubernetes",
    "OU": "Kubernetes",
    "ST": "Cork Co."
  }
 ]
}

10. Generate the certificate and private key.

cfssl gencert \
-ca=ca.pem \
-ca-key=ca-key.pem \
-config=ca-config.json \
-hostname=20.20.20.11,20.20.20.12,20.20.20.13,20.20.20.100,127.0.0.1,kubernetes.default \
-profile=kubernetes kubernetes-csr.json | \
cfssljson -bare kubernetes

11. Verify that the kubernetes-key.pem and the kubernetes.pem file were generated.

ls -la

Installing Docker (actually we only use the containerd)

Exec on all master and worker nodes

1. Install docker

sudo -s
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sh get-docker.sh

2. Enable CRI plugin

sed -i 's/^disabled_plugins = \["cri"\]/# &/' /etc/containerd/config.toml 
systemctl restart containerd

Installing kubeadm, kublet, and kubectl

Exec on all master and worker nodes

1. Add the Google repository key.

curl -s https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg | apt-key add -

2. Add the Google repository.

echo 'deb http://apt.kubernetes.io kubernetes-xenial main' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kubernetes.list

3. Update the list of packages and install kubelet, kubeadm and kubectl.

apt update
apt-get install kubelet kubeadm kubectl -y

4. Disable the swap.

swapoff -a
sed -i '/ swap / s/^/#/' /etc/fstab

Installing and configuring Etcd (External etcd)

Exec on all master nodes

1. Create a configuration directory for Etcd.

sudo mkdir /etc/etcd /var/lib/etcd

2. Change etcd dir permission.

chmod 700 /var/lib/etcd

2. Copy cert form master-1.

scp -T k8s-master-1:~/ca.pem ~/kubernetes.pem ~/kubernetes-key.pem" /etc/etcd

4. Download etcd binaries.

wget https://github.com/etcd-io/etcd/releases/download/v3.4.26/etcd-v3.4.26-linux-amd64.tar.gz

5. Extract.

tar xvzf etcd-v3.4.26-linux-amd64.tar.gz

6. Move binaries to bin path.

sudo mv etcd-v3.4.26-linux-amd64/etcd* /usr/local/bin/

7. Create an etcd systemd unit file. (adjust the ip).

$ vim /etc/systemd/system/etcd.service

[Unit]
Description=etcd
Documentation=https://github.com/coreos


[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/etcd \
  --name 20.20.20.11 \
  --cert-file=/etc/etcd/kubernetes.pem \
  --key-file=/etc/etcd/kubernetes-key.pem \
  --peer-cert-file=/etc/etcd/kubernetes.pem \
  --peer-key-file=/etc/etcd/kubernetes-key.pem \
  --trusted-ca-file=/etc/etcd/ca.pem \
  --peer-trusted-ca-file=/etc/etcd/ca.pem \
  --peer-client-cert-auth \
  --client-cert-auth \
  --initial-advertise-peer-urls https://20.20.20.11:2380 \
  --listen-peer-urls https://20.20.20.11:2380 \
  --listen-client-urls https://20.20.20.11:2379,http://127.0.0.1:2379 \
  --advertise-client-urls https://20.20.20.11:2379 \
  --initial-cluster-token etcd-cluster-0 \
  --initial-cluster 20.20.20.11=https://20.20.20.11:2380,20.20.20.12=https://20.20.20.12:2380,20.20.20.13=https://20.20.20.13:2380 \
  --initial-cluster-state new \
  --data-dir=/var/lib/etcd
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5



[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

7. Enable and start etcd in turn.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now etcd

8. Verify.

ETCDCTL_API=3 etcdctl member list

Initialize K8S Cluster

Exec on master-1

1. Create the configuration file for kubeadm.

vim config.yaml
apiVersion: kubeadm.k8s.io/v1beta3
kind: ClusterConfiguration
kubernetesVersion: stable
controlPlaneEndpoint: "20.20.20.100:6443"
etcd:
  external:
    endpoints:
    - https://20.20.20.11:2379
    - https://20.20.20.12:2379
    - https://20.20.20.13:2379
    caFile: /etc/etcd/ca.pem
    certFile: /etc/etcd/kubernetes.pem
    keyFile: /etc/etcd/kubernetes-key.pem
networking:
  podSubnet: 10.30.0.0/24

2. Initialize k8s cluster.

sudo kubeadm init --config=config.yaml --upload-certs | tee -a k8s-init.log

note: copy kubeadm join ....

Join Another Nodes

# paste that has been copied before

# For master or control-plane
kubeadm join 20.20.20.100:6443 --token ll35cx.zot5tprhmmio37ix \
        --discovery-token-ca-cert-hash sha256:6452be374fa227444c63818229b58690d2d8099e98f75d96b45426556398c5d4 \
        --control-plane --certificate-key af4a1a50c6c283c9eb1f77835479eef0ae8a69144ad20e7e908e87bd333c53b5

# For worker
kubeadm join 20.20.20.100:6443 --token ll35cx.zot5tprhmmio37ix \
            --discovery-token-ca-cert-hash sha256:6452be374fa227444c63818229b58690d2d8099e98f75d96b45426556398c5d4

Set kubeconfig and verify nodes

mkdir -p $HOME/.kube
sudo cp -i /etc/kubernetes/admin.conf $HOME/.kube/config
sudo chown $(id -u):$(id -g) $HOME/.kube/config
kubectl get nodes

Deploying the overlay network

1. Deploy the overlay network pods.

kubectl apply -f https://github.com/coreos/flannel/raw/master/Documentation/kube-flannel.yml

2. Check that the pods are deployed properly.

kubectl get pods -n kube-system

3. Check that the nodes are in Ready state.

kubectl get nodes
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