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Auto Scaling for Compute

Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10

configure Auto Scaling in Red Hat OpenStack Platform

OpenStack Documentation Team

Abstract

Automatically scale out your Compute instances in response to system usage.

Chapter 1. Configure Auto Scaling for Compute

This guide describes how to automatically scale out your Compute instances in response to heavy system usage. By using pre-defined rules that consider factors such as CPU or memory usage, you can configure Orchestration (heat) to add and remove additional instances automatically, when they are needed.

1.1. Architectural Overview

1.1.1. Orchestration

The core component providing automatic scaling is Orchestration (heat). Orchestration allows you to define rules using human-readable YAML templates. These rules are applied to evaluate system load based on Telemetry data to find out whether there is need to add more instances into the stack. Once the load has dropped, Orchestration can automatically remove the unused instances again.

1.1.2. Telemetry

Telemetry does performance monitoring of your OpenStack environment, collecting data on CPU, storage, and memory utilization for instances and physical hosts. Orchestration templates examine Telemetry data to assess whether any pre-defined action should start.

1.1.3. Key Terms

  • Stack - A stack stands for all the resources necessary to operate an application. It can be as simple as a single instance and its resources, or as complex as multiple instances with all the resource dependencies that comprise a multi-tier application.
  • Templates - YAML scripts that define a series of tasks for Heat to execute. For example, it is preferable to use separate templates for certain functions:

    • Template File - This is where you define thresholds that Telemetry should respond to, and define the auto scaling group.
    • Environment File - Defines the build information for your environment: which flavor and image to use, how the virtual network should be configured, and what software should be installed.

1.2. Example: Auto Scaling Based on CPU Usage

In this example, Orchestration examines Telemetry data, and automatically increases the number of instances in response to high CPU usage. A stack template and environment template are created to define the needed rules and subsequent configuration. This example makes use of existing resources (such as networks), and uses names that are likely to differ in your own environment.

  1. Create the environment template, describing the instance flavor, networking configuration, and image type and save it in the template /home/<user>/stacks/example1/cirros.yaml file. Please, replace the <user> variable with a real user name:

    heat_template_version: 2016-10-14
    description: Template to spawn an cirros instance.
    
    parameters:
      metadata:
        type: json
      image:
        type: string
        description: image used to create instance
        default: cirros
      flavor:
        type: string
        description: instance flavor to be used
        default: m1.tiny
      key_name:
        type: string
        description: keypair to be used
        default: mykeypair
      network:
        type: string
        description: project network to attach instance to
        default: internal1
      external_network:
        type: string
        description: network used for floating IPs
        default: external_network
    
    resources:
      server:
        type: OS::Nova::Server
        properties:
          block_device_mapping:
            - device_name: vda
              delete_on_termination: true
              volume_id: { get_resource: volume }
          flavor: {get_param: flavor}
          key_name: {get_param: key_name}
          metadata: {get_param: metadata}
          networks:
            - port: { get_resource: port }
    
      port:
        type: OS::Neutron::Port
        properties:
          network: {get_param: network}
          security_groups:
            - default
    
      floating_ip:
        type: OS::Neutron::FloatingIP
        properties:
          floating_network: {get_param: external_network}
    
      floating_ip_assoc:
        type: OS::Neutron::FloatingIPAssociation
        properties:
          floatingip_id: { get_resource: floating_ip }
          port_id: { get_resource: port }
    
      volume:
        type: OS::Cinder::Volume
        properties:
          image: {get_param: image}
          size: 1
  2. Register the Orchestration resource in ~/stacks/example1/environment.yaml:

    resource_registry:
    
        "OS::Nova::Server::Cirros": ~/stacks/example1/cirros.yaml
  3. Create the stack template, describing the CPU thresholds to watch for, and how many instances should be added. An instance group is also created, defining the minimum and maximum number of instances that can participate in this template.

    Note

    The granularity parameter needs to be set according to gnocchi cpu_util metric granularity. For more information, refer to this solution article.

