On the digital transformation journey to a full cloud-native landscape, the use of microservices becomes the main approach with the dominant technology for such container orchestration being Kubernetes.⁠^[1] With its large community of developers and abundant features and capabilities, Kubernetes has become the de-facto standard and is included across most container-as-a-service platforms. With all of these technologies in place, both developer and operation teams can effectively deploy, manage and deliver functionality to their end users in a resilient and agile manner.

Agility is driving developers toward more cloud-native methodologies that focus on microservices architectures and streamlined workflows. Container technologies, like Kubernetes, embody this agile approach and help enable cloud-native transformation.

By unifying IT operations with Kubernetes, organizations realize key benefits like increased reliability, improved security and greater efficiencies with standardized automation. Therefore, Kubernetes infrastructure platforms are adopted by enterprises to deliver:

2.2 Business value #

 

After two years of research and development in June 2020, K3s was donated to the CNCF. The donation is a testament of the commitment to the open source community and their mission to run Kubernetes everywhere.

Perfect for Edge

K3s is a highly available, certified Kubernetes distribution specifically designed for production workloads in unattended, resource-constrained, remote locations or inside IoT appliances.

Simplified & Secure

K3s is packaged as a tiny, single binary that reduces the dependencies and steps needed to install, run and auto-update a production Kubernetes cluster. For workloads, automated Manifest and Helm Chart management deployments can be used. Also, multiple architectures, like x86_64, ARM64, and ARMv7, are supported with binaries and images available.

Given its extensive Kubernetes capabilities, K3s can also be a suitable choice for:

• embedded platforms,

• continuous integration and continuous deployment platforms,

• branch locations or individual developer deployments, and

• even core or cloud production instances

Tip

When K3s is imported and combined with SUSE Rancher, organizations are equipped with an easy, complete and reliable management solution for Kubernetes at the edge.

With this increased consistency of the deployed and managed Kubernetes infrastructure clusters, organizations benefit from an even higher level of the Cloud Native Computing model where each layer only relies upon the API and version of the adjacent layer, such as:

Compute Platform

Using the above software application and technology solutions with the Edge Server platforms offered by Lenovo provides the highest reliability and uptime for growing small business to enterprise workloads, offering the unmatched value, flexibility and industry-leading efficiency, including:

• low setup costs

• reduced complexity

• easy scalability

This section outlines the core elements of the K3s solution, along with the suggested target platforms and components.

3.1 Solution architecture #

 

The figure below illustrates the high-level architecture of K3s:

Figure 3.1: Architecture Overview - K3s #

 

Container Runtime

• Containerd & runc

• Kine as a datastore shim that allows etcd to be replaced with other databases

Networking

• Flannel for CNI

• Kube-router for network policy

Services

• CoreDNS

• Metrics Server

• Traefik for ingress

• Klipper-lb as an embedded service load balancer provider

• Local-path-provisioner for provisioning volumes using local storage

Workloads

Helm-controller to allow for CRD-driven deployment of helm manifests

Host utilities

iptables/nftables, ebtables, ethtool, and socat

When this is set up, users can interact with K3s via

• kubectl

  • directly on the K3s host or

  • remotely, leveraging the KUBECONFIG file of the K3s cluster’s deployment (/etc/rancher/k3s/k3s.yaml)

• manual or automatic, manifest or Helm Chart based, workload deployments

This section describes the various components being used to create a K3s solution deployment, in the perspective of top to bottom ordering. When completed, the K3s instance can be used as the application infrastructure for cloud-native workloads and can be imported into SUSE Rancher for management.

4.2 Software - K3s #

 

K3s is packaged as a single binary, which is about 50 megabytes in size. Bundled in that single binary is everything needed to run Kubernetes anywhere, including low-powered IoT and Edge-based devices. The binary includes:

• the container runtime

• important host utilities such as iptables, socat and du

The only OS dependencies are the Linux kernel itself and a proper dev, proc and sysfs mounts (this is done automatically on all modern Linux distributions). K3s bundles the Kubernetes components:

• kube-apiserver,

• kube-controller-manager,

• kube-scheduler,

• kubelet and

• kube-proxy

into combined processes that are presented as a simple server and agent model, as represented in the following figure:

Figure 4.1: Component Overview - K3s #

 

K3s can run as a complete cluster on a single node or can be expanded into a multi-node cluster. Besides the core Kubernetes components, these are also included:

• containerd,

• Flannel,

• CoreDNS,

• ingress controller and

• a simple host port-based service load balancer.

All of these components are optional and can be swapped out for your implementation of choice. With these included components, you get a fully functional and CNCF-conformant cluster so you can start running apps right away. K3s is now a CNCF Sandbox project, being the first Kubernetes distribution ever to be adopted into sandbox.

Tip

Learn more information about K3s

As K3s can be deployed on a single or multiple nodes, the next sections describe the suggested component layering approach.

4.4 Compute Platform #

 

Leveraging the enterprise grade functionality of the operating system mentioned in the previous section, many compute platforms can be the foundation of the deployment:

• Virtual machines on supported hypervisors or hosted on cloud service providers

• Physical, baremetal or single-board computers, either on-premises or hosted by cloud service providers

Note

To complete self-testing of hardware with SUSE YES Certified Process, you can download and install the respective SUSE operating system support-pack version of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and the YES test suite. Then run the tests per the instructions in the test kit, fixing any problems encountered and when corrected, re-run all tests to obtain clean test results. Submit the test results into the SUSE Bulletin System (SBS) for audit, review and validation.

Tip

Certified systems and hypervisors can be verified via SUSE YES Certified Bulletins and then can be leveraged as supported nodes for this deployment, as long as the certification refers to the respective version of the underlying SUSE operating system required.

