Version: v1.1

CUE Advanced

This section will introduce how to use CUE to deliver KubeVela modules. You can can dynamically expand the platform as user needs change, adapt to growing number of users and scenarios, and meet the iterative demands of the company's long-term business development.

Convert Kubernetes API Objects Into Custom Components#

Let's take the Kubernetes StatefulSet as an example to show how to use KubeVela to build custom modules and provide capabilities.

Save the YAML example of StatefulSet in the official document locally and name it as my-stateful.yaml, then execute commande as below:

 vela def init my-stateful -t component --desc "My StatefulSet component." --template-yaml ./my-stateful.yaml -o my-stateful.cue

View the generated "my-stateful.cue" file:

$ cat my-stateful.cue
"my-stateful": {
    annotations: {}
    attributes: workload: definition: {
        apiVersion: "<change me> apps/v1"
        kind:       "<change me> Deployment"
    }
    description: "My StatefulSet component."
    labels: {}
    type: "component"
}

template: {
    output: {
        apiVersion: "v1"
        kind:       "Service"
            ... // omit non-critical info
    }
    outputs: web: {
        apiVersion: "apps/v1"
        kind:       "StatefulSet"
            ... // omit non-critical info
    }
    parameter: {}
}

Modify the generated file as follows:

The example of the official StatefulSet website is a composite component composed of two objects StatefulSet and Service. According to KubeVela Rules for customize components, in composite components, core workloads such as StatefulSet need to be represented by the template.output field, and other auxiliary objects are represented by template.outputs, so we make some adjustments and all the automatically generated output and outputs are switched.
Then we fill in the apiVersion and kind data of the core workload into the part marked as <change me>

After modification, you can use vela def vet to do format check and verification.

$ vela def vet my-stateful.cue
Validation succeed.

The file after two steps of changes is as follows:

$ cat my-stateful.cue
"my-stateful": {
    annotations: {}
    attributes: workload: definition: {
        apiVersion: "apps/v1"
        kind:       "StatefulSet"
    }
    description: "My StatefulSet component."
    labels: {}
    type: "component"
}

template: {
    output: {
        apiVersion: "apps/v1"
        kind:       "StatefulSet"
        metadata: name: "web"
        spec: {
            selector: matchLabels: app: "nginx"
            replicas:    3
            serviceName: "nginx"
            template: {
                metadata: labels: app: "nginx"
                spec: {
                    containers: [{
                        name: "nginx"
                        ports: [{
                            name:          "web"
                            containerPort: 80
                        }]
                        image: "k8s.gcr.io/nginx-slim:0.8"
                        volumeMounts: [{
                            name:      "www"
                            mountPath: "/usr/share/nginx/html"
                        }]
                    }]
                    terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 10
                }
            }
            volumeClaimTemplates: [{
                metadata: name: "www"
                spec: {
                    accessModes: ["ReadWriteOnce"]
                    resources: requests: storage: "1Gi"
                    storageClassName: "my-storage-class"
                }
            }]
        }
    }
    outputs: web: {
        apiVersion: "v1"
        kind:       "Service"
        metadata: {
            name: "nginx"
            labels: app: "nginx"
        }
        spec: {
            clusterIP: "None"
            ports: [{
                name: "web"
                port: 80
            }]
            selector: app: "nginx"
        }
    }
    parameter: {}
}

Install ComponentDefinition into the Kubernetes cluster:

$ vela def apply my-stateful.cue
ComponentDefinition my-stateful created in namespace vela-system.

You can see that a my-stateful component via vela components command:

$ vela components
NAME        NAMESPACE   WORKLOAD                                DESCRIPTION
...
my-stateful vela-system statefulsets.apps                       My StatefulSet component.
... 

When you put this customized component into Application, it looks like:

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: core.oam.dev/v1beta1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: website
spec:
  components:
    - name: my-component
      type: my-stateful
EOF

Define Customized Parameters For Component#

In previous section we have defined a ComponentDefinition that has no parameter. In this section we will show how to expose parameters.

