Portal:Toolforge/Admin/Kubernetes/Jobs framework
This page contains information about operating the Toolforge Jobs Framework, an architecture to support grid-like jobs on Toolforge kubernetes.
The framework
The framework is called Toolforge Jobs Framework (or TJF). The main component is a REST API to ease end user interaction with Toolforge jobs in the kubernetes cluster. The API abstracts away most of the k8s gory details for configuring, removing, managing and reading status on jobs. The abstraction approach is similar to what is being done with Toolforge webservices (we have the webservice
command there), but with an approach that consist on having most of the business logic in an API service.
By splitting the software into several components, and introducing an stable API, we aim to reduce maintenance burden by not needing to rebuild all Toolforge docker containers every time we change some internal mechanism (which is the case of the tools-webservice
package).

The framework consists on 3 components:
- jobs-framework-api (gerrit) (gitiles) --- uses flask-restful and runs inside the k8s cluster as a webservice. Offers the REST API that in turn interacts with the k8s API native objects:
CronJob
,Job
andDeployment
. - jobs-framework-cli (gerrit) (gitiles) --- command line interface to interact with the jobs API service. Typically used by end users in Toolforge bastions.
- jobs-framework-emailer (gerrit) (gitiles) --- a daemon that uses the official k8s python client and asyncio. It runs inside k8s, listen to pod events, and email users about their jobs activity.
The REST API is freely usable within Toolforge, both bastion servers and kubernetes pods. This means that a running job can interact with the Toolforge jobs API and CRUD other jobs.
Auth

To ensure that Toolforge users only manage their own jobs, TJF uses kubernetes certificates for client authentication. These x509 certificates are automatically managed by maintain-kubeusers
, and live in each user home directory:
toolsbeta.test@toolsbeta-sgebastion-04:~$ egrep client-certificate\|client-key .kube/config
client-certificate: /data/project/test/.toolskube/client.crt
client-key: /data/project/test/.toolskube/client.key
toolsbeta.test@toolsbeta-sgebastion-04:~$ head -1 /data/project/test/.toolskube/client.crt
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
toolsbeta.test@toolsbeta-sgebastion-04:~$ head -1 /data/project/test/.toolskube/client.key
-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
The jobs-framework-api
component needs to know the client certificate CommonName. With this information, jobs-framework-api
can supplant the user by reading again the x509 certificates from the user home, and use them to interact with the kubernetes API. This is effectively a TLS proxy that reuses the original certificate.
In the current Toolforge webservice setup, TLS termination is done at the nginx front proxy. The front proxy talks to the backends using plain HTTP, with no simple options for relaying or forwarding the original client TLS certs. That's why the jobs-framework-api
doesn't use the main Toolofrge ingress setup.
This results in two types of connections, as shown in the diagram above:
- connection type 1: an user contacts
jobs-framework-api
using k8s client TLS certs from its home directory. The TLS connection is established to theingress-ngnx-jobs
, which has the client-side TLS termination. This can happen from a Toolforge bastion, or from a Job already running inside kubernetes. The connection can be made either usingjobs-framework-cli
or directly contactingjobs-framework-api
programmatically by other methods. - connection type 2: once the CommonName of the original request certificate is validated,
jobs-framework-api
can load the same k8s client TLS certificate from the user home, and supplant the user to contact the k8s API. For this to be possible, thejobs-framework-api
component needs permissions for every user home directory, pretty much likemaintain-kubeusers
has.
This setup is possible because the x509 certificates are maintained by the maintain-kubeusers
component, and because jobs-framework-api
runs inside the kubernetes cluster itself and therefore can be configured with enough permissions to read each users home.
More or other authentication mechanisms can be introduced in the future as we detect new use cases.
The Toolforge front proxy exists today basically for webservices running in the grid. Once the grid is fully deprecated and we no longer need the front proxy, we could re-evaluate this whole situation and simplify it.
Ingress & TLS
The jobs-framework-api
doesn't use a kubernetes ingress deployment. Instead, it deploys its own nodeport service in the jobs-api
namespace.
The jobs-specific one is able to read TLS client certificates and pass the ssl-client-subject-dn
HTTP header to the pod running the toolforge-jobs-api
webservice.
With this information toolforge-jobs-api
can load again the client cert when talking to the k8s API on behalf of the original user.
The way this whole ingress/TLS setup works is as follows:
- The FQDN
jobs.svc.toolsbeta.eqiad1.wikimedia.cloud
that points to the k8s haproxy VIP address. - The haproxy system listens on 30001/TCP for this jobs-specific ingress (and in 30000/TCP for the general one).
- The haproxy daemon reaches all k8s worker nodes on 30001/TCP, where there is a nodeport service in the
jobs-api
namespace, that redirects packets to thejobs-api
deployment. - The deployment consist on 1 pod with 2 containers: nginx & the
jobs-framework-api
itself. - The nginx container handles the TLS termination and proxies the API by means of a socket.
- Once the TLS certs are verified the proxy injects the HTTP header
ssl-client-subject-dn
tojobs-framework-api
, which contains theCN=
information of the original user. - With the
ssl-client-subject-dn
header,jobs-framework-api
can load again the client certificate from the original user home on NFS and in turn contact the k8s API using them.
About logs
Logs produced by jobs should not be made available using kubectl logs
because that means the stderr/stdout of the pod is being RW in the etcd cluster. If left unattended, logs produced by jobs can easily hammer and bring down our etcd clusters.
Logs should be stored in each user NFS home directory, until we come up with some holistic solution at kubernetes level like https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/cluster-administration/logging/
Endpoints
Some relevant URLs:
- https://jobs.svc.tools.eqiad1.wikimedia.cloud:30001/api/v1 --- API endpoint in the tools project.
- https://jobs.svc.toolsbeta.eqiad1.wikimedia.cloud:30001/api/v1 --- API endpoint in the toolsbeta project.
- https://jobs.toolforge.org/ --- name-reserved Toolforge tool (toolsadmin) (toolhub)
Please note that as of this writing the API endpoints are only available within Toolforge / Cloud VPS (internal IP address, no floating IP).
Deployment and maintenance
Information on how to deploy and maintain the framework.
jobs-framework-api
deployment
See Portal:Toolforge/Admin/Kubernetes/Custom_components.
maintenance
To see logs, try something like:
user@toolsbeta-test-k8s-control-4:~$ sudo -i kubectl logs deployment/jobs-api -n jobs-api nginx
[..]
192.168.17.192 - - [15/Feb/2022:12:57:54 +0000] "GET /api/v1/containers/ HTTP/1.1" 200 2655 "-" "python-requests/2.21.0"
192.168.81.64 - - [15/Feb/2022:12:59:50 +0000] "GET /api/v1/list/ HTTP/1.1" 200 3 "-" "python-requests/2.21.0"
192.168.17.192 - - [15/Feb/2022:13:00:34 +0000] "GET /api/v1/containers/ HTTP/1.1" 200 2655 "-" "python-requests/2.21.0"
192.168.81.64 - - [15/Feb/2022:13:01:01 +0000] "GET /api/v1/containers/ HTTP/1.1" 200 2655 "-" "python-requests/2.21.0"
192.168.17.192 - - [15/Feb/2022:13:01:02 +0000] "POST /api/v1/run/ HTTP/1.1" 409 52 "-" "python-requests/2.21.0"
user@toolsbeta-test-k8s-control-4:~$ sudo -i kubectl logs deployment/jobs-api -n jobs-api webservice
[..]
*** Operational MODE: single process ***
mounting api:app on /
Adding available container: {'shortname': 'tf-bullseye-std', 'image': 'docker-registry.tools.wmflabs.org/toolforge-bullseye-standalone:latest'}
Adding available container: {'shortname': 'tf-buster-std-DEPRECATED', 'image': 'docker-registry.tools.wmflabs.org/toolforge-buster-standalone:latest'}
Adding available container: {'shortname': 'tf-golang', 'image': 'docker-registry.tools.wmflabs.org/toolforge-golang-sssd-base:latest'}
Adding available container: {'shortname': 'tf-golang111', 'image': 'docker-registry.tools.wmflabs.org/toolforge-golang111-sssd-base:latest'}
Adding available container: {'shortname': 'tf-jdk17', 'image': 'docker-registry.tools.wmflabs.org/toolforge-jdk17-sssd-base:latest'}
[..]
To verify the API endpoint is up try something like:
user@toolsbeta-test-k8s-control-4:~$ curl https://jobs.svc.toolsbeta.eqiad1.wikimedia.cloud:30001/api/v1/list -k
<html>
<head><title>400 No required SSL certificate was sent</title></head>
<body>
<center><h1>400 Bad Request</h1></center>
<center>No required SSL certificate was sent</center>
<hr><center>nginx/1.21.0</center>
</body>
</html>
The 400 error is expected in that example because we're not sending a TLS client certificate, meaning nginx is doing its work correctly.
See how many jobs of a given type are defined:
user@tools-k8s-control-1:~$ sudo -i kubectl get jobs -A -l app.kubernetes.io/managed-by=toolforge-jobs-framework -l app.kubernetes.io/component=jobs
No resources found <-- this is somewhat normal, jobs may be short-lived
user@tools-k8s-control-1:~$ sudo -i kubectl get cronjob -A -l app.kubernetes.io/managed-by=toolforge-jobs-framework -l app.kubernetes.io/component=cronjobs
NAMESPACE NAME SCHEDULE SUSPEND ACTIVE LAST SCHEDULE AGE
tool-admin updatetools 19,39,59 * * * * False 0 3m57s 31d
tool-botriconferme botriconferme-full 0,10 22,23 * * * False 0 16h 27h
tool-botriconferme botriconferme-purge-log 0 0 1 * * False 0 <none> 27h
tool-botriconferme botriconferme-quick */15 * * * * False 0 2m57s 27h
tool-cdnjs update-index 17 4 * * * False 1 12d 34d
[..]