Designed and built with the unique requirements for edge servers in mind, Lenovo ThinkEdge Edge Servers are versatile enough to stretch the limitations of server locations, providing a variety of connectivity and security options and easily managed with Lenovo XClarity Controller.

Lenovo XClarity Controller

The Lenovo XClarity Controller is an embedded out-of-band management system in every Lenovo ThinkSystem and ThinkEdge server to standardize, simplify and automate foundation server management tasks. It provides an uncluttered user interface, intuitive dashboards, at-a-glance status visualizations and easy access to common actions that helps you deploy and manage servers with ease. XClarity Controller is built on open standards to help standardize communication and inter-operability, and improve portability of applications and data. Redfish-compliant REST APIs and other industry standards enable you to manage Lenovo ThinkSystem and ThinkEdge servers on your own terms.

Multiple edge server models exist in Lenovo Edge Servers portfolio, as detailed in the following sections.

4.4.1 Lenovo ThinkSystem SE350 Edge Server #

 

Note

The ThinkSystem SE350 Edge Server is SUSE YES Certified Hardware.

Lenovo ThinkSystem SE350 Edge Server

The ThinkSystem SE350 Edge Server is a purpose-built server that is half the width and significantly shorter than a traditional server, making it ideal for deployment in tight spaces. It can be mounted on a wall, stacked on a shelf or mounted in a rack. The ThinkSystem SE350 puts increased processing power, storage and network closer to where data is generated, allowing actions resulting from the analysis of that data to take place more quickly.

• 4–16 server cores with up to 256 GB of memory

• broad-wired and wireless connectivity

• rugged, extended operating temperature of 0–55°C, up to 40G shock & 3Grms vibration with optional dust filter

• up to 16 TB of SSD storage

• small form factors with flexible mounting options

• low-touch deployment

• highly secure with optional SED encrypted storage for user data, as well as motion and intrusion tamper detection

4.4.2 Lenovo ThinkEdge SE450 Edge Server #

 

Note

The ThinkEdge SE450 Edge Server is SUSE YES Certified Hardware.

Lenovo ThinkEdge SE450 Edge Server

The ThinkEdge SE450 Edge Server is a single-socket server, with a 2U height and short depth case that can go almost anywhere. It can be mounted on a wall, placed on the floor like a tower server, or mounted in a rack. This rugged edge server can handle continuous operating temperatures from 5°C to 45°C, and some configurations are designed to meet NEBS Level-3 and ETSI requirements for 96 hours operating excursions from –5°C to 55°C as well as tolerance to locations with high dust and vibration. The ThinkEdge SE450 Edge Server is based on the 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processor and is designed to virtualize traditional IT applications as well as new transformative AI systems, providing the processing power, storage, accelerator, and networking technologies required for today’s edge workloads.

• 10-36 server cores with up to 1TB of memory

• broad-wired and wireless connectivity

• supports up to four single-width GPUs or two double-width GPUs

• offers up to four PCIe 4.0 slots plus a slot dedicated to the OCP adapter

• offers additional physical security features such as a chassis intrusion switch and a lockable front bezel

Note

A sample bill of materials, in the Chapter 9, Appendix, cites the necessary quantities of all components, along with a reference to the minimum resource requirements needed by the software components.

This section describes the process steps for the deployment of the K3s solution. It describes the process steps to deploy each of the component layers starting as a base functional proof-of-concept, having considerations on migration toward production, providing scaling guidance that is needed to create the solution.

5.1 Deployment overview #

 

The deployment stack is represented in the following figure:

Figure 5.1: Deployment Stack - SUSE Rancher #

 

and details are covered for each layer in the following sections.

Note

The following section’s content is ordered and described from the bottom layer up to the top.

Using components and offerings from SUSE and the Rancher portfolio plus Lenovo ThinkSystem SE350 Edge Server plus Lenovo ThinkEdge SE450 Edge Server streamline the ability to quickly and effectively engage in a digital transformation, taking advantage of cloud-native resources and disciplines. Using such technology approaches lets you deploy and leverage transformations of infrastructure into a durable, reliable enterprise-grade environment.

The following sections provide a bill of materials listing for the respective component layer(s) of the described deployment.

9.2 Software bill of materials #

 

Sample set of software, support and services.

Role	Qty	SKU	Component	Notes
Operating System	1-3	874-007864	SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro, x86_64, Priority Subscription, 1 Year	Configuration: per node (up to 16 cores, stackable)
Kubernetes Management	1	R-0001-PS1	SUSE Rancher, x86-64, Priority Subscription, 1 Year	Configuration: per deployed instance
Rancher Management	2	R-0004-PS1	Rancher 10 Nodes x86-64 or aarch64, Priority Subscription, 1 Year,	Configuration: requires priority server subscription
Consulting and Training	1	R-0001-QSO	Rancher Quick Start, Go Live Services

Note

For the software components, other support term durations are also available.

Appendix=1 ArchOv=1 Automation=1 Availability=1 BP=1 BPBV=1 CompMod=1 DepConsiderations=1 Deployment=1 FCTR=1 FLVR=1 GFDL=1 Glossary=1 HWComp=1 HWDepCfg=1 IHV-LNVGY-SE350=1 IHV-LNVGY-SE450=1 IHV-LNVGY=1 Integrity=1 LN=1 Performance=1 PoC=1 Production=1 RA=1 RC=1 References=1 Requirements=1 SWComp=1 SWDepCfg=1 Scaling=1 Security=1 docdate=2022-12-22 env-daps=1 focusK3s=1 iIHV=1 iK3s=1 iRKE1=1 iRKE2=1 iRMT=1 iRancher=1 iSLEMicro=1 iSLES=1 iSUMa=1 layerSLEMicro=1

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