    Save the following values in ~/stacks/example1/template.yaml:

    heat_template_version: 2016-10-14
    description: Example auto scale group, policy and alarm
    resources:
      scaleup_group:
        type: OS::Heat::AutoScalingGroup
        properties:
          cooldown: 300
          desired_capacity: 1
          max_size: 3
          min_size: 1
          resource:
            type: OS::Nova::Server::Cirros
            properties:
              metadata: {"metering.server_group": {get_param: "OS::stack_id"}}
    
      scaleup_policy:
        type: OS::Heat::ScalingPolicy
        properties:
          adjustment_type: change_in_capacity
          auto_scaling_group_id: { get_resource: scaleup_group }
          cooldown: 300
          scaling_adjustment: 1
    
      scaledown_policy:
        type: OS::Heat::ScalingPolicy
        properties:
          adjustment_type: change_in_capacity
          auto_scaling_group_id: { get_resource: scaleup_group }
          cooldown: 300
          scaling_adjustment: -1
    
      cpu_alarm_high:
        type: OS::Aodh::GnocchiAggregationByResourcesAlarm
        properties:
          description: Scale up if CPU > 80%
          metric: cpu_util
          aggregation_method: mean
          granularity: 300
          evaluation_periods: 1
          threshold: 80
          resource_type: instance
          comparison_operator: gt
          alarm_actions:
            - str_replace:
                template: trust+url
                params:
                  url: {get_attr: [scaleup_policy, signal_url]}
          query:
            str_replace:
              template: '{"=": {"server_group": "stack_id"}}'
              params:
                stack_id: {get_param: "OS::stack_id"}
    
      cpu_alarm_low:
        type: OS::Aodh::GnocchiAggregationByResourcesAlarm
        properties:
          metric: cpu_util
          aggregation_method: mean
          granularity: 300
          evaluation_periods: 1
          threshold: 5
          resource_type: instance
          comparison_operator: lt
          alarm_actions:
            - str_replace:
                template: trust+url
                params:
                  url: {get_attr: [scaledown_policy, signal_url]}
          query:
            str_replace:
              template: '{"=": {"server_group": "stack_id"}}'
              params:
                stack_id: {get_param: "OS::stack_id"}
    
    outputs:
      scaleup_policy_signal_url:
        value: {get_attr: [scaleup_policy, signal_url]}
    
      scaledown_policy_signal_url:
        value: {get_attr: [scaledown_policy, signal_url]}
  4. Run the following OpenStack command to build the environment and deploy the instance:

    $ openstack stack create  -t template.yaml -e environment.yaml example
    +---------------------+--------------------------------------------+
    | Field               | Value                                      |
    +---------------------+--------------------------------------------+
    | id                  | 248a98bb-f56e-4934-a281-fffde62d78d8       |
    | stack_name          | example                                   |
    | description         | Example auto scale group, policy and alarm |
    | creation_time       | 2017-03-06T15:00:29Z                       |
    | updated_time        | None                                       |
    | stack_status        | CREATE_IN_PROGRESS                         |
    | stack_status_reason | Stack CREATE started                       |
    +---------------------+--------------------------------------------+
  5. Orchestration will create the stack and launch a defined minimum number of cirros instances, as defined in the min_size parameter of the scaleup_group definition. Verify that the instances were created successfully:

    $ openstack server list
    +--------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+--------+------------+-------------+-------------------------------------+
    | ID                                   | Name                                                  | Status | Task State | Power State | Networks                            |
    +--------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+--------+------------+-------------+-------------------------------------+
    | e1524f65-5be6-49e4-8501-e5e5d812c612 | ex-3gax-5f3a4og5cwn2-png47w3u2vjd-server-vaajhuv4mj3j | ACTIVE | -          | Running     | internal1=10.10.10.9, 192.168.122.8 |
    +--------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+--------+------------+-------------+-------------------------------------+
  6. Orchestration also creates two cpu alarms which are used to trigger scale-up or scale-down events, as defined in cpu_alarm_high and cpu_alarm_low. Verify that the triggers exist:

    $ openstack alarm list
    +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+-------------------+----------+---------+
    | alarm_id                             | type                                       | name                                | state             | severity | enabled |
    +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+-------------------+----------+---------+
    | 022f707d-46cc-4d39-a0b2-afd2fc7ab86a | gnocchi_aggregation_by_resources_threshold | example-cpu_alarm_high-odj77qpbld7j | insufficient data | low      | True    |
    | 46ed2c50-e05a-44d8-b6f6-f1ebd83af913 | gnocchi_aggregation_by_resources_threshold | example-cpu_alarm_low-m37jvnm56x2t  | insufficient data | low      | True    |
    +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+-------------------+----------+---------+

1.2.1. Test Automatic Scaling Up Instances

Orchestration can scale instances automatically based on the cpu_alarm_high threshold definition. Once the CPU utilization reaches a value defined in the threshold parameter, another instance is started to balance the load. The threshold value in the above template.yaml file is set to 80%.

  1. Login to the instance and run several dd commands to generate the load:

    $ ssh -i ~/mykey.pem cirros@192.168.122.8
    $ sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/null &
    $ sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/null &
    $ sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/null &
  2. Having run the dd commands, you can expect to have 100% CPU utilization in the cirros instance. Verify that the alarm has been triggered:

    $ openstack alarm list
    +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+-------+----------+---------+
    | alarm_id                             | type                                       | name                                | state | severity | enabled |
    +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+-------+----------+---------+
    | 022f707d-46cc-4d39-a0b2-afd2fc7ab86a | gnocchi_aggregation_by_resources_threshold | example-cpu_alarm_high-odj77qpbld7j | alarm | low      | True    |
    | 46ed2c50-e05a-44d8-b6f6-f1ebd83af913 | gnocchi_aggregation_by_resources_threshold | example-cpu_alarm_low-m37jvnm56x2t  | ok    | low      | True    |
    +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+-------+----------+---------+
  3. After some time (approximately 60 seconds), Orchestration will start another instance and add it into the group. You can verify this with the nova list command:

    $ openstack server list
    +--------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+--------+------------+-------------+---------------------------------------+
    | ID                                   | Name                                                  | Status | Task State | Power State | Networks                              |
    +--------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+--------+------------+-------------+---------------------------------------+
    | 477ee1af-096c-477c-9a3f-b95b0e2d4ab5 | ex-3gax-4urpikl5koff-yrxk3zxzfmpf-server-2hde4tp4trnk | ACTIVE | -          | Running     | internal1=10.10.10.13, 192.168.122.17 |
    | e1524f65-5be6-49e4-8501-e5e5d812c612 | ex-3gax-5f3a4og5cwn2-png47w3u2vjd-server-vaajhuv4mj3j | ACTIVE | -          | Running     | internal1=10.10.10.9, 192.168.122.8   |
    +--------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+--------+------------+-------------+---------------------------------------+
  4. After another short period, you will observe that Orchestration has auto scaled again to three instances. The configuration is set to three instances maximally, so it will not scale any higher (the scaleup_group definition: max_size). Again, you can verify that with the above mentioned command:

    $ openstack server list
    +--------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+--------+------------+-------------+---------------------------------------+
    | ID                                   | Name                                                  | Status | Task State | Power State | Networks                              |
    +--------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+--------+------------+-------------+---------------------------------------+
    | 477ee1af-096c-477c-9a3f-b95b0e2d4ab5 | ex-3gax-4urpikl5koff-yrxk3zxzfmpf-server-2hde4tp4trnk | ACTIVE | -          | Running     | internal1=10.10.10.13, 192.168.122.17 |
    | e1524f65-5be6-49e4-8501-e5e5d812c612 | ex-3gax-5f3a4og5cwn2-png47w3u2vjd-server-vaajhuv4mj3j | ACTIVE | -          | Running     | internal1=10.10.10.9, 192.168.122.8   |
    | 6c88179e-c368-453d-a01a-555eae8cd77a | ex-3gax-fvxz3tr63j4o-36fhftuja3bw-server-rhl4sqkjuy5p | ACTIVE | -          | Running     | internal1=10.10.10.5, 192.168.122.5   |
    +--------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+--------+------------+-------------+---------------------------------------+

1.2.2. Automatically Scaling Down Instances

Orchestration can also automatically scale down instances based on the cpu_alarm_low threshold. In this example, the instances are scaled down once CPU utilization is below 5%.

  1. Terminate the running dd processes and you will observe Orchestration begin to scale the instances back down.

    $ killall dd
  2. Stopping the dd processes causes the cpu_alarm_low event to trigger. As a result, Orchestration begins to automatically scale down and remove the instances. Verify, that the corresponding alarm has been triggered.

    $ openstack alarm list
    +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+-------+----------+---------+
    | alarm_id                             | type                                       | name                                | state | severity | enabled |
    +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+-------+----------+---------+
    | 022f707d-46cc-4d39-a0b2-afd2fc7ab86a | gnocchi_aggregation_by_resources_threshold | example-cpu_alarm_high-odj77qpbld7j | ok    | low      | True    |
    | 46ed2c50-e05a-44d8-b6f6-f1ebd83af913 | gnocchi_aggregation_by_resources_threshold | example-cpu_alarm_low-m37jvnm56x2t  | alarm | low      | True    |
    +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+-------+----------+---------+

    After a few minutes, Orchestration continually reduce the number of instances to the minimum value defined in the min_size parameter of the scaleup_group definition. In this scenario, the min_size parameter is set to 1.

1.2.3. Troubleshooting the setup

If your environment is not working properly, you can look for errors in the log files and history records.

  1. To get information on state transitions, you can list the stack event records:

    $ openstack stack event list example
    2017-03-06 11:12:43Z [example]: CREATE_IN_PROGRESS  Stack CREATE started
    2017-03-06 11:12:43Z [example.scaleup_group]: CREATE_IN_PROGRESS  state changed
    2017-03-06 11:13:04Z [example.scaleup_group]: CREATE_COMPLETE  state changed
    2017-03-06 11:13:04Z [example.scaledown_policy]: CREATE_IN_PROGRESS  state changed
    2017-03-06 11:13:05Z [example.scaleup_policy]: CREATE_IN_PROGRESS  state changed
    2017-03-06 11:13:05Z [example.scaledown_policy]: CREATE_COMPLETE  state changed
    2017-03-06 11:13:05Z [example.scaleup_policy]: CREATE_COMPLETE  state changed
    2017-03-06 11:13:05Z [example.cpu_alarm_low]: CREATE_IN_PROGRESS  state changed
    2017-03-06 11:13:05Z [example.cpu_alarm_high]: CREATE_IN_PROGRESS  state changed
    2017-03-06 11:13:06Z [example.cpu_alarm_low]: CREATE_COMPLETE  state changed
    2017-03-06 11:13:07Z [example.cpu_alarm_high]: CREATE_COMPLETE  state changed
    2017-03-06 11:13:07Z [example]: CREATE_COMPLETE  Stack CREATE completed successfully
    2017-03-06 11:19:34Z [example.scaleup_policy]: SIGNAL_COMPLETE  alarm state changed from alarm to alarm (Remaining as alarm due to 1 samples outside threshold, most recent: 95.4080102993)
    2017-03-06 11:25:43Z [example.scaleup_policy]: SIGNAL_COMPLETE  alarm state changed from alarm to alarm (Remaining as alarm due to 1 samples outside threshold, most recent: 95.8869217299)
    2017-03-06 11:33:25Z [example.scaledown_policy]: SIGNAL_COMPLETE  alarm state changed from ok to alarm (Transition to alarm due to 1 samples outside threshold, most recent: 2.73931707966)
    2017-03-06 11:39:15Z [example.scaledown_policy]: SIGNAL_COMPLETE  alarm state changed from alarm to alarm (Remaining as alarm due to 1 samples outside threshold, most recent: 2.78110858552)
  2. To read the alarm history log:

    $ openstack alarm-history show 022f707d-46cc-4d39-a0b2-afd2fc7ab86a
    +----------------------------+------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
    | timestamp                  | type             | detail                                                                                              | event_id                             |
    +----------------------------+------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
    | 2017-03-06T11:32:35.510000 | state transition | {"transition_reason": "Transition to ok due to 1 samples inside threshold, most recent:             | 25e0e70b-3eda-466e-abac-42d9cf67e704 |
    |                            |                  | 2.73931707966", "state": "ok"}                                                                      |                                      |
    | 2017-03-06T11:17:35.403000 | state transition | {"transition_reason": "Transition to alarm due to 1 samples outside threshold, most recent:         | 8322f62c-0d0a-4dc0-9279-435510f81039 |
    |                            |                  | 95.0964497325", "state": "alarm"}                                                                   |                                      |
    | 2017-03-06T11:15:35.723000 | state transition | {"transition_reason": "Transition to ok due to 1 samples inside threshold, most recent:             | 1503bd81-7eba-474e-b74e-ded8a7b630a1 |
    |                            |                  | 3.59330523447", "state": "ok"}                                                                      |                                      |
    | 2017-03-06T11:13:06.413000 | creation         | {"alarm_actions": ["trust+http://fca6e27e3d524ed68abdc0fd576aa848:delete@192.168.122.126:8004/v1/fd | 224f15c0-b6f1-4690-9a22-0c1d236e65f6 |
    |                            |                  | 1c345135be4ee587fef424c241719d/stacks/example/d9ef59ed-b8f8-4e90-bd9b-                              |                                      |
    |                            |                  | ae87e73ef6e2/resources/scaleup_policy/signal"], "user_id": "a85f83b7f7784025b6acdc06ef0a8fd8",      |                                      |
    |                            |                  | "name": "example-cpu_alarm_high-odj77qpbld7j", "state": "insufficient data", "timestamp":           |                                      |
    |                            |                  | "2017-03-06T11:13:06.413455", "description": "Scale up if CPU > 80%", "enabled": true,              |                                      |
    |                            |                  | "state_timestamp": "2017-03-06T11:13:06.413455", "rule": {"evaluation_periods": 1, "metric":        |                                      |
    |                            |                  | "cpu_util", "aggregation_method": "mean", "granularity": 300, "threshold": 80.0, "query": "{\"=\":   |                                      |
    |                            |                  | {\"server_group\": \"d9ef59ed-b8f8-4e90-bd9b-ae87e73ef6e2\"}}", "comparison_operator": "gt",        |                                      |
    |                            |                  | "resource_type": "instance"}, "alarm_id": "022f707d-46cc-4d39-a0b2-afd2fc7ab86a",                   |                                      |
    |                            |                  | "time_constraints": [], "insufficient_data_actions": null, "repeat_actions": true, "ok_actions":    |                                      |
    |                            |                  | null, "project_id": "fd1c345135be4ee587fef424c241719d", "type":                                     |                                      |
    |                            |                  | "gnocchi_aggregation_by_resources_threshold", "severity": "low"}                                    |                                      |
    +----------------------------+------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------
  3. To see the records of scale-out or scale-down operations that heat collects for the existing stack, you can use awk to parse the heat-engine.log:

    $ awk '/Stack UPDATE started/,/Stack CREATE completed successfully/ {print $0}' /var/log/heat/heat-engine.log
  4. To see the aodh related information, examine the evaluator.log:

    $ grep -i alarm /var/log/aodh/evaluator.log | grep -i transition

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