user@tools-k8s-control-1:~$ sudo -i kubectl get deploy -A -l app.kubernetes.io/managed-by=toolforge-jobs-framework -l app.kubernetes.io/component=deployments
NAMESPACE NAME READY UP-TO-DATE AVAILABLE AGE
tool-cluebot3 cluebot3 1/1 1 1 10d
tool-fixsuggesterbot fix-suggester-bot-consume 1/1 1 1 198d
tool-fixsuggesterbot fix-suggester-bot-subscribe 1/1 1 1 198d
tool-majavah-bot t1-enwiki 1/1 1 1 18d
tool-mjolnir mjolnir 1/1 1 1 186d
tool-mjolnir uatu 1/1 1 1 183d
[..]
jobs-framework-cli
deployment
A simple debian package installed on the bastions. See Portal:Toolforge/Admin/Packaging.
jobs-framework-emailer
deployment
See Portal:Toolforge/Admin/Kubernetes/Custom_components.
maintenance
Service logs:
user@tools-k8s-control-1:~$ sudo -i kubectl -n jobs-emailer logs deployment/jobs-emailer
Live configuration can be seen with:
user@tools-k8s-control-1:~$ sudo -i kubectl -n jobs-emailer get cm jobs-emailer-configmap -o yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
[..]
data:
debug: "yes"
email_from_addr: noreply@toolforge.org
email_to_domain: tools.wmflabs.org
email_to_prefix: tools
send_emails_for_real: "yes"
smtp_server_fqdn: mail.tools.wmflabs.org
smtp_server_port: "25"
task_compose_emails_loop_sleep: "400"
task_read_configmap_sleep: "10"
task_send_emails_loop_sleep: "10"
task_send_emails_max: "10"
task_watch_pods_timeout: "60"
Values can be edited with kubectl -n jobs-emailer edit cm jobs-emailer-configmap
. Editing some value will trigger a live reconfiguration (no need to restart anything).
API docs
This section contains concrete details for the API that TJF introduces.
TODO: this is outdated, we need swagger or similar to keep this up-to-date.
POST /api/v1/run/
Creates a new job in the kubernetes cluster.
POST /api/v1/run/ details | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Example request data: {
"name": "myjob",
"cmd": "./myscript.py --once",
"type": "toolforge-buster-sssd",
"schedule": "*/1 * * * *"
}
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GET /api/v1/show/{name}/
Shows information about a job in the kubernetes cluster.
GET /api/v1/show/{name}/ details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Example response JSON data: {
"name": "myjob",
"cmd": "./myscript.py --once",
"type": "python",
"continuous": false,
"state"; "finished"
}
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DELETE /api/v1/delete/{name}
Delete a job in the kubernetes cluster.
DELETE /api/v1/delete/{name} details | ||||||||
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GET /api/v1/list/
Shows information about all user jobs in the kubernetes cluster.
GET /api/v1/list/ details | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Example response JSON data: [
{
"name": "myjob",
"cmd": "./myscript.py --once",
"type": "toolforge-buster-sssd",
"continuous": false,
"state": "finished"
},
{
"name": "myotherjob",
"cmd": "./myotherscript.py --once",
"type": "toolforge-buster-sssd",
"schedule": "*/1 * * * *",
"state": "running"
}
]
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DELETE /api/v1/flush/
Delete all user jobs in the kubernetes cluster.
DELETE /api/v1/flush/ details |
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There are no request parameters. |
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GET /api/v1/containers/
Shows information about all containers available for jobs in the kubernetes cluster.
GET /api/v1/containers/ details | |||||||||
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Example response JSON data: [
{
"name": "tf-buster",
"type": "docker-registry.tools.wmflabs.org/toolforge-buster-sssd:latest"
},
{
"name": "tf-buster-std",
"type": "docker-registry.tools.wmflabs.org/toolforge-buster-standalone:latest"
}
]
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See also
- Wikimedia_Cloud_Services_team/EnhancementProposals/Toolforge_jobs -- where this was initially designed.
- Help:Toolforge/Jobs_framework -- end user documentation
- Phabricator T286135: Toolforge jobs framework: email maintainers on job failure -- original feature request for the emailer component.
Some upstream kubernetes documentation pointers:
- https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/workloads/controllers/job/
- https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/workloads/controllers/replicationcontroller/
- https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/workloads/pods/pod-lifecycle/
- https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/workloads/controllers/cron-jobs/
- https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/job/
- https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/job/automated-tasks-with-cron-jobs/
- https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/workloads/controllers/job/#ttl-mechanism-for-finished-jobs
Related components: