Virtual Kubelet is an open source Kubernetes kubelet implementation that masquerades as a kubelet for the purposes of connecting Kubernetes to other APIs. This allows the nodes to be backed by other services like ACI, Hyper.sh, AWS, etc. This connector features a pluggable architecture and direct use of Kubernetes primitives, making it much easier to build on.

We invite the Kubernetes ecosystem to join us in empowering developers to build upon our base. Join our slack channel named, virtual-kubelet, within the Kubernetes slack group.

Please note this software is experimental and should not be used for anything resembling a production workload.

The best description is "Kubernetes API on top, programmable back."

• How It Works
• Usage
• Providers
  • Azure Container Instances Provider
  • Hyper.sh Provider
  • Adding a New Provider via the Provider Interface
• Testing
  • Testing the Azure Provider Client
• Known quirks and workarounds
• Contributing

The diagram below illustrates how Virtual-Kubelet works.

Deploy a Kubernetes cluster and make sure it's reachable.

Run the binary with your chosen provider:

./bin/virtual-kubelet --provider <your provider>

Now that the virtual-kubelet is deployed run kubectl get nodes and you should see a virtual-kubelet node.

• Multiple containers per pod
• Windows/Linux containers
• Restart policies
• Volumes
  • Empty dir
  • Git hub repo
  • Azure files
• Config maps
• Secrets
• Pod status
• Resource limits (Mem and Cores)
• Environment variables
• Public IPs
• kubectl logs

• kubectl exec
• Metrics

virtual-kubelet implements the Kubelet interface with a pluggable
backend implementation allowing users to create kubernetes nodes without running the kubelet.
This allows users to schedule kubernetes workloads on nodes that aren't running Kubernetes.

Usage:
  virtual-kubelet [flags]
  virtual-kubelet [command]

Available Commands:
  help        Help about any command
  version     Show the version of the program

Flags:
  -h, --help                     help for virtual-kubelet
      --kubeconfig string        config file (default is $HOME/.kube/config)
      --namespace string         kubernetes namespace (default is 'all')
      --nodename string          kubernetes node name (default "virtual-kubelet")
      --os string                Operating System (Linux/Windows) (default "Linux")
      --provider string          cloud provider
      --provider-config string   cloud provider configuration file
      --taint string             apply taint to node, making scheduling explicit

Use "virtual-kubelet [command] --help" for more information about a command.

Run these commands to deploy the virtual kubelet which connects your Kubernetes cluster to Azure Container Instances. If you want to run the connector from the Azure command-line check out this.

RELEASE_NAME=virtual-kubelet
CHART_URL=https://github.com/virtual-kubelet/virtual-kubelet/raw/master/charts/virtual-kubelet-0.1.0.tgz

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/virtual-kubelet/virtual-kubelet/master/scripts/createCertAndKey.sh > createCertAndKey.sh
. createCertAndKey.sh

helm install "$CHART_URL" --name "$RELEASE_NAME" \
    --set env.azureClientId=<YOUR-AZURECLIENTID-HERE>,env.azureClientKey=<YOUR-AZURECLIENTKEY-HERE>,env.azureTenantId=<YOUR-AZURETENANTID-HERE>,env.azureSubscriptionId=<YOUR-AZURESUBSCRIPTIONID-HERE>,env.aciResourceGroup=<YOUR-ACIRESOURCEGROUP-HERE>,env.nodeName=<YOUR-NODE-NAME>,env.nodeOsType=<Linux|Windows>,env.nodeTaint=<YOUR-NODE-TAINT>,env.apiserverCert=$cert,env.apiserverKey=$key

This project features a pluggable provider interface developers can implement that defines the actions of a typical kubelet.

This enables on-demand and nearly instantaneous container compute, orchestrated by Kubernetes, without having VM infrastructure to manage and while still leveraging the portable Kubernetes API.

Each provider may have its own configuration file, and required environmental variables.

The Azure Container Instances Provider allows you to utilize both typical pods on VMs and Azure Container instances simultaneously in the same Kubernetes cluster.

./bin/virtual-kubelet --provider azure

ACI_RESOURCE_GROUP must be set to the name of a valid Azure resource group where your ACI workload will be run.

ACI_REGION must be set to the name of the region your ACI_RESOURCE_GROUP was created.

The Azure connector can use a configuration file specified by the --provider-config flag. The config file is in TOML format, and an example lives in providers/azure/example.toml.

The Hyper.sh Provider allows Kubernetes clusters to deploy Hyper.sh containers and manage both typical pods on VMs and Hyper.sh containers in the same Kubernetes cluster.

./bin/virtual-kubelet --provider hyper

The structure we chose allows you to have all the power of the Kubernetes API on top with a pluggable interface.

Create a new directory for your provider under providers and implement the following interface. Then add your new provider under the others in the vkubelet/provider.go file.

// Provider contains the methods required to implement a virtual-kubelet provider.
type Provider interface {
	// CreatePod takes a Kubernetes Pod and deploys it within the provider.
	CreatePod(pod *v1.Pod) error

	// UpdatePod takes a Kubernetes Pod and updates it within the provider.
	UpdatePod(pod *v1.Pod) error

	// DeletePod takes a Kubernetes Pod and deletes it from the provider.
	DeletePod(pod *v1.Pod) error

	// GetPod retrieves a pod by name from the provider (can be cached).
	GetPod(namespace, name string) (*v1.Pod, error)

	// GetPodStatus retrievesthe status of a pod by name from the provider.
	GetPodStatus(namespace, name string) (*v1.PodStatus, error)

	// GetPods retrieves a list of all pods running on the provider (can be cached).
	GetPods() ([]*v1.Pod, error)

	// Capacity returns a resource list with the capacity constraints of the provider.
	Capacity() v1.ResourceList

	// NodeConditions returns a list of conditions (Ready, OutOfDisk, etc), which is polled periodically to update the node status
	// within Kubernetes.
	NodeConditions() []v1.NodeCondition

	// OperatingSystem returns the operating system the provider is for.
	OperatingSystem() string
}

Running the unit tests locally is as simple as make test.

The unit tests for the azure provider require a credentials.json file exist in the root of this directory or that you have AZURE_AUTH_LOCATION set to a credentials file.

You can generate this file by following the instructions listed in the README for that package.

Kubernetes 1.9 introduces a new flag, ServiceNodeExclusion, for the control plane's Controller Manager. Enabling this flag in the Controller Manager's manifest allows Kubernetes to exclude Virtual Kubelet nodes from being added to Load Balancer pools, allowing you to create public facing services with external IPs without issue.

Cluster requirements: Kubernetes 1.9 or above

Enable the ServiceNodeExclusion flag, by modifying the Controller Manager manifest and adding --feature-gates=ServiceNodeExclusion=true to the command line arguments.

This project welcomes contributions and suggestions. Most contributions require you to agree to a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) declaring that you have the right to, and actually do, grant us the rights to use your contribution. For details, visit https://cla.microsoft.com.

When you submit a pull request, a CLA-bot will automatically determine whether you need to provide a CLA and decorate the PR appropriately (e.g., label, comment). Simply follow the instructions provided by the bot. You will only need to do this once across all repos using our CLA.

This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct. For more information see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact opencode@microsoft.com with any additional questions or comments.