Kubernetes on Oxide: How customer needs shaped our integrations

3 hours ago (oxide.computer)

I am wondering when would you use kubernetes on oxide vs running kubernetes with kubevirt on baremetal?

At first look, it feels like oxide is equivalent to proxmox or some virtualization tool, may be it uses qemu stuff underneath.

Just curious.

The reason I am asking this is that, we have lot onprem scenarios in our business. We are tightly coupled with k8s, to solve this we started building an internal project that is kubernetes API compatible [1] but runs containerd or WASM or our platform natively.

Just curious how oxides work in this scenario

[1] https://github.com/debarshibasak/superkube

I'm interested to see how the `oxide-cloud-controller-manager` is being built for "modern" Kubernetes and if it leads to any signify difference compared to CCMs that originated in-tree. Given the way Oxide engineer their solutions this could be really interesting.

FYI I've got `karpenter-provider-oxide` on my bingo card...

  • There are few paths we can take here. The CCM's primary responsibility is to implement the cloudprovider.Interface[0] which has node, route, and service controllers. However, the CCM can run arbitrary named controllers as well, giving us a fun extension point for the future. The in-tree CCMs are being phased out in favor of out-of-tree CCMs. The AWS Cloud Provider[1] is a good example of what that's starting to look like.

    My colleague demo'd Karpeneter internally. We haven't committed releasing it yet but we're discussing it.

    [0] https://github.com/kubernetes/cloud-provider/blob/master/clo...

    [1] https://github.com/kubernetes/cloud-provider-aws

    • My point was that the major cloud CCMs are rooted (at least spiritually) in in-tree implementations. With Oxide having an API first strategy (similar in principle to a major cloud provider) the direction you take on your greenfield CCM could be interesting.

      RE Karpenter, it always seemed like a natural fit for Oxide, even more so than some of the currently implementors. And now you have the expertise in the team, I'd be really interested in the reason if you don't go down that path.

      1 reply →

  • Yes this would be great addition! Also it would be awesome to see proper load balancer, ingress controller with `gateway api` and a `api gateway` (two separate things).

    I’m not an oxide customer, just a fan. I have lots of ideas around how something like this should look, being disappointed with the complexity and also shortcomings of products on the market for this stuff, both in the cloud and on prem.

    • I'll need to record a video on what's possible today. My personal Kubernetes cluster running on Oxide uses the CCM for LoadBalancer services and NGINX Gateway Fabric for Gateway API things. I'm mostly using HTTPRoute resources today.

      There's an opportunity to more tightly integrate at the network layer but we'll want to get our load balancer released first.

Kubernetes is where Oxide, from my armchair, doesn't yet quite match the public cloud.

On AWS EKS Fargate, each pod runs in its own dedicated VM. With Oxide each k8s node is a VM, so you still need something like Talos.

On networking it looks like it is getting closer. Where you can have external subnet give pod routed IPs without overlay. But the gap, as marked by the article, is also the load balancing.

It would be nice if Kubernetes were a native feature out-of-the-box. Also integrated within the existing user/access control.

  • We're discussing what "native Kubernetes" looks like on Oxide in the limit. There's a bunch to build, some of which is blocked on product gaps. We'll get there though!

    I don't necessarily want to match the public cloud experience if there's an opportunity for Oxide to exceed the public cloud experience. Eliminating the overlay is a good example of this. We have customers using external subnets to eliminate the overlay but we haven't integrated that into our controllers yet.

So you’d be attaching a new volume to the running worker VM for each PVC? This seems a little odd to me. Could you attach a single large volume, and do path-based provisioning on that?

  • > So you’d be attaching a new volume to the running worker VM for each PVC?

    That's what we prototyped before local disk was released and before we started disk hot-plug work.

    > Could you attach a single large volume, and do path-based provisioning on that?

    Possibly. We'd still want disk hot-plug first. Otherwise, customers would have to create their cluster in a certain shape before using PVCs.

  • Does seem like that could be an issue for RWX PVCs, unless those volumes can be mounted to multiple nodes. Depending on the workload, you might be better off using NFS.

I have seldom wanted anything as much as I want an Oxide rack at home. Maybe in 40 years we'll start to see the first ones show up in surplus auctions...