Create an Edge Node Cluster

Introduction

Join three edge nodes together into an edge node cluster for high availability (HA) and data replication purposes. This article describes creating the edge node cluster by configuring the cluster identity, selecting edge nodes for the cluster, and configuring the physical port for the cluster interface.  

Prerequisites

  • Your edge nodes are running the EVE-OS Kubevirt image (EVE-OS KVM is not supported). Note: currently edge node clustering is an Early Access Program. Please contact ZEDEDA for participation in the Early Access Program.
  • You must have either the SysManager or SysAdmin role in your ZEDEDA Cloud enterprise.
  • You have already onboarded at least three edge nodes to ZEDEDA Cloud.
    • Your edge nodes are online.
    • Your edge nodes have no default network instances on any of the nodes that you want to add to the cluster. Default network instances are not supported. When you create a cluster, if any edge node has a default network instance, the cluster creation will error out.
  • We recommend all the edge nodes be of the same hardware type/model with a minimum of 12 core CPUs, 16 GB RAM, and NVMe SSDs for EVE persistent storage for optimal performance. EVE-OS consumes approximately 4 GB of memory and 2 vCPUs if used for clustering.
  • It recommended, though not strictly required, to separate the management traffic from the cluster traffic. We recommend a dedicated 1Gb interface for the management and a dedicated 10Gb interface for the traffic of your cluster interfaces. However, this is not necessarily a requirement since the size is dependent on the network traffic, the replicated storage size, the storage disk type (NVMe vs SSD), and the workload writes for your app instances.

Enable the Edge Node Cluster Feature

Your edge nodes are running the EVE-OS Kubevirt image (EVE-OS KVM is not supported). Note: currently edge node clustering is in Beta. Please contact ZEDEDA for participation in the Beta program.

The edge node cluster feature is enabled through feature flags. CSadmin level access is required to enable and disable feature flags. There are two levels of control to enable the feature flags:

  • Root - This is the base feature configuration. If feature is disabled here, it's disabled across all child enterprises.
  • Child - This for the specific enterprise. If root is enabled only then child enterprise is allowed to enable/disable the feature. The edge node cluster feature can be enabled in a child enterprise, only if it is enabled in parent enterprise.

To enable the feature on ZEDEDA Cloud, the feature flag is available as part of entitlements. You need to login as a CSadmin > go to entitlements > go to the required enterprise details and enable the storage clustering flag. After it is enabled, you can login into the enterprise and check the same.

Add an Edge Node Cluster

You cannot add an edge node to a cluster if an application instance is running on it. 

  1. Click on Edge Node Clusters in the left panel.
  2. Click the Add icon at the top right of your page.
  3. Continue on to the configuration sections as needed, such as configure the edge node cluster identity
  4. Click Create when finished.

Configure the Edge Node Cluster Identity

  1. Enter the cluster Name.
    This is unique across the enterprise and cannot be changed.
  2. Enter the cluster Title.
    This value is not used by the ZEDEDA Cloud system. It’s offered to give you more flexibility in organizing your enterprise. It can be changed after you create the object. 
  3. Select the cluster Project.
  4. Enter a Description to help other admins understand the purpose of the cluster or any important details.
  5. Enter Cluster Tags to help you group and identify clusters based on specific criteria. For example: environment, such as production or testing.
  6. Click Next

Configure the Edge Node Cluster Selection

  1. Only the devices in the project with Kubverit images installed will be displayed.
  2. Select three edge nodes that you want to join together into a cluster.
  3. Click Next.

Configure the Edge Node Cluster Network

  1. Expand each of your edge nodes (>). 
  2. Assign a port on each edge node for your cluster interfaces. The port should be the type of App Shared. Note that all the ports selected are physically connected through a Layer 2 network, in order for them to form the cluster.
  3. Click Next.

Review and Create the Edge Node Cluster

  1. Review the details for identity, edge node selection, and cluster network.
  2. The Cluster-Prefix is automatically assigned for you in the cluster network section, but you can revise it if you want to use a specific private/internal network. The cluster-prefix is the IP range allocated to the edge nodes within that specific cluster, allowing the nodes to communicate with each other over a private network without being exposed to the public internet or other external networks.
  3. Click Create.
  4. The ZEDEDA GUI shows the cluster as created, but it takes a few minutes for the job to complete.
  5. View the status of the edge node cluster

 

Next Steps

This is a series of articles. You will likely follow them in this order. 

  1. Edge Node Cluster Overview
  2. Create an Edge Node Cluster - You are here!
  3. Manage an Edge Node Cluster
  4. Use the ZEDEDA CLI to Manage an Edge Node Cluster
  5. Edge Node Cluster App Instance Failover Behavior

After you’ve completed the series, you might be interested in the following articles. 

Was this article helpful?
0 out of 0 found this helpful