In this example, we expose the following parameters to the user:

Image name, allowing users to customize the image
Instance name, allowing users to customize the instance name of the generated StatefulSet object and Service object
The number of replica, the number of copies of the generated object

    ... # Omit other unmodified fields
    template: {
        output: {
            apiVersion: "apps/v1"
            kind:       "StatefulSet"
            metadata: name: parameter.name
            spec: {
                selector: matchLabels: app: "nginx"
                replicas:    parameter.replicas
                serviceName: "nginx"
                template: {
                    metadata: labels: app: "nginx"
                    spec: {
                        containers: [{
                            image: parameter.image
        
                            ... // Omit other unmodified fields
                        }]
                    }
                }
                    ... // Omit other unmodified fields
            }
        }
        outputs: web: {
            apiVersion: "v1"
            kind:       "Service"
            metadata: {
                name: "nginx"
                labels: app: "nginx"
            }
            spec: {
                ... // Omit other unmodified fields 
            }
        }
        parameter: {
            image: string
            name: string
            replicas: int
        }
    }

After modification, use vela def apply to install to the cluster:

$ vela def apply my-stateful.cue
ComponentDefinition my-stateful in namespace vela-system updated.

You can see the parameters of my-stateful ComponentDefinition as follows:

$ vela show my-stateful
# Properties
+----------+-------------+--------+----------+---------+
|   NAME   | DESCRIPTION |  TYPE  | REQUIRED | DEFAULT |
+----------+-------------+--------+----------+---------+
| name     |             | string | true     |         |
| replicas |             | int    | true     |         |
| image    |             | string | true     |         |
+----------+-------------+--------+----------+---------+

Updating the ComponentDefinition will not affect existing Applications. It will take effect only after updating the Applications next time.

You can specify the three new parameters in the application:

    apiVersion: core.oam.dev/v1beta1
    kind: Application
    metadata:
      name: website
    spec:
      components:
        - name: my-component
          type: my-stateful
          properties:
            image: nginx:latest
            replicas: 1
            name: my-component

Save the file locally and name it app-stateful.yaml, execute kubectl apply -f app-stateful.yaml to update the application, you can see that the name, image, and number of instances of the StatefulSet object have been updated.

Dry-run#

In order to ensure that the user's application can run correctly with the parameters, you can also use the vela dry-run command to verify the trial run of your template.

vela dry-run -f app-stateful.yaml

By viewing the output, you can compare whether the generated object is consistent with the object you actually expect. You can even execute this YAML directly into the Kubernetes cluster and use the results of the operation for verification.

# Application(website) -- Component(my-component)
---

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  labels:
    app: nginx
    app.oam.dev/appRevision: ""
    app.oam.dev/component: my-component
    app.oam.dev/name: website
    workload.oam.dev/type: my-stateful
  name: nginx
  namespace: default
spec:
  clusterIP: None
  ports:
  - name: web
    port: 80
  selector:
    app: nginx
  template:
    spec:
      containers:
      - image: saravak/fluentd:elastic
        name: my-sidecar

---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: StatefulSet
metadata:
  labels:
    app.oam.dev/appRevision: ""
    app.oam.dev/component: my-component
    app.oam.dev/name: website
    trait.oam.dev/resource: web
    trait.oam.dev/type: AuxiliaryWorkload
  name: web
  namespace: default
spec:
  replicas: 3
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: nginx
  serviceName: nginx
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: nginx
    spec:
      containers:
      - image: k8s.gcr.io/nginx-slim:0.8
        name: nginx
        ports:
        - containerPort: 80
          name: web
        volumeMounts:
        - mountPath: /usr/share/nginx/html
          name: www
      terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 10
  volumeClaimTemplates:
  - metadata:
      name: www
    spec:
      accessModes:
      - ReadWriteOnce
      resources:
        requests:
          storage: 1Gi
      storageClassName: my-storage-class

You can also use vela dry-run -h to view more available function parameters.

Use `context` to get runtime information#

In our Application example above, the name field in the properties and the name field of the Component are the same. So we can use the context keyword that carries context information in the template, where context.name is the runtime component Name, thus the name parameter in parameter is no longer needed.

