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Autoscaling the Compute Resource of a MongoDB Standalone Database

This guide will show you how to use KubeDB to autoscale compute resources i.e. cpu and memory of a MongoDB standalone database.

Before You Begin

To keep everything isolated, we are going to use a separate namespace called demo throughout this tutorial.

$ kubectl create ns demo
namespace/demo created

Note: YAML files used in this tutorial are stored in docs/examples/mongodb directory of kubedb/docs repository.

Autoscaling of Standalone Database

Here, we are going to deploy a MongoDB standalone using a supported version by KubeDB operator. Then we are going to apply MongoDBAutoscaler to set up autoscaling.

Deploy MongoDB standalone

In this section, we are going to deploy a MongoDB standalone database with version 4.2.3. Then, in the next section we will set up autoscaling for this database using MongoDBAutoscaler CRD. Below is the YAML of the MongoDB CR that we are going to create,

apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1alpha2
kind: MongoDB
metadata:
  name: mg-standalone
  namespace: demo
spec:
  version: "4.2.3"
  storageType: Durable
  storage:
    resources:
      requests:
        storage: 1Gi
  podTemplate:
    spec:
      resources:
        requests:
          cpu: "200m"
          memory: "300Mi"
        limits:
          cpu: "200m"
          memory: "300Mi"
  terminationPolicy: WipeOut

Let’s create the MongoDB CRO we have shown above,

$ kubectl create -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2022.10.18/docs/examples/mongodb/autoscaling/compute/mg-standalone.yaml
mongodb.kubedb.com/mg-standalone created

Now, wait until mg-standalone has status Ready. i.e,

$ kubectl get mg -n demo
NAME            VERSION    STATUS    AGE
mg-standalone   4.2.3      Ready     2m53s

Let’s check the Pod containers resources,

$ kubectl get pod -n demo mg-standalone-0 -o json | jq '.spec.containers[].resources'
{
  "limits": {
    "cpu": "200m",
    "memory": "300Mi"
  },
  "requests": {
    "cpu": "200m",
    "memory": "300Mi"
  }
}

Let’s check the MongoDB resources,

$ kubectl get mongodb -n demo mg-standalone -o json | jq '.spec.podTemplate.spec.resources'
{
  "limits": {
    "cpu": "200m",
    "memory": "300Mi"
  },
  "requests": {
    "cpu": "200m",
    "memory": "300Mi"
  }
}

You can see from the above outputs that the resources are same as the one we have assigned while deploying the mongodb.

We are now ready to apply the MongoDBAutoscaler CRO to set up autoscaling for this database.

Compute Resource Autoscaling

Here, we are going to set up compute (cpu and memory) autoscaling using a MongoDBAutoscaler Object.

Create MongoDBAutoscaler Object

In order to set up compute resource autoscaling for this standalone database, we have to create a MongoDBAutoscaler CRO with our desired configuration. Below is the YAML of the MongoDBAutoscaler object that we are going to create,

apiVersion: autoscaling.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
kind: MongoDBAutoscaler
metadata:
  name: mg-as
  namespace: demo
spec:
  databaseRef:
    name: mg-standalone
  compute:
    standalone:
      trigger: "On"
      podLifeTimeThreshold: 5m
      minAllowed:
        cpu: 250m
        memory: 350Mi
      maxAllowed:
        cpu: 1
        memory: 1Gi
      controlledResources: ["cpu", "memory"]

Here,

  • spec.databaseRef.name specifies that we are performing compute resource autoscaling on mg-standalone database.
  • spec.compute.standalone.trigger specifies that compute resource autoscaling is enabled for this database.
  • spec.compute.standalone.podLifeTimeThreshold specifies the minimum lifetime for at least one of the pod to initiate a vertical scaling.
  • spec.compute.standalone.minAllowed specifies the minimum allowed resources for the database.
  • spec.compute.standalone.maxAllowed specifies the maximum allowed resources for the database.
  • spec.compute.standalone.controlledResources specifies the resources that are controlled by the autoscaler.

Let’s create the MongoDBAutoscaler CR we have shown above,

$ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2022.10.18/docs/examples/mongodb/autoscaling/compute/mg-as-standalone.yaml
mongodbautoscaler.autoscaling.kubedb.com/mg-as created

Verify Autoscaling is set up successfully

Let’s check that the mongodbautoscaler resource is created successfully,

$ kubectl get mongodbautoscaler -n demo
NAME    AGE
mg-as   102s

$ kubectl describe mongodbautoscaler mg-as -n demo
Name:         mg-as
Namespace:    demo
Labels:       <none>
Annotations:  <none>
API Version:  autoscaling.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
Kind:         MongoDBAutoscaler
Metadata:
  Creation Timestamp:  2021-03-06T07:33:49Z
  Generation:          1
  Managed Fields:
    API Version:  autoscaling.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
    Fields Type:  FieldsV1
    fieldsV1:
      f:metadata:
        f:annotations:
          .:
          f:kubectl.kubernetes.io/last-applied-configuration:
      f:spec:
        .:
        f:compute:
          .:
          f:standalone:
            .:
            f:controlledResources:
            f:maxAllowed:
              .:
              f:cpu:
              f:memory:
            f:minAllowed:
              .:
              f:cpu:
              f:memory:
            f:podLifeTimeThreshold:
            f:trigger:
        f:databaseRef:
          .:
          f:name:
    Manager:         kubectl-client-side-apply
    Operation:       Update
    Time:            2021-03-06T07:33:49Z
  Resource Version:  743892
  Self Link:         /apis/autoscaling.kubedb.com/v1alpha1/namespaces/demo/mongodbautoscalers/mg-as
  UID:               27f835d6-5821-45c9-b679-b38e6c1196cf
Spec:
  Compute:
    Standalone:
      Controlled Resources:
        cpu
        memory
      Max Allowed:
        Cpu:     1
        Memory:  1Gi
      Min Allowed:
        Cpu:                    250m
        Memory:                 350Mi
      Pod Life Time Threshold:  5m0s
      Trigger:                  On
  Database Ref:
    Name:  mg-standalone
Events:    <none>

So, the mongodbautoscaler resource is created successfully.

Now, lets verify that the vertical pod autoscaler (vpa) resource is created successfully,

$ kubectl get vpa -n demo
NAME                AGE
vpa-mg-standalone   7s

$ kubectl describe vpa vpa-mg-standalone -n demo
Name:         vpa-mg-standalone
Namespace:    demo
Labels:       <none>
Annotations:  <none>
API Version:  autoscaling.k8s.io/v1
Kind:         VerticalPodAutoscaler
Metadata:
  Creation Timestamp:  2021-03-06T07:21:36Z
  Generation:          2
  Managed Fields:
    API Version:  autoscaling.k8s.io/v1
    Fields Type:  FieldsV1
    fieldsV1:
      f:metadata:
        f:ownerReferences:
          .:
          k:{"uid":"b841e4c9-8ebd-4256-b855-fc7eb2a35ebd"}:
            .:
            f:apiVersion:
            f:blockOwnerDeletion:
            f:controller:
            f:kind:
            f:name:
            f:uid:
      f:spec:
        .:
        f:resourcePolicy:
          .:
          f:containerPolicies:
        f:targetRef:
          .:
          f:apiVersion:
          f:kind:
          f:name:
        f:updatePolicy:
          .:
          f:updateMode:
      f:status:
    Manager:      kubedb-autoscaler
    Operation:    Update
    Time:         2021-03-06T07:21:36Z
    API Version:  autoscaling.k8s.io/v1
    Fields Type:  FieldsV1
    fieldsV1:
      f:status:
        f:conditions:
        f:recommendation:
    Manager:    recommender
    Operation:  Update
    Time:       2021-03-06T07:21:58Z
  Owner References:
    API Version:           autoscaling.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
    Block Owner Deletion:  true
    Controller:            true
    Kind:                  MongoDBAutoscaler
    Name:                  mg-as
    UID:                   b841e4c9-8ebd-4256-b855-fc7eb2a35ebd
  Resource Version:        741459
  Self Link:               /apis/autoscaling.k8s.io/v1/namespaces/demo/verticalpodautoscalers/vpa-mg-standalone
  UID:                     a81a69d4-73bf-4aa5-8161-9b23444ce851
Spec:
  Resource Policy:
    Container Policies:
      Container Name:  mongodb
      Controlled Resources:
        cpu
        memory
      Controlled Values:  RequestsAndLimits
      Max Allowed:
        Cpu:     1
        Memory:  1Gi
      Min Allowed:
        Cpu:     200m
        Memory:  300Mi
  Target Ref:
    API Version:  apps/v1
    Kind:         StatefulSet
    Name:         mg-standalone
  Update Policy:
    Update Mode:  Off
Status:
  Conditions:
    Last Transition Time:  2021-03-06T07:21:58Z
    Status:                False
    Type:                  RecommendationProvided
  Recommendation:
Events:  <none>

So, we can verify from the above output that the vpa resource is created successfully. But you can see that the RecommendationProvided is false and also the Recommendation section of the vpa is empty. Let’s wait some time and describe the vpa again.

$ kubectl describe vpa vpa-mg-standalone -n demo
Name:         vpa-mg-standalone
Namespace:    demo
Labels:       <none>
Annotations:  <none>
API Version:  autoscaling.k8s.io/v1
Kind:         VerticalPodAutoscaler
Metadata:
  Creation Timestamp:  2021-03-06T07:33:50Z
  Generation:          2
  Managed Fields:
    API Version:  autoscaling.k8s.io/v1
    Fields Type:  FieldsV1
    fieldsV1:
      f:metadata:
        f:ownerReferences:
          .:
          k:{"uid":"27f835d6-5821-45c9-b679-b38e6c1196cf"}:
            .:
            f:apiVersion:
            f:blockOwnerDeletion:
            f:controller:
            f:kind:
            f:name:
            f:uid:
      f:spec:
        .:
        f:resourcePolicy:
          .:
          f:containerPolicies:
        f:targetRef:
          .:
          f:apiVersion:
          f:kind:
          f:name:
        f:updatePolicy:
          .:
          f:updateMode:
      f:status:
    Manager:      kubedb-autoscaler
    Operation:    Update
    Time:         2021-03-06T07:33:50Z
    API Version:  autoscaling.k8s.io/v1
    Fields Type:  FieldsV1
    fieldsV1:
      f:status:
        f:conditions:
        f:recommendation:
          .:
          f:containerRecommendations:
    Manager:    recommender
    Operation:  Update
    Time:       2021-03-06T07:34:58Z
  Owner References:
    API Version:           autoscaling.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
    Block Owner Deletion:  true
    Controller:            true
    Kind:                  MongoDBAutoscaler
    Name:                  mg-as
    UID:                   27f835d6-5821-45c9-b679-b38e6c1196cf
  Resource Version:        744123
  Self Link:               /apis/autoscaling.k8s.io/v1/namespaces/demo/verticalpodautoscalers/vpa-mg-standalone
  UID:                     f99c8679-b3cf-46a9-af52-269cdea12b91
Spec:
  Resource Policy:
    Container Policies:
      Container Name:  mongodb
      Controlled Resources:
        cpu
        memory
      Controlled Values:  RequestsAndLimits
      Max Allowed:
        Cpu:     1
        Memory:  1Gi
      Min Allowed:
        Cpu:     250m
        Memory:  350Mi
  Target Ref:
    API Version:  apps/v1
    Kind:         StatefulSet
    Name:         mg-standalone
  Update Policy:
    Update Mode:  Off
Status:
  Conditions:
    Last Transition Time:  2021-03-06T07:34:58Z
    Status:                True
    Type:                  RecommendationProvided
  Recommendation:
    Container Recommendations:
      Container Name:  mongodb
      Lower Bound:
        Cpu:     250m
        Memory:  350Mi
      Target:
        Cpu:     250m
        Memory:  350Mi
      Uncapped Target:
        Cpu:     126m
        Memory:  297164212
      Upper Bound:
        Cpu:     1
        Memory:  1Gi
Events:          <none>

As you can see from the output the vpa has generated a recommendation for our database. Our autoscaler operator continuously watches the recommendation generated and creates an mongodbopsrequest based on the recommendations, if the database pods are needed to scaled up or down.

Let’s watch the mongodbopsrequest in the demo namespace to see if any mongodbopsrequest object is created. After some time you’ll see that a mongodbopsrequest will be created based on the recommendation.

$ watch kubectl get mongodbopsrequest -n demo
Every 2.0s: kubectl get mongodbopsrequest -n demo
NAME                            TYPE              STATUS       AGE
mops-vpa-mg-standalone-rlc1bh   VerticalScaling   Progressing  10s

Let’s wait for the ops request to become successful.

$ watch kubectl get mongodbopsrequest -n demo
Every 2.0s: kubectl get mongodbopsrequest -n demo
NAME                            TYPE              STATUS       AGE
mops-vpa-mg-standalone-rlc1bh   VerticalScaling   Successful   68s

We can see from the above output that the MongoDBOpsRequest has succeeded. If we describe the MongoDBOpsRequest we will get an overview of the steps that were followed to scale the database.

$ kubectl describe mongodbopsrequest -n demo mops-vpa-mg-standalone-rlc1bh
Name:         mops-vpa-mg-standalone-rlc1bh
Namespace:    demo
Labels:       app.kubernetes.io/component=database
              app.kubernetes.io/instance=mg-standalone
              app.kubernetes.io/managed-by=kubedb.com
              app.kubernetes.io/name=mongodbs.kubedb.com
Annotations:  <none>
API Version:  ops.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
Kind:         MongoDBOpsRequest
Metadata:
  Creation Timestamp:  2021-03-06T07:35:04Z
  Generation:          1
  Managed Fields:
    API Version:  ops.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
    Fields Type:  FieldsV1
    fieldsV1:
      f:metadata:
        f:labels:
          .:
          f:app.kubernetes.io/component:
          f:app.kubernetes.io/instance:
          f:app.kubernetes.io/managed-by:
          f:app.kubernetes.io/name:
        f:ownerReferences:
      f:spec:
        .:
        f:configuration:
        f:databaseRef:
          .:
          f:name:
        f:type:
        f:verticalScaling:
          .:
          f:standalone:
            .:
            f:limits:
              .:
              f:cpu:
              f:memory:
            f:requests:
              .:
              f:cpu:
              f:memory:
    Manager:      kubedb-autoscaler
    Operation:    Update
    Time:         2021-03-06T07:35:04Z
    API Version:  ops.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
    Fields Type:  FieldsV1
    fieldsV1:
      f:status:
        .:
        f:conditions:
        f:observedGeneration:
        f:phase:
    Manager:    kubedb-enterprise
    Operation:  Update
    Time:       2021-03-06T07:35:04Z
  Owner References:
    API Version:           autoscaling.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
    Block Owner Deletion:  true
    Controller:            true
    Kind:                  MongoDBAutoscaler
    Name:                  mg-as
    UID:                   27f835d6-5821-45c9-b679-b38e6c1196cf
  Resource Version:        744322
  Self Link:               /apis/ops.kubedb.com/v1alpha1/namespaces/demo/mongodbopsrequests/mops-vpa-mg-standalone-rlc1bh
  UID:                     525d53d2-53c6-4fb6-bd0a-aaa9aabaf4f7
Spec:
  Configuration:
  Database Ref:
    Name:  mg-standalone
  Type:    VerticalScaling
  Vertical Scaling:
    Standalone:
      Limits:
        Cpu:     250m
        Memory:  350Mi
      Requests:
        Cpu:     250m
        Memory:  350Mi
Status:
  Conditions:
    Last Transition Time:  2021-03-06T07:35:04Z
    Message:               MongoDB ops request is vertically scaling database
    Observed Generation:   1
    Reason:                VerticalScaling
    Status:                True
    Type:                  VerticalScaling
    Last Transition Time:  2021-03-06T07:35:04Z
    Message:               Successfully updated StatefulSets Resources
    Observed Generation:   1
    Reason:                UpdateStatefulSetResources
    Status:                True
    Type:                  UpdateStatefulSetResources
    Last Transition Time:  2021-03-06T07:35:34Z
    Message:               Successfully Vertically Scaled Standalone Resources
    Observed Generation:   1
    Reason:                UpdateStandaloneResources
    Status:                True
    Type:                  UpdateStandaloneResources
    Last Transition Time:  2021-03-06T07:35:34Z
    Message:               Successfully Vertically Scaled Database
    Observed Generation:   1
    Reason:                Successful
    Status:                True
    Type:                  Successful
  Observed Generation:     1
  Phase:                   Successful
Events:
  Type    Reason                      Age    From                        Message
  ----    ------                      ----   ----                        -------
  Normal  PauseDatabase               3m30s  KubeDB Enterprise Operator  Pausing MongoDB demo/mg-standalone
  Normal  PauseDatabase               3m30s  KubeDB Enterprise Operator  Successfully paused MongoDB demo/mg-standalone
  Normal  Starting                    3m30s  KubeDB Enterprise Operator  Updating Resources of StatefulSet: mg-standalone
  Normal  UpdateStatefulSetResources  3m30s  KubeDB Enterprise Operator  Successfully updated StatefulSets Resources
  Normal  Starting                    3m30s  KubeDB Enterprise Operator  Updating Resources of StatefulSet: mg-standalone
  Normal  UpdateStatefulSetResources  3m30s  KubeDB Enterprise Operator  Successfully updated StatefulSets Resources
  Normal  UpdateStandaloneResources   3m     KubeDB Enterprise Operator  Successfully Vertically Scaled Standalone Resources
  Normal  ResumeDatabase              3m     KubeDB Enterprise Operator  Resuming MongoDB demo/mg-standalone
  Normal  ResumeDatabase              3m     KubeDB Enterprise Operator  Successfully resumed MongoDB demo/mg-standalone
  Normal  Successful                  3m     KubeDB Enterprise Operator  Successfully Vertically Scaled Database

Now, we are going to verify from the Pod, and the MongoDB yaml whether the resources of the standalone database has updated to meet up the desired state, Let’s check,

$ kubectl get pod -n demo mg-standalone-0 -o json | jq '.spec.containers[].resources'
{
  "limits": {
    "cpu": "250m",
    "memory": "350Mi"
  },
  "requests": {
    "cpu": "250m",
    "memory": "350Mi"
  }
}

$ kubectl get mongodb -n demo mg-standalone -o json | jq '.spec.podTemplate.spec.resources'
{
  "limits": {
    "cpu": "250m",
    "memory": "350Mi"
  },
  "requests": {
    "cpu": "250m",
    "memory": "350Mi"
  }
}

The above output verifies that we have successfully auto scaled the resources of the MongoDB standalone database.

Cleaning Up

To clean up the Kubernetes resources created by this tutorial, run:

kubectl delete mg -n demo mg-standalone
kubectl delete mongodbautoscaler -n demo mg-as