MongoDB Deployment Demo for Kubernetes on microk8s (i.e. running on local workstation)

An example project demonstrating the deployment of a MongoDB Replica Set via Kubernetes on Microk8s (Kubernetes running locally on a workstation). Contains example Kubernetes YAML resource files (in the 'resource' folder) and associated Kubernetes based Bash scripts (in the 'scripts' folder) to configure the environment and deploy a MongoDB Replica Set.

For further background information on what these scripts and resource files do, plus general information about running MongoDB with Kubernetes, see: http://k8smongodb.net/

1 How To Run

1.1 Prerequisites

Ensure the following dependencies are already fulfilled on your host Linux/Windows/Mac Workstation/Laptop:

1. The VirtualBox hypervisor has been installed.
2. The kubectl command-line tool for Kubernetes has been installed.
3. The microk8s tool for running Kubernetes locally has been installed.
4. The microk8s cluster has been started, inside a local Virtual Machine, using the following command (also includes commands to check that kubectl is configured correctly to see the running microk8s pod): https://microk8s.io/#quick-start

1.2 Main Deployment Steps

1. To deploy the MongoDB Service (including the StatefulSet running "mongod" containers), via a command-line terminal/shell, execute the following:

   $ cd scripts
   $ ./generate.sh
   

2. Re-run the following command, until all 3 “mongod” pods (and their containers) have been successfully started (“Status=Running”; usually takes a minute or two).

   $ kubectl get all
   

3. Execute the following script which connects to the first Mongod instance running in a container of the Kubernetes StatefulSet, via the Mongo Shell, to (1) initialise the MongoDB Replica Set, and (2) create a MongoDB admin user (specify the password you want as the argument to the script, replacing 'abc123').

   $ ./configure_repset_auth.sh abc123
   

You should now have a MongoDB Replica Set initialised, secured and running in a Kubernetes StatefulSet.

1.3 Example Tests To Run To Check Things Are Working

Use this section to prove:

1. Data is being replicated between members of the containerised replica set.
2. Data is retained even when the MongoDB Service/StatefulSet is removed and then re-created (by virtue of re-using the same Persistent Volume Claims).

1.3.1 Replication Test

Connect to the container running the first "mongod" replica, then use the Mongo Shell to authenticate and add some test data to a database:

$ kubectl exec -it mongod-0 -c mongod-container bash
$ mongo
> db.getSiblingDB('admin').auth("main_admin", "abc123");
> use test;
> db.testcoll.insert({a:1});
> db.testcoll.insert({b:2});
> db.testcoll.find();

Exit out of the shell and exit out of the first container (“mongod-0”). Then connect to the second container (“mongod-1”), run the Mongo Shell again and see if the previously inserted data is visible to the second "mongod" replica:

$ kubectl exec -it mongod-1 -c mongod-container bash
$ mongo
> db.getSiblingDB('admin').auth("main_admin", "abc123");
> db.setSlaveOk(1);
> use test;
> db.testcoll.find();

You should see that the two records inserted via the first replica, are visible to the second replica.

1.3.2 Redeployment Without Data Loss Test

To see if Persistent Volume Claims really are working, run a script to drop the Service & StatefulSet (thus stopping the pods and their “mongod” containers) and then a script to re-create them again:

$ ./delete_service.sh
$ ./recreate_service.sh
$ kubectl get all

As before, keep re-running the last command above, until you can see that all 3 “mongod” pods and their containers have been successfully started again. Then connect to the first container, run the Mongo Shell and query to see if the data we’d inserted into the old containerised replica-set is still present in the re-instantiated replica set:

$ kubectl exec -it mongod-0 -c mongod-container bash
$ mongo
> db.getSiblingDB('admin').auth("main_admin", "abc123");
> use test;
> db.testcoll.find();

You should see that the two records inserted earlier, are still present.

1.4 Expose MongoDB Replica Set

$ kubectl expose pod mongod-0 --type=NodePort
$ kubectl expose pod mongod-1 --type=NodePort
$ kubectl expose pod mongod-2 --type=NodePort

1.4.1 Identify the individual ports

If you list your services, you now see the individual ports

$ kubectl get svc
    mongod-0          NodePort    10.152.183.223   <none>        27017:31316/TCP   19s
    mongod-1          NodePort    10.152.183.146   <none>        27017:31648/TCP   8s
    mongod-2          NodePort    10.152.183.116   <none>        27017:30471/TCP   4s

reading: it maps internal port 27017 of each pod to the physical node address to port 31316, 31648 and 30471

now the connection string would look like this:

mongodb://{IP-OF-THE-CLUSTER}:31316,{IP-OF-THE-CLUSTER}:31648,{IP-OF-THE-CLUSTER}:30471/

1.5 Undeploying & Cleaning Down the Kubernetes Environment

Run the following script to undeploy the MongoDB Service & StatefulSet.

$ ./teardown.sh

If you want, you can shutdown the Minikube virtual machine with the following command.

$ microk8s.stop

2 Project Details

2.1 Factors Addressed By This Project

• Deployment of a MongoDB on a local Minikube Kubernetes platform
• Use of Kubernetes StatefulSets and PersistentVolumeClaims to ensure data is not lost when containers are recycled
• Proper configuration of a MongoDB Replica Set for full resiliency
• Securing MongoDB by default for new deployments
• Disabling Transparent Huge Pages to improve performance (this is disabled by default in the Minikube host nodes)
• Disabling NUMA to improve performance
• Controlling CPU & RAM Resource Allocation
• Correctly configuring WiredTiger Cache Size in containers
• Controlling Anti-Affinity for Mongod Replicas to avoid a Single Point of Failure (although in Minikube there is only one host node, so in reality all Mongod Replicas will land on the same host)

2.2 Factors To Be Potentially Addressed In The Future By This Project

• Leveraging XFS filesystem for data file storage to improve performance (not worth attempting to implement any hacks here to get this working in Minikube, as Minikube is just a demo/development environment, so raw performance gains from using XFS are not a priority)