... # Omit other unmodified fields
template: {
    output: {
        apiVersion: "apps/v1"
        kind:       "StatefulSet"
        metadata: name: context.name
            ... // 省略其他没有修改的字段
    }
    parameter: {
        image: string
        replicas: int
    }
}

KubeVela has built-in application required context, you can configure it according to your needs.

Add Traits On Demand#

In addition to modifying ComponentDefinitions and adding parameters, you can also use the TraitDefinition to patch configurations to Components. KubeVela has built-in operations to meet the following needs: adding labels, annotations, injecting environment variables, sidecars, adding volumes, and so on. You can also customize Trait to do more flexible patching.

You can use vela traits to view, the traits marked with * are general traits, which can operate on common Kubernetes resource objects.

$ vela traits
NAME                        NAMESPACE   APPLIES-TO          CONFLICTS-WITH  POD-DISRUPTIVE  DESCRIPTION
annotations                 vela-system *                                   true            Add annotations on K8s pod for your workload which follows
                                                                                            the pod spec in path 'spec.template'.
configmap                   vela-system *                                   true            Create/Attach configmaps on K8s pod for your workload which
                                                                                            follows the pod spec in path 'spec.template'.
env                         vela-system *                                   false           add env on K8s pod for your workload which follows the pod
                                                                                            spec in path 'spec.template.'
hostalias                   vela-system *                                   false           Add host aliases on K8s pod for your workload which follows
                                                                                            the pod spec in path 'spec.template'.
labels                      vela-system *                                   true            Add labels on K8s pod for your workload which follows the
                                                                                            pod spec in path 'spec.template'.
lifecycle                   vela-system *                                   true            Add lifecycle hooks for the first container of K8s pod for
                                                                                            your workload which follows the pod spec in path
                                                                                            'spec.template'.
node-affinity               vela-system *                                   true            affinity specify node affinity and toleration on K8s pod for
                                                                                            your workload which follows the pod spec in path
                                                                                            'spec.template'.
scaler                      vela-system *                                   false           Manually scale K8s pod for your workload which follows the
                                                                                            pod spec in path 'spec.template'.
sidecar                     vela-system *                                   true            Inject a sidecar container to K8s pod for your workload
                                                                                            which follows the pod spec in path 'spec.template'.

Taking sidecar as an example, you can check the usage of sidecar:

$ vela show sidecar
# Properties
+---------+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------+----------+---------+
|  NAME   |               DESCRIPTION               |         TYPE          | REQUIRED | DEFAULT |
+---------+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------+----------+---------+
| name    | Specify the name of sidecar container   | string                | true     |         |
| cmd     | Specify the commands run in the sidecar | []string              | false    |         |
| image   | Specify the image of sidecar container  | string                | true     |         |
| volumes | Specify the shared volume path          | [[]volumes](#volumes) | false    |         |
+---------+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------+----------+---------+


## volumes
+------+-------------+--------+----------+---------+
| NAME | DESCRIPTION |  TYPE  | REQUIRED | DEFAULT |
+------+-------------+--------+----------+---------+
| path |             | string | true     |         |
| name |             | string | true     |         |
+------+-------------+--------+----------+---------+

Use the sidecar directly to inject a container, the application description is as follows:

apiVersion: core.oam.dev/v1beta1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: website
spec:
  components:
    - name: my-component
      type: my-stateful
      properties:
        image: nginx:latest
        replicas: 1
        name: my-component
      traits:
      - type: sidecar
        properties:
          name: my-sidecar
          image: saravak/fluentd:elastic

Deploy and run the application, and you can see that a fluentd sidecar has been deployed and running in the StatefulSet.

You can also use vela def to get the CUE source file of the sidecar to modify, add parameters, etc.

vela def get sidecar

The customization of operation and maintenance capabilities is similar to component customization, so we won’t go into details here. You can read Customize Trait for more detailed functions.

Summarize#

This section introduces how to deliver complete modular capabilities through CUE. The core is that it can dynamically increase configuration capabilities according to user needs, and gradually expose more functions and usages, so as to reduce the overall learning threshold for users and ultimately improve R&D efficient. The out-of-the-box capabilities provided by KubeVela, including components, traits, policy, and workflow, are also designed as pluggable and modifiable capabilities.

Next#

Get to know about how to customize: