Validate node setup

Node Conformance Test

Node conformance test is a containerized test framework that provides a system verification and functionality test for a node. The test validates whether the node meets the minimum requirements for Kubernetes; a node that passes the test is qualified to join a Kubernetes cluster.

Node Prerequisite

To run node conformance test, a node must satisfy the same prerequisites as a standard Kubernetes node. At a minimum, the node should have the following daemons installed:

  • Container Runtime (Docker)
  • Kubelet

Running Node Conformance Test

To run the node conformance test, perform the following steps:

  1. Work out the value of the --kubeconfig option for the kubelet; for example: --kubeconfig=/var/lib/kubelet/config.yaml. Because the test framework starts a local control plane to test the kubelet, use http://localhost:8080 as the URL of the API server. There are some other kubelet command line parameters you may want to use:
  • --cloud-provider: If you are using --cloud-provider=gce, you should remove the flag to run the test.
  1. Run the node conformance test with command:
# $CONFIG_DIR is the pod manifest path of your Kubelet.
# $LOG_DIR is the test output path.
sudo docker run -it --rm --privileged --net=host \
  -v /:/rootfs -v $CONFIG_DIR:$CONFIG_DIR -v $LOG_DIR:/var/result \
  k8s.gcr.io/node-test:0.2

Running Node Conformance Test for Other Architectures

Kubernetes also provides node conformance test docker images for other architectures:

Arch Image
amd64 node-test-amd64
arm node-test-arm
arm64 node-test-arm64

Running Selected Test

To run specific tests, overwrite the environment variable FOCUS with the regular expression of tests you want to run.

sudo docker run -it --rm --privileged --net=host \
  -v /:/rootfs:ro -v $CONFIG_DIR:$CONFIG_DIR -v $LOG_DIR:/var/result \
  -e FOCUS=MirrorPod \ # Only run MirrorPod test
  k8s.gcr.io/node-test:0.2

To skip specific tests, overwrite the environment variable SKIP with the regular expression of tests you want to skip.

sudo docker run -it --rm --privileged --net=host \
  -v /:/rootfs:ro -v $CONFIG_DIR:$CONFIG_DIR -v $LOG_DIR:/var/result \
  -e SKIP=MirrorPod \ # Run all conformance tests but skip MirrorPod test
  k8s.gcr.io/node-test:0.2

Node conformance test is a containerized version of node e2e test. By default, it runs all conformance tests.

Theoretically, you can run any node e2e test if you configure the container and mount required volumes properly. But it is strongly recommended to only run conformance test, because it requires much more complex configuration to run non-conformance test.

Caveats

  • The test leaves some docker images on the node, including the node conformance test image and images of containers used in the functionality test.
  • The test leaves dead containers on the node. These containers are created during the functionality test.
Last modified February 23, 2022 at 1:12 AM PST: follow-up of #31667 (0673b89